exercise Archives - Page 4 of 5

Super Fun Stair Workout

July 14, 2014 by Jenna

How do you take the stairs… Do you go up them one-by-one? Skip a step? Run up them to get it over with faster? Walk up slowly? Avoid them at all costs?

In this workout we are going to sprint, jog, and lunge up stairs. It’s awesome.

I will explain this a bit in case the graphic is confusing (I apologize if it is). First, do a mile warm up run. Next sprint up the set of stairs and jog down it. Repeat this 8 times. Then slowly jog up and down the staircase twice. Now we get into some lunges! Lunge up leading with your right foot (you may need to skip a step or two in order to make it challenging) and jog down. Repeat this leading with your left foot, then do two sets of forward lunges up, alternating legs. Do two more sets of jogging up and down the staircase and then round it all out with 15 push ups. Repeat this all two more times and then do a 1/2 mile cool down jog. You should also stretch afterwards. Always, always stretch!

I have done this workout a couple of times and I am not kidding when I say that it is super fun. However, it’s the most fun when you grab a couple of friends to do it with you, because then you can high-five and cheer each other on. High-fiving and cheering make anything more fun. Plus, working out with friends is fun in general.

I did do it by myself once and that was cool too. But still, grab a friend. Just because.

Not only is this workout fun, it is also challenging and very effective. Your heart rate is going to jump during those sprints and still be elevated during the jogging and lunges too – lots of calorie torching going on here! Also, be prepared to feel this in your glutes, calves, and abs the next day.

Yeah, it’s a good one.

For those of you Minneapolis-ites… Minneapolis-uns… Minneapolans… who live in Minneapolis, the staircase below the Hennepin Ave Bridge right by DeLaSalle High School downtown works great for this workout. It’s about 42 steps total and does not have heavy traffic. I’m sure there are a lot of other great staircases out there though. Check around your local bridges or maybe look around schools for some bleachers. Just be careful, don’t be sketchy and don’t trespass.

A couple of pointers:

Do a couple of warm up jogs up and down the staircase to get used to the height and feel of the stairs before starting the sprints. Decide how you want to approach the sprints, jogs, and lunges. I ended up skipping a step for the sprints, going step-by-step for the jogging, and skipping two steps for the lunges.
Push it hard on the sprints up then jog down slowly to decrease your heart rate a little.
Make sure to push through your heels during the lunges. This will help to engage more of your glutes.
Keep your core tight during the lunges, especially the side lunges. This will really work your obliques and will also keep you stabilized so that you don’t strain your lower back.
Do elevated push ups by placing your hands on the bottom stair.
Take quick rest (30-60 seconds) before and after the sprint sets if you need it. I would also recommend bringing a water bottle along and leaving it at the bottom of the staircase, especially if it is super hot out. Hydration is important!

So now go hunt down a staircase and try out this workout!

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Basic Full Body Strength Workout

July 7, 2014 by Jenna

How was everyone’s 4^th 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 4^th 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 4^th of July weekend!

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4th of July Tabata Workout

June 30, 2014 by Jenna

I don’t know about you, but I had an awesome weekend. It just really felt like summer. I needed one of those. It reminded me how great it is to be alive and young. So much fun.

And this coming weekend: 4^th of July! Who is excited?! A short workweek followed by a long weekend. What’s not to love? I hope you are all planning on lots of sunshine and lake time and BBQs and watermelon. I am. That is fo sho.

Inspired by the 4^th of July, I put together a little tabata workout.

July 4 = 7/4 = 7 rounds of 4 exercises. Get it?

The awesome thing about tabata is that it is super quick and extremely effective. Remember this HIIT workout when I explained the benefits of this type of training? The science around tabata is the same.

This workout will take you less than 20 minutes. It is quick, but it is not easy! It actually is harddddd. In order to make it worth your time, you have to push it – really make yourself work. You should be huffin’ and puffin’ and sweatin’. Then afterwards you will feel amazing. Your metabolism will be all revved up and you won’t feel as bad about indulging in hot dogs, s’mores, and flag cake.

Do it a once or twice this week to prep for all the lake/pool time, delicious food, and cold beverages.

Maybe you are going out of town and won’t have access to a gym. That is no problem! You can basically do this workout anywhere. The only thing you need is a timer, because if you can easily and evenly count to 20 seconds through all these exercise it means you are not working hard enough. Luckily for us, there is a plethora of timer and stopwatch apps.

I will be doing this workout outside of my cabin on Friday morning before throwing on my swimsuit and chilling by the lake. Maybe I will get the rest of my family to join in. The sound of loons will be our background music.

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20-Minute Running Intervals

June 23, 2014 by Jenna

Summer is finally officially here and with it comes a flurry of activities. The days are longer. The weather is nicer. It is important to spend this time outside and/or with friends.

Sometimes between the dinners, happy hours, picnics, fests, and other social activities it gets difficult to squeeze in a proper workout. It’s hard to fit everything in. But we need to try. Dinners, happy hours, picnics, fests, and other social activities are not calorie-free and usually involve some extra indulgences. Plus, I don’t know about you, but working out always makes me feel healthier, happier, and more energized.

Let’s make sure we find a little bit of time for exercise, so that we can have a lot of time for fun, so that we keep our lives exciting and in balance.

20 minutes. That’s all we need.

A warm up, a couple sets of jog+run+sprint, and a cool down. Quick and effective – that is the magic of intervals. It is a difficult workout, but it is so efficient.

I really appreciate efficiency.

For my warm up I usually start at 3.5 mph and increase it by .5 mph every minute. This helps to wake my legs up a bit and slowly bring up my heart rate.

Play around with the jog, run, and sprint speeds a little bit if you are unsure of what your paces are. The jog should be a slow run to help your body and heart rate recover a little bit after the sprint. The run should be slightly on the higher end of your typical running pace. The sprint should be an all-out effort. I typically do 5.5 mph for the jog, 7.0 mph for the run, and 9.0 for the sprint.

Try to push yourself a little bit with the paces. The last sprint should be the same pace (if not faster) as the first. This will be a difficult workout, but it only lasts 20 minutes. You can do it.

I prefer doing intervals and speed work on the treadmill because I am terrible at gauging my pace and don’t want to be staring at my GPS watch to keep track of timing. Plus, sometimes it’s good to have some treadmill workouts on hand for when there are lightning storms or when it is way too hot to run outside (especially sprinting). Safety first, people. However, this workout could definitely be done outside if you are in the mood for some fresh air and extra Vitamin D.

So 20 minutes. That’s all and your workout is done. You could wake up 20 minutes earlier to do it before work, squeeze it in during your lunch hour, or fit it in between work and whatever fun evening activity you have planned.

Sometimes it is possible to do it all.

Happy, happy summer!

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Strength and Cardio Circuit

June 17, 2014 by Jenna

Sometimes it’s good to mix things up a little bit. Throw on a pair of heels instead of the usual flats. Add some cayenne pepper to your grilled chicken. Explore a new running route. You know, keep things exciting and different.

I realize that none of my examples were off the charts crazy. I am not talking about a quarter-life crisis here. I am just talking about simple changes. Little things that make regular routines seem just a little bit new.

That sounds nice, right?

Like adding cardio in between strength circuits.

Not mind-blowing, but it makes sense.

Sometimes when I am doing my strength training I get bored and move through things quickly so that I can get it over with. Especially when the gym is empty. I don’t know about you, but I work a lot harder in a fuller gym.

Adding cardio in between my different circuits (rather than all at the beginning… or none at all) helps me break up the monotony of lifting weights. A little bit of weights, a little bit of running. Some more weights. Some more running. Then BAM, all of a sudden 60 minutes has flown by!

Really, in either situation my endorphins eventually kick in and I end up working out about 20 minutes longer than I anticipated just because I feel really good. Never a bad problem, but still good to switch things up here and there.

So I created this workout for when I am in the mood for a tiny change. Each circuit has a lower body, upper body, and core exercise. Perform 15 reps of each exercise in the circuit back-to-back. Go ahead and hold onto some dumbbells during the lunges and core exercises for some additional resistance. When you have completed all three exercises rest for one minute then repeat the circuit twice more.

Then it’s cardio time! Choose whatever type of cardio you enjoy most: run, bike, speed walk, jump rope, elliptical, stairs, row, etc. Since the cardio piece is only for 5 minutes you should push yourself a little bit harder than you normally would, compared to if you were doing a full 30 minutes of steady state cardio. This 5 minutes would also be a good opportunity for some sprint or interval work if you need/want it.

Repeat the same pattern with the second circuit and second set of cardio. Then cool down a little bit and stretch.

And hey, look at that. Your workout is complete. Good job! I am virtually high-fiving you.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

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Burpee Run

June 10, 2014 by Jenna

Burpees: everyone’s favorite exercise to hate. But they are just so darn good for us.

So, what exactly is a burpee? It is essentially a push up to a squat to a vertical jump. Fun stuff.

Here is how to do a basic burpee:

Lower down into a squat position and place your hands on the ground in front of you
Kick your feet back into the push up position and lower your body to the floor
Raise your body back up and return your feet back to the squat position as quickly as possible
Immediately jump up as high as you can

Watch this video to learn more.

So, why exactly are burpees so good for us? If you are familiar with burpees you know that they are not easy. They work your entire body and get your heart racing, which is exactly why they are so great to do.

Here are the primary benefits:

Full body strength workout, working upper body, lower body, and core
Quickly raises heart rate
High intensity exercise, helping to increase anaerobic capacity
Scorches calories
No equipment needed
Able to do anywhere and add in any workout

Awesome, right? So many great benefits. Let’s do burpees every day!

Just kidding. It is important to switch things up and not do the same thing day after day. So maybe, let’s do burpees… every three days?

As mentioned in the benefits, you can add burpees to pretty much any workout. #convenient. Let’s spruce up a regular ole 3-mile run by adding in 125 burpees. Ok? OK!

Here’s what we’ll do:

For the .25 mile run sections, push your speed a little bit since they are fairly short intervals. Then bring down the speed a little bit during the .5 mile sections. You’ll need your energy for the set of 24 burpees. Also take a 10-30 second rest after each set of burpees. Catch your breath and get ready for another round.

I will warn you, this is not easy. But man, it is a gooooood.

I did this on Friday afternoon and it was definitely one of those workouts where I needed a mantra running through my head to keep me going. A mantra that I frequently use is “Don’t cheat yourself.” If I am going to spend time in the gym, I might as well make it all worth it. It really helps. Like, a lot.

I did this in my condo building gym on the treadmill, but you could easily do it outside so you can get some color (wear sunscreen though) and Vitamin D.

Let me know if you try it out! Happy Tuesday!

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jenna.faye.ivey