Tim Haft, owner/trainer of Beastanetics and Punk Rope gave me a personal training consultation at McCarren Park and now I have some new pull-up techniques, serious ass burn (in a good way) and a new attitude toward running!
Before we met, Tim asked me to tell him my fitness goals:
“My fitness goal are:
1. lose 10lb, because I gained 10lb.
2. Not eat like a fat freak, because I do that.
3. Tone up my butt and thighs.
I am happy with everything else!
I run a few times a week, weight train and ride my bike like 15-20 miles per week. And somehow I still managed to gain 10lb!”
Tim said weight loss is tricky especially since diet and hormones come into play, which definitely are factors, but only partly to blame. I’ve also taken a break from my workout routine. After this consultation I am really inspired to get back on track.
First, Tim had me run my butt off around the 1/4 mile track once. I just opened up and ran as strongly and powerfully as I could. It felt amazing to run like a hero! The key here is I ran; I didn’t jog my usual 12 minute mile.
Tim’s advice was – UP THE INTENSITY. Workouts get stagnant and really pushing it will help me see and feel results. My time was 1 min and 34 sec and it felt awesome!
Tim recommended to I do that four times, with a rest in between each quarter mile, and it will be much more effective that my lazy 3 mile jogs.
Try it. On your next jog, pick a tree and run as fast as you can to the tree, then slow down or walk. Then pick another point and haul ass. It’s fun and challenging.
Ass-burn time. Often gym machines don’t target muscles in a way that translates to real life use, according to Tim. His methods are inspired by sports movement. A squat, for example is the same range of motion used for running. The same goes for a lunge, which is similar to a tennis stance. By increasing intensity and adding jumps and variations, these moves can make us more powerful and quicker on our feet. The move that made my butt super shaky was a lunge jump that switched back and forth – so as we jumped we switched legs in mid-air.
Try it. Add jumps to your squats and lunges and let me know how your butt feels.
We can’t forget about the upper body! The best upper body workout is the push-up. We all know this, but we all hate push-ups. So Tim showed me all different variations to make them less boring, like changing the width of our arm positioning, raising one leg and adding a side plank between each push-up.
After doing a lot of pushing, which is great for the back of the arms and chest, Tim explained the importance of pulling, which works out the shoulders and back. You know how badly I want to be able to do a ton of chin-ups!
Tim is demonstrating in this awesome animation a really fun and easy way to build up to doing a real chin up or pull up with a modified horizontal pull-up. It was fun! You will definitely see me at the jungle gym working on this move.
Tim runs a great group fitness program that takes place in McCarren Park called Beastanetics. The promotional code to get $30 off this series is “Greenpointers.”
Try it out and let me know what you think.
And if you like to race, coming up there is a Greenpoint 5K in October!