workout Archives - Page 7 of 7

Full Body Circuit Workout

June 1, 2014 by Jenna

Let’s all start our week out right, like with a good workout. Mondays are good days for workouts, because Sundays are good days for brunch and Tuesdays are good nights for happy hour. Especially now that it’s summer and every second feels perfect for brunch-ing or happy hour-ing on a patio somewhere.

However, we mustn’t forget about spending some good quality time in the gym. Oh no, we mustn’t. Because summer is also a good time for bikinis.

*shudder*

I mean, swimsuits are the best…….

But whatever, bikinis or no bikinis, exercising your body is still a good thing. So, let’s do it.

This exercise program contains four different circuits. Perform each exercise in the circuit back-to-back for the stated amount of reps or time, rest for a minute before moving on to the next circuit.

Circuits 1 & 3 are all core exercises. Run through each of these circuits once. Circuits 2 & 4 have an upper body, lower body, and plyometric exercise. Run through these twice in a row, resting for a minute in between.

So it will be 1 – 2 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 4 – 15 burpees.

15 burpees. Because.

Use weights that are challenging, but still allow you to complete the set. Adjust the weights accordingly from exercise to exercise. Just because you picked up 8 lbs initially, doesn’t mean you are stuck with them the entire time.

Try it out and let me know what you think! If you like it, do it 2 or 3 times this week. Feel free to shoot me an email or comment if you have any questions.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to make a stronger habit of running with my run club, which is great. However, sometimes the more I run, the less I spend strength training, which is not so great. I think over the last three weeks I maybe did a quick 30 minutes of strength training. Granted, I was sick for one of those weeks and didn’t workout at all… but still, strength training is oh so very important, for health in general and to help make me a stronger runner.

Going forward my goal is to do 60-90 minutes of strength training per week, which should equate to about 2 or 3 gym sessions. This is completely doable. So I have my goal. I wrote it down. And now I’m going to start logging my workouts.

Writing goals down helps keep me accountable and motivated. I like tracking progress. I like when progress turns into success. Then I like celebrating success.

Don’t you? Write down a goal and work towards it!

Happy Sunday!

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do anywhere HIIT workout

May 17, 2014 by Jenna

After talking about caramel and cake all week, it’s time for a workout. This is a do-anywhere-no-equipment-needed workout.

That means there are no excuses.

Plus, it is a full body workout that will take you less than 30 minutes.

So again, no excuses.

First, let’s talk about HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training. This technique is composed of short, high intensity bursts that are repeated in between rest periods. It is a highly efficient way to train and can be more beneficial than an hour of steady-state cardio.

That’s right, that excruciatingly boring steady state 60-minute elliptical session can be replaced by a fast-paced 15-minute HIIT workout. WIN. Who couldn’t use that extra time back in their day?!

The HIIT method is still excruciating, but in an entirely different way.

The reason that HIIT is so effective and efficient is because during the high intensity intervals you should be working as hard as you can. Your heart rate is elevated and you’re working toward reaching your anaerobic threshold (80%-90% of your max heart rate).

Heart pounding, muscles burning, out of breath. See: excruciating.

This is then followed up with a short rest period – catch your breath, slightly decrease your heart rate, mentally prepare for the next interval, then GO.

You can use this methodology for any time of strength training or cardio workout. I love using the HIIT technique for sprint intervals on the treadmill. It’s the only way I can mentally stand running on a treadmill and really helps me work on improving my speed.

After your full workout is completed (YAY, you did it!) your body will be working to restore all the oxygen levels that you just depleted. Meaning, you will continue to burn calories hours after you are done exercising. I’ll say it again: WIN.

Including 2-3 HIIT workouts into your weekly exercise regime will help you increase your metabolism, burn more fat, and push up your anaerobic threshold. Dare I say it again?

I dare: WIN.

As previously mentioned the beauty of this workout is that you can perform it basically anywhere and without equipment. However, if you happen to have some equipment on hand, by all means, go ahead and use it. Here are some ideas for progressions:

Hold onto some dumbbells during the squats for extra resistance.
Get off of your knees for the push ups.
Utilize a BOSU ball during the plank twists.
Perform dumbbell bicep curls during the lunges.
Add a twist with the mountain climbers.
Use a bench during the triceps dips and extend your legs straight out.
Pick up a medicine ball during the Russian twists.

The most important part of this type of workout is to really push yourself during the intervals. You can do anything for 45-seconds. You can. Your hot bod will thank you later.

Read more about HIIT here, here, or here. You can also Google it.

As a side note, I ran a 10 mile race today. I signed up on a whim (registered on Tuesday) with some girls from my run club. I have only done a handful of 10 mile runs since my last marathon in June, and needed the motivation to start making running a bigger priority in my life again. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning. I felt strong and ended up placing 3^rd in my age bracket – such a huge, unexpected, pleasant surprise! It was just a small, local race and my time wasn’t phenomenal or anything, but it was still a great little confidence booster 🙂 The other girls that signed up from my run club did an amazing job too!!

HAPPY SATURDAY.

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a hotel workout, featuring the jump rope

May 1, 2014 by Jenna

Look what I found at the Holiday Inn in New Jersey:

A jump rope! Amazing, right?! So fun.

Jump ropes bring me right back to elementary school where my friends and I would jump rope to the teddy bear song during recess. Sometimes we would attempt to double-dutch. It wasn’t pretty, but it was still pretty awesome. My proudest jump rope moment occurred during my most dreaded day of the year: track and field day.

As a chubby, uncoordinated kid who was neither athletic nor competitive it was the worst. I loathed track and field day, an annual event where all the area parochial schools would gather to compete in running, jumping, and throwing events. I signed up for the fewest and easiest events possible. I couldn’t long jump, high jump, sprint, or shut put. I’d probably kill myself trying to do hurdles. But, jump rope?! Heck yeah. It was my saving grace. One year (fourth grade, perhaps?) I won third place in jump rope. THIRD PLACE. I was overjoyed!! New best day of my life! Who cares that it was a white ribbon and probably only 4 or 5 other people competed. I won a ribbon at track and field day. And that is all that matters.

Therefore, jump rope will always and forever hold a special place in my heart.

Looking back I find it hilarious that I despised track and field day so much. Now-a-days I would love to get an afternoon off from work to exercise and run around with my friends in the sun. Let’s bring these competitions to corporate America!

Man oh man, I have come a long way.

Now back to present day, where I have been in Vineland, NJ all week for work. When I am travelling for work and eating out for all my meals – side note: I had the best Philly cheese steak yesterday – a good workout is an absolute must, so hotel gyms are very important to me. Hotel breakfasts are also very important to me, but that is an entirely different blog post.

Hotel gyms can be pretty hit and miss.Sometimes they are phenomenal (the Hampton Inn in Buffalo, NY) and sometimes they are terrible (the Drury Inn in Nashville, TN). I can at least count on having a low quality treadmill and some free weights in a small, sweaty room. That is ok. I can work with that… temporarily.

The Holiday Inn in Vineland falls on the mid-to-lower end of the spectrum; however it has a jump rope – a rare hotel gym amenity – so it gets bonus points. This gym is providing me with the essentials I need to get a good workout, helping me to burn off those delicious doughnuts the Logistics Manager brought in for the team today.

I actually did have a great workout so I thought I would share it with you. Here it is:

A pictorial reference of the strength training circuit:

The great thing about this workout is that it can be modified to do without any weights or equipment. If a jump rope is not available to you, you can easily substitute that part of the workout with a combination of jumping jacks and star jumps. This can also be done pretty much anywhere:

Your gym – the fully loaded version or the dumpy hotel version
Your living room – assuming you don’t have people living below you, which is the reason I do not own a jump rope at this time
Your hotel room – if you don’t feel like venturing to the hotel gym to get sweaty with all the middle-aged business men
Outside – to enjoy a workout and some fresh spring air

I added in 15 minutes of interval running on the treadmill (2.5 minutes at 7.0 mph, ten rounds of 30 seconds at 9.0 mph + 30 seconds at 5.0 mph, 2.5 minutes at 7.0 mph) between the warm up and the circuit. Like I mentioned, I ate a delicious cheese steak and doughnut so the intervals were pretty necessary. Even without the additional running it was a great cardio workout. The combination of the exercises, minimal rest between moves, and the jump rope kept my heart rate up between zones 2 and 3 the entire time.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions about the workout. If you do it, let me know how it goes!

PS – HAPPY MAY DAY!

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a workout for you

April 15, 2014 by Jenna

Sometimes it’s hard to work out on Mondays, especially when the weather drops from 70 degrees to 30 degrees in a matters of days… or hours. Apparently I already wiped the terribly cold outside winter runs from my memory. Three weeks ago running in 30 degrees weather would have been a delight. A beautiful treat from the multiple runs in below zero temps. However, now that I’ve tasted running in 60-70 degrees I cannot go back. The thought of running in 30 degrees sends chills straight to my bones… and anger straight to my brain. Because seriously, why is it cold again?!

Enough hating on Mother Nature. I’m sure she means well. But even if she doesn’t, Karma is a be-yatch. So I’ll be nice and we’ll all live happily ever after.

Now back to my initial thought: sometimes exercise is hard on Mondays and I skipped out on run club because it was “cold”.

When I have these thoughts I have to remind myself of how good working out makes me feel and that even a quick 20 minutes of exercise is better than 0 minutes of exercise.

One day a few years ago I was talking to a friend at work about how I wasn’t in the mood for going to the gym. She said, “Jenna, just go. You’re going to feel better afterwards.” So I went and I did feel great afterwards. She was right.

Now on days like today I have flashbacks of her saying, “just go”. Then I do go. And then my endorphins kick in. And then all of a sudden 60 minutes have flown by and I am just getting to my cool down. And then I feel wonderful. (Thanks, Sarah for being the voice in my head.)

As a side note in my defense, that specific situation was when I was working third shift. I was leaving work at 8:00am after walking around the land of Toaster Strudels since 10:00pm the previous evening. Soooo… there’s that. But again, she was right.

Rest days are important, but you don’t need 7 rest days a week. Constant excuses just turn into bad habits.

I just went off into another tangent/side story, but I feel that it was important for you to hear read, so I’m not going to erase it.

To sum it up (again): I didn’t feel like working out. It was cold. I heard my friend’s voice in my head. I went to workout. I got really sweaty. It was great. I felt fantastic.

Here is what I did in case you would like to replicate it at some point:

A pictorial reference:

Some notes about the work out:

Warm-up – Please do not ever skip your warm up! Even if you are short on time, warming up your muscles helps your body work more efficiently so that you can burn more fat than sugar. For my warm up I typically start walking on the treadmill at 3.5 mph and then increase it .5 mph every minute until I reach 8 minutes.
Treadmill workout – I find treadmill running to be more of a mental than physical challenge, so I tend to use it as an opportunity to work on my speed. This is workout is meant to be challenging, but it goes fast (literally). Choose the paces that work best for you. I used the following settings at a 1.0 incline:
- Jog: 6.0 mph
- Run: 7.0 mph
- Sprint: 9.0 mph
- Walk: 3.5 mph
Strength training circuit – Perform each exercise back-to-back with minimal rest (30 seconds) in between. Use the weights that work best for you, even if that means just body weight.
Cool down – Please also do no ever skip your cool down. Take an extra few minutes to jog/walk on the treadmill. Follow with static stretching and foam rolling.

Welp. That’s it. I hope you workout and get sweaty and feel great. When you are in need of motivation just remember my friend saying, “Just go. You’re going to feel better afterwards.” Of course, you probably have never heard her say it, so maybe I’ll see if I can get a sound bite.

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