Julia Derek

Trainer by Day, Writer by Night

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My books are available at all vendors. Most of them are on the dark side, especially the Born Evil trilogy. If you don’t like dark fiction, I’m probably not for you.

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Wanna get in bikini shape for the summer? There's still some time...and I can help you get there quicker than anyone else!

TGIF right? Well, that doesn't mean you should be slacking off on your workouts! In fact, when it's the weekend and you have extra time, there are no excuses to skip a workout. I'm not big on doing crunches, and that's not because I don't believe in a strong core and a flat stomach. Hellooo, practically ALL exercises I've shown you so far include core strengthening. A strong core/abs is fundamental if you want to feel and look good, not to mention have good posture. But you don't need to do crunches to develop a strong midsection. The only ab exercises I ever do, and have my clients do, are ones involving as much of the rest of the body as possible. Like the ab exercise I'm doing in this video. You can use momentum (swing your arms) like I'm doing, but your hands must point to the ceiling the entire time as you sit up AND your feet must stay on the floor. Try it. It's not as easy as it looks😉

Do your knees hurt, and you still wanna do some multi-joint exercises with your legs? Try reverse lunges with a kick like I'm doing here. The kick will challenge your balance and help you burn more calories. They're harder than they look, especially if you have a cat running around, wanting attention!

Cooking was never a skill of mine. Eating is, though!

I'm doing dumbbell chest presses on a stability ball here. It's another great compound exercise you should add to your strength-training workouts. To do it safely, your neck and scapula should be resting on the ball. Be sure to engage your glutes throughout the entire set. As you can see toward the end of the video, I'm mixing up my arms, doing single-arm presses, sometimes twice on one side. The point is, you don't have to press up with both arms at the same time. It's always good to keep your body guessing. Also, it will make your core even stronger💪Finally, look how I'm bringing the dumbbells close to my ribcage before I put them back down on the floor. That's how you safely discard them...

Another woman favorite machine! I, too, love the glute-extension machine, as it works a lot of your lower extremities PROVIDED THAT YOU DO IT CORRECTLY. It's rarely a good idea to load a curled spine, which is why you don't want to follow the decades-old instruction pic on most glute extension machines. Do it like I'm doing it here instead, avoiding leaning into the pad and hyperextending your spine.

Grumpy cat 😾 🐈

Back in the day--like 30 years ago--we were taught that stretching before whatever workout/activity you were about to do, you had to stretch first to "avoid injury" and "warm up." By stretching, we were told to hold stretches for several seconds--- like the hamstring stretch I'm doing at the end of this video. The only time you should do this type of hold stretch---static stretch--is when your workout is OVER and you're cooling down and resetting your muscles. If you want to stretch to prepare for your workout, do dynamic stretching only. Personally I only swing my arms and legs a little to get my blood moving and my joints lubricated. Static stretches lenghten your muscles, which makes your joints more unstable. You do not want to be at all unstable if you're about to play a sport, powerlift, or go running:)

#fitover40 #sunday #mentalhealthawareness #resilience #resilient #toughest #toughgirl #mindovermatter #mindovermunch #mindovermuscle #strongmindset #strongmindstrongbody

Old friends are best....

Almost all my female clients want to do the aDDuctor machine---and the aBDuctor machine too. I'm all for it, and I use them myself. Just know that your inner thighs and your butt won't get smaller (meaning the fat in those areas won't disappear because you do these machines.) There is no such thing as spot-reducing fat without resorting to surgery. But you will definitely strengthen your inner thighs and glutes, so 100% do them and do them as heavy as you can manage for 12-20 reps, three sets of each machine. If you want a super strong core, do them like I am here. I learned this trick from physical therapists years ago. Sit up tall and bring your belly button to your spine throughout the set. If you can't maintain good form, lower the weight. Not only will you develop functional strength doing them this way, but you won't encourage your inner thighs to grow to their max size either. Goodbye, bulky muscles. I guess I would like more muscle on my butt, but core and functional strength are more important to me when it comes to the aBDuctor machine. So I sit up tall!

Did you know that animal crawls are some of the best exercises you can do to get/stay in shape? They work tons of muscles, improve your coordination, strengthen your core, keep you flexible, not to mention burn max amount of calories! It doesn't get any better than that:) Definitely include them in your workouts. I'm doing the bear crawl in this video (or sometimes I call it the inchworm). It's one of my favorite animal crawls. Check out this amazing YouTube video for 50 different animal crawls you can play around with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoyzOkB95IQ

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