intervals Archives - Just J.Faye

interval + full body workout

December 29, 2015 by Jenna

Who is in need of a good workout?

Uhhh… I am.

For sure.

After a weekend back home in Minnesota I indulged on quality time with the family, sleep, and also sugar. A lot of sugar (all the cookies!). It was all so wonderful, but I’m ready to fill the rest of 2015 with some awesome workouts and a lot of vegetables.

Join me.

Alternating between cardio intervals and strength training circuits is my favorite way to do a workout. Switching between the two activities not only makes the time fly by, but it also keeps your heart rate up for an overall amazing workout.

In this interval + full body workout we are going to do 3 rounds of intervals, each round alternates between sprinting and walking (3 times, 1 minute each). We are also going to do 3 circuits. Each circuit has 3 exercises that you will perform for 16 reps and 3 sets. The first is focused on lower body, the second on upper body, and the third on core. You will need a mat and a set of (5-10 lbs) dumbbells for the circuits.

The intense full body workout will take at least an hour. There will be sweat.

Sounds like fun, right? Here is the plan:

And here are some more details.

The Intervals:

Sprints: Run as fast as you can for a minute. You want your last sprint to be the same speed (or faster!) as the first. If you are unsure of your sprinting speed, start out slower then continue to increase as you go on. These sprint intervals can also be done on the bike, elliptical, or row machine.
Recovery: Walk at a slow or moderate pace. The goal is to bring your heart rate back down to a Zone 1 level. If you feel that it is still elevated after a minute, continue to walk until it decreases before starting your next sprint.

The Circuits:

Reverse Lunge with Twist: Stand with feet hip-width distance apart, toes pointing forward, a dumbbell in each hand, and arms extended out in front of you. Take a step back with your left foot and lower into a lunge, making sure that your right knee does not go past your right toe. Both knees should be just around a 90-degree angle. Using your core, twist towards the right so that your arms and torso are facing the right. Twist back to center and rise back up to standing. Repeat on the opposite side. This is one rep.
Sumo Squat to Shoulder Press: Holding a pair of dumbbells, stand with your feet slighty wider than hip distance apart, toes pointing out to the side. Put your dumbbells at shoulder level and lower into a squat. As your rise, press the dumbbells up overhead until your arms are fully extended, while focusing on contracting your inner thighs (adductors) and glutes. Lower back down to a squat while also lowering your arms to shoulder level. This is one rep.
Glute Bridges: Lie on a mat with your back on the floor, knees bent, hands by your side, and feet shoulder distance apart. Contract your core, push down through your heels, and lift your hips in the air. Hold for 1 second then lower back down to starting position. Place and hold a dumbbell above your pelvic bone for an additional challenge.
Bent Over Row with Triceps Kickbacks: With a dumbbell in your left hand, kneel over the side of a bench with your right hand and right knee on the bench and a straight back. This is starting position. Raise your left arm so that your upper arm brushes against your ribs and your elbow is bent at 90 degrees. Extend your elbow so that your forearm is in line with your back. Return to the 90-degree bend, then return to starting position. This is one rep. Perform all reps with your left arm before switching to the right.
Push Up to Side Plank: Start in a plank position with hands directly below your shoulders and your body in a straight line from head to heels. Lower down into a push-up. As your raise your body back up, rotate your body to the right side so that you are in a side plank with your right arm extended in the air. Bring your right arm down, returning to plank position. Continue push ups, alternating between a right and left side plank.
Lateral Shoulder Raises: Stand holding dumbbells in each hand with palms facing the sides of thighs. Raise both arms up and out to the side until hands reach approximately shoulder level. Lower arms back to starting position.
Plank Hip Dips: Begin in forearm plank with your forearms on a mat, elbows directly below your shoulders and your body in a straight line from head to heels. Keeping your core engaged and your thighs pressed tight together, twist your torso to the right so that your right hip dips towards the ground. Raise back to plank position, then twist your torso to the left. This is one rep.
Plank Knee-to-Elbow: Start in a plank position with hands directly below your shoulders and your body in a straight line from head to heels. Keeping your core tight and your body steady, bring your right knee to the outside of your right elbow. Return to plank. Bring your left knee to your left elbow and return to plank. This is one rep.
Russian Twists: Sit on a mat with your knees bent, your torso at a 45-degree angle to the mat, and your fists in front of you holding a dumbbell in each hand. Twist your torso to one side, then twist to the other. This is one rep. Continue and make sure to keep from twisting your legs. Bring your feet up off of the ground for an added challenge.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions.

Enjoy this interval + full body workout and finish 2015 strong!

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45-Minute Variety Speed Treadmill Workout

May 12, 2015 by Jenna

It’s spring. As much as that means skirts and patios and sunshine it also means sweatpants and umbrellas and lightning. The fluctuation in weather just comes with the season so we have to be prepared.

Therefore, a sweater in your purse for when it gets chilly. An umbrella in your car for when it suddenly starts to downpour. A treadmill workout in your pocket for when there is lightning outside, because FYI, it’s not safe to run outside when there is lightning.

And of course by “pocket” I am referring to however you file away potential workouts these days – write it down in a notebook, take a screen shot of the image below to save to your smart phone, pin it on Pinterest (PS- lots of good workouts on this board), print it out and put it in a binder, etc. These are all valid methods.

With whatever method you prefer, make sure to save this 45-minute variety speed treadmill workout for days when it’s lightning or too hot or, gosh darnit, for days when you just prefer the treadmill to the outdoors.

This workout features 6 rounds of interval running in a pyramid fashion. The interval duration fluctuates between 3-5 minutes and the speed varies between 6.7-7.1 mph (9:00-8:30 min/mile). In between each interval is a recovery period for half the amount of time of the interval (e.g.: interval = 3 minutes, recovery = 1.5 minutes) at a brisk walk.

Here’s the plan, Stan:

I plugged in the speeds for an advanced beginner, but feel free to adjust these up or down according to your abilities. The running intervals should be hard, but not an all-out sprint. If someone was talking to you during the run, you should be able to carry on a very choppy conversation with them. Take the recovery periods at a brisk walk or an easy jog. I usually start out with a walk for about 30 seconds to drop my heart rate quicker, then jog for the remaining time.

Do what works for you and your body.

This is meant to be a challenging workout, but there is beauty in the variety of speeds and intervals – you won’t get bored and time will fly by. Plus, it’s way better than getting struck by lightning outside. I hope you enjoy it!

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Interval + Strength Gym Session

January 19, 2015 by Jenna

HIIT and Tabata workouts are fantastic. You can be in and out of the gym (or your living room) in 30 minutes with a solid, effective workout, but sometimes you just want, maybe need, to spend a little bit longer in the gym. Like an hour… or more.

Mondays are usually my “long workout” nights where I do both cardio and strength training. An intense gym session is the perfect way to kick off the week. I always feel so good afterwards. Sweaty, but so so good.

During these sessions I love to sprinkle rounds of sprint intervals in between strength circuits. Not only does this make time fly by, but doing the intervals also helps elevate my heart rate throughout the workout. (Sometimes my heart rate doesn’t get as high as I would like it to during strength training, probably because I need to life heavier weights. Another story for another day.)

I want you to try this out, because you will feel so great afterwards. You’ll leave the gym with that I-dominated-that-and-can-pretty-much-do-anything feeling.

So, do some intervals. Hit the weights. Do some more sprints. Back to the weights. Then go back to th… well, I’m sure you catch my drift. Here’s the full plan:

A few quick notes:

Feel free to do the sprints on the treadmill, elliptical, bike, or rowing machine – whatever is your favorite! I am taking a break from running (sad face), so I have been doing mine on the elliptical.
Hold dumbbells when performing the Romanian deadlifts, Russian twists, lunges, and sumo squats for additional resistance.
This type of workout can take me anywhere from 60-90 minutes depending on the exercises and how quickly I transition. Also, I may tack on an extra long cool down and some additional ab work. If you are short on time go ahead and cut out one circuit and one or two round(s) of sprints.
If you aren’t sure of how to perform an exercise ask in a comment or look it up on You Tube!

These long gym sessions are so therapeutic to me. It’s like how I feel when I bake. Except, one activity debits my calorie account and the other credits. I like to keep my books balanced.

I hope you try it out! Let me know if you do.

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HIIT IT!

September 8, 2014 by Jenna

Who is excited that it is Monday?!?!!

No one? That’s ok. Mondays are hard, but muster up some enthusiasm, people. We’re going to HIIT it!

HIIT as in High Intensity Interval Training. I talked a bit about the concept in this Do Anywhere HIIT Workout post. Basically, it consists of short spurts of high intensity exercise followed by a short rest. The goal is to push it hard (70-80% of max). You can do it, though. I really believe in you.

In less than 35 minutes you will get a warm up, a full body workout, and a cool down. This means you’ll get your workout in and have plenty of time to spare before the start of Monday Night Football (or whatever else you have planned for the evening). Awesome.

Plus, you’ll continue to burn calories long after the workout is over. This is because of a lovely little thing known as EPOC, which is excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, but you can also just think of it as afterburn.

Pretty great, right?

Yes, so let’s do it.

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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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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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