Wednesday Workout: Upper Body Resistance Band Workout

April 29, 2015April 27, 20154 Comments

Good morning! I’m back with a short, but effective upper body workout for you that requires just one piece of equipment: the resistance band! This is a piece of equipment that you don’t see me using much on the blog (I think this workout is the only other one on the blog that uses the band), but that doesn’t mean that I don’t think it’s a great, it just gets pushed to the back for some reason. However, while I was working from home on Monday, I was looking around at my fitness corner, thinking about what I wanted to do for a workout and the bands were calling to me!

So, I decided to create a few workouts that use the band that I’ll share with you over the next few weeks. One of the things I love most about resistance bands is that they don’t take up much space so it’s super easy to take them on the road with you- in your car, carry on, suitcase, laptop bag… you get the idea. While I’m not planning on letting workouts get in the way of my time in Italy, I do plan on bringing one so that if I feel like getting in some movement (other than walking) and time permits it, I’ll have something to use. When I traveled for work I would always bring a band with me to use for my hotel room workouts.

For this workout, we are doing just 4 moves, but if your band is tight enough, you’ll feel it by the end of the 3-5 rounds! I’ve got a video in case you want to workout with me, otherwise you can just take the image below and do the workout on your own time 🙂
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Wednesday Workout: 25 Minute Total Body AMRAP Workout

March 25, 2015March 24, 20153 Comments

Helllooo! How’s everyone doing today? I had to take a last minute work trip to Canton, which isn’t ideal, but hopefully it will go smooth and fast! Know what is ideal, though? Especially with a busy schedule? A short, but effectively butt-kicking workout! I truly believe that long gone are the days where you need to spend hours in the gym to qualify as a “workout” (unless, of course, you’re training for something specific that requires hours of training), which is why I’ve been loving AMRAP workouts; they force you to work hard and fast (but always focusing on form over speed!) and if you do them correctly (working through each exercise without rest), you’ll definitely feel like you’ve worked out for probably double as long as the workout really was.

Whenever I finish an AMRAP workout, I’m always surprised by how challenging it ended up being. First round? Not so bad. Second round? Starting to feel it. Third round? Ok, I’m slowing down… you get the idea. This particular AMRAP workout was no different in that regard- my legs and upper body felt pretty smoked by the end!

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Wednesday Workout: Lower Body & Cardio Blast Super Sets

March 11, 2015March 9, 20152 Comments

Good morning! As I mentioned on Monday, not only do I still workout, but I have so many of my recent workouts to share with you. I love that I’ve been able to try out the workout for myself so I can: a. see if they’re hard enough, b. see if they work/flow/etc, c. give you tips/suggestions and d. let you know how long they take me. These days, unless I’m posting something I’ve taught, you can rest assured knowing that you can be done (including warm up and cool down) in about 30-45 minutes. This workout is no exception to that as I did it the other day during my lunch break. I did a quick 5 minute warm up and then busted this out and left super sweaty and super tired.

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Wednesday Workout: 20 Minute Kettlebell AMRAP Workout

March 4, 20153 Comments

Hi! I’ve got a great workout to share with you today. I did it yesterday when I went to the gym during my lunch break and it literally kicked my butt! In a good way, of course 😉 I was huffing and puffing throughout the exercises and rounds and felt entirely spent by the end- a sign of a good workout, right?

One thing I want to challenge you to do if you try this: GO HEAVY your weight selection. Of course, I don’t want you to injure yourself by choosing inappropriately heavy weights, but if you don’t feel tired when you complete the number of reps listed out for each exercise by the time you finish them, it’s probably a sign you’re stronger than you think you are and can increase your weight. I promise- you won’t get bulky (more on that in a post to come!).

I used a 16kg (about 35 lbs) weight for the swings and half of the burpee/upright rows and used a 12kg (about 26 lbs) weight for all the other exercises. By the end of each exercise, I was tired and out of breath and was happy it was time to switch because I didn’t know how many more reps I could do! Because of the challenging weight choice (for me, anyway), I was only able to get through 3 rounds, but I was happier with 3 rounds where I really felt challenged than 5 where I felt like I could’ve kept going. But, to each their own!

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Wednesday Workout: KB & TRX Total Body Workout

February 18, 2015February 16, 20155 Comments

Well hello there! I have a fun workout to share with you today that I did a few weeks ago during my lunch break. As I’ve mentioned before, when I workout during my lunch break, I have limited time. Because of this, I make sure I make my workout before I get to the gym so I can get there and get started without wasting any time.

Before heading to the gym, I decided I wanted to work my whole body in a mini set sort of way. This is the best way for me to avoid boredom because I’m moving from one thing to the next in short sets. I’ve been LOVING kettlebell’s and TRX bands lately, so I put together a lower body exercise, upper body exercise and core exercise in each set using these “toys”. To get some cardio in, I did 20 TRX squat jumps in between sets.

To complete this workout, perform 10 reps of each exercise and repeat the exercises in each set for a total of 4 rounds before moving on to the next set (of course, with the 20 TRX jump squats in between).