Wednesday Workout: Jump Rope & Body Weight Circuits

August 3, 2016August 2, 2016Leave a comment

Good morning! I have a workout to share with you today that’s PERFECT for weekends where you’re away or if you’re traveling for work… or if you just don’t want to go to the gym 😉 All you need is a jump rope and your body, and if you don’t have a jump rope you can just pretend and do “air jump roping”- no biggie at all.

I created this workout a few weeks ago when it was a beautiful day and I didn’t want to go into the gym during my lunch break. I didn’t want to run because I had run the day before so I came up with a workout that got me sweaty while also allowing me to get a tan 😉 Bonus? It left me surprisingly sore for a few days. Wait, now that I think of it, it’s not really a bonus because I was actually really sore which wasn’t fun. I guess that’s what happens when you do high reps of exercises that you haven’t done in a while! Regardless, I liked the format a lot… and I think you will, too!

The way the workout works is that you’ll start each round of each circuit with jump roping. You’ll do 3 rounds of each circuit and you’ll decrease the number of jumps by 25 each round. So, for Circuit 1, you’ll do 100 jumps, 20 squats, 15 lunges, 10 push-ups and then for round 2 of circuit 1 you’ll do 75 jumps, 20 squats, 15 lunges, 10 push-ups. Your last round will only be 50 jumps.

Otherwise I think this is fairly straight forward, which is how I’m tending to keep my workouts these days. SLDL= single leg deadlift if you’re not familiar with that abbreviation.

All in all with a warm up and cool down this workout took me about 40-45 minutes, which is longer than I normally spend on my workouts but considering it was body weight and not a TON of cardio, it felt like the perfect amount of time. You could shorten it by only doing 2 rounds of each circuit, cutting back on reps or only doing 2 circuits.

Let me know if you try this!

Wednesday Workout: Treadmill & 2 Upper Body Circuits

July 27, 2016July 26, 2016Leave a comment

Lucky for you guys, I’ve gotten back into creating and doing my own workouts, which means I have things to share with you! I did this one at the Westin Annapolis hotel we stayed at while in Annapolis over the weekend. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I got to the gym, but quickly realized whatever it was going to be had to be quick because it was HOT in there! I started with the 1 mile treadmill run and then decided to throw in a quickie tabata round since I was bored out of my mind staring at the wall as I ran, but still wanted to get my heart rate up a bit.

To finish up the workout, I threw together 2 quickie circuits, upper body focused since my legs were still sore from a bodyweight workout I had done earlier that week (definitely need to share that one with you!).

All in all, I was in and out of the gym in just 30 minutes, which was perfect for a “travel/hotel” workout.

Treadmill Notes: I did my 1 mile as follows:

7.0 for mins 0-1,
7.2 for mins 1-2
7.4 for mins 2-4
7.6 for mins 4-6
7.8 for mins 6-8
2 minute walk break and then the following speeds for the tabata:
Round 1 was at 9mph
Round 2 was at 9.2mph
Round 3 was 9.4mph
Round 4 was 9.6mph
Round 5 was 9.8mph
Round 6 was 10mph
Round 7 was 10.2mph
Round 8 was 10.4mph

At first the tabata speed felt too easy but by the end I was huffing and puffing!!

Let me know if you give this a try- it’s a great quickie workout 🙂

Questions for you: Do you prefer short, sprinting bursts or just a continual steady state pace?

Wednesday Workout: Upper Body & Cardio Circuits

July 20, 2016July 19, 2016Leave a comment

Ahhh… it feels good to be back! While my schedule still isn’t allotting as much time as I would like for all the blog posts I want to write (wedding recap, pig roast recap, #buffbride workout plan recap, etc.), I’m doing my best to pop in when I can with what I can, which means today I’ve got a workout to share with you! I was telling Athena last night that my workouts have been all over the place lately, using and doing what I can, but I’ll be honest, I’ve just gotten a whole lot more lax when it comes to working out. These days, I really don’t feel like working out for a long time so my runs have been shorter, I haven’t lifted heavy weights (or even worked out in a weight room) in weeks and I’ve been doing a lot more low-impact stuff. I’m not really sure why there’s been this recent change, but I’m so proud of myself for really honoring my body and doing the best I can on any particular day.

For instance, the other day I ran 2 miles and that was it. While that may be a lot for some of you, I generally run at least 3.5-4 so it FEELS like so much less for me, but rather than feeling like I didn’t really “workout”, I feel great that I got that much in. And then yesterday morning I set my alarm to get up and workout and literally got up out of bed and started changing and realized my body was sore and needed extra rest so I got back in bed. ha! who does that?! But I knew I would’ve been pushing myself too much had I not so I did what I knew I needed to do.

If there’s anything I’ve realized in the past few weeks is that I don’t NEED to workout hard all the time or constantly have a schedule or anything like that. It’s perfectly fine- good, in fact- to take it down a notch every once and a while and keep movement up, but just a lighter type of movement. If you’re feeling like you’re forcing your workouts and just not feeling into them, I urge you to listen to your body and give it- and your mind- a break!

With that said, today’s workout is another quickie and has been one of the first “normal” workouts for me in a while. All I used was a set of dumbbells and a resistance band. I really liked it!

Few explanations:

For the push-ups to side plank, do a total of 10 push-ups, meaning you’ll only do 5 side planks on each side. It goes: push-up, side plank right, push-up, side plank left
For the combo moves, you’ll do the first move and then the second move and that’s 1 rep
For the seated rows, place the resistance band around your feet as you sit with them extended out straight and create enough tension so that you have resistance as you pull your elbows back.
Front pull aparts- In a standing position hold the band out in front of you. Make sure you have enough tension so that it’s taught at the start and then while keeping your core tight, pull the band apart- you’ll feel this in your back for sure!
For the leg lowers w/OH DB extension this means you’ll start on your back with your feet extended up over your hips. Hold one dumbbell with both of your hands and extend it over your chest. As you lower your legs, lower the DB back over your head. Make sure to keep your core engaged and your lower back pressed down into the ground/mat.

If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out!!

Questions for you: Do you ever take breaks from your normal intensity workouts?

Wednesday Workout: 20 Minute Hotel Room AMRAP Workout

June 15, 2016June 14, 20162 Comments

Wait, what?! Is this really a true “Wednesday Workout” post? I just scrolled through my posts and realized that I haven’t posted a workout for you in over a MONTH, so for those of you who come here only for those- I’m sorry! I hope you read this post which explained why I haven’t been sharing workouts on here as frequently as I used to.

I wanted to share this workout with you today because with summer basically here, it likely means lots of travel/vacations are popping up, which could result in having less time to get to your normal gym time. This workout is perfect for those times where you’re traveling and/or just away from your normal gym because it can be done anywhere: in a hotel room, in a house, on the beach, at a park- you get the idea! Quickie body weight workouts are a great way to get in a sweat without hindering your plans or taking away time from something more fun.

I don’t know if it was because I was tired from traveling, stressed from work or just because this was a tough workout, but I was really huffing and puffing throughout the whole thing. I was originally on a pace to finish 8 rounds but only finished 6 rounds and then the squats on the 7th round. By the end I was drenched and felt sufficiently worked!

A hyperlapse snapshot of the workout can be found here:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Monique Gagnon- Magno (@burpeestobubbly)

Let me know if you try this!

Questions for you: Do you have a lot of travel plans this summer?

Wednesday Workout: {or lack thereof}

June 1, 2016May 31, 20162 Comments

If you’ve been following B2B for a while, you’re probably pretttttty familiar with my “Wednesday Workout” posts, huh? Nearly every week for the past 3+ years I’ve brought a new workout to you on Wednesdays; sometimes they’re long, sometimes they’re quickies, sometimes they’re bodyweight, sometimes they require a gym, but regardless, I do my very best to share workouts I’ve done and enjoyed with the hopes that you’ll give them a try.

However, it’s been at least a few weeks since I’ve shared any sort of workouts with you, and I’ll be honest with you: it’s felt kinda nice to not have the pressure of creating workouts, doing the workouts, creating a picmonkey graphic and explaining various moves. It’s not that I don’t enjoy doing that, but I just feel like I’ve needed a break from that pressure. As I mentioned on Instagram over the weekend, I’ve been feeling really “blah” about my workouts. I recently started teaching a new-to-me class at GymIt (Bags & Beats) so when I’m not teaching other classes, I’ve been practicing the workouts/combos/using the app/etc. so that I feel comfortable when I’m actually teaching the class.

And, with the nice weather we’ve been having, I’ve been doing a lot more running and things outside of the gym, meaning I’m not really creating workouts that I could potentially share. Work has been so busy, also meaning I can’t sneak away for a lunch break lifting session… another reason why I haven’t got anything to share with you.

Long story short: my workouts have been kind of boring, inconsistent in terms of having a plan and sometimes non-existent. But you know what? It’s totally ok. Sure, I could come up with some type of workout to share with you, but if I have no passion behind it, I’d just be creating a workout only to have content, not because I wanted to try new things or a new format or anything like that and if that’s the case, I’d rather not share anything with you. Remember my resolution from a few weeks ago? Quality over quantity? I’d rather come to you with a brand spankin new workout that I was really excited about because in turn that would get YOU excited, too, and hopefully enough for you to try it out 😉

So, I guess what I’m trying to say is bear with me. If you come here solely for the workouts, I encourage you to go back to my workouts page page and maybe try some that you haven’t tried before. Or, go back and do one of your favorites from the archives. I promise I’ll get my workout-sharing mojo back, but right now I’ve just got a lot of other things consuming brain space, time and energy so the Wednesday Workout posts might be sparse over the next month or so.

But! The good news is that today I’m starting day 1, week 1 of the “wedding workout plan” that my girl Athena created for me and I think it’s going to be juuuust what I need to get some excitement, consistency and structure back into my workouts. I’m so excited to let someone else be the teacher and me be the student- without having to think about and create my own workout, it makes the whole process so much less work!

Thank you for your patience over the next month leading up to the wedding- you guys are the absolute best and your support really does mean so much to me! Happy hump day, friends! xo