tabata cardio – Burpees to Bubbly

Hi there! How are you guys doing today? I’ve got a fun workout for you today that left me sore for a day or two last week. I subbed the class before my UXF Burn class and had an AMRAP workout planned out until someone said they don’t usually use weights, but rather focus on plyometric cardio moves and core moves. I had done this workout back home in Maine when I went to a class and was looking for a time when I’d have a chance to teach it in one of my classes, so it worked out great!

I did change some of the moves, but for the most part, this was the workout we did in the class I took. If you’re looking for a shorter workout, feel free to cut back to just one or two rounds of the ab circuits.

Since some of the moves may be new to you (or maybe I just call them something different), here are some explanations/videos:

Seated ab hold with alternating cross jabs– find yourself in a seated position with your feet on the ground and knees bent. Lean back until you feel your core engaged. From there, perform alternating cross jabs. You can use LIGHT weights here if you want (read: don’t go over 5lbs), but 60 seconds in this position is a long time, just an fyi!
Standing knee to elbow crunch– for this one, start out with a weight in your right hand and extend it over your head. Balance on your left leg as you bring your right elbow to your right knee. Repeat for 30 seconds then switch sides. This is killer for the shoulder and obliques!
Pendulum lunge with weight pass– take a light-ish weight (5-10 lbs) and as you step forward into a lunge on the right side, pass the weight under your right knee. As you step your right leg back into a lunge, pass the weight under your left knee, which is now the bent knee. Go for 30 seconds and then switch sides. Make sure when you do this that you’re bending through the legs and getting those knees to a 90* angle rather than just bending over at the waist to get the weight through/under the bent knee.
Table top push-outs– lie on your back with your knees placed over your hips and bent at 90* (shins are parallel to the ground). Place the stability ball on top of your shins and slowly extend your legs out as far as you can while keeping them at the same height you started at. Work slowly here and you’ll really feel it in your lower abdominal area. Remember to keep your back pressed firmly against the mat.
Stability bridge w/ball chest pass- you can use a medicine ball or weight for this move. Get into bridge position with your shoulder blades on the stability ball and your hips pressed up to the ceiling (glutes and hamstrings should be engaged!). Take your ball or weight and pass from one arm/hand to the next. It’s like a 1 armed chest fly. Make sure you keep your core/glutes/hamstrings engaged the whole time!
Butterfly Sit Up

I think that should cover it, but if you want video demo’s of anything, just let me know! Have fun 🙂

Questions for you: Do you like going to classes where you just do cardio and core work? Or, do you prefer total body workouts?

I’ve got two workouts for you AGAIN this week… I’m on a roll here 😉

The first one is a workout I threw together just a few minutes before teaching it in my SHRED class last week. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to teach, but decided on picking 4 exercises for each “set” and repeating each set 3 times before doing a tabata cardio burst. I tried to incorporate upper, lower and core exercises per set to mix it up since I usually do all lower in a set or all upper.

I’ve been loving squat with halos lately (I recently posted a workout with that move and when I saw it in Athena’s recent workout post, it made me want to do them again!)- I think they are such a good full body move! The wall sits with knee raises came from Kim’s Daily 44 workout and I’m a BIG fan!

If you’re running short on time, feel free to only do each set once, skip the cardio or only do the cardio twice (beginning and end). Lots of ways to modify the workout based on how long you have for it! No excuses 🙂

Most of these moves have been on the blog before, but if you need clarification, don’t hesitate to ask me! One you may not know is the burpee kick cardio move- all you do is drop down into a burpee, come up and do a right kick, go back down to a burpee and come up and do a left kick. I’ve been doing these in kickboxing and they’re great (thanks to a reader, Lori, who told me about this move!).

Overall, the workout left us all incredibly sweaty and beat by the end. I’m always so jealous of everyone when they get to be done their workout after that class, haha it’s sometimes hard to know I’ve got a whole other hour of cardio before I’m done 😉

Treadmill Workout

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a treadmill workout (last one was the 4.5 Mile Treadmill Run (or walk!)… mostly because I’m boring when I’m on the treadmill and tend to keep my incline and pace the same from one treadmill run to the next…. it’s hard for me to push myself on the treadmill! I changed it up last week and came up with this workout, which passed the time quite nicely.

Now, just use my speeds as a guide- if you want to walk it, knock your speed down to a challenging walk pace for you. If you run faster than I do and my speeds aren’t challenging enough, run faster! It’s your workout- I’m just here to provide inspiration to help you get through your workout and to help you change things up!

The incline was definitely a challenge by the end of the 5% interval, but it felt good!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite move at the moment? Do you like to change up your speed and incline on the treadmill or do you usually keep it the same the whole time you’re on it?