Tag: BSC

Wednesday Workout: 10 Stations Circuit

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Well hello! Greetings from Atlanta! It’s so much hotter here than it is back home- yeesh! I’m not complaining, I just wish I could sunbathe poolside with a cute cabana boy bringing me cocktails and treats all day. What? Don’t tell me that doesn’t sound lovely!

Anyway, since I won’t be around to teach tonight, I wanted to share a fun workout that I taught last week in SHRED. I was feeling Monday’s BodyPump & Wednesday’s 3 mile run and UXF Burn workouts, so I wanted to teach something where I could instruct and demo, rather than actually DO all of the workout with the class. This ended up being perfect because I could jump in at the stations I liked and needed that day (core ones, in particular) and avoid the ones for which I was sore or the high cardio ones since I was teaching Kickboxing after.

10 stations circuit

When teaching circuits, I always like to throw in a little HIIT action in between each round to get everyone’s heart rates up and get them pumped for the next round. These are most of my favorite exercises (at the moment- I seem to get new favorites every couple of weeks), so I thought it was a pretty fun workout! If you have any questions, obviously let me know! This can totally be done at home, too. You can do a plank hold on the ground if you don’t have a stability ball and you can do biceps curls balancing on one leg (which still works your core like balancing on a BOSU does) and normal jump squats.

In other workout news, I had a really awesome workout on Monday at the Wellington BSC after work. As I have mentioned, I’ve been really into lifting heavier when I can and since I ran 5 miles on Sunday, I decided to make Monday a light cardio day and focus on heavier lifting. I warmed up with 15 minutes on the elliptical and then did the following, which you’ve seen many times on the blog!

  • 5 stair runs (up and down=1, so repeat 5 times)
  • 25 reps of lower body exercises: squats, lunges (each leg), dead lifts, plié squats. I did 50lbs here, which is about as much as I can do unless I am using a machine and don’t have to lift the weight over my head to get the bar in place!
  • 5 stair runs
  • 25 reps of upper body exercises: isolation curls (25 each arm) while sitting on a BOSU, 1 armed triceps extensions while balancing on 1 leg (25 each side), front & side lat raises (on each side) and reverse flys. (I couldn’t find the weights I needed, so I did 12.5lbs for everything except the lat raises- I used 8lbs as I am still babying my shoulder
  • 5 stair runs
  • 25 core exercises: BOSU plank tilts, weighted side dips balancing on BOSU, Russian Twists, straight armed plank with leg lifts
  • 5 stair runs
  • 25 squat & chest press, 25 curtsy lunges with OH press, 30 second side plank each side, 1 minute plank to finish it off

Fun workout and I was SO sweaty, mostly from lifting!

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(yes, I am that weird/crazy girl taking pics of myself at the gym!)

Questions for you: What are you currently loving at the gym? Do you like stations workouts?

Weekly Workouts

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Monday, we meet again! Too soon, might I add. How was your weekend? Mine was pretty good! I didn’t do anything too big or exciting, but it was nice to just be around the apartment and the city… good mix of relaxation and fun things!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Ugh, not what I had expected! I was supposed to sub BodyPump, but there was a mix up and a crazy lady ended up teaching it. I didn’t want to be a sore sport, so I stayed and took the class, which was actually good because it reminded me how great BodyPump is for a muscle workout! I ran 1 mile beforehand and did 20 minutes of the elliptical after, as well as stair runs and TRX abs. It was a good workout day!
  • Tuesday- I woke up and did 16 minutes of core and cardio before heading into work. I had my photo shoot with Dan after work, so I wanted to squeeze in a little something. I did 60 seconds of jumping jacks followed by 60 seconds of ab work (all sorts of different exercises) and I repeated that until 16 minutes.
  • Wednesday- I ran 3 miles for National Running Day and then taught a fun UXF Burn class. We are supposed to teach by timed intervals, but I decided I wanted to switch it up so I taught by reps (12) and it was a fun change of pace!

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  • Thursday- I was feeling pretty sore from my workouts on Monday and Wednesday, so I taught a stations workout in SHRED and was able to pick and choose what exercises I wanted to do. It was a really fun workout! Kickboxing was good, but the energy wasn’t there in the class. Hate that!
  • Friday- I did a Deck of Cards workout on my lunch break at home. These workouts seem easy, but they never fail to leave me a sweaty mess at the end!

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  • Saturday- I went to another BodyPump class! I didn’t do any cardio, but I still felt like my heart rate was up the whole workout.
  • Sunday- Since I didn’t do any cardio on Saturday, I went for a run. I bought new running sneaks and wanted to try them out! Plus the weather was perfect for a run. I ended up covering 5 miles, which was a nice surprise! I’m definitely not a distance runner, but sometimes I like to see how far I can run. I could’ve run longer, but decided to not push it!

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I am not sure what I am going to do. I might go to the gym after work and do machine cardio and weights, but I might run? Who knows!
  • Tuesday- I am traveling to Atlanta for work and my flight leaves around noon. I might try to get up in the morning and do kickboxing or go for a run or do a Deck of Cards, or I might wait until I get to Atlanta for the workout. My flight leaves at 12:15 and I am traveling alone, so I have plenty of time after I finish up work for the day in the hotel to work out then. My manager said that in the same business complex there is the 8th largest gym in the world and you can get discounted passes from the hotel, so I definitely want to check that out!
  • Wednesday- Likely going to the gym before we are in meetings all day… I can’t wait to try it out and see how big it is! BSCers- I will not be there to teach UXF Burn- George Moore is subbing for me. He’s a hoot- have fun!
  • Thursday- SHRED and Kickboxing… I need to make up a new kickboxing routine!
  • Friday- REST 🙂
  • Saturday- Teaching kickboxing at the YMCA! Always love that class!
  • Sunday- I will be in Maine for Father’s Day and am not sure if I’ll work out or not. It will likely depend on how I’m feeling physically after the week’s workouts.

Questions for you: Did you try any new workouts last week? Do you like to workout when you travel? If so, do you go to the gym or do something in your room?

Weekly Workouts

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Happy Monday, friends! How was your weekend? I was in Maine for half of it, which is always a better place than the city to “survive” the heat. I taught too many classes last week, but happily, I survived injury free (my nagging injuries didn’t even pop up when teaching my second double of the week- woohoooo!!!). Now that I have dropped back on the number of classes per week that I teach, I realize that teaching 6 a week, while working a full time job and blogging was just way.too.much.

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I ran 3.1 miles in Maine, while adding in 25 reps of different strength exercises after each mile which was a fun way to change-up a run. I also gardened with my dad all day!

run + strength training

  • Tuesday- I got asked to sub a double at the South Station BSC last minute, so I took it (since it’s a 5 min walk from my office). I taught a Kickboxing class followed by a UXF class and I have to say that I really like teaching those 2 classes (what I do on Thursdays) in that order wayyyyy better than what I do on Thursdays!
  • Wednesday– I got in 25 minutes on the elliptical before teaching UXF Burn. I’ll try to get that workout to you this week!

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(The humid weather+sweat= crazy frizzy hair!)

  • Thursday- I had zero time to make up a workout to teach in SHRED at work (dealt with computer issues all day), so I decided to repeat a UXF Burn class I taught a few weeks ago, but it worked fine! Kickboxing was a blast as always and it’s so nice to see how much that class has grown since I first started teaching it! Another plus of of the double was the amount of energy I had! I have no idea where it came from, and usually by the end of my double I am beat, but last Thursday was awesome!

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(Shirt says “No one has ever drowned in their own sweat”, but I’ll tell ya, I came damn near close on Thursday!)

  • Friday- REST! Besides walking to Dunkin Donuts, haha.
  • Saturday- Taught Kickboxing for the 3rd week in a row at Oak Square before heading up to Maine!
  • Sunday– Rest, again. I woke up really quite sore from Saturday’s kickboxing (which is so weird because it was the 3rd kickboxing class of the week that I taught so you’d think my muscles would be used to it!), so I decided to take it easy again.

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I am subbing a UXF Burn/BodyPump class at 5:30 at the Wellington BSC!!! I LOVE this gym and it’s legit 5 mins from my house so I am pumped. BSCers- come join!
  • Tuesday- Maybe a rest, maybe go to a kickboxing class, maybe run on my own. We will see!
  • Wednesday- The usual- cardio and teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- The usual- teaching SHRED and Kickboxing.
  • Friday- Pending on what I do on Tuesday will determine what I do on Friday.
  • Saturday- NOT TEACHING! I may join a Lupus walk with friends, may do something extra in addition to that, who knows!
  • Sunday- I would like to do something different- maybe my own workout, maybe something Athena has posted lately, maybe yoga or Core Fusion?

So, there you have it! After my crazy teaching schedule last week, it’s nice to have an open schedule this week. Any suggestions for what I should do for a workout with my extra time?? Any good ones that you have done recently?

Questions for you: What was the best workout you did last week? Try anything new? How did you escape the heat, but still get a workout in?

Weekly Workouts!

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Hey everyone! Happy Memorial Day! Anyone going to any parades? We usually do, but not this year… bummer! I LOVE parades. Anyway, let’s get to the workouts.

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Besides walking to and from work from the T and walking home from the T (in all, about 2.5 miles), I rested. I was really sore from workouts over the weekend and wanted to make dinner, so I opted to take the time I gained from not working out and be productive around the apartment!
  • Tuesday- I went to the Wellington BSC and had an awesome workout! I went on the elliptical for 30 minutes, ran for 10 minutes on the treadmill, did lots of ab stuff on the TRX bands and did this:

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I ran these stairs- they were killer.

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  • Thursday- I taught SHRED and Kickboxing. In SHRED, rather than compound movements (like I usually like to do- more bang for the buck), I focused on lifting heavier and only focusing on one exercise (squats, biceps curls, etc.). Fun to switch things up!
  • Friday- I played around for about 30 minutes practicing new kickboxing combinations for Saturday, trying out some new moves I learned from Women’s Health and used my band for upper body work.
  • Saturday- Taught a VERY sweaty kickboxing class. I’d show you a picture of my sports bra (signs of a good workout=sports bra soaked), but that would be gross. Athena came, which is always fun!
  • Sunday- Mostly a rest day, although I spent some time in the morning doing glute and ab work!

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I am still home in Maine and will definitely be doing something, just not sure what that is yet. Maybe a jog, maybe Deck of Cards, maybe a strength workout with mom and my sister??
  • Tuesday- I’ll head to the gym after work and probably do something similar to last week: cardio and strength training!
  • Wednesday- Cardio before class and then teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- SHRED and Kickboxing
  • Friday- something low-impact, as I have realized that I need that after teaching (and doing) a double and knowing that I have to teach Kickboxing the next day. I like to use Friday’s to focus on strength training!
  • Saturday- 3rd week in a row of teaching Kickboxing at the YMCA! Woohoo! Such a high energy crowd- I love it.
  • Sunday- Rest 🙂

Questions for you: What was your favorite workout last week? Try anything new? Anything make you really sore? Looking forward to anything this week? Do share!

Wednesday Workout: 6 Moves Circuit + 2 Focus Moves

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Hey everyone! I am trying to get you a workout and a recipe every Wednesday… let’s see how long I can keep it up! As I’ve mentioned, last week I went to one of my favorite instructor’s boot camp class at the Wellington BSC. I love her because she is a super tough instructor, but not tough just because we do the same move for a million reps, but rather, because she is always bringing in fun, new moves and is always changing it up!

Since I loved the class so much (and it totally kicked my butt!!), I decided to take the general format and bring it to my UXF Burn class at the Central Square BSC. I changed up some of the moves, but otherwise, it was pretty much the same!

6 moves circuit + 2 focus moves

The idea was that you keep the 2 focus moves (focus/core moves because they are full body exercises that get your heart rate up without having to do cardio) at 60 seconds each as your starting point. The whole class stays together for these. For the circuit moves, people were able to go more at their own pace. I did make 2 of the rounds be 30 second intervals for the 6 moves instead of 15 reps to keep everyone together, but for the last round, I timed them to see how quickly people could finish. Congrats to Graciella for finishing first!! 🙂

Here are some notes on the moves:

  • Heavy weighted squats- we used a barbell here (like in BodyPump) and I encouraged people to go much heavier than normal!
  • Deadlifts- we used the same barbell for these as we did for squats
  • Squats w/weighted chest push: hold 1 weight (or a medicine ball!) with both hands at chest height. As you squat down, push your arms out to a full extended position. As you rise up from your squat, pull your arms back in. This is great for your shoulders and chest!
  • Frogger Burpees: take 1 big jump forward, and then bring yourself down into a REAL burpee, meaning your whole body is on the ground. Push yourself up, jump to turn around, and do a big frogger jump back to your spot (and then go right into the burpee). Holy sky-rocketed heart rate from these!

To finish off class, we did an Ab Tabata consisting of the following 2 moves: Mountain Climbers and Plank Jacks. I also threw in some more of my favorite ab moves (leg lefts, in and outs, swimmers, etc.). And then, because I wasn’t ready to quit just yet, I made them do a “Power Blast”, to leave class energized and awake! Our Power Blast was a sumo squat straddling the bench, and then jumping both feet up onto the bench- 20 reps. I wanted to do Donkey Kicks over the bench, but we ran out of time:(

I hope you like this workout! Let me know if you need clarification on any of the moves! I am totally loving REAL burpees lately, so class members, take that as a warning 😉

Questions for you! What moves are you loving right now? What is your “go-to” hard class to attend? Ever done a frogger burpee?