Category: Burpees

Wednesday Workout: Body Weight Tabata Workout

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As I mentioned on Monday, I did a few Tabata workouts last week. One that I particularly liked was the body weight one that I did in my hotel room on Tuesday morning. There wasn’t a lot of space to workout, but the beauty of this workout is you don’t need a lot of room.

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If you’re new to tabata workouts, the idea is that you do 20 seconds “balls to the wall”, as I like to say, followed by 10 seconds of rest. You repeat this 8 times, for a total of 4 minutes. In a true tabata workout, you would do the same exercise for all 8 rounds, but for this one, I chose 2 different exercises per tabata to do in order to maximize my workout since I was limited on time. Side note: I usually jump around or jog in place during the 10 seconds to help bring my heart rate down; I don’t like going from crazy cardio or strength to nothing- I like to keep moving.

Body Weight Tabata Workout

As you can see, the exercises I did are very basic, but that’s the thing- if you’re giving them your all, you don’t need to do anything fancy.

If you have questions, let me know!

Have fun 🙂

Questions for you: Do you workout in your hotel when you travel? Do you like tabata workouts?

 

 

Weekending: Babysitting, Spartan Training, Lunching, Lounging

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Happy Birthday Month to all my April birthday buddies! I can’t believe I am going to be 29 in just 2 weeks. Holy crap. Where the heck does time go?!

I had a relatively quiet weekend last weekend, which was a welcomed change! It was nice to not be under stress to get from one thing to the next, and to have time to relax and get stuff done around my apartment.

Friday night I got to babysit my 2 favorite kiddos. They love making pizza with me, so their mom whipped up some homemade dough and we made the most delicious pizza. It ended up working out well since I can’t eat meat on Fridays anyway!

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Saturday started off the best way: with a workout! As I’ve mentioned, I went to a Spartan training workout with a group of gym friends. I’d love to say that I LOVED the workout, but I didn’t. I thought it was really good and left me physically beat, it was too long. I was ready to be done about an hour into it, which I think was because it was fairly repetitive. Read: we did A LOT of burpees, squats, lunges, jumping jacks, running in place and push ups. Like, a lot (I think we did at least 200 burpees- no joke). While those are great exercises, I would’ve liked to have seen a better variety to keep us engaged for the whole time. We did run outside for a bit, which was greatly welcomed since the BC High School gymnasium was SO HOT. Overall, it was a good workout, but I don’t think I’d do one again. It was definitely fun to work out WITH my gym friends, rather than just teaching them 😉

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I definitely earned my lunch and bubbly at Lincoln Tavern with my sister! As I mentioned on Instagram, Lincoln has a “Bucket of Bubbly” deal where you get a bottle of Prosecco and 3 mixers (OJ, grapefruit juice and peach puree) for.. wait for it… $24! Even if you don’t finish the bottle (I’m embarrassed to admit we didn’t finish it…), it’s still a better deal than ordering glasses separately. I also enjoyed an asparagus, caramelized onions and cheese omelet.

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After lunch, I headed to my date’s apartment (I’m going to call him that rather than “the guy I am dating”… much easier 😉 ) to hang out. We had a nice, quiet night in which included drinking really great wine, cooking/making dinner and watching a movie.

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Have you seen the Dallas Buyers Club? We both really enjoyed it. While it was a bit more serious and intense than I usually watch, it was a very interesting story with great acting!

I wanted to share the recipe that we used for our appetizer. My date is gluten and dairy free right now, so he got this really great Paleo recipe book and we made the Tahini sauce.

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(he set this up for me to take a photo to put on here- super cute!)

It was a fun treat! He had made homemade sausages a few weeks ago, so we also had some of those with peppers, onions and a side of kale. Delish!

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Sunday started out with a workout and then grocery shopping, meal prep, laundry, cleaning and blogging. The gross, rainy weather was perfect for all of these activities! I made a crock pot soup, which was just a bunch of veggies, sweet potatoes and broth/Stubbs’ marinade. I added chicken at the end. Perfect meal for a rainy Sunday!

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I also made these amazing bars that Athena posted a while ago. I added in unsweetened coconut flakes and used gluten/dairy free chocolate chips. These things continue to amaze me!

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And that’s about it! All around really great weekend.

Questions for you: Do you make your own pizza dough or buy it? Have you done a Spartan race? Have you seen Dallas Buyers Club? If so, what did you think?

 

I <3 This Workout! {Timed Count Down Super Sets)

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You guys. This workout was SO fun. Seriously. I don’t know what it was, but I had a blast teaching this and doing this (well, jumping in and out of sets in between assisting members) and a bunch of members came up to me after to say how much they enjoyed it, which is why I’ve called this the “I ❤ This Workout” workout- perfect for Valentine’s Day, right?!

I’ve come to the realization that my classes like to kind of be on their own, so to speak. Meaning, they like to work at their own pace, but not with 60 second timed intervals; they like to have a set number of reps to workout through of various moves… and they like to be timed while doing it (AMRAPS are always a hit!). I aim to please, and this workout certainly covers the bases 😉

Count down workouts are all over the blog and fitness world (Athena and Jen are two who often post count down workouts), and while I know they are effective, it gets boring (for me) to teach that format: “Ok, 10 lunges. Quick break, 9 lunges. Shake it out. 8 lunges. You got it. 7 lunges….” … you get the point. Well, when I went to Barry’s Bootcamp, the instructor, Emily, had us do count downs, but she gave us a set number of minutes to get from 10 to wherever we could in that set amount of time, so we had the ability to work at our own pace. On top of that, we did super sets, which kept me even more entertained. I knew I had to copy the format in class because my members would love it. So, I did!

I changed up some of the super set exercises and added in 60 seconds of core and a tabata cardio set (2 exercises). We didn’t quite finish all 4 rounds (I skipped 1 tabata round and shortened the last 2 sets to 3 minutes instead of 4), but it was still a great workout.

I heart this workout

Here are some notes/descriptions/links as necessary:

1. Alternating lunges on step: Rather than alternating forward lunges on the ground, step up to the step when you lunge. This creates a deeper lunge. Feel free to use weights here, but if you want to just focus on your lunges without weight, that is fine, too.

For the push-ups, try decline ones if you can (feet on the bench). If that’s too hard, you can do incline push-ups instead!

With the side lunge & center jump, just lunge to the right, push off of that foot and jump in the center with both feet. Do the other side on the next 20 second tabata burst.

2. I think everything is pretty self explanatory!

3. Step up, knee up, bicep curl- step up onto the bench with one foot, bring the other knee up while you perform a bicep curl. Step down and repeat on the other side.

Sit up w/ shoulder press- this was a move I got from Barry’s! Lay on the bench, knees bent with feet on the ground and hold the weights in your hands against your chest. Perform a sit up and when you get to the top, do a shoulder press. Lay back and repeat. I LOVE this move!

4. Side squat & step over bench: stand on the bench, step one leg down and do a squat, step back up onto the bench and step the other leg down into a squat. That’s 1 rep.

Leg lifts & chest fly- I think you’ve seen these on my blog before (got them from Athena!)- lay on your back on the bench and extend feet and arms/weights so that your legs are over your hips and your arms/weights are over your shoulders/chest. As you lower your legs, open your arms and perform a chest fly… then bring everything back up to the top!

Phew! I think that’s it, but if you have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me! I hope you like this 🙂

Questions for you: Do you get bored with count down workouts or do you like them? What’s a workout that always keeps you interested?

This Week: Workouts, Things I’m Looking Forward To, & Week 3 of the January Challenge Check-In

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Hi there! Happy Monday! I hope you’re all feeling refreshed after the weekend.

At the beginning of last week, I was feeling bored with my workouts. I don’t really know why, because I feel like it was just a few weeks ago where I said my workouts left me really sore, so that must mean I’ve been doing different things, right? Whatever the reason for having that feeling, it went away just a few days into the week. Between subbing a class, doing an at-home workout and going to my first class at Recycle Studio, I had a fun-filled week of fitness by the end of it!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I did 20 minutes on the cross trainer before doing 10 minutes of abs and teaching kickboxing at the Watertown BSC.
  • Tuesday- It was my plan to go to the gym after work, but by the time I left work it was freezing cold, windy and snowy, so I opted to take advantage of a non-teaching day and head right home after work to do an at-home workout. I based it off of this workout from Athena. I obviously didn’t row, but I did 2 minutes of cardio and core supersets in place of the rowing. My chest was so sore on Wednesday!

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  • Wednesday- I ran 3.5 miles before teaching a packed UXF Burn class. Dana asked for a hard workout and although I planned it before  her request, I think it still ended up being pretty hard!
  • Thursday- I taught SHRED and Kickboxing. I based my SHRED workout off of what I did at home on Tuesday night, and although it was a good workout, it didn’t pump me up while teaching it. Fitness instructors- do any of you ever experience this? You do a workout on your own and love it, but don’t love to teach it? Hmmm.
  • Friday- Rest day! Besides my normal walk to and from work… I had an exciting meeting that I’ll share more about with you later 😉
  • Saturday- I took a “Reboot” ride with my friend Lindsay at Recycle Studio.

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  • Sunday- I went to Exhale Spa for one of their Core Fusion Barre classes. Since I bought the Guilt 3 class pass, I wanted to try out different classes. Last week was yoga, this week was Barre. I liked the class, but I think I like Pure Barre better!

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m not sure what I feel like doing after work today! I received a 3-week pass to the gym in my new office building and they offer a ton of classes so I may try something there during or after work or I may head to spin at the East Boston YMCA. After my class with Linsday, though, I’m not sure I can go back to regular ol’ spinning!
  • Tuesday- I have plans after work so I’ll get up and probably do some strength training in the morning.
  • Wednesday- The usual: running and then teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- Again, the usual: teaching SHRED and Kickboxing
  • Friday- Rest- but maybe some yoga when I work from home.
  • Saturday- Teaching kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA.
  • Sunday- I may be running a 5k in Cambridge with some BSC gym friends. If I don’t do that, I’ll do something else since I think it’s the Super Bowl and even though I don’t watch football, I’ll probably be around people who do… and eating football food (whatever that means… I’m pretty sure it’s not healthy…), so a workout before that is not a bad idea.

Things I’m Looking Forward To

I think I’m getting together with someone on Tuesday after work. We talked about going grocery shopping and cooking dinner, which is one of my favorite things to do! I’m also looking forward to hopefully running a 5K this weekend and then rewarding myself with food, drinks and friends while pretending to watch watching football.

January Burpee and Push-Up Challenge- Week 3 Check-In

I have to be honest with you guys. I did NOT want to do the challenge yesterday. I had gone to a barre class and showered and was feeling super relaxed when I got home and the LAST thing I wanted to do was get out of my peaceful mood and bust out 100 push-ups and burpees.  We also did a LOT of push-ups in the barre class, so  the thought of doing more was daunting. I don’t get like this very often, but when I do, I try to honor my body and myself. My friend, Jen, posted on Facebook that she did the challenge for week 3, but not for time because her legs were tired from snowboarding. I was so proud of her for acknowledging this and modifying for it. It’s important to push ourselves, but we also need to know when to call it quits, right? So, I copied Jen and did the challenge last night, but not for time. I modified the burpees (didn’t do the jump at the top) and did the push-ups on my knees and with multiple breaks within each set of 25. I’m happy that I listened to my body and took the challenge down a notch. I know I’m guilty of getting wrapped up in doing things as fast as I can all the time, so it was a big thing for me to slow down, achieve the challenge, but leave behind the competition with myself. It made for a much more enjoyable experience!

I want to hear from you- Week 3 of the challenge… how did you do?  Did you push yourself this week or did you do it without a goal or time? What was the hardest or easiest part for you this week? We’ve got one week left and I hope you’re all going to stick with me until the end!

Questions for you: Did you make it to the gym in the snow storm or did you opt for an at-home workout? Did you try any new workouts this week?

Wednesday Workout: Across the Floor Workout

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Last week, I taught a SHRED workout that required a lot of movement. Well, duh, you’re probably saying. Don’t all workouts require movement? Yes, I guess they do. But in Thursday’s class, the movement was moving from one side of the room to the other. I used to do these types of workouts at the Allston BSC since the group ex space was on a basket ball court and therefore there was so much room and it worked out great, but I hadn’t done one in a long time so I figured it was time to bring it back! The Central Square studio isn’t as big, but if you go there and back twice, it’s basically the same thing 😉

It’s funny, because as I was making up my workout, I realized a lot of the exercises/moves I wanted to do were “animal” moves: crab walk, alligator crawl, inch-worm push-ups, bunny hops… you get the idea. My friend Athena and I had a convo a while ago about all the different animal moves she could do in her class (Train Like an Animal is the workout she came up with) and while I didn’t do all of the same moves, I did include a lot of them because they work perfect for across the floor workouts.

Across the Floor Workout

So, what you do in this workout is you start with the weighted lunge and lift going across the room and back, then do you do the cardio. Then you do that set once again before moving on to the inch worms. Here are some notes/comments on the moves and how they were performed:

  • Walking Lunge & Lift– add weights for a more advanced version!
  • Inch Worm Push-Up– do 2 push-ups at the end instead of just 1 like shown in the video.
  • Squat & Bicep Curl- If you’re starting on the left side of the room, you’ll step your right foot out, squat, step your left foot over to meet the right. Then do a bicep curl. So it’s step, squat, step, curl. Moving from the left side of the room to the right, and then back
  • Alligator Crawl- If your on a wood floor, put your feet on a towel or Gliders (if you have them) and get into a plank position. From there, walk your hands forward so that you are pulling your legs behind you. This is KILLER for your upper body/lats/shoulders. Wowzers we were all dying.
  • Bunny hops- these are just little jump squats that you do in a forward direction. Want to make it harder? Hold a weight overhead.
  • Plank w/weight push- Get into a plank position with a weight between your hands on the floor. Use one hand to push the weight forward and then walk in that plank position to the weight. Repeat. On the way back, you’re going to walk backwards in the plank position and this time you’ll push the weight under your body towards your feet. Try to keep your butt down during this- it has a tendency to want to lift up 😉
  • Frogger Burpees– instead of turning around to jump back to your spot, keep moving in one direction until you get to the other side of the room.

Phew! I think that’s it! If I didn’t explain something clearly, don’t hesitate to ask me for a better explanation. I should’ve taken a video of myself doing these, but it’s hard since I don’t have a lot of room in my apartment.

This workout left me really sore- I hope it does the same for you!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite workout format? Stations? Across the floor? Circular circuits? Any of these moves new to you?