Tag: compound exercises

Wednesday Workout: The “Everything Is Sore” Workout

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I’m not sure why I haven’t posted this workout yet, but I’ve taught it twice and both times it left me feeling super sore, so I think it’s about time I share it with you, right?! I have to warn you, though, nothing in this workout is anything new or earth shattering. It’s just a bunch of compound exercises, paired with complementary cardio and a timed core exercise.

After the class I subbed at PUMPS, a number of members came up and said they liked how it felt like an “interval training” class… I’m not sure what they are used to getting in classes, but interval training is often how my classes are (except kickboxing!). I love interval training because it forces you to work hard for a period of time, followed by a bit of rest and then bringing your intensity back up (and therefore burn more calories). And, while this workout is certainly not your traditional “interval” training type of workout, the way the exercises are set up does cause your heart rate to go up and down throughout the whole class.  I’m not a big fan of doing just cardio at the beginning then focusing on strength and abs later… I like my heart rate to be going up and down all class, and this workout definitely achieves that!
The Everything Is Sore Workout

Also, if you’re short on time, just pick a few sets to do instead of all 5. Or, you can skip the cardio and just do the strength and core pieces. Whatever you decide to do, make sure you’re properly warmed up and that you’re using a weight that’s challenging, but safe. If you’ve been using your trusty 5 pounders for a while and never feel like you’re tired from them, maybe it’s time to up it to an 8 pounder- I promise you’ll feel it then 😉

Let me know if you try this!

Questions for you: Do you like interval training or do you prefer to do cardio then strength then core? When’s the last time a workout left every part of your body sore?

Wednesday Workout: Compound Exercise Supersets, Core, Tabata Cardio

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Hey everyone! I was totally sore after the workout that I taught in SHRED last Thursday, so I figured it would be a good one to share with you this week! What I liked about this workout was the fact that we did more than 10-12 or 15 reps per exercise, AND the fact that they WERE reps and not 60 second intervals. I think people tend to keep better form when we do reps together vs. timed intervals where people go at their own pace (people either rush through the exercises to get a high number of reps OR they don’t push themselves and take breaks).

Compound exercises supersets, core, tabata cardio

In class, we lifted to the 32-count beat and I played around with the speed, but for the purposes of making this easier for you guys to take to the gym with you, I have you doing 20 reps.

Most of these compound moves are ones you have seen on here many times, but if you have questions, please let me know! This workout took about 35-40 minutes to complete, so it was perfect for class once I added my warm up and cool down. If you’re running short on time, you can always choose just a couple of sets to do instead of doing all four. Or, you could pick one set and repeat it two or three times- lots of ways to play around with this workout, so give it a shot!

Wednesday Workout: Compound Exercises with CrossFit Cardio

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Hey there! How is your week unfolding so far? My photo shoot was re-scheduled for last night, which was SO fun! We shot on Acorn street and all around Beacon Hill and the Esplanade. More on it later 🙂 Before I get into the workout, I have to vent about what happened on Monday night. If you remember, I was supposed to sub a class at the Wellington BSC on Monday night at 5:30. The class was supposed to be BodyPump, but no BodyPump instructors were available to teach, so the permanent instructor got special approval for a format change so that I could teach the class. I had a great supersets workout all planned out, with only minimal cardio since the class is not used to cardio and I was so excited to finally get to sub at that gym (it’s huge, new, awesome and 5 mins from my apartment).

Well, I got there and had my bench and bar and weights all set up, and I was starting to talk to a few members about the slight format change and then all of a sudden, this lady comes running into the room, still in flip-flops and throws her sneakers on MY bench and runs to the stereo going “few I have 1 minute to spare!”. Clearly, I am very confused and I tried to explain it quietly to her, but she was a very vocal, overly expressionate (I don’t think that’s a word, but I am making it up because it fits well) person who felt the need to make the whole thing a bigger deal than necessary. To make a long story short, she was claiming that she was supposed to sub a 5:30 spin class for Nicole. News flash, lady, there is no 5:30 spin class at this gym on Monday’s and Nicole teaches at Central on Monday’s. Anyway, this lady tells the whole class that she has been teaching for “a million years” and asks then asks them if they wanted Pump or “whatever she is going to teach” (pointing at me). Obviously it made more sense for her to teach the real format of the class, but what bothered me is that she just came in and took it from me! And then kept bringing it up all class and was totally inappropriate (throwing her bar down, picking out and picking on the new people, calling light weights “baby” weights, etc.). ANYWAY. Vent over. Instructors- have you ever experienced something like this? Class goers- have you ever had an instructor like this?!

Ok. Let’s get to the workout. I want to do a recap of the discussion from last week’s post on Compound vs. Isolation Exercises, but I haven’t had a chance to spend time put something together… it will come, though! It’s almost ironic that I am posting today’s workout since I just got over telling you how I am loving isolation exercises more than compound exercises at the moment. What can I say? When I can only pick a few exercises to do in a class, I want them to include as many muscle groups as possible! This workout surely did that.

Compound Exercises and CrossFit cardio

Most of this workout is fairly self-explanatory, but if you have questions, obviously ask in the comments or shoot me an email! Ab Roll-Ups might be new to you as they were new to me… Thank you, Women’s Health 🙂 Here’s the explanation and picture for the move: Ab Roll-Up. This is a super tough move for your legs, as it’s so much harder to go from seated to standing, but only using your legs, than you’d think! Make sure you’re not rolling too far on your back so that you’re crunching the back of your neck; only roll to about your shoulder blades/meaty part of your upper back. These ended up taking much longer than I had anticipated, so for the 2nd round, they did just 12 and 6 of each and the last round was just 6 of each.

I ended the class with low and high mountain climbers (4 high knees, then drop down and do 4 mountain climbers. Again, thank you Women’s Health) for 2 minutes and more ab work.  I liked this workout because it included so many different things and my legs literally felt like jello by the end!

Questions for you: What is your biggest pet peeve about instructors (I won’t be offended!!)? Do you like it when they try to make funny jokes when they aren’t funny? What’s your most favorite “new move” as of late?

Wednesday Workout: Discussion time! Compound vs. Isolation Exercises?

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Hey everyone! I do have a workout for you today, but before I get to that, I want to take a minute to talk about something I’ve been thinking about since my SHRED class last Thursday. Compound Exercises vs. Isolation Exercises. What’s the difference, you might ask? Well, simply put (read: VERY simply), compound exercises or movements work more than one muscle or muscle group at a time and isolation exercises work only one muscle or muscle group at a time. Some of my favorite compound exercises are squats with and overhead press, lunges with biceps curls, deadlifts with a row, whereas isolation exercises would be JUST biceps curls or rows.

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(Compound vs. Isolation)

Since compound exercises generally work both upper and lower body muscles, they burn more calories, which is why I tend to teach those types of exercises in my class; “more bang for the buck,” shall I say. Since I only have an hour to teach, including warm up and cool down, I want my members to get the most out of that hour and keep their heart rates up even when we are not doing cardio.

However, last week I changed things up in my SHRED class and decided to focus on isolation exercises. You may remember this Jump Rope & Strength Circuit Workout” that I did at home about a month ago.

Jump Rope and Strength Circuit

I decided to take the basis of this workout- isolation exercises- and change up the cardio to make it doable in my group ex. class. In order to make this work, I switched the 5 minutes of jump rope to 3 minutes of cardio (3 moves at 60 seconds each), while still keeping the strength portion the same (except I replaced one of the triceps exercises to biceps curls). I encourage my members to go HEAVY on the weights for the strength portion since we were only focusing on one muscle/muscle group rather than spreading our energy throughout our whole body to work more than one muscle group.

Since I have gotten to know a bunch of the members in my classes, I know what they usually lift and it was nice to see them go heavier. As much as I love compound movements, I think that when we do them, we usually have to go a little lighter with the weights, but with isolation movements, we can go heavier since we are only focusing on doing ONE thing. This made me wonder: do we lift BETTER and STRONGER and more EFFICIENTLY when we focus on isolation exercises? What do you think?

Personally, I think I do have a better workout when I only focus on one muscle group. If I am just doing biceps curls, or shoulder presses or lunges, I only have to focus on ONE thing, rather than multiple, so I think I can push through and gain better muscle by doing this. When we are doing timed intervals for compound movements, I think one of the exercises tends to suffer; maybe you don’t squat as low in a squat and OH press, maybe you don’t lunge as deep when you are doing lunges with biceps curls, maybe you’re not lifting as heavy weights when you’re doing squats and overhead presses, etc. Now, I am not saying that compound movements are not wonderful ways to get the best “bang for your buck,” but I think we have to be extra careful to not get “messy”.

I want your opinion, though. What do you think? Do you prefer compound exercises or do you prefer to lift heavier and focus on isolation exercises? Does it differ depending on whether you’re in a class or working out on your own? What’s your favorite exercises for compound and isolation exercises? I’m really interested to see if anyone feels the same way as I do.

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I know I promised you a workout, so here is the running workout I did on Monday when I was in Maine!

run + strength training

I ended up running a 5K (3.1 miles), so I saved the 3rd set of 25 rep exercises for when I finished. And then, to make things even (I like 100 much better than 75!), I did a 4th set of the exercises. I finished with some push-ups into side planks, full burpees and stretching. Stretching with Charlie is not easy…

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So, there you go! Let me know if you try this, and let me know what you think about my recent revolation! Enjoy your day, friends 🙂