Wednesday Workout: Cardio EMOM & Upper Body AMRAP (35 min workout)

Good morning! I wasn’t sure if I’d have a post for you today, but considering I enjoyed the workout I planned and did yesterday morning before work, I thought it was only fair to share with you ๐Ÿ˜‰

If you’ve been following B2B for a while, you’ll probably agree that I don’t really workout in the morning very often. It’s not that I don’t like to workout in the morning, because even though my energy level isn’t nearly as high as it is after work, I absolutely love starting the day with a workout and I also love not having a workout looming over my head throughout the work day. But, seeings how I have to leave for work by 6:45am, it just makes getting up and working out at an hour of the day where I’d much rather be sleeping. That, and I tend to have teaching or workout plans after work so it’s not really necessary. ย It’s all good, though- I do them when I can and on the days where I can’t workout after work I go during lunch, NBD.

Since I knew I had meetings all day on Tuesday and I had something after work, I knew my only option for getting a workout in was to do it before work. I decided to go in just a little late, which made my morning wake-up call not quite so early. To help speed things along in the morning, I created my workout the night before. On top of saving time, this also gets me excited and mentally prepared to get up early to workout. Laying my workout clothes and shoes also helps! I was up at 5:45am and dressed and working out by 5:59am and done by 6:35- not too bad!

Here is the outline of the workout- I will list out the details below:

Cardio EMOM & Upper Body AMRAP

What I liked about this workout was the format. I started off with a quickie warm up (4 mins, to be exact) and then jumped right in to the cardio EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute) portion, which was burpees and mountain climbers. What this means is that I gave myself 1 minute to complete 15 burpees. However much time was left in the minute after I completed the 15 burpees was used for active rest- side bends/dips, in my case. Once that minute was up, I performed 30 mountain climbers (each leg) and again, the remaining time in the minute was spent doing side bends/dips before jumping back into burpees. This 8 minute EMOM set had me doing 4 rounds of 15 burpees and 4 rounds of 30 mountain climbers. I was successfully sweaty by the end of this.

My next set was an 8 minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) upper body workout. My workout the night before had been legs so I knew I didn’t want to do much with them the following morning. I ended up completing 5 rounds of the upper body circuit and was really proud of myself for completing the push-ups on my toes for all of the rounds! Also, as a heads up I used a band for the seated rows and dumbbells for the other exercises.

Once that was done, I did a 4 minute EMOM of burpees and mountain climbers and then a 4 minute EMOM of 15 banded leg-lowers (do a regular leg lower, just add in the band around your feet as you would for the seated row. Extend the feet over your hips and hold the handles with your hands and keep tension on the band as you lower and lift the legs) and 8 get up, sit ups. ย For my fellow BoxFIIT certification people, you know what this is. For the purposes of creating an easier to understand workout, I put regular sit-ups in the graphic.

Quick stretch and I was done-zo. It wasn’t the HARDEST workout I’ve done, but it kept my heart rate up and was exactly what I wanted/needed yesterday.ย As long as you have a pair of dumbbells and a band, this workout can easily be done at home! let me know if you try it ๐Ÿ™‚

Questions for you: Do you prefer to workout in the morning, during your lunch break or after work?

Wednesday Workout: Cardio Sandwich Circuits

I hope that title didn’t make you hungry ๐Ÿ˜‰ This workout was created as a way to keep me inside the house during the snowstorm on Monday. Literally, the only time I stepped out of the house was to bring the trash out… and I’m not even mad about it. Soon enough we’ll have beautiful weather so I took advantage of a nasty, wintery (yet spring) day and virtually didn’t leave the house.ย It was actually very nice, especially since this workout ended up being kind of a butt-kicker ๐Ÿ˜‰

Going into the workout, I knew I wanted a mix of cardio and strength training. My weights at home aren’t big enough to really give me the kind of challenging workout I want for a lifting session, so I generally incorporate cardio and weights for any at-home workout. With that said, between the cardio sandwich and strength exercises in this workout, I was huffing and puffing throughout the whole thing… especially when I had to do 12 burpees followed by 12 burpees… that was killerย ๐Ÿ˜‰

Cardio Sandwich Circuits

I think the directions are pretty clear- all you have to do is complete each round 3 times before moving on to the next. Your reps will decrease from 12 to 10 to 8 as you complete rounds 1-3. If you’re running short on time, feel free to pick just 1 or 2 of these and put all your energy into that.

Here are some notes/explanations for the exercises- I wanted to do short video’s for some of them, but I’ve been filming so many videos for my BoxFIIT certification that I just couldn’t do any more!

  • Squats & squat hold w/side taps- perform the designated # of straight squats first and then come down into a squat hold and tap each leg out to the side for that number of reps as well. Hopefully you’ll feel that extra burn!
  • Shoulder press-> chest squeeze- for this one, you’ll hold a weight in each hand and perform a shoulder press. When your elbows come back to shoulder height, pull your weights together so that they end up in front of your face with your palms facing you. Engage all of those chest muscles as you’re pulling your elbows and weights to touch in front of your face.
  • Lunge & tap- Lunge back on one leg and then push off the foot that stepped back to bring that foot to tap right next to the stationary leg. I did an isometric bicep curl hold while lunging.

I think everything else is pretty self-explanatory, but if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask me!

My legs felt pretty beat after this- I hope you give it a try!

Weekending: Through Pictures

Good morning! Anyone else grumpy from this crazy “April” weather?! My birthday is in t-minus 10 days and I really hope it’s seasonably warm by that point. Also, today we are exactly 3 months out from our wedding- EEEKK! With that said, the weekend was filled with a lot of wedding talk and shopping- trying to get things checked off the list as much as possible!

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Opted for the burrito bowl at Buff’s Pub on Friday night instead of wings- so tasty!

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Bachelorette Party shopping at Bebe

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Date night stop 1: drinks and the most amazing hummus & fresh, warm pita combo at Tavern Road. HOLY YUM

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Date night stop 2: Stumbled upon Pastoral and were blown away by how good the pizza (and Brussels Sprouts) were. Two new-to-us spots in one night?! Awesome!

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A post semi-workout selfie… I went to the gym to film some Box FIIT video submissions and did a tiny workout after- realized I was more sore and tired than I thought so I called it quits quickly.

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Another Just Add Cooking delivery- can’t wait to make these Asian-inspired dishes this week!

Not picture from the weekend: After work drinks at the Gaslight at the M Street shops with some girls from the office on Friday, teaching on Saturday, MOH dress shopping with my sister and her friends and then post shopping drinks at Stoddards, shopping for wedding shoes, Sunday morning pancakes, food shopping and visiting RM’s brother and SIL at their new house in Concord.

Questions for you: How was your weekend? Did you do something fun? Visit any new restaurants? Shop at all? How are you feeling about this crap weather? What’s going on this week?

Weekending: It was all about the food

Hi there! It’s nice to see that the “big” snow storm has already come and gone- don’t get me wrong, I love snow, but at this point I am ready for sunny, warm, spring days!

Did you guys have a good weekend? Ours was great… and included ALL THE FOOD. No, seriously- it was filled with the most delicious eats. Let’s recap- I hope you’re not hungry ๐Ÿ˜‰

Friday night, Liz had some of the gym girls over for a “bar” party. Now, I know what you’re thinking (or at least what I was thinking), it wasn’t an alcohol party, it was a food bar party! There was a taco bar, pizza bar, grilled cheese bar, fruit bar and an ice cream bar. And yes, everything was as amazing as it sounds! It was so great getting to catch up with the girls, especially since a few are also engaged so we did lots of wedding talk. Wedding talk and working out talk pretty much equals my life these days.

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On Saturday, it was an extra early weekend wakeup call so that I could get to the gym before we hit the road to go to NH. I was telling Athena that I was really craving a heavy lift sesh. I hadn’t been able to get under the bar all week, so you can imagine my surprise when my Saturday lift felt- dare I say- easy? I felt so strong with my back squats and pushups- it was awesome! And, I didn’t feel the tiniest bit sore the day after so I think I could’ve gone heavier- looking forward to the next time.

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After showers and breakfast (RM had pancakes made and waiting for me when I got back from the gym- he’s a keeper!), we swung through Starbucks and hit the road. Since I never finish my drink (Chai Tea Latte with 1/2 the syrup pump), I ordered a kiddie size. it was perfect!

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The trip north went smooth and we arrived at the Wentworth before we knew it.

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Wednesday Workout: 12 Minute Count Down AMRAP Workout

Good morning! As much as I think 70* weather in early March is totally wack, I am pretty excited to hopefully run outside today!

If you’re planning on working out inside today, though, maybe you’ll want to give this a try. I had my fitties do this for the second half of my sweat-KICK class last week and everyone had positive things to say about it afterwards (even though I did get some serious glares while they were doing it ๐Ÿ˜‰ ) so I figured it was worth sharing. Plus, I am ALL about short, but effective butt kicking workouts these days and this workout fits the bill for both!

All you need is a set of dumbbells- easy enough, right? And, if you’re looking for a longer workout, by all means set your timer for 15 or 20 minutes.

12 Minute Count Down AMRAP Workout

I think everything should be pretty straight forward, but please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions.

I hope you have a great day- get sweaty!

Questions for you: Do you take advantage of the nice weather by taking your workouts outside? What’s on your workout agenda today?