This Week: Workouts, split workouts and things I’m looking forward to

Good morning and happy Monday. If you’re lucky enough to have today off, please don’t tell me… I’m very jealous. I don’t know if it’s because work has been a little stressful lately or what, but I feel like I’m in major need of a day off. Unfortunately, today is not that day for me- oh well!

Do you guys ever split your workouts up based on time? For instance, run in the morning and lift after work because you don’t have enough time to do your full workout in one sitting? I don’t generally do this, but I’m not opposed to it because I think that if you have certain goals you’re working to that requires you to be doing “X” amount of cardio and lifting in a day/week, sometimes it’s necessary to split up your workout to get it all done. I’ve heard of people splitting up their miles if they are training for a marathon so that they run 10 before work and 10 after since they don’t have enough time to do 20 at once.

Last week, I didn’t split up my workouts by doing part before work and part after, but I did split them up by days… does that count? I totally ate sh*t during the New Balance Girls Night Out run last week and tore up my knee quite a bit. While it was an external injury and not an internal one like a twist or anything, it was still rather painful on Thursday. I was so annoyed because otherwise, I felt physically ready for a tough workout; I didn’t feel like I needed rest. But, since my knee was swollen a little and it hurt to bend it because the skin was so raw, I physically knew I couldn’t do anything that required any bending. I ended up doing a 20 minute walk with 10 push-ups, slow mountain climbers & flutter kicks at the benches in the park as I approached them and then did a series of upper body and core super-sets back in my apartment. On Friday, I did the cardio I had wanted to do. Does this mean I didn’t “rest” as much as I’ve promised myself? Technically, yes, but since I worked entirely different things between the days and it was a circumstance where I didn’t feel like I needed extra rest, I think it’s ok. Thoughts?

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I did some push-ups and crunches during the day and then I went to a class at Flywheel. Christina was amazingggg and I left there feeling beat!
  • Tuesday- I went to the Lynnfield BSC for a quick strength session before teaching a stations workout at my bootcamp. We all agree class flew by- I’ll post the workout for you this week hopefully.

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  • Wednesday- I had a sub for my UXF Burn so I could finally attend one of the New Balance Girls Night Out events. So happy I did- it was such an awesome night! I ran with Sarah of Blonde Bostonian and we covered 4.6 miles. I totally wiped out at the end of the run. Woof.

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  • Thursday- As I mentioned above, I really wanted a tough workout on Thursday, but my bum knee had other plans. I did some upper body/core super sets and went for a walk.
  • Friday- My knee was still not great, but it wasn’t as swollen or painful as the day before so I headed to the BSC during my lunch break and ran 3 miles. As I mentioned on Instagram, I wasn’t sure if I needed retail therapy or a workout to help relieve some stress/anxiety and since spending money would probably just add to those two things, I chose the gym. I felt so much better after!

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  • Saturday- I finallyyyy taught my kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA. It was a smaller crowd, but it felt good to be back. I was SO SORE on Sunday from it… I don’t usually get sore from kickboxing, but I think since I hadn’t taught it in 3 weeks, my muscles weren’t used to it.
  • Sunday- RM and I went for a nice 40 minute walk since it was so beautiful out.

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m subbing the 6:30pm Cardio Kickboxing class at the Watertown BSC. If you’re around, come join me!
  • Tuesday- I’m teaching my bootcamp in Wakefield.
  • Wednesday- I’ll probably run before I teach UXF Burn at Central Square.
  • Thursday- I’m holding a bonus bootcamp since everyone wasn’t ready to be done on Tuesday.
  • Friday- Maybe a lunch break workout depending on how I’m feeling from the week. Otherwise, I’ll rest.
  • Saturday & Sunday- I’m going to the Cape for Oyster fest with RM and some of his family and friends, so I’m not sure what my workouts will look like, if anything.

Things I’m Looking Forward To

I’m excited to be teaching a lot this week- I only taught twice last week! I’m also excited to see my friend Tim who will be in town for work. Lastly, I can’t wait to head to the cape for a little weekend getaway filled with good food, good drinks and good people 🙂

Questions for you: Do you ever split your workout up based on time? If you have to cut your workout short, what do you usually skip out on? What was your best workout last week? What are you looking forward to this week?

 

Wednesday Workout: 30 Minute Upper Body & Core Super Sets Workout

Happy hump day, everyone!

Last Monday, I headed to the gym at my office building for a quick lunch time workout. Since I knew I had done a lot of squats and lunges in the class I taught on Sunday and was going to spin on Tuesday, I wanted to focus on the upper body and core to balance things out. I love doing super sets because they keep my heart rate up and they generally leave me pretty sore for a few days after. This workout was no exception- my chest was sore for at least 2 days!

Upper Body & Core Super Sets Workout

As the directions state, you’re going to do 12 reps of exercise A and then 12 reps of exercise B. You’re going to repeat those 2 exercises twice more before moving on to the next set. I alternated from upper body to core rather than doing all upper body and finishing out the workout with core. When I do that, I tend to lose interest and usually cut my workout short. In order to not miss out on the core exercises, I knew I had to do them in the midst of everything else.

Here are some links to some exercises that might need explanations:

*Alternating Wide Grip Rows– Instead of doing both arms at the same time (like in the video), I did right, left, right, left, etc. until I got to 12 on each side

*Stability Ball Pass

*Bicep Curl to Press- Do a bicep curl and then when you get to 90 *, push the weights out in front of you. Repeat.

I think that should be it, but if you have questions, feel free to let me know.

I’ve had a handful of people in my classes recently tell me that they’ve been doing the workouts that I post, which is amazing! You have no idea how good it makes me feel to hear you girls say you actually do the workouts that I shares- thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Questions for you: What exercise/workout format always leaves you sore? Do you tend to lose interest at the end of your workout and end early?

Wednesday Workout: Full Body Supersets Workout

As I said on Monday, I taught a workout in SHRED last week that I loved when I did it on my own, but wasn’t crazy about it when I was teaching it. I based my workout off of Athena’s 35 Minute Upper Body Blast workout that she posted a while ago. I knew I wanted to do an upper body strength workout, but since I was at my apartment, obviously without a rowing machine, I had to do something to replace that piece of the workout. Enter: core supersets and short cardio blasts.

Since the workout left me really sore, I thought it would be good to teach (I’m evil that way 😉 ), but I knew I wanted to add in some lower body super sets so that my members could have a more well-rounded workout (when I workout on my own I can pick and choose what I want to do, which is why I loved Athena’s upper body focused workout). Here’s what I came up with!

Full Body Supersets

I’m not really sure why I didn’t love teaching this, perhaps because we did each superset 3 times through and it felt too repetitive? Regardless, I liked the actual workout and can see myself doing it again, which is why I’m sharing it with you today!

I think most of the moves are self-explanatory, but if you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Also, if you’re running short on time, but still want a full body workout, feel free to do only one or two rounds of each strength/core exercises. Or, you can skip the cardio! I do this all the time with workouts that I see online. I’ll change something, add something, remove something… you get the idea.

Let me know if you try this!

Questions for you: Instructor friends- do you like to teach different formats from what you do when you’re on your own?

Wednesday Workout: Supersets, Tabata Cardio & Core

Happy hump day!!

GEICO Hump Day Camel Commercial – Happier than a Camel on Wednesday from Steffen Bieser on Vimeo.

That GEICO video makes me laugh SO hard.

This workout won’t make you laugh, though 😉 I taught this last week in SHRED as I was in the mood to change things up. I’ve been doing a lot of stations workouts, timed workouts, 15 reps workouts, mini circuit workouts and as much as I love those, I was in the mood for something different. The workout is slightly inspired by BodyPump with regards to the rep pacing (2 count down and up, 3 count down 1 count up, etc.). It’s so easy to fly through reps or max out your reps in a timed interval, but when you change it up and move slowly and deliberately through the exercises, you’ll notice a big difference! I felt some serious burn during class!

Supersets, tabata cardio & core workout

If you have any questions, as always, feel free to contact me. The moves are fairly straight forward (nothing too fancy or unheard of), but I’m always willing to explain things if it’s confusing!

Let me know if you try this!

Questions for you: Are you a fan of supersets? Would you prefer timed intervals, a set number of reps, or changing up the pace of the reps?

Wednesday Workout: Compound Exercise Supersets, Core, Tabata Cardio

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!