How was everyone’s 4th of July weekend?! Did you go anywhere? Did you eat hotdogs and watch fireworks and sit by a lake? I hope you did, plus much, much more.
If you were anything like me you may have spent the weekend indulging in burgers and beers and brats and baked beans (alliteration!). That’s ok. Indulgences are good every so often. Plus, it was all so delicious annnddd it was America’s birthday so…. YOLO!
Am I right?
I was luckily able to fit in some exercise between the s’mores and strawberry shortcake. On Friday morning I coaxed my mom, sister, and sister-in-law to do my 4th of July Tabata workout with me. They didn’t come willingly, but they did do it… and I think they even enjoyed it a little bit. Then on Saturday a bunch of us (“Bass Lake Bandits”) participated in the Nisswa Firecracker 5K that I had mentioned on Thursday. I was originally just going to walk the 5K with everyone, but I felt good and ended up running the 10K instead. It was actually my first 10K race, which is silly considering I have done 5K’s, half-marathons, and marathons. It was a beautiful morning for a run and we were all rewarded afterwards with an ice cold PBR.
Side note: how cute are we?! Don’t you love our matching red, white, and blue headbands?
Despite those two good workouts, my caloric intake definitely still outweighed my expenditure. I’ll say it again: delicious, America’s birthday, YOLO.
Maybe you were better-behaved than I was, maybe you weren’t. Either way, let’s start out the week with an awesome workout to help negate some of the cookies.
This is a very basic strength training circuit that hits all the major muscle groups. If you are a beginner to strength training focus first on technique and proper form. Once perfected, you can work towards increasing the weight. Improper form can develop into muscle imbalances and injuries. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Here are some instructions on proper technique. If you have any questions, please leave a comment so that I can help!
While you are performing the exercises concentrate on the muscles that you are working. Are your biceps burning a little during the bicep curls? Can you really feel your glutes during those squats? If so, you are doing the right.
Once you have form perfected, feel free to increase the weight of the dumbbells. If/when you do this you may decrease the reps from 15 to 10-12 or even 5-8 if you are going really heavy. However, please, please, please ensure that you have the correct form with the increased resistance – utilize mirrors or workout with a friend or ask the cute guy at the gym to watch your form (the cute guy, not the meathead guy, unless of course you are into that).
You can also enrich your proprioception and stabilization by utilizing a stability ball, BOSU ball, or performing the standing exercises on one leg instead of two. Again, be careful here. When you add this type of challenge, keep your core engaged and your movements slow and controlled.
I recommend choosing either the heavier weights or the unstable platform, not both at once. Advance slowly, gradually add in new challenges, and keep proper form. Overtime your body will adapt to the challenges that you are placing upon it. It will then grow stronger and you will need to continue to challenge it. Then it will grow even stronger… and the cycle continues.
Now go get at it.
Here are some added pictures from my wondrously relaxing 4th of July weekend!