Here’s how it works:

It’s a little different from the song.  For this workout you’ll be going in reverse order from the song.  Normally, you’d start at the first day, the small number, and go to the last day, the big number.  For this workout, you’ll start with the twelfth day and go down from there.

For example, you’ll start with twelve repetitions of the first exercise.  Then, you’ll go for twelve of the first exercise again, eleven of the second.  Start over with 12 reps of the first exercise, 11 of the second, and 10 of the third.  Keep repeating just like that until you’ve done all twelve exercises.

As if the Twelve Days of Christmas Workout isn’t challenging enough, you’ll be doing this workout with as little rest as possible and time yourself.  When you’re done you will have completed 520 total reps. 

Now it’s your turn.   You’ll find a list of the exercises below along with a video demonstration.  I completed the series in 50 minutes.  Let me know your time.

Have fun and Merry Christmas!

12 Prisoner squats

11 Stability ball rollouts

10 Mountain climbers (per side)

9 Stability ball exchanges

8 Medicine ball goalies (each leg)

7 Inverted rows

6 Stability ball hamstring curls

5 Dumbbell snatches (each arm)

4 Renegade rows (each arm)

3 Burpees

2 L-sit raises

1 Minute stability ball plank

Photo: Stephen Bowler

Our bodies are a lot like cars.  They come in different shapes and sizes.  Some are built for speed, some for power, others to carry a lot of stuff, or luxury, and more. Each one has an engine, again various sizes.  What’s common between them is that they all require fuel.

If you put in bad fuel, your performance drops. If you don’t put in enough fuel, it stops running. The bigger the engine, the more fuel you use.  While the name of the game with your car is to try to conserve fuel, most people’s goal with their body is to use as much fuel as possible.

I work with many people who have a weight loss goal and we can use a similar analogy.  When you’re exercising you’re burning calories.  That’s our body’s storage form of energy.  Your largest muscles use the most energy.  The more muscles you get involved in the activity, the more energy you use too. 

If your goal is weight loss, get the big muscles moving and get more of them engaged in the activity.  Spending time in the gym doing multiple sets of wrist curls will work the tiny little muscles that flex and extend your wrist. You might end up with forearms that would put Popeye to shame, but it’s not going to do anything for your weight loss goal.  Sort of like trying to run a Hummer with a weedwacker sized engine.

Replace those wrist rollers with a few sets of squats or a bodyweight exercise like the Burpee and you’ll engage every major muscle group.  (As an added bonus, if you’re having trouble getting your kids exercising, the name Burpee alone is often enough to get the kids interested.) 

Get the big muscles going and watch your metabolism light up, melt the fat off, and add lean muscle to your frame to burn a monster truck load of calories.

You won't find your six pack abs here

In search of your own six pack, you spend time on the floor doing endless reps and sets of sit ups and crunches from every direction. You may have even purchased the Ab Roller, Ab Doer, Ab Rocket, Ab Lounge, or some other ab contraption. How’s that working for you?

Let me tell you a secret. We all have six pack abs. They’re just harder to find on some people. Read on because I’m about to help you find yours. Here’s another secret. The answer doesn’t lie in all those contraptions. Even the pieces of abdominal equipment alone at the gym won’t bring out the six pack.

One of the biggest myths in fitness is that of spot reduction. To be blunt, the idea that you can work a specific area of the body with a specific exercise and melt the body fat in that area isn’t true. Now that it’s out in the open, how do you bring out the washboard in you?

First, abs are made in the kitchen. Eat better, move more. Notice I didn’t just say to eat less, although for many people that’s really important too. Instead, you need to eat enough of the right stuff to keep your body fueled, but not so little that your body thinks it’s starving.

The mistake many people on a weight loss journey make is to rely solely on diet and slash their calorie intake to the point your body begins storing energy as fat instead of using it to perform daily functions. When that happens, your metabolism slows, you lose energy, and eventually run out of gas. If you give your car less fuel than it needs what happens? If you give your car cheap low octane gas, what happens. Right, sluggish performance. Your body runs the same way.

Fuel your body with enough quality proteins for muscle growth and rebuilding, carbohydrate for energy, and fats for vitamin transport and hormone production, and you’ll be heading in the right direction.

Next, get the big muscles moving to burn more calories. Let’s go back to the car example. Which uses more fuel: Hummer or a Honda Civic? It takes more fuel to move the big car, so use the same principle with your exercise program. Bicep curls or squats? One exercise uses the little tiny muscles in your arm a nd the other uese the calorie-hogging muscles like the glutes and hamstrings. Those big muscles will bun more calories during the exercise and they have to work harder to recover after the exercise to rebuild. More work equals more calories used.

Now, back to the washboard stomach. With the elimination of the myth of spot reduction we know that sit-ups and crunches aren’t going to do the job. The key is to get rid of the body fat to see that six pack hidden in all of us and the best way to do that is to use more calories. To get you started, here’s a short video showing a four exercise full body complex. If you need more help, I know a good trainer for you.

A proper warm up prepares the body for exercise and helps prevent injury, while making your workout more effective.  The most beneficial warm ups activate the muscles you’ll be using during your program through their full range of motion by simulating the exercises that you’ll be performing during the workout.  For example, if you’ll be doing loaded squats, warm up by performing body weight squats.  If you’ll be bench pressing, start with some push ups.  I’ve included a video showing examples of a few dynamic warm up exercises to get you thinking. 

All this doesn’t mean you should throw out all of your static stretches though.  Instead, perform the static stretches at the end of your workout to lessen tightness after your session.  However, this is a recommendation and not a rule as static stretching before exercise has great value if you’ve got some specific areas of tightness that prevent you from moving through a full range of motion.  In this case, stretch out or foam roll those muscles to loosen them up and then perform a dynamic warm up.

The Mighty Mackinac Bridge

Of course, I still squeezed in some time for exercise and one morning I was inspired by the Mackinac Bridge.  Mighty Mac connects Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas.  At 5 miles long, it’s the third longest total suspension bridge in the world and the longest suspension bridge with two towers in the Western Hemisphere.  A bridge with that length of span has to be strong.

Part of what makes this engineering feat so impressive is the distance between the towers.  A bridge with a shorter span is typically more stable and requires less strength.  A longer span needs to be built stronger.  Thinking about that strength made me consider what happens when you make a plank longer.  A regular plank has you connected to the ground by your feet and forearms.  Today’s video features the Body Bridge, which takes the plank up a notch by separating your anchor points even further from each other. 

Here’s your chance to see if your bridge is as mighty as the Mackinac.  Enjoy!

It’s easy to find excuses.  There’s always something else to do. 

One less hour a day on Facebook.

One less late night TV show.

Wake up 30 minutes earlier.

Shut off the TV.

Find reasons to do it and stop finding reasons to NOT do it.

When it comes down to what’s really important, you have to take care of #1.

If he can do it, so can you.

I’ve been working on this for quite awhile and I’m excited to finally make this project available to you.  The DVD gives you over 80 videos showing  exercises or varying levels of difficulty in several different categories.  

Unlike most fitness DVDs that give you one or two pre-determined workout programs to follow which quickly become boring and routine, you’ll have the opportunity to mix and match exercises and create hundreds of fun and interesting combinations.  In addition, almost all of the exercises can be performed with a minimal amount of portable equipment that you probably already own!

Because this DVD is different from many that you may have purchased, I want to make sure you know what you’re getting.

Who should buy this DVD?

• If you’d like over 80 exercises in 8 different categories that will allow you to build your own program, this is the DVD for you!
• You’ll love this DVD if you want the freedom to create your program on your own without being restricted to a few exercises.
• You’d like personal instruction on each exercise that you can refer back to forever, you’ve come to the right place.
• You want more fun from your workout programming because you’ll have more exercises to choose from.
• You’ve been wanting more variety to keep your body guessing as to what’s coming next.

Who should not buy this DVD?

• If you’re looking for a pre-defined workout program that you can follow and become tired of in a few short days, this isn’t for you.
• If you’re hoping I’ll give you a promise that you can do only 4 minutes of exercise and have instant six-pack abs, this isn’t right for you either. This DVD is going to require some work to get results.
• Don’t expect the “magic bullet” that will help you burn fat in a specific area of your body by doing a specific exercise. That’s because you can’t. It’s not possible. Your body decides where it takes the fat from, not you or the exercise you choose to do.

I’m offering this DVD for an introductory price of only $47. That’s less than the cost of just one personal training session! Get your copy now!

I’m proud of this project and want you to be pleased as well.  To prove it, I’m offering a 30 day money back guarantee.  If you receive your DVD and feel that you haven’t received at least the value of the low price you’ve paid for it, just tell me and I’ll be happy to refund your money.  Like I said though, I’m confident that the videos in this collection will give you much more value than the low price would suggest.  You’ve got nothing to lose!

I showed them to one of the trainers at LifeStyles and she came up with several more right on the spot. I think we’re on to something here. Maybe I’ll have to do a whole series of workouts called “How to exercise with goofy things around your house”.

Try these 12 exercises as a quick circuit and you’ll find yourself working up a sweat pretty fast. I’ve also included a short video of the exercises below. Pick up a set of sliders, try it out, and let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

1. Slide outs
2. Alternating slides
3. Pike
4. Mountain climbers
5. Oblique mountain climbers
6. Jacknife
7. Atomic push up
8. Army crawl
9. Hamstring curls
10. Single leg hamstring curls
11. Reverse lunges
12. Lateral lunges

The current testing involves a push up, sit up, and two-mile run test. While all three are great exercises, none simulates a situation that a soldier would find themselves in on the battlefield. They’re not lacing up the Nikes and going for a two mile jog. Instead, they’re wearing 60 pounds of body armor and other gear while carrying a rifle, ready to fire no less, while running through uneven and hostile terrain. That scenario requires you to be able to do more than a sit up.

In addition to adding agility tests to the “fitness readiness” portion of testing, a “combat readiness” test will also include a 400 meter run carrying a rifle through an obstacle course in full combat gear, and crawling and leaping over obstacles while aiming their rifle. Soldiers also run on a balance beam while carrying a 30-pound ammo box and do an agility sprint around a course of cones. Soldiers must drag a sled weighted with 180 pounds of sandbags to test pulling a fallen team member from the battlefield.

The US military has also been getting pretty progressive with the equipment they’re using the train soldiers. The military recently announced a purchase of 24,000 TRX Suspension Trainers for deployment to all branches of the service. Now each deploying brigade or battallion will have access to a TRX unit.

Functional fitness finally makes it to the US military! Is it time to look at what you’re doing as well? Think about what you do during the day and what you’d like to do from a recreation or sports standpoint. Are the exercises you do in any way supporting functional movement?

For example:

• A flight attendant might find exercises that simulate picking up a suitcase and lifting it overhead to place it into an overhead compartment more beneficial than another 25 reps on the leg adduction machine at their local gym.
• A scuba diver would benefit from exercise to help them lift loaded tanks more than 15 additional minutes of steady state work on the treadmill.
• A basketball player would benefit more from plyometric box jumps than a fifth set of bicep curls.

When it comes down to it, we exercise for a reason. For some it’s purely aesthetic and that’s OK. For most it’s about function. It’s about being able to do things with your body that you either can’t do today, or continue doing what you’re already able to do many years from now.

Vote for our video and help us get to Long's Peak

My daughters and I have entered a contest through Fitness Anywhere, the makers of the TRX Suspension Trainer, and we need your help.  We’ve created a video and all we’re asking is that you watch the video and share it with all of your friends.  Each view counts as a vote and will help us get to our goal.

If we get enough votes, TRX will sponsor us on a climb of Long’s Peak and give us a video camera to document the whole thing.  Please help us make the dream happen!

Copy the link below and share it through Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, every method you can think of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zyHkBH2rPU

 In addition to sharing the link, click below to watch the video right here!