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About Free Workouts Guide
Hi and welcome to Free Workouts Guide. My name is Monica Neave and I'm a 38 year old certified fitness therapist and mom from Tucson AZ. It was my own 18 month struggle with fatloss that inspired me to become a personal trainer and to start writing about exercise and fatloss. You could say that I was a born fitness and exercise junkie. I started dance at the age of 4 (ballet, tap, hip hop, jazz, and polynesian), was exercising with Gilad of Bodies in Motion Everybody in my family thought I was crazy because Mexican women are not encouraged to be athletic or to exercise, and eating healthy was unheard of at the time, which would explain why both my grandmothers and other females in my family are diabetics, suffer from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and weight issues. Thankfully nobody ever told me to stop so I was active, healthy, and lean until I had my son. My Fatloss Journey Was Slow & Incredibly Frustrating!
I was still working out and eating healthy during my pregnancy but my body was not handling any of it very well. About 5 months into my pregnancy I started having hard and painful contractions after every workout and my doctor told me to stop or else. I stopped lifting weights, got totally depressed and started packing on the pounds. I hated not being able to exercise but my son's health was more important so I walked, but this wasn't enough to curb the weight gain. I was putting on weight so fast the nurse practitioner yelled at me but offered no solutions! After my son was born by emergency c-section I weighed 150 pounds and my bodyfat was 32%. I was 30 pounds overweight but I was happy that my son was healthy and excited to be able to workout again. About 5 months post-pregnancy I started lifting weights 3 times a week at Gold's Gym, doing Tae-Bo Workout - Advanced and Tae-Bo Live! Sneak Preview this is the big mistake that I see most clients make over and over and over.
Starving on some ridiculous diet, doing excessive amounts of cardio, and not having a structured workout plan doesn't get you very far. This is when I switched to Body for Life . After 12 weeks on the program I dropped another 7 pounds, my bodyfat went down to 27%, and I was off to buy size 8 jeans. But this is where I reached my first plateau. I went for months without further results and I was embarrassed when I had to read a passage at my brother's wedding in front of hundreds of people.
Even though BFL was a step in the right direction the plateau effect was holding me back. I can truly sympathize with clients and visitors who send me emails telling me how frustrated they are after months of exercise and diets that don't get them the fatloss results they want.
This is the part where I kind of gave up. Not on the workouts or the eating healthy part just the caring about it part.About 6 months after his birthday I came across Men's Health Hard Body Plan
It took me 18 long months to reach this goal because I made all the classic mistakes.For the last 7 years I've maintained my weight around 120 lb and my bodyfat around 19% (the lowest ever was 17%) and I wear size 2 jeans. I literally worked my gut off for this! At 38 I look and feel better than ever and I know you're here to accomplish the exact same thing! I'm not an athlete or a fitness competitor, or a celebrity (even though my dad seems to think I am). I'm a busy working parent who truly understands what it's like to struggle with fatloss. My goal is to provide you with great fitness and fatloss info to help you reach your goals much faster than I did. Not sure where to get started? Here are my top picks for quick and permanent fatloss.The Anti Estrogenic Diet: This is the eating plan that I use to stay lean and that doesn't deprive me of carbs, calories, fat, or chocolate! Turbulence Training Workouts: I use CB's workouts along with my own workouts because they're quick, effective, and they address the plateau effect. My favorite is TT Home Ab Workouts Advanced Phase 1 Day 1. P90X Plyo X & Core Synergistics Vinyasa or Anusara Yoga: I love yoga because it's a lot like dance, but also because it keeps me injury free, challenges my mind as well as my body, and keeps things interesting. I practice at two studios and also at home. Check out my favorite online practice with Neal Marks of Other Great Workouts & Exercise I LoveThat's me bouldering on a 13 mile hike to Wilderness of Rocks on Mount Lemmon near Tucson. More pics of my fitness adventures coming soon.
The Best Ab Exercise for Flat AbsThis is the move that helped me get my abs flat after my emergency c-section. It works every inch of your abdominals, low back, and is a great way to build shoulder stability for those hardcore pushups.Start in the plank position making sure your elbows are right under your shoulders and your hips are level with the rest of your body. In other words keep your butt down and your abs contracted. I'm laughing in the pic because my son is trying to do the same exact thing but he's got his butt way up in the air. 
Stabilize your plank by contracting the abs then slowly pike up into an upside down V. Move slowly back and forth between plank and v. I call this move the dolphin but it's also known as the pike. Be sure to make your abs do all the work. Don't rely on your feet, legs, or upper body to push you up. It's the abs that need to contract and lift you up.
Featured In The Media (why my dad thinks I'm a big celebrity).Couples Shape Up for Walk Down the Aisle by Catherine Donaldson-Evans FOXNews.com Friday, July 23, 2004Fitness Evolution: Have It Your Way by Levi Long Tucson Citizen Tuesday, 2 August 2005 The perks of downloading your workout to an MP3 device. Liane Hansen NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, January 1, 2006 Plateau offers better view. Stable period allows body time to adjust - and lets you know when it's time to readjust. by SANDRA VALDEZ GERDES Tucson Citizen 12.17.2007 Buddy Bootcamp. Gather a group and make major gains in your fitness level in just six weeks. by Selene Yeager Better Homes & Gardens 9/2008(available on stands, not sure if they will feature it online).
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in my early teens (he's still on t.v.!), and asked my parents for a set of weights when I was only 15. 
8 times a week (yes 8 times a week, some days I was working out twice a day) and I also went on the Zone Diet. I dropped 8 pounds in 4 weeks but my bodyfat only went down to 31%. I'm just shy of 5'4 and even though I had dropped 8 pounds I was still wearing a size 12 and I didn't look much better. This was not exactly the success I had hoped for and
. The plan was tough and the pics of big muscular dudes would scare most women and even some men away but I knew this is what my body needed and I was psyched to get back to work. After about three months on the plan I was down another 12 pounds, my bodyfat was 23%, and I was finally back in size 4 jeans! The key was periodization. 
: I use these workouts when I need a break from my other workouts because Tony Horton makes me laugh and he motivates me to work harder. P90X also addresses the plateau effect.
