Blog Archives
The Long Mile Cardio and Conditioning Workout
Bored of running? Well here’s a workout that incorporates running and full-body conditioning all in one killer fat-burning calorie-scorching workout!
1/4 Mile Sprint
10 Tuck Jumps
10 Thrusters
10 Box Jumps
10 Push Ups
10 Wall Ups
4 ROUNDS FOR TIME
If you try this workout – post your time below! I’d LOVE to see how you do! …and you can come back and do it again and see if you can beat your old time!
Here’s the matching graphic if you want to share what you did! 
FitFluential LLC compensated me for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Reebok Discounts & Giveaways! It PAYS to be a PFIT FRIEND! :)
This Wednesday 8/14 through Sunday 8/18, Reebok.com is kicking off the Reebok Friends & Family Sale! The Friends & Family Sale (and you ARE my friend and we are practically LIKE family!) is one of Reebok.com’s biggest sales of the year, so make sure to take advantage of this great offer and get 30% off your entire order by using the code FF30 from Wednesday through Sunday! (Note: Excludes Reebok CrossFit gear, items with $.98 price endings and custom shoes.)
Reebok.com has also marked down some of the hottest apparel and footwear in their Sale Section including Classic leather and Zigs in a variety of colors, styles, and sizes! Men’s, women’s and kid’s hoodies, jackets, shorts, sports bras, and t-shirts are on sale too! Don’t miss out on this opportunity and head to Reebok now!
Here are just a few popular items that are being gobbled up right now.
| Men’s | |
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| Men’s BlackTraining Pant | Men’s RealFlex Running Shoe |
| Women’s | |
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| Women’s Long Bra | Women’s ZigTech Shark Running Shoe |
| Children’s | |
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| Girls ZigLite Rush Running Shoe | Boys ZigTech Shark 2.0 Running Shoe |
ReebokONE 30 Days of Giveaways Contest
Are you a Fitness Professional? Are you entered the @ReebokONE 30 Days of #Giveaways #Sweeps yet? Sign up as a new member of the community for a chance to win a $100 gift card or the grand prize: a trip to train with David Jack & $500 of Reebok product per month for a year. Use promo code “30Days” here: http://reebok.com/ReebokONE
Connect with ReebokONE:
- Twitter: @ReebokONE
- Instagram: @reebokone
Apply now at HERE
Free to join, the benefits of being part of the ReebokONE network include:
- 25% Discount on all Reebok product
- Access to exclusive content
- Customized URL and professional fitness profile
- 10% Commission on all referred sales
**Contest runs from August 8th through September 6th.
FitFluential LLC compensated me for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Shoulders and Abs Workout
This was my workout yesterday.
Short, sweet and awesome! 
CLICK ON THE LINKS TO VIEW VIDEO INSTRUCTION.
SHOULDERS
- 12 Push-press
- 12 Barbell Upright Row
- 12 One-Arm Kettlebell Press
- 12 Front Raises
- 20 Dumbbell Jumping Jacks
- 12 Lateral Raises
- 12 Rear Delts
3 TIMES, NO REST
ABS
3 TIMES, NO REST
Blogger’s Dream Camera: Samsung Galaxy Camera Review and Comparison
Dream Camera Sets Your Photos Free
I recently got the brand new Samsung Galaxy Camera. No, not the Galaxy smart phone. The Galaxy Smart CAMERA – complete with mobile technology for sharing and much more! If you follow me online and ever see #VZWFF on any of my pictures on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc., that photo was taken, and uploaded to social media, with this super cool camera.
I haven’t even scratched the surface of what this camera can do, and still have a lot to learn – but I am really loving it and here’s why!
1. All I Have To Do Is Say “CHEESE”!
This camera is crazy cool! I mean, it even takes pictures for you! You don’t even have to press a button to snap a pic! How awesome is THAT? The camera recognizes voice commands like Cheese, Smile, Capture or Shoot. If you say “record video” it will start capturing video. Say “timer” and it will give you 10 seconds and take a photo. The same goes with changing modes, turning the flash on or off, or going to the photo gallery to view your pictures. No more hitting wrong buttons. No more stress. Just point and speak!
2. I Can Take It, Edit It, File It, Find It, Share It – Anytime I Want
With a normal camera, I’d take photos and then dump them on my laptop, and have to do all my organizing, editing and sharing there. However, with the Samsung Galaxy Camera, you can edit and share them immediately. Plus, you don’t need to dump and delete photos if you don’t want to – and you probably don’t want to if you want to be able to share them later. However, you don’t want to scroll through a thousand photos to try to find that one picture you want to share either, but with the Samsung Galaxy, you don’t have to! This camera makes organizing your photos easy. By organizing photos, I can access photos I’ve taken a while back quickly, to share any time I want. Since the camera comes with an 8GB memory, plus can hold a 64GB card – I don’t have to be so quick to dump and delete photos – and I have more access to all my favorite photos on the go! FREEEEDOM!!! Of course I back them all up on my laptop regularly, but I love having all my favorite photos with me where ever I go, which is a must for a blogger & FitFluential Ambassador like me!
3. I Get Best of Both Worlds
Have you ever taken a video and as you are taping, you realize you are missing a great photo opportunity to take a great still shot? OR, if you are like me, you’ve been videoing (and didn’t know it) and as soon as you hit the camera button, you realize you messed up and missed the shot? Well, with the Samsung Galaxy Camera you can do BOTH – video AND take a photo! Anytime while you are taking video, you can tap on the camera button and ALSO grab a great pic while you are at it! So, in those cases you try to take a photo and realize you are taping, you still get the shot you wanted too, even when you didn’t mean to record video.
4. My photos are print quality.
Even though I have to post photos for work, I also enjoy photography for fun – and if I get a great shot, I want to know I can print it so my memory can last as long as possible. The Samsung Galaxy’s photos are ready to be framed.
Are Your Photos Printable?
Unfortunately, in today’s world of technology, we take more photos than ever but fewer photos are being printed. While we may not choose to print a lot of photos now, that doesn’t mean one day we will (or one of our loved ones will!). Sadly, if we are all relying on our smart phones to take all of our photos, I’m afraid we will be disappointed when our kids and grandkids go to print off photos for their memory books and picture frames.
Comparing Apples to Raisins
Honestly, it’s not fair to compare the Samsung camera to the iphone 5. As much as I love my iPhone, they are 2 totally different devices. One is truly a camera, and the other is truly a phone with a camera option – big difference. Unfortunately, people use their smart phones as their primary camera all the time – even camera lovers like me.
If this sounds like you, you may want to think again. You can’t get those memories back and once you’ve snapped that pic, all you are left with is that picture – good or bad.
First, let’s look at the basic stats:
SAMSUNG GALAXY: 16 Mega Pixel Camera
IPHONE 5: 8 Mega Pixel Camera (Front Selfie Camera is 1.2MP)
SAMSUNG GALAXY: 21 X Zoom
IPHONE 5: No Optical Zoom (only digital zoom)
SAMSUNG GALAXY: Zenon Flash
IPHONE 5: LED Flash
SAMSUNG GALAXY: Aperture F2.8 – F5.9
IPHONE 5: Aperture F2.4
Lights, Camera, Action!
Look at the difference between the Samsung Galaxy Camera (left) and iPhone 5 (right).
Camera
In these first two pictures, everything seems pretty similar. Both took a great photo that would look great on Instagram. Although the iPhone tends to cast a yellow tint to indoor photos at times, all in all, they both are clear and definitely postable.
Zoom
I kept the same distance as the above photos (about 3-4 feet away) in moderate light and used the zoom to get closer to his face. I then cropped the photo to just show his nose to compare clarity when zooming. As you can tell, the iPhone 5 photo is blurry and soft, where the Samsung Galaxy is much more clear. Zooming on an iPhone will bring you much disappointment, so if you like getting a nice crisp close-up shot, you need to keep your iPhone in your pocket.
Flash
Lighting can make or break a shot in a heartbeat. Here is an example of using the iPhone at night inside without the flash.
This is an example of using the iPhone’s LED flash – always a disappointment.
This is an example of a photo using the Samsung Galaxy Camera flash in the same lighting conditions. The result is super clear, crisp and alive. LOVE IT!
Printing
Even if you do take a great shot on your smart phone, is it good enough to blow up and put on your wall? Here are some tips on how to figure out what size you need to print your photos.
Pixel Size for Print: Multiply the image height and width by 300 (8×10 = 2400×3000 pixels)
Megapixels Needed: Multiple the pixel dimensions together (2400×3000 becomes 7.2 million).
That number (7.2) is the number of megapixels needed to record a print quality 8×10 image. But, you also need to take in consideration you may want to crop the photo. In that case, you would actually be blowing it up bigger than the original 8×10 size to fill the 8×10 space, which means it will likely lose quality. While an 8 x 10 is Ok for some pictures, some pictures demand more attention and are screaming to be a centerpiece on the wall. The question is, will your photo make it or break it?
Don’t think you’ll ever want to blow something up that big? You never know! A few years back I was driving to my sister’s wedding and saw these old rusty cars on the side of the road. I hopped out and took a few shots. Luckily, I had my big nice camera with me (because I was taking wedding pictures) but, normally, I wouldn’t have that camera with me in the car. It turned out so nice, that I had it enlarged on canvas for Steve’s office. Sure, if I had my iphone, it would have made a great shot for Flickr or Instagram, but it looks even more amazing on our wall (pictured here above his couch to show the printed size)!
With the Samsung Galaxy, I can have the convenience of photo sharing without compromising on quality – plus it fits nicely in even my smallest purse! Needless to say, I’m loving it!
FitFluential LLC compensated me for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Lifestyles of the Fit and Fantabulous
The Day in the Life of a Fitness Blogger, Trainer, Gym Owner, Dog Lover, Picture Taker, FitFluential Ambassador…(ME!)
Most of the time, when you read a fitness article in a magazine, you have no idea who’s writing it. You don’t know what they look like, where they live or how they act. That’s what makes bloggers a little different. We tend to come with a little more personality, a little more fun, more “reality” and, frankly, more honesty. No one’s editing my blogs. No one tells me what to write, or what not to write. My blogs are raw, real, fun and very much alive. Although you may know what I look like, and know my personality a little, nothing beats video footage – hence the world’s love for reality TV.
So who the heck am I really? I mean, many of you have never even met me or my honey “for reals” – live and in person. Unless you’ve watched me on video, or you take Steve’s classes online, you probably don’t know that I have a southern accent or that I ride a motorcycle – and you haven’t had the ‘pleasure‘ of hearing Steve’s bad jokes (especially the “two talking muffins”) haha. You may not know my husband and I both play the trumpet (yes, we were band geeks) and that Steve’s main source of transportation in college was a unicycle (true story). Ok, maybe you don’t want to know that (that kind of information might not get us on the cool couple list! lol). Anywho, let’s have a little fun!
As a blogger, sometimes it’s challenging to show your personality through words alone. Sometimes, readers just want to know the person doing the writing a little better. You may wonder what we really act like, how they think, how we talk, what we do – outside of the blogger world. Since the fitness business is so intimidating, many people may wonder if we’d make them feel comfortable if they joined our gym, or if we we take fitness too seriously (that’s a big fat no! Fitness is serious business, but it HAS to be FUN). And, maybe you wonder what the heck to gym owner people do anyway? Workout all day? haha! Nope! I can answer that one right now!
Well, here is a video that not only captures our training style and personality at the gym, but it gives you a little peak into our home and our marriage. I hope you can get to know us a little better (and I hope we don’t scare you off too bad with our dorky personalities! lol).
My goal is nothing more than for you to just get to know us a little better, and maybe have a giggle along with way!
Steve and Bonnie Pfiester own Max Fitness Club in Vero Beach Florida and are the founders of BCx Boot Camp certification and workout program offered across the globe. Steve is the creator of BCx Treadz, brand new innovative and exciting treadmill workout video series, just released this week.
As FitFluential Brand Ambassadors, Steve and Bonnie represent major fitness brands, creating fun and educational fitness content for a variety of brands including:
Reebok
GNC
Verizon
Designer Whey
Sears
Detour Bar
DualFit
Car National Rental
Polar
StrongerRX
Bodylastics
LiveExercise
LoseIt
Chobani
and many more…
The Ultimate Off-Road Running Shoe
NOTE: This is a product review. Although I am a Reebok Ambassador, I am not obligated to say great things about the product if I don’t like it. It just so happens I love about 99.9% of their stuff. I choose to work with brands I believe in. Reebok is one of them.
It was nearly 5 months ago Steve got his first pair of Reebok ATVs. I was SO jealous! They were rediculously cool! Promoted big by A-Team (Mr. T) star and MMA fighter, Rampage Jackson, the news of this off-road shoe quickly became hot news.
Well, FINALLY, I got to join the dirty fun! I have to admit, Steve was pretty skeptical at first when he got his. But, after injuring his knee last year, he said the ATVs were the only shoe he’d wear outdoors because of the insane stability. They just made him feel safer. Well, that went in one ear and out the other…until I hurt my ankle shortly after. Then I wanted a pair!
Now ATVs are out for women and I am proud to say I was one of the first to give them a try – and I love them. Not only do they have a cool looking design to them, they have all kinds of perks. Check it out!
1.) No more pebbles. If you are tired of picking rocks out of your shoes, this shoe is the answer. The sole design is a lot more open, and the rounded edges and overall design doesn’t allow for stuff to get wedged between cracks. This makes them easy to clean – and less likely to bring your dirty run inside your clean house.
2.) No more slipping. They have a super-gripping sole that can give you traction on all kinds of surfaces – dry or wet.
3.) No more twisted ankles. The lugs (the round knobby things on the bottom) are like kickstands in every direction surrounding the center of the shoe. It’s nearly impossible to turn your ankle because of this support.They kinda remind me of a space craft or a tripod.
It’s that wide stance (like an ATV) that gives the shoe such amazing stability.
4.) No more slow runs. The 19 lugs dig into ground to give you better power and secure footing in sand, mud, snow and grass.
5.) No more boring runs. With the Reebok ATV, you are no longer confined to the sidewalk. You can run anywhere safely. Not only can you take more scenic trails, but they are great for nice leisure hikes too!
The hardest part of owning this shoe is getting it dirty! They are SO pretty – I have to admit, it hurt a little “breaking her in” BUT that’s why I bought Reebok shoe cleaner – and it worked like a charm! I took these puppies home, gave them a good scrub with the shoe cleaner (which has a built-in brush) and they came out as good as new. HOWEVER, if you plan on abusing these bad boys, choose your color accordingly!)
PS ladies, I have bought several pair of men shoes when I couldn’t find a color I liked and I couldn’t tell that they fit me any differently. So, it’s worth a try if you want one of the guy’s black pair so you can reeeeeally get them muddy!!
Here’s a great video explaining the technology of the shoe.
Here’s a cool video of the shoe being put to the test.
FitFluential LLC compensated me for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Booties and Hammies – Workout & Training Tips
This was my workout today with Max chica, Lindsey Fleisher, today. The emphasis for today’s workout was glutes and hamstrings, but we were also working the inner thigh, quads and a bit of core too.
First, I started out with overhead squats to loosen my tight muscles up from doing quads on Monday. It’s a great warm up and a great stretch. I started out sore, and by the last set I worked out my soreness and was ready to GO!
4 Sets of 20 Overhead Squats
Below is a great instructional video for a proper overhead squat with CrossFit athlete, James Hobart, pictured left with me (with shorter hair). I had the privilege of working out with him last year at Reebok CrossFit One. He is a BEAST!!! He’s the one that really taught me a few key pointers that helped me improve my squat. I have always squatted pretty heavy for a girl, but never as deeply as I can now. I had, what they call, an immature squat. I always have had trouble going deep, while staying on my heels and keeping my upper body upright. Once I learned how to do an overhead squat, I realized my issue was not strength but flexibility. I do the stretching exercises (at the very bottom of this blog) which has also helped me a ton.
The Rest of the Workout…
PS: While overhead squats have been around for a long time, they’ve really been made popular by CrossFit. Although this isn’t a CrossFit workout, I love incorporating all kinds of training in my workouts to keep things fresh and challenging.This particular workout is more of a body sculpting workout, with a direct emphasis on the lifting and firming up the fanny and back of the thighs. Increase weight to build more strength or reduce rest time to create more intensity for more conditioning.
Glutes & Hamstrings
3 Sets of 40 (steps) Dumbbells Walking Lunges
4 Sets of 18 Staight-Leg Dead Lifts
3 Sets of 18 Prone Leg Curls
3 Sets of 20 Curties
3 Sets of (Low) 20 Knee Repeaters*
*TIP: Start with your elbow touching (not leaning on) your knee, with your back straight staying in that position while moving the opposite leg (no weight on that back leg). All the weight should remain on the front leg. You can tap the back toe for balance – but not to take weight off the front leg.
Fit Gear:
Working out in style AND comfort! Today I’m wearing Reebok SubLite Train (nice flat shoe for leg day!) and my favoritist shorts everrrrrrrrrr, Reebok’s CrossFit Light Weight Boardshort.
You can’t see my Moxy socks but they say Sgt. PAIN! haha Perfect socks for teaching boot camp! lol
Try this squat stretch to improve the depth of your squat! Good stuff!
FitFluential LLC compensated me for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Are Your Power Walks POWERful? 8 Tips to Improve
I was running the other day and ran past a middle-aged woman (side note: I love how “middle-aged people” continue to get older as I get older. ha!). Anyway, so I say good morning (because that’s how I roll) and she mouthed something. This was my cue to stop, take off one of my earphones and say”what?” since I can’t read lips. She repeated herself saying, “I used to that. I used to run 3 miles a day and look skinny like you”.
I went on to say “you can do it again” and tried to encourage her. She said she was too old, etc and went on to make excuses. I then told her how my mom and dad got fit in their late fifties and that it’s never too late to get in shape. She was totally not hearing me, but I smiled anyway and off I went.
As I ran around my “morning loop” I passed her 4 times. This KILLED me. She was clearly was walking for exercise, but she was walking so slow she almost was going backwards. OK, not really, but you get my drift. She wasn’t even TRYING! I guess she thought she was doing something “healthy”, and don’t get me wrong, what she was doing was better than sitting on the couch – but she could have made SO much more out of her efforts.
Even people that walk past me that I can totally tell are walking for exercise are still WAY under where they need to be to really burn some calories. Power walks should be PURPOSEFUL walks. So, how do you know if you are on pace?
8 Ways to Put More Power in Your Power Walks
1.) Swing arms. Arms should swing at a 90 degree angle while walking and your body should twist at the waist while holding your abs tight. This gives you the power you need to move faster (look at the photo of the runner. I guarantee she would be able to book it like that if her arms were dangling down by her side. However, if you aren’t walking fast enough, you’ll feel like a complete tard because your arms will be out-performing your legs. Another words, don’t expect to swing your arms like a maniac and let your legs walk like you are in a coma. They work best if they are working together and it will feel much more natural. The best part about swinging your arms is, it not only increases calories burned, but it tones your abs and waist. If you do it right, you will actually be sore. If not, you are likely not getting enough rotation.
2.) Maintain good posture. Be sure to stand up tall while running or walking, holding your stomach nice and flat, rolling your shoulders back, and being careful not to stick your neck out (which people often do when they are moving forward, whether driving or walking). This will help train your body how to maintain better posture all the time. If you aren’t “training” your body on good posture while walking, you are training your body how to maintain bad posture.
3.) Walk as fast as you can. Try walking as fast as possible without breaking into a run, taking long strides with bended knee as if lunging forward. Your arms will really have to swing hard to help you keep this pace. It will also feel completely awkward, but it will look much more normal than it feels. Do this until you can’t maintain it any more. I would consider that your top pace for walking.
4.) Prevent slowing down by tracking your walks. For instance, you can count your steps from one mailbox, or light post, to another to help give you a top-end goal to help hold you accountable or you can track your walk time. You can also do sprint intervals to improve your pace where you sprint from one drive way to the next at every 3-5 houses or so. An awesome device that is great for tracking your pace is the iPhone App called the RunKeeper. It will tell you your average pace and track your progress.
5.) Look at people around you. Notice other walkers and realize they all think they are working out hard and many of them look no different than if you saw them walking in the mall while shopping. Make it your mission NOT to be ”that guy”.
6.) Have someone video tape you. This is a RUDE awakening. When I was doing a TV segment on walking, I was SHOCKED by how slow I looked. I was walking at 4.2mph and it looked like I was strolling. Sometimes pride fuels us to improve and we need to see how we look to others in order to be motivated to perform better. This sure helped me.
7.) Challenge your workouts with interval training. I love my GymBoss Interval Trainer. It’s a timer you can set to go off at different intervals to help make your walks more challenging and less boring. For instance, if you are wanting to become a runner you can set the timer for 2-minute walks and 1-minute sprints. As you improve, you can change that to a 2-minute jog and 1-minute recovery walk. Eventually, you can do a 2-minute run and 1-minute sprint. It’s a great way to boost your workouts and let the GymBoss become your “trainer”.
8.) Buy a heart rate monitor. This tip is the #1 best thing you can do to hold yourself accountable. Your heart rate is the best indicator of how many calories you are burning. I like to be around 75% of my maximum heart rate with 65% being my lowest and 85% being my highest. (Maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age. Then you multiple that number by the heart rate you are wanting to maintain, like .75). I suggest getting a POLAR Heart Rate Monitor like the Polar RC3, as a POLAR not only tracks your heart rate, calories burned, and all kinds of cool stuff, but it allows you to set up 5 sports profiles so you can so you can easily change between exercise sessions. It also has a zone lock that alerts you if you are falling out of your training zone. You can even set up interval training based on heart rate, speed/pace or distance, or chose from their training programs created by their fitness experts. Think of it as your very own affordable personal trainer. Plus it tracks your training history so you can see how you improve!
Here’s a great video showing all the ways you can use your Polar.
Subscribe to my Blog for more pFIT Tips!
FitFluential LLC compensated me for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Best Workout Shorts On the Planet
Ok, so I’ve been eyeballing these Reebok CrossFit shorts for a while. Then I went to the mall to get a pair. I wore them once and immediately went online and ordered 4 more pair (shhhh! don’t tell Steve).
The material is super lightweight and flexible (even great for squats & stuff!). The velcro fly and adjustable tie gives makes them flexible to fit your size no matter how your weight fluctuates. I don’t normally like the whole built-in undies, but these shorts just couldn’t get more comfortable so I don’t even notice they are there. Plus, the extra coverage makes it even more comfortable when you are stretching, or have to sprawl out (and don’t want to offer a free peep show if you know what I mean!). All in all, I couldn’t wait to blog about them (normally I do a lot more pics and content). I just needed to get the info out there.
PS: These were not freebies – I picked these bad boys out myself and paid my hard-earned $$ for them. Just in case you wondered if they were paying me to brag about them. Nope. This one was on the house!
Here’s what I got:
CLICK HERE to see ones I got in red – and also in white
CLICK HERE to see the yellow ones I’m wearing today!
CLICK HERE to see my red and orange ones!
CLICK HERE to see my white & yellow ones!
Butt Lifting Workout
If you want a good butt-lifting workout, this workout never gets old. It hurts just as much as the FIRST time EVERY time! ha! Before you get started, focus on WHY we endure these type of brutal workouts. Focusing on the “why” can be just what you need to endure one more rep.
Benefits of a good glute routine:
1. Lifts your butt
2. Turns pear shape bottoms to apple bottoms
3. Reduces the appearance of cellulite
4. Smoothes skin (wrinkles) and improves texture
5. Improves strength
6. Gives you a youthful appearance (at least from the rear! ha!)
7. Fills out deflated bottoms that otherwise sag, shake, rattle and roll.
The Reebutt Workout
Yes, his workout is a tribute to Reebok - because they are totally kicking people’s BUTTS these days – and people are loving it! Try this super simple, but SUPER EFFECTIVE (ouchie) workout. Be ready to feel fire in your pants!!
Follow Along with me! (doesn’t it look like Steve is about to grab my booty here?! ha! Way to go YouTube – you know how to pick ‘em!) hahaha
Written Workout:
Go from one exercise straight to the next without rest for the best results. If it starts to burn (like a UTI, as Steve says), then shake it out and get right back at it. The reason this workout is so effective is because we’ll stay on one leg the whole time, and then swap legs and focus on the other leg.
20 Squats
20 Right Lunges
20 Right Stomps
20 Right Leg Cook Hip Lifts
20 Squats
20 Left Lunges
20 Left Stomps
20 Left Leg Cook Hip Lifts
REPEAT 2 TIMES (4 total)
Don’t be lazy this winter! #GetAfterIt – or I’ll have to get after you!
FitFluential LLC compensated me for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
