Tag: kettlebell workout

Wednesday Workout: KB Sandwich Workout

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Hi, hi, hi! Is everyone adjusting well to the time change? I have to say, although it’s never fun leaving work when it’s dark, I do like the fact that I’m not driving to work in the dark anymore 🙂

Before I share today’s workout with you, I wanted to give you some information on a yoga class being held tonight at Reebok’s Back Bay Showroom on Newbury Street.  VivaOmm, a fitness brand who has created a Latin-infused workout blending the hottest moves from yoga, pilates, and barre, will be hosting a class that benefits the Veterans Yoga Project. Veterans Yoga Project is a charitable organization committed to providing support to all veterans through Mindful Yoga Therapy. Their mission is to use yoga to support recovery and resilience. In addition to sharing a great workout, VivaOmm is committed to help its community give back via The #GiveWithPassion Project. The project offers a charitable platform accessible to everyone and welcoming of varied areas of passion and strives to make the world a better place one loving action at a time. To start, VivaOmm is committed to spreading awareness of Veteran’s Yoga Project and it’s incredible work.

If you like the sounds of this and are looking for a new and fun way to workout (and place to workout!), make sure to check out additional details here.  100% of the proceeds going directly to the Veteran’s Yoga Project.
Speaking of yoga…. I need to get back into it! Now that the weather is cooling down (finally), and I’m not teaching a bajillion classes, I plan on trying to get to CorePower Yoga in Newton Corner once a week.
Today’s workout doesn’t involve yoga whatsoever, which means there’s no great segway into it, so I’m just going to jump right to it! I don’t remember when I did this workout, which never happens. I assume it was recently as it’s on the lower end of my “workout” note in my phone so it had to have been recently. It looks like a good one, so maybe I’ll just have to do it again 🙂
The way it works is you sandwich your 2 exercise ‘sets’ with 10 KB swings, but if you don’t have a KB you could just use a dumbbell. Each ‘set’ will be done 3x through.
KB Sandwich Workout
As always, let me know if you have any questions, as well as if you try this!
I hope you have a great rest of your week 🙂
Questions for you: What’s been the best part of your week so far?

Wednesday Workout: 4 Round Kettlebell Workout

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Hi there! How is your week going? We leave for DC on Saturday and I have yet to do a stitch of planning or packing … oops! In the meantime, I wanted to talk about kettlebells and kettlebell training with you. Any of you use KB’s? I’m sure most of you are shaking your head saying, “yes, Monique, of course!” 😉 I, too, fall in that category. I use KB’s traditionally (in terms of the traditional swing, clean, figure 8, clean & press, snatch, etc.), but also as a replacement for dumbbells from time to time as well. I love them because they are so versatile, and they challenge the body in a different way than any other piece of equipment at the gym.

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If, however, you use KB’s, but don’t really understand or know why they are such an amazing piece of gym equipment, here are a few reasons:

  1. They help improve mobility & grip strength based on the design of the KB and the intended usage (ie: Ballistic movements not always in your traditional movement planes)
  2. Great cardio alternative as many of the movements, by nature, have a cardio aspect in that they bring your heart rate up because of the explosive movement patterns.
  3. Not a lot of equipment is needed to get in a full body strength and cardio workout – just a few KB’s will generally do the trick, and they don’t take up a lot of space or require a lot of space to use. Last week, for instance, I packed my KB in my car so I could do a workout outside during my lunch break!

And these are just some of the reasons why KB’s are so great!

That said, when Rep Fitness reached out to me to see if I wanted to partner with them and check out a piece of their equipment, I jumped on the opportunity! When I checked out their website, I found SO MANY THINGS that I wanted, but in terms of my at-home gym, I felt as though a KB was the best option for me to go with. I opted for a 25lb. one because it seemed like a middle of the road weight that would allow me to use it for the most amount of exercises. They also just released their “LB” or “pound” kettlebells, which is great because it avoids the math conversion game I always have to do in my head when I use KB’s that are in kilograms (which is fairly standard for KB’s). These are available in 5lb increments from 5-60lb’s and then 10lb increments from 60-100lb’s.

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I’ve been working out with it for about a week and I have to say – I’m really loving it! Sometimes I find that KB handles can get slippery as I get sweaty, but the Rep Fitness KB’s have a bit of a texture finish that help to avoid slipping. But don’t worry – it’s not textured enough to irritate the skin, just enough to help with better grip. Another part about the Rep Fitness KB style I like is that the weight is etched into the KB face so it will always be visible. They also paint a circle around the horn base (handle) on each side which corresponds to a weight so it makes it easy to quickly know what weights a gym has or what ones people are using. I saw that my gym (EBF FIDI) has a slew of Rep Fitness KB’s and it really is much easier to see what weights are available by looking at the color on the base of the horn.

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The workout I have for you today includes a lot of the basic KB exercises, working lower, upper, core and cardio. AND! You really only need 1 piece of equipment, but if you have 2 different weights for KB’s, I would suggest using that so you can go heavier on the lower body & swings and keep it lighter for the clean & press.

4 Round KB Workout

I think most of these are moves you’ve seen before, but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask! Quick note on the High Plank Knee to KB Tap – for this, you put the KB between your hands in a high plank and bring your knee to the KB, trying to tap it each time.

I think that does it! If you’ve been in the market for a new KB, or any new workout equipment, I highly suggest heading over to Rep Fitness’s page and seeing what they have. Their prices seem very reasonable and it avoids you having to carry heavy things through the store to buy them 😉 Big thanks to Rep Fitness for providing me with a KB to use!

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Questions for you: What’s your favorite at-home piece of gym equipment? If you could just workout with 1 piece of equipment, what would it be? Do you use KB’s in your training?

Wednesday Workout: The “4X10 Lower/Upper/Core” Workout

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Good morning! Thank you all so much for your kind words/responses to my blog post yesterday. I never know how people will react to these posts or if people will be able to relate to them, so it’s nice to not only get feedback, but get positive feedback 🙂

I have a great workout for you today, now that we are on the topic of working out 😉 I did it the other day when I didn’t want to do traditional cardio and instead wanted to focus more on strength training. These days, I’m nowhere near where I was a while ago in terms of strength, but that’s okay. I’ve been teaching a lot and haven’t had consistent days for training which makes it hard for me to stay consistent with strength training enough to see gains. Instead, I’ve been lifting a little lighter, but incorporating more exercises into my workouts and moving through them with less rest which keeps the heart rate up.

For this workout, you can use dumbbells or kettlebells- I used kettlebells if you’re wondering. You’ll complete 10 reps of each exercise and move to the next with little to no rest, trying to save your rests for the break between rounds. You’ll do 4 rounds total. To finish, I threw in a quickie metabolic finisher for ya 😉

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The finisher consisted of 3 rounds of 20 seconds of rope slams and waiter carries there & back. Rope slams get me every.single.time!

I hope you have a great rest of your day- and maybe you’ll give this a try!

Questions for you: Do you go through phases with what types of workouts you do? Do you prefer heavier lifting or workouts like this that are done with lighter weights?