Alexander Training

Personal training and strength programs in Austin, Texas.

Kathryn Alexander

How to do Bear Crawls

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About the Bear Crawl

If you have done bear crawls, you might be having flashbacks of sweat and tears and punishment from a high school coach. The bear crawl is a full body, energy intensive exercise that lends itself well to group application.

But have no fear! The bear crawl is a great exercise that is beneficial to almost everybody, not just high schoolers! It is equipment free and has many modifications to suit your goals and space.

What is the Bear Crawl?

The bear crawl is a traveling movement on all fours. It can be done quickly, like a run, for conditioning goals. It can be done as I’ll show you here, with smaller movements for a focus on the trunk. There are many ways to do a bear crawl well. In this case, you’ll take smaller steps and more precise movements. This will also allow you to do the bear crawl inside, where you might not have as much room as on a large turf.

To Do the Bear Crawl

  • Set up on all fours (4 point position)
  • Keep an active, neutral, flat back
  • Pick your knees up off the ground about an inch
  • Travel forward, taking very small (2 inch) steps
  • Deliberately keep your trunk engaged, as opposed to loose and flopping around
  • Reverse and travel backwards

Try It and Let Me Know!

Try out the bear crawl and let me know how it goes! It’s tougher than it looks so be prepared to work!

Happy training!

Back to the Basics for the New Year

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Back to the Basics for the New Year


dumbbell row in garage gym

This January, instead of adding in complicated, lofty goals, or removing things you love, I encourage you to go back to the basics.

This January, my clients and I are going back to the basics. My clients will see the inclusion of squats, pushes, pulls, hinges and carries in their training. We will work in moderate rep ranges and do both interval and steady state cardio.

The goal this month is establishing and maintaining healthy habits. Getting the reps in. The result will be strength, increases in cardiovascular capacity, and health.

You likely know what to do to make positive changes for yourself. Instead of reading online what others are working on, think about what you can do better. Be active more days, start a lifting program, eat more protein or quit drinking sodas. Pick something simple and basic. You can do it.

If you need help getting started, or you need a new plan, message me. I’d love to help.

Happy New Year!

Need somewhere to start? Get 50% off your first two months of The Home Team Training here:

Free: Starter Exercise Program for the Tech Executive Who Needs a Plan (Part II)

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Try this free program 3 days a week (less than 20 minutes, no equipment necessary) if you need a simple, workable plan to follow. What do you have to lose? 20 minutes. But what you have to gain! 

Check In

How did the last two weeks go? Did you incorporate any of these exercises? If so, you probably found that they were light to medium – not super hard – but you might have been a little sore. If you continued to do 3-6 sessions, you’d see the soreness quickly drops away, and you get better and faster at the program. Please let me know how it went for you! I love feedback and learn from all of it. kathryn@kathrynalexander.com

Exercise Program for the Tech Executive Part II

Sitting down and working all day is not manual labor, but it’s actually pretty tough on the body. Our bodies do well moving a certain amount in the day, and that’s hard to do if your job is to focus and be electronically available for hours at a time.

If you are a tech executive or business executive, you’ll benefit from incorporating these exercises into your life. Check out Part I for some background info and details about this program:

Starter Exercise Program for the Tech Executive Who Needs a Plan Part I

Feel Better From 20 Minutes a Day

Chances are, you know some benefits of exercise, and you even know some exercises. The challenge is more likely that after focusing and working on all, you just don’t want to think anymore about what to do in the gym. If that sounds familiar, and you’d like increased energy, decreased pain, try this program.

Pick 3 days this week, and give yourself 20 minutes. You can do this!

How to Follow This Plan and What’s Different This Week

This week builds on last week, and adds two exercises, the lunge and pullaparts. Do 8 reps of each exercise, then move to the next exercise. After you have done all 4 exercises for 8 reps, repeat the circuit. (Scroll down for hyperlinks and videos). It will look like this: 

  • 8 squats

  • 8 Y

  • 8 lunges, then 8 pullaparts

  • 8 bear crawl (forward and backward, worth it!)

  • 8 Reach for ceiling

Evaluate how that was, decide to do another set. Aim for 3 this first go round, and note how long it took you. Very do-able! 

Do It! And Update Me!

Exercises listed below. Each exercise name is a hyperlink to a YouTube instructional video, and videos are embedded below as well. Let me know how this goes! Email me with any feedback or questions!

Squat

Y

lunge and pull apart superset

Bear crawl

Reach for the sky

How to do Band Pullaparts

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Band pullaparts are a fantastic exercise for nearly everybody to do. Band pullaparts work your posterior upper body, something we need to be cognizant of in a very forward facing society. We look at our phones, we type on the computer, leaning in and stretching our neck. 

The truth is, we need to do this anyway. It’s not just modern times. It’s because our eyes face forward. If not for a smart phone, it would be a book, a newspaper, a magazine.

It’s also very important to make sure your back is strong if your front is strong. Do you bench press? Do you do pushups? You need pullaparts then, to maintain shoulder health. 

It’s simply a good habit to get in to work the muscles behind you, no matter your profession or physical demands during the day. 

Band pullaparts are one way to do that. They work your rear delts, traps, and rhomboids, among other supporting musculature. 

How to do Band Pullaparts

  • stand tall

  • extend your arms in front of you, gripping a light band

  • keep elbows straight but not locked as you press your arms straight around your side

  • I prefer palms down but you can experiment with different hand positions

  • squeeze your shoulders behind you as you make a big wide sweep with your arms

  • press until the band touches your chest

  • control the return to your start position and repeat

Execution and Incorporation of Pullaparts

Pullaparts are great as a warm up, finisher, or even between exercises. I sometimes do pull-ups between sets of bench press as a reminder to scapular control. You can do sets of 10-15, or do a larger set. Use a fairly light band, as this isn’t an exercise you’ll aggressively progress. It’s a reminder and reinforcement of shoulder health. Let me know if you have questions about your pullaparts!

Remembering Dave Draper

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Dave Draper

The Blonde Bomber

The strength and physical culture world suffered a huge loss last week, as Dave Draper passed away on November 30.

Dave Draper, the Blonde Bomber, is my number one inspiration in the world of physical culture. A legend, an icon, a writer. Dave is introspective, brilliant, and hits you with combination of realism and romanticism that makes you want to be born into the golden era of bodybuilding on Muscle Beach.

Dave’s Weekly Column, IronOnline Newsletter


Dave wrote a weekly column, the IronOnline Newsletter, for years, which I read religiously. He helps me re-realize the joy of lifting during times of burnout. His writing is deep and real, but also hilarious and inspiring.

When he stopped writing his weekly column, I cried. I wrote him a letter thanking him for all the wonderful thoughts he shared over the years. 

A Season for Everything

I used to screenshot my favorite quotes from his columns. Today I went back through the screenshots and found my favorites.

“You’re in a Slump?” is one of the best columns Dave wrote. My favorite quote from this one is,

“And the Good Book tells us there is a season for everything, reaping and sowing, pumping and burning.”

Poignant and humorous, and worth the read. 

Paint Big Pictures, Delightful and Bright

My favorite quote from The Blonde Bomber: 

“Sometimes we forget why we go to the gym and the driving forces — the countless reasons for lifting heavy with meticulous form and in relentless pursuit — are left behind, under the bed with the dust balls, in the closet with the dirty laundry or at work under a stack of papers. Get in the habit of recalling who you are and why you’re here: to be good to your neighbor; to cultivate high morals; to be loyal to your country; to eat your protein and to train hard, with undying commitment to health, strength and long life.

Board your craft, brothers and sisters. The sky is your canvas; your wings are the brush. Paint big pictures, delightful and bright.”


Dave Draper

To Laree, should you ever read this, thank you so much for all of your work on the IronOnline Newsletter, and for sharing so much of you and Dave with us over the years.

Your friend,
Kathryn

Ask Kathryn: What Exercises are Best for HIIT?

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Ask Kathryn: Your Exercise Questions Answered

I often get questions from clients that are too good not to share. This is one, about which exercises to choose for HIIT training.

From a client who incorporates HIIT into her program twice a week:

Are there certain moves that would be most beneficial during HIIT intervals?  Could you provide suggestions to structure those sessions? 

Kathryn: High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, is a powerful tool to drive improvements in conditioning and body composition. 

HIIT involves doing highly intense intervals of hard work, unlike steady state cardio. To achieve work intervals intense enough to stimulate adaptation, you must choose exercises wisely. 

If you need a primer on what HIIT is and who is a good candidate for it, check this out: HIIT Revisited.


Generally speaking, anything that gets your whole body moving works. Think big, compound, multi-joint movements like squat presses (very light weight), lunges or jumping jacks. Exercises like calf raises or biceps curls really don’t challenge you systemically, so for honest hard work, pick bigger movements.

The simplest options are movements that you can quickly and easily ramp up the intensity with. For example, running, sprinting, or biking. 

If you don’t have cardio equipment or can’t go outside, there are other options. 

You could pick 1-3 exercises and cycle through them. For example, during a bad weather bout pre-home gym, I did a session rotating between squats, lunges and pushups. I would do about 10 of each or until I got bored, and then move to the next exercise until I reached my time goal. 

Want to add lunges in your session? Check out this How-To blog post about lunges and the lunge variations.

Don’t overthink it! This is just about getting your body moving! Try to keep movement steady for the hard but quick interval, but you can slow down when you need. 

My client asked a great question, seeking more structure for her HIIT sessions. Of course, I can specify exactly what to do, but often I like to give you the option to pick your own movements. What feels fun and do-able will be different for everyone. 

Pick a couple exercises, get warmed up, and put on some good music and go!