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"I am scared to go to the gym!"

Team - you might say this line each and every day. "I am scared to go to the gym alone." Do not be scared of your local gym.  I'm here to tell you, you can do it! Here are 5 pointers to make your gym experience worth ever penny.

1. Don't get ripped off! Gym prices can be negotiated. Ask around to see what everyone else pays for a gym membership.  Here in Cincinnati, the local gyms start out at $79+ a month, but the average person pays around $20/month.

2. Take a look around. The first thing I do when I join a gym is find a treadmill where I can see the entire gym.  Locate the machines, free weights, extra cardio equipment, bathrooms, group fitness room, Spinning room, and free space for ab work.  Familiarizing yourself with your gym will make you feel more comfortable.

3. What are other people doing? You might also say "those machines look so complicated." If they look complicated and you're insecure about trying them, watch someone else and it will make sense.  They're all very user friendly.

4. Don't worry about the big guys! They will not think you're overweight or out of shape. They will pick up all of the heavy weights, continue their workout, concentrate on form in the mirror, and probably won't break focus.

5. Check out the group fitness schedule.  Most gyms offer free group fitness classes with a club membership.  Nothing gets better than group fitness classes! You show up to your gym, sign up for the class, and you won't have to think for an hour. The instructor will do all of the thinking for ya! And you will also get some new ideas for outside of the group fitness classroom.

5a. Jonathon's Fitness: If you still don't feel comfortable with the gym, subscribe to Jonathon's Fitness YouTube Channel so you'll get all of the best 10 minute workouts.  Or check out the Workout Section for all of your 10 Minute FREE workout videos!

Tomorrow is hump day! Make it a good one!

Workout at Home - It's easy!

Team - I had to come home today for multiple family reasons.  My family lives in Peebles, Ohio.  Most of you will not be familiar with Peebles becuase it's a small village in Southern Ohio.  We have lots of pizza shops, churches, hair salons and gas stations. We only have a couple stop lights and NO gyms. 

The gym situation did not stop me!  I took a look around my parent's home and came up with a game plan.  It was raining so I couldn't run outside. My workout stayed on our covered porch and consisted of jumping rope (cardio), tricep dips (upper body) and squat jumps (lower body).

I needed a 30 minute total body workout.  I did not have a stop watch and I did not want to watch my wristwatch so I took my Great Workout Playlist, from yesterday's post, and did each exercise station for an entire song. For example, I jumped rope for an entire song and I moved to the next station when the song finished.

Here are some highlights:

Station 1:  Jump Squats - I loved having a shorter song like "Bottle Pop" by PCD

 Station 2: Jump rope - I mixed it up a little bit by adding some moves from my Jump Rope Workout

Station 3: Dips - this was difficult - I turned over sometimes and did a Plank



Look at my Mom's Flowers! How do you workout at home? The only equipement you needed for this was a jump rope and I've gotta say, it was a great workout!

Bootcamp Workout

Team - A bootcamp style class is my favorite class to teach. Regular group classes are fun too, but bootcamp style classes are great because I am able to say "go at your own pace" and "challenge yourself." For example, if I say "go" and you have a minute to do as many repetitions as possible of one exercise, the only thing holding you back is you!  It's a fun aspect of class because I get to see everyone work hard! Overall, it makes me feel good to hear people say "good class," when in all reality, they made it a good class.

I have 3 Bootcamp classes a week and I usually follow a simple "minute madness" routine for each class.  This keeps it simple and effective. And no complaints so far!

Try this workout at home too!  This is how I fill 50-60 minutes of class:

Bootcamp Workout (Minutes: Details)


1-8:  Warm up - march in place, step touch, ham curls (arms moving with legs)
9-13:  Bring HRs up - jumping jacks, jump rope, lunges, squats
14-18:  HIIT - High Intense Interval Training - suicides, burpees, mountain climbers, box jumps, extreme jacks, squat jumps
19-50:  "Minute Madness" with medium size hand weights

Use the exercises below in a pyramid scheme.  Perform exercise 1 for a minute, then take a minute break.  Do exercise 1, 2, then take a minute break.  Do exercise 1, 2, 3, then take a minute break.  Continue this pattern to exercise #7 - perform each exercise for a minute and rest as needed.

1. Side Squats - hand weights are at an isolated bicep curl (elbows locked to your sides engaging biceps)
2. Close grip Shoulder Press - palms face in by chin, elbows point forward, press up
3. One Arm Extended Lunge - Right arm extended overhead, left leg will lunge - after 30 seconds switch (L arm extended, R leg lunges)
4. Squat with Row - feet together and squat down, weight in heels, hold squat and focus on pulling elbows up, head looks three feet in front of the body
5. Push up with Side Plank - weights on the ground, push up right to side plank
6. Plank
7. Jack-knife Sit up - lay flat on your back sit up to opposite hand touches toe or both hands toes toes 

50-60:  Cool down

This is an awesome workout! I did this in my Saturday classes right before my Weekend Workout and I'm still feeling it today!

Try this bootcamp workout and give me your feedback.  I hope everyone had a wonderfully relaxing Labor Day.

Skier Drill for Cardio Class

Team - your drill/exercise for today is called a Skier. Familiarize yourself with this move because we'll use this tomorrow for our Saturday workout. Use this for a cardio boosting break or an interval class.

Low Impact:

1. One foot touches back while front foot is planted on the ground with both arms in the air
2. Bring arms down and the back leg comes in
3. Switch legs (touch the other toe back) and bring your arms up

Keep in mind this is a lower option, you are stepping each toe back while hands are moving.

Continue this motion for one minute - challenge yourself and try the high impact movement below.

High Impact:

1. Start with one arm in front and opposite leg to the back
2. Both feet are touching while they are on the ground
3. Jump and switch positions - hands switch as well

Keep in mind that with this high impact option, your feel are either on the ground of in the air. As soon as the feet touch, switch the movement and the hands.

Repeat this motion for a minute - as fast or as slow as possible.

Try combining this for a 32 count combo template for class:

Skier Combo:

8x - counts 1-16 - switch legs at high impact option
4x - counts 17-32 - switch legs (hold for two counts - and switch
8x - counts 1-16 - jumping jacks out and in
4x - counts 15-32 - jumping jacks (out for two and in for two)

8x - counts 1-16 - switch legs at high impact option
4x - counts 17-32 - switch legs (hold for two counts - and switch
8x - counts 1-16 - jumping jacks out and in
4x - counts 15-32 - jumping jacks (out for two and in for two)

It's fun, it's easy, and it's exhausting!  Look for your Saturday workout tomorrow afternoon featuring this exercise.

Cardio Kickboxing Heart Rate Booster

Team - Keeping with the cardio kickboxing theme of the week, today I'm going to explain a simple way to spice up a kickboxing class. 

There are different ways to format a cardio kickboxing class. My cardio kick classes are usually as follows:

1. Warm up 
2. Choreography
3. Interval work/drills - Try adding this endurance drill to the mix as well
4. Choreography
5. Abs
6. Cool down

Prep the class for this drill:  "Imagine meeting your enemy/worst nightmare/attacker in a kickboxing match and our goal is victory!"  This instantly gets the entire class engaged.  You'll see some eyes light up because this is their time to release all of the frustrations from the last couple weeks (maybe months). Let them know that we're going to take a few moves and "win this war."

Spice it up: Take these moves and rotate them to increase heart rates and get the class moving:

• Uppercuts - Add jumping jacks (shoulders can stay in one place, as shown in video)
• Jabs - "Get high get low" (shown in video)
• Hooks - "Aim for the mid section"
• Speed bag - "Up for 2, down for 2" - "Upper right/left" - Reverse direction of hands and repeat

From this Heart Rate Booster - take them RIGHT back to choreography just like the combo we learned from earlier this week.

This makes every class so fun! What is your favorite part of your workout? Cardio/Strength Training/Abs or everything, share it!

5 Minute Bootcamp

Here is a 5 minute interval style routine to help those people on the go.  Try out this video and repeat if needed.

You Need: a chair and a mat.

1. Chair Squat - bottom touches the chair, stand up. Add the hop for difficulty

2. Tricep Dips - fingers point toward toes, elbows hug your body
3. Lunges/Russian Hops - fast or slow - focus on knee directly over the ankle
4. Push ups - work at your level - modifications are there if you need them 5. Plank - just think, "I'm almost done!"

Always Blurring the Lines of Fitness and Fun!

Intense Interval - Bootcamp Drill

Hi Team,


Here's one of my favorite drills to do in my cardio, step, or bootcamp classes.


Split Basic Drill:

• Lead with the right/left leg to step up and down on the bench to tempo while straddling the bench
• To increase difficulty, have them speed up the tempo
• Top level of difficulty: hold squat -shoulders in one place- and continue to race with their feet

Encourage your participants to go at their own pace and show them difficulty levels:

• Taps on the bench - still straddling the bench (shown in video)
• Marching on the ground
• Just keep moving!

Transition from one side to the other - Football feet/Quick feet (shown in video)