PiYo Persistance

Do you surround yourself with people who keep you motivated? People who support you as you work towards your goals? People who will push you to keep doing more?

One of the many things I love about teaching fitness classes is the motivating people I get to spend my days with. I am constantly meeting new people who are making lifestyle changes for the better, strengthening relationships with those who have been coming regularly, and finding myself pushing harder when I see others keeping themselves pushing past their limits. 

Especially with PiYo, I am privileged to see people be PERSISTENT with it and constantly reach new achievements.

Its easy to give up when something gets hard…And let me tell you, things get very challenging in PiYo, but when you PERSIST and stick with it, its amazing the things that can be achieved!!!

Remember, anything worth working for will challenge you. It will test you. It will make you SWEAT! 

All of that stuff is worth it! Burpees might seem like something you’ll never do. But get rid of that mindset! Break a challenge down into more doable steps.

Rather than starting out just saying “I want to do three tricep pushups,” break it into steps, such as:

1-Hold a plank on your knees for one minute.

2-Now hold a plank on your toes.

3-On your knees, lower down as far as you can while keeping your elbows tucked in to the sides of your body. When you feel your elbows chicken wing out, push back up. Gradually get lower and lower towards the mat.

4-Start on your toes. Lower down, keeping elbows tucked in, lower down to knees while at lowest point, and pushup on knees.

5-Once you can do approximately 8 of step 4, attempt the full tricep pushup on toes going down & up. Strive for once at first, return to knees when needed, and keep progressing with how many you can do on your toes from there.

Persist with PiYo by breaking it down into doable segments. EVERYONE can be successful with this fitness format, that is the beauty of it!

Keep going! And if you are considering PiYo, or any new workout format, GO FOR IT! Set realistic, but limit-pushing goals along the way! 🙂

  

PiYo Live Formatting

So you’re thinking of trying out a PiYo Live class at your local gym?
Putting yourself into a situation where you’re outside of your comfort zone can be scary, but it can also be AWESOME! And can help lead to amazing results that you never would have imagined possible.

I always tell my classes that the space outside of your comfort zone is where great things happen, where changes happen!

Sometimes feeling a little more prepared for those situations can help, though.
So here is a basic format of a PiYo Live class.

Every class is based on choreography that we’re given, as instructors, and the music and choreography should be pretty much the same no matter where you are. That’s the beauty of a class like PiYo, whether you go to a class in LA, Florida, or NYC, the basic format should be the same and you should be able to follow along regardless of where you’re used to taking PiYo.
Every instructor naturally puts their own spin and personality on their class, might do more or less reps of something, depending on their familiarity and their class’s familiarity with the lesson (each different PiYo class is called a “lesson” and we are currently on Lesson 40!).

The class starts with a
WARM UP-The warmup always stays the same, for the most part.
HEAT BUILDING-This section gets you ready for what’s about to come and is filled with sun salutations, different variations of sun salutations, and lunges.LOWER BODY-Squats and lunges, mostly, and different variations of both! Time to get that booty to the ground 😉
FULL BODY FUSION-Starts with “PiYo Pushups” and then moves through 3/4 different exercises that flow together. If you go to my class, we like to say “BAM” when getting up from our pushups 🙂 SO FUN!!! One of my favorite parts of class!!!
POWER-Bring on the cardio! Burpees, knee pulls, power squats, plyometric options abound in this section, IF you want to take it to a higher level. All classes should show you lower impact options of these moves throughout!
FLOW-Slows things down a bit to really hold those yoga-based poses. We do speed it up a bit, but you get a great stretch (while strengthening) during this section!
CORE & MORE-Just as it says, LOTS of CORE-Crushing moves!!!
STRETCH & STRENGTH-Stretches with different strength-challenging moves throughout. Just when you thought you were safe with stretching, we make you do pushups, squats, etc. MWAhahaha 😉
COOLDOWN-You’re safe! Push the limit with the stretches to really get the most out of them when your body’s nice and warm and you can really increase your flexibility and prevent injury.

And that’s about it-When my class is lucky, we throw in extra of a certain section, though 🙂

Being on track

So…I just got home from getting married! Woooo!!!
And it made me think of this blog and the horrible job I’ve done of updating it.

To update a little on where my life is-Rather than doing a lot of at home PiYo, I’ve actually made quite a bit of progress by teaching more PiYo Live classes at the gym.
If you’ve never taken a PiYo Live class, you’ve gotta check out what gyms around you offer it and get out there. It takes, in my opinion, the best parts of the at home PiYo program and puts it into one crazy hour.

But regardless, both workouts have become my favorite workout because they incorporate so many different aspects of fitness into one workout. You get strength, stretch, some cardio, and it does it in a way that is good for ANY fitness level.  Advanced athletes can make it more challenging, adding in plyometrics and getting reallllly low in your squats and lunges. While those newer to working out can still get a lot out of it and find  modifications that work for them.

So now I’m trying to get back on track with blogging about health & fitness tips, ideas, workouts, etc.  We’ll see where this blog goes from here!

Would you take a PiYo Live class? And if not, what’s holding you back?! 🙂

PiYo Core Review Video

FINALLY made my video review of the PiYo CORE workout!

Check it out 🙂
And always feel free to comment or email me at angelina4901@hotmail.com for more info on this amazing program!

PiYo CORE

PiYo CORE Review

For someone who LOVES pilates, this was a great, non-traditional type of Core routine!
Chalene throws some standing abs at you, lots of plank, some more traditional supine ab work on the mat, and it burns!!!
This is the kind of workout that when done regularly, theres no way you cant get those abs super defined and toned!

My favorite exercise from this workout?
The PiYo Pike!

I’ll try to update with a youtube vid later today to show what that pike’s all about, too! 🙂

PiYo Eating Plan Snack

Super tasty snack thats high in protein and satisfies while following the PiYo Eating Plan!
This recipe gives you:
2 Lean Proteins
1 Fresh Fruit

Ingredients:
1 cup plain nonfat greek yogurt
1 scoop protein powder (Shakeology is what I usually use)
Splash unsweetened almond milk, or your choice of liquid
3/4 cup frozen blueberries

Directions:
Combine the first two ingredients, adding liquid (almond milk) to create desired consistency.
Mix in the blueberries.
Place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, depending on comsistency you prefer.
Enjoy!

Heres a vid I made about it:

PiYo Eating Plan Lunch

Looking for ways to get creative with your PiYo Eating Plan?
Heres a lunch i whipped together that gives you the following foods for your day:

2 Primary Veggies
1 Secondary Veggie/Grain
1 Lean Protein
1 Healthy Fat

Ingredients:
Pasta of any kind, I prefer quinoa/brown rice pasta
Mixture of veggies, I used:
Asparagus
Brussel Sprouts
Broccoli (cut in thin strips)
Carrots (cut in thin strips)
Shredded Chicken Breast
Low Sodium Turkey Bacon
Mashed Avocado
Your choice of spices

Directions:
1) Take your cooked and cooled pasta and add in the veggies and protein.
2) Mix together with you choice of spices.
3) Add the mashed avocado and mix together to coat (similar to a mayonnaise).
4) Enjoy your mayo-free veggie-filled pasta salad!

(You could also add things like celery, onion, peppers, hardboiled eggs, cucumber, etc. 😀 )

Veggeti on the PiYo Eating Plan

If you’re looking for a way to get more veggies into your diet, the “Veggeti” is for you!
This is helping me SO much on the PiYo Eating Plan, especially because you are allowed more “Primary Vegetables” (which zucchini is one) than any other food.
Although you are able to eat pasta on the PiYo Eating Plan, I like to save my Grains for different foods, and am getting “pasta” with my Veggeti!

Have you tried this awesome little kitchen tool???

And check out my entire review of the PiYo Get Lean Eating Plan!

PiYo Sweat Exercises

Hey guys!

I just posted a video on youtube giving a review of the PiYo Sweat workout, but here I show you some of my favorite exercises from this workout!

If you haven’t gotten PiYo yet, then what are you waiting for?!?! Challenge Packs are on sale this month and the program by itself has free shipping and handling this month only!!! Don’t miss out!

Sweat Exercises!!!

 

As always, comment if you want more info, email me at angelina4901@hotmail.com, or check out my site beachbodycoach.com/angelinafitness 🙂

PiYo: Sweat Review

Hey!

Check out my YouTube review of the PiYo Sweat workout! It may end up being my fave…(lets see how many more times i say that within this program haha).
Let me know what you think!

Check out my Sweat Review!!!