3 Ways To Customize Your Finisher

As I was eating dinner last night with my wife, I talked about how hectic the day was. It was one of the busiest days I’ve had this year.

Then it hit me. Next week, I leave for California for the Fitness Summit. I ‘m presenting the last day of the Summit about using finishers with clients. The powerpoint has been done for a while, but I haven’t “practiced” presenting.
So I asked Charlotte, my black lab, if she wouldn’t mind me presenting to her this weekend sometime. She just stared at me like an idiot. I think that’s what labs do best.

I apologize for the last 3 paragraphs. That’s about 20-25 seconds of your life you won’t get back, kinda’ like this sentence, too.

One of the things I’m going to talk about is how you can tailor a finisher to anyone’s fitness level. There are 3 things you can change, but let’s take a look…Do the following circuit 4 times, resting for 20 seconds between circuits:

1) Burpees (8)

2) Spiderman Pushups (5/side)

3) Lunge Jumps (8/side)

4) Mountain Climbers (12/side)

Fix # 1 – Cut how many rounds you do. In other words, instead of doing this circuit 4 times, you could do it perhaps twice. And if you do this finisher once a week, you can add a round each week until you are doing 4, as you get more and more conditioned

Fix # 2 – Exercise Substitutions – Burpees are ridiculous, but they work. But for someone who may not be in shape, they could be too much. So, if you’re new to finishers or just getting back into a fitness regimen, you could sub these exercises….

You see how I am making this finisher a little easier? Always start conservative.

Fix # 3 – Rest periods – You can always reduce or increase the rest periods. Trust me when I say that there is a big difference between 20 seconds and 30 seconds. If you’re really advanced, you could cut it down to 10 seconds. If you’re just starting to use it, you could increase the rest to 45 seconds (just an example).

That’s how you can take a finisher and customize it so it fits your fitness level. Boom goes the truth dynamite.

Spring is just around the corner – Finish the first quarter of 2012 strong,

Mikey, CFNC, CTT