Tag Archives: WOD

Skinny Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad + Jump Rope Workout

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lightened chicken salad

I love chicken salad. Cool, creamy and packed with lean protein, chicken salad is a go-to meal on my family’s overscheduled evenings. With multiple obligations that have us crisscrossing each other’s paths, I make dinner less stressful and more healthful (avoiding fast food) by whipping up a big batch earlier in the day, plate it up on lettuce and leave waiting in the fridge for self-serve meals as people arrive home.

Unlike deli chicken salads, my recipe for Skinny Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad is much friendlier on your figure. No-fat Greek yogurt replaces most of the mayonnaise used in traditional chicken salad; just a bit of reduced-fat mayo is added in for the familiar flavor. Dried cranberries add a hint of natural sweetness and toasted pecans give a satisfying crunch!  Serve on lettuce (my favorite way) or sandwich between bread, dollop atop crackers or roll up in a wrap.

Skinny Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad Recipe

  • 4 cups shredded, cooked chicken breast
  • 2/3 cup diced celery
  • 1/4 cup green onions, sliced (including tops)
  • 3/4 cup dried cranberries (no sugar added)
  • 1/2 cup pecans, toasted
  • 2 tablespoons reduced-tat mayonnaise
  • 6 ounces 0% fat plain Greek yogurt
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon dry mustard powder
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  • Romaine Lettuce, chopped
  1. Add first 9 ingredients to a large bowl, and stir with a fork to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  2. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to overnight before serving. This gives the flavors time to mingle.
  3. Serve over a bed of romaine lettuce.

Serves 6.

 

Jump rope workout

Now that you’re fueled up with a healthy salad topped with Skinny Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad, you’ll have plenty of energy later in the day to knock out my “Just Jump & Plank” WOD I created for Core Power. All you need is a bit of space and a jump rope and you’ll be getting a great cardio workout along with some core-strengthening action. Have fun!

 

 

Yeah, I Ran in the Olympics (Sorta!) + Torch Bearer WOD

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I really love the Olympics and though I’m not usually a fan of sports spectating (I’d rather be doing it myself), this is always one epic event that I can’t bear to miss — my DVR is going to be working in overdrive. Thinking about the Sochi Winter Olympic Games got me feeling nostalgic for my role as a torchbearer for the XIX Winter Olympic Games — it’s hard to believe it was 12 years ago!

I wrote a post about my experience for Core Power; if you are interested, go check it out! Oh, by the way, this great company is the official protein drink of the Sochi Olympics! And right now you can get $5 off a case of Core Power through Amazon.com.Jennifer Fisher Salt Lake City Torch Bearer relay in austin

Olympic athletes aren’t the only ones who need a good workout. Pretty sure I’m never going to be bustin’ down the track and jumping into a bobsled, but I still want to stay in my version of gold-medal shape for all my amateur-hour adventures. I put together this fun but challenging workout in honor of the Winter Olympics past, present and future! I think you’ll FEEL THE BURN!

workout with burpees lunges abs

So, what is your favorite event to watch in the Winter Olympics? I get excited for Freestyle Skiing and Speed Skating!

Paleo Countdown Spice Rub & 4-3-2-1 Workout

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Editor’s Note: Updated 10/2/2019

There is something satisfying (and easy to remember) about rattling off numbers backward in a countdown. In fact, this ritual is even so important in some professions that it’s become part of popular culture – just think of NASA and their huge countdown clock.  As a kid, I counted down the days until Halloween, Christmas and the end of the school year.

As an adult, I count down the number of weeks until my next marathon and, admittedly, have even used a countdowns to threaten motivate my kids to accomplish tasks. Today I have a 4-3-2-1 Countdown Spice Rub recipe that is so simple, you don’t even have to write it down. Read on to get the paleo recipe: Continue reading →

Wednesday WOD – Turn Hump Day into Jump Day!

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jennifer fisher - thefitfork.com - jumping and pumping WOD

I have a fun workout for you today! Get those legs jumping and your arms pumping with this four element extravaganza. You’ll need a jump rope, medicine ball (any weight), gymnastic rings and a sturdy platform for jumping. A combination of cardio mixed with plyometrics and body weight training, you’ll find this WOD to be fun yet harder than it sounds. Thanks to Valerie Hunt at CrossFit and Fearless for helping show off some of the moves. Try to complete three to five rounds! Let me know how it goes in the comments.

Two Minutes of Jump Rope: I jump with two feet together, getting only as high off the ground as I need to in order to clear the rope. It’s about efficiency. If you’d rather skip rope or go for some harder-core “double unders,” by all means, please do!

dog jumping rope (1)

Don’t let a little lap dog show you up!

Five Kipping Ring Dips: Support yourself on the rings and dip downward with your chest, bending your arms at the elbows. To gain momentum upward, tuck your knees up and then quickly extend them as you push with your triceps back to the upward start position.  I’m sure you’ll do better than I did, I got the giggles.

Ten Medicine-Ball to Box-Jump:  Stand about 18-inches behind a box  with a height you are comfortable using.  To the back of you place a Dynamax medicine ball in the spot where your rear would naturally land if you were to sit down.  To complete one rep, jump forward onto the box extending with hips fully. Next, jump backward to your starting line and sit down onto the ball (be careful to make sure you’ve landed in the right place and it’s actually there)! Watch Valerie demonstrate in the video. If this is too challenging, stick with regular box jumps and focus on landing back on the start line when jumping off. Once you’ve mastered this, you can add in the medicine ball.

Fifteeen Chest-to-Floor Push Ups:  Go all the way down on these pushups and touch your chest and belly to the floor before extending back upward.  Keep your core tight, it helps!

jennifer fisher uawomen whatsbeautiful fitfluential

On your Mark, Get Set, Press – Deadlift – Box Jump! CrossFit Open 13.2 Workout

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Am I going to the CrossFit Games in 2013? Uh, no. But, just because I’m not going to compete to be the “fittest woman on earth,” doesn’t mean I can’t follow along with some of the workouts being dished out in the Open Competition which started last week. In fact, when I scale the weight-lifting elements down a bit, these WODs become a useful cross-training tool in my quest to become the “fastest woman on earth,” or maybe we should make that, “the speediest old lady in the neighborhood.”

So, I headed down to Fit & Fearless CrossFit to give WOD 13.2 an “unofficial” shot. This classic CrossFit triplet features shoulder to overhead, deadlifts and box jumps. Because the weights and time cap are moderate, this workout is focuses more on pure work capacity and pushing through the discomfort rather than raw strength or technical prowess. That being said, I still decided to cut the weight by more than one-half so I would not kill myself and have fresh enough legs to race a 5k this weekend!  I scored 290 with my weight Rx’d down, compare that to Iceland Annie who scored a legit  361!  Okay, I can run faster than her. Maybe.
Here’s the 13.2 WOD:

Complete as many rounds as possible (AMRAP) in 10 minutes (first weight male, second female):

  • 5 Shoulder to overhead, 115 / 75 lbs
  • 10 Deadlift, 115 / 75 lbs
  • 15 Box jump, 24 / 20 inch

So, if you’re looking for a little more information on how to perfect these moves, just get started, or tweak them to meet your fitness goals, here are some resources:

The deadlift builds strength in your legs, hips and back, perfect muscles to target for runners! An intermediate goal for women is to be able to lift 120 percent of body weight, that’s about my limit. However, some of these competitive CrossFit gals, can lift 160 to 200 percent bodyweight! In the video above, CrossFit coach Valerie shows a modified Band Resistance Dead Lifts for beginners. Or, you can check out an earlier post I did on Dead Lifts that even has a really cool diagram of all the muscled used in the move.

jennifer fisher_thefitfork_box jump ponytail

The box jump is an explosive move of plyometric power. If done right, box jumps can improve your running power by strengthening quads, hamstrings, gluts and calves. If done wrong, well, see my bleeding knees below! Carl Paoli (from GymnasticsWOD.com) and Kelley Starrett (from MobilityWOD.com) give their tips on how to tackle a box jump with the best body position possible. Check out their helpful tips on perfecting the box jump. The key take-away for me is to remember to fully extend the hips at the top of the box and then land with feet fairy close together to prevent a “torque dump.”

box jumps gone bad

Oops, box jumps gone bad!

 

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Technically, a shoulder-to-overhead could be one of three overhead lifts, the strict press, the push press or the jerk press. Even though it seems like you only need strong shoulders to succeed here, you actually use your entire body, including a lot of core, to get the bar up overhead in a fully-extended position. And, I could go on all day about how improving my core strength has helped my performance (and recovery) in running. The Tabata Times has a good explanation of these shoulder-to-overhead lifts and how to perform them properly.

So, have you done the 13.2 WOD yet? What was your score?  If not, do you use any of these moves (deadlift, press, or box jump) in your training?  Let me know in the comments ! Hint — get to the comments by clicking the little “speech bubble’ at top of post.