App Thursday: Workout Generator

Descrip­tion

Work­out Gen­er­a­tor exists for the sole pur­pose of con­struct­ing work­outs. As a result, it is a com­pletely thor­ough, intri­cate, and sophis­ti­cated fit­ness utility.

Work­out Gen­er­a­tor is not a ref­er­ence book; it is an intel­li­gent sys­tem with a sophis­ti­cated tech­ni­cal back-end that designs a long-term train­ing plan based on your goal, fit­ness level, expe­ri­ence, and equip­ment available.

Rep ranges, sets, exer­cises, car­dio length and inten­sity, super­set­ting, mus­cle group selec­tion, and peri­odiza­tion are all cal­cu­lated rather than randomized.

Fea­tures:

• 600+ exer­cises with video demonstrations
• Unique and intel­li­gent work­out construction
• Long-term pro­gres­sive cycling of vari­able lift­ing phases known as “periodization”
• Scales to any fit­ness level from com­plete begin­ner to elite athlete
• Work­outs built to your sched­ule and your gym equipment

Cost
$0.99

Com­pata­bil­ity
iPhone
iPad
iTouch

Learn more →

The Official Compendium of Burpees

Please enjoy this re-post from last year!

BY TRACY

Results from our very sci­en­tific and non-biased poll con­firm that Burpees are the least favorite activ­ity among boot campers.

The Burpee is defined by the Oxford Dic­tio­nary as “a phys­i­cal exer­cise con­sist­ing of a squat thrust made from and end­ing in a stand­ing posi­tion”. Accord­ing to the highly-regarded and rep­utable Wikipedia, the Burpee orig­i­nated “in the 1930s for Amer­i­can psy­chol­o­gist Royal H. Burpee, who devel­oped the Burpee test. Con­sist­ing of a series of the exer­cises per­formed in rapid suc­ces­sion, the test was meant to mea­sure agility and coor­di­na­tion. It is not clear whether the exer­cise itself was invented by Burpee, or if his test merely pop­u­lar­ized it.”

I have com­piled an offi­cial list of var­i­ous Burpee forms:

• The Pain-Free Burpee – if the “burper” (ath­lete per­form­ing the burpee) devel­ops knee or back related pain while per­form­ing the burpee, the burper can do the same num­ber of frog jumps and push-ups.
• The Facil­i­tated Burpee – the burper does not per­form a push-up at the bot­tom of the burpee.
• Dou­ble Burpee – Instead of the burper doing one pushup, they do two in a row to can­cel the drive from land­ing after the jump. This also makes the next jump harder.
• The Sully Burpee (aka the one-armed Burpee) – the burper per­forms the entire exer­cise using only one arm.
• The Mary Ellen and Daniel “Cir­cus” Burpee – dur­ing the act of the kick­ing his/her feet back, prior to the push-up, the burper kicks their feet up as high as pos­si­ble (one at a time). This is a very fluid motion and should only be per­formed by tal­ented and expe­ri­enced burpers.

Do you have any new Burpees ideas? Get your Burpee form added to the offi­cial list by click­ing the “Com­ments” link above this post!

REFERENCE: Wikipedia​.org
IMAGE CREDIT: <a onclick=“javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/www.cafepress.com/+i_love_burpees_light_tshirt,317919475′);” target=“_blank href=“http://www.cafepress.com/+i_love_burpees_light_tshirt,317919475″>Cafe Press

Core Training > Ab Exercise

Please enjoy this re-posted arti­cle from last year. While the com­ments may be out­dated, the info in the arti­cle is timeless!

BY LAUREN

Think core train­ing involves just a bunch of sit-ups, crunches and bicy­cles? Actu­ally, true core train­ing requires much more than just abdom­i­nal con­di­tion­ing. The abdom­i­nal mus­cles play a very lim­ited and spe­cific role in your over­all core.

Your core actu­ally con­sists of many dif­fer­ent mus­cles that run the entire length of the torso. These mus­cles sta­bi­lize the spine from the pelvis to the neck and shoul­der, and pro­vide a solid foun­da­tion for pow­er­ful move­ments of the arms and legs.

Your strength orig­i­nates from the cen­ter of your body out — never from your limbs alone. The goal of core sta­bil­ity is to main­tain a solid foun­da­tion and trans­fer energy from the cen­ter of the body out to the limbs. The more sta­ble the core, the more pow­er­ful the extrem­i­ties can contract.

In addi­tion to improv­ing your over­all strength, core train­ing has some valu­able side ben­e­fits: First, core train­ing cor­rects pos­tural imbal­ances that can lead to injuries. And, core train­ing is inte­gral in devel­op­ing func­tional fit­ness — that is, fit­ness that is essen­tial to reg­u­lar, daily activities.

What are your favorite core exer­cises? Mine is squats. Share your thoughts by click­ing the “Com­ments” link above this post.

IMAGE CREDIT & ARTICLE ADAPTED FROM: About​.com: Sports Medicine

Urban Hikes:
Midtown Romp

BY LAUREN

When the weather starts to warm, I get a han­ker­ing for one of my favorite activ­i­ties: hiking.

It’s always nice to find time to enjoy one of the many lovely trails we have avail­able around Atlanta. The quiet, hilly trails through wooded areas pro­vide time to reflect on life and an excel­lent car­dio challenge.

But you don’t always have to get out­side the city to find a great hike. Some of my favorite hikes are the urban hikes that high­light Atlanta’s his­tory and diverse population.

One urban hike that you intown­ers can try out this week­end is the Mid­town Romp. The Mid­town Romp tours the mid­town area of Atlanta, includ­ing the High Museum, Mar­garet Mitchell House, Geor­gia Tech, Pied­mont Park, and the Atlanta Botan­i­cal Gardens.

This hike is a 7 mile loop that begins on Atlanta’s first road, Peachtree Street. It is con­sid­ered an easy hike with very few hills. Aver­age hik­ing time is 7 hours, accord­ing to the hik­ing guide, 60 Hikes within 60 Miles — but it can be com­pleted much faster if you keep a good pace.

You will enjoy the scenery of urban land­scapes, nice, long-distance views of the city from Pied­mont Park and Atlanta Botan­i­cal Gar­dens, and of course, the springy green­scape of Pied­mont Park.

Some of the high­lights of the Mid­town Romp include:

• High Museum
• Wynn Park
• Atlanta Botan­i­cal Gardens
• Mar­garet Mitchell House and Museum
• Fox The­atre
• The Var­sity
• Bobby Dodd Stadium

Take an urban hike this week­end! Get the com­plete Trail Guide for the Mid­town Romp »

Do you know of some fun urban hikes? Share your hik­ing tips by click­ing the “Com­ments” link above this post.

Author’s note and Trail Guide credit: As a mem­ber of Trails​.com, I have access to Trail Guides for thou­sands of hikes in Geor­gia and beyond. The Trail Guide for the Mid­town Romp is cour­tesy of Trails​.com. If you are inter­ested in explor­ing more hik­ing trails, I highly rec­om­mend Trails​.com for accu­rate and valu­able information.

Good for What Ails Ya

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a re-post from last year. There­fore, some of the com­ments are also from last year and may or may not be rel­e­vant to today’s workout.

BY LEIGH

After a cou­ple days at camp you may be expe­ri­enc­ing some sore­ness. While that is to be expected, espe­cially if you are new to a fit­ness regime, there are some things to con­sider to help you through it.

• Stretch: Stretch­ing through out the day helps to keep you loose and lim­ber, as well as increas­ing blood cir­cu­la­tion to the mus­cles. Increase blood flow will accel­er­ate heal­ing and over­time will increase energy lev­els due to the increased accel­er­a­tion. How­ever, If you are afraid you have pulled a mus­cle or have a mus­cle tear, do not stretch that mus­cle it will only get worse.
• Drink: Water that is. Most causes of sore­ness include a build up of lac­tic acid in the mus­cles. Drink­ing water is a good way to flush out that build up.
• Go for a soak: It might sound a lit­tle hokey and/or grandma-ish, but tak­ing an epsom salt bath can do won­ders for your sore mus­cles. You can pick up a box at any drug store.
• The cold treat­ment: Cold show­ers or ice baths get the blood flow­ing through the mus­cles to the sur­face. As men­tioned before the increased blood cir­cu­la­tion helps accel­er­ate healing.
• Don’t stop: Sore­ness should be expected after most if not all of our work­outs. It is one of many sig­nals from your body that you are push­ing your­self and get­ting stronger. By con­tin­u­ing your exer­cise reg­i­men you are rais­ing your bod­ies lim­its and over time less likely to expe­ri­ence sore­ness for the same level of exer­tion. Feel­ing a lit­tle sore should be one of your goals for every workout.

If you are expe­ri­enc­ing some­thing that feels more than just sore­ness or you have incurred an actual injury, try RICE. Though not of the brown, white, or fried variety.

• R: Rest. Take a day or two off to give your­self a break. Try to limit any activ­ity that results in pain.
• I: Ice. Apply ice to the affected area. See icing guide­lines here.
• C: Com­pres­sion. Get an ACE ban­dage and wrap the injured area. Be care­ful not to wrap it too tightly though, you want to make sure the blood is circulating.
• E: Ele­va­tion. Prop that twisted ankle up on some pil­lows. Wher­ever the injured area is, try to get it ele­vated higher than your heart.

Let us know if you have occurred an injury or if some­thing feels awk­ward. There is a good chance that one of the train­ers or even a vet­eran camper may have expe­ri­enced some­thing sim­i­lar. How­ever, none of us are doc­tors or nurses, so if you think it is some­thing seri­ous do not hes­i­tate to get a pro­fes­sional med­ical opinion.

Let us know how you’re feel­ing after Day 2. Post a com­ment by click­ing the “Com­ments’ link above this post!