Welcome to the new year! We’ve got challenges galore in this workout. If your holidays were spent lifting nothing but forks, please pace yourself. Three rounds.
ball kicks | 30 |
deadlifts/good mornings | 20 |
goblet pour | 10 |
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step touch | 30 |
Bulgarian split squat | 20 |
Arnold press | 10 |
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1 arm clean and press | 30 |
rows | 20 |
pretty princesses | 10 |
It’s the last week of the year and I’m taking time off. So it’s a great time for a benchmark workout. Grab a friend because for this one you want somebody with you in person.
Basically, what we’re doing this time is taking some of our basic exercises and seeing how far we can go. Start each of the first seven exercises with ten reps at a weight that is easy. Then increase the weight until you can only do one good-looking rep. It is really good to have a buddy to spot you for safety when you are going for your one-rep max. I mean it.
For the pushups, pretty princesses, and brains, you do as many as you can.
There are lots of ways to organize this, but personally, I am impatient, so I choose to superset an upper body and a lower body exercise to reduce the time I’m just standing around. It’s also perfectly acceptable to take one exercise and do it to the end with appropriate rest periods (at least a couple minutes between the heavy sets!) before moving on to the next exercise. You do you.
Then save the results so you can compare them with next year’s!
start | end | |
squats | | |
deadlifts | | |
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bench press | ||
fly | | |
row | | |
kickback | | |
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pushups to fail | | |
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pretty princesses | | |
brains | |
We’ve got a bunch of compound exercises today so we’ll be working endurance and coordination along with everything else. Three rounds.
db circles | 30 |
squats | 20 |
1 leg deadlift | 10 |
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woodchoppers | 30 |
rows | 20 |
pushups | 10 |
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squat to leg lift | 30 |
flies | 20 |
windscreen wipers | 10 |
Those of us who would like to gain some strength will perhaps not be surprised to learn that, like all the other skills we’ve been talking about this month, habit and routine help.
When we’re first starting out, we might want to commit to one weight workout a week. We’ll see more progress when we increase to two non-consecutive days a week. Most of us don’t really need more than three weight workouts a week, but that will depend on our goals and on how we structure our workouts.
In general, we don’t want to work the same muscle groups two days in a row. The way strength training works is that we do damage to our muscles when we work them and they heal stronger. (That’s an oversimplification, but it gets the point across.) People who want to work out on consecutive days do things like alternate between upper body days and lower body days.
The specifics of our workouts will be dictated by our goals (remember: endurance, hypertrophy, max strength, power), but the mechanics will work similarly. We will do a number of reps of an exercise at a weight. We’ll increase the reps until we’ve hit the target for the kind of goal we have, then we’ll increase the weight, reducing the reps back to our starting number. In short, we’ll alternate increasing reps and weight.
A trainer can help plan and track all that data. You know how to find me!
There are both formal and informal ways to evaluate strength. (Spoiler alert: there’s a workout in the last week of the year designed for evaluation!) Hit me up if you want to talk about getting into the nitty-gritty.
Some of the evaluation of your strength training routine will depend on what your goals are. There are, very loosely, a few categories of goals: endurance, which is exactly what it sounds like, hypertrophy, which is a fancy word for building big muscles, max strength, which again is exactly what it sounds like, and power, which is exerting a lot of force in a short period of time. If the weights you use are getting heavier over time, you’re probably doing fine.
Another way to think about how well the workouts are working is to see how our everyday tasks are going. If schlepping the groceries is not a problem, great! If you need to move the couch and you can, also great! Problems lifting the Pekinese? Maybe not so great.
No, it’s not quite Christmas yet, but just to make sure that everyone gets a chance, we’re doing the 12 days of Christmas workout this week. It’s tradition, like getting coal in my stocking. Hmm. Are those two things related?
Anyway: here’s how the workout works. On the first “day” of Christmas, we do one push press. Hooray! One down! On the second day, we do two goblet squats and one push press. You see where this is going. By the twelfth day, you will be absolutely sure that I am not your true love, but you will have had a great workout. And yes, I do know that you will have done 42 burpees by the end. I’m not sorry. I got you strength, bragging rights, and fatigue for Christmas.
Try to keep rest periods to between the days, but if you can’t, don’t fret. Now you’re safe until Christmas in June.
1 push press |
2 goblet squats |
3 Overhead press |
4 1 leg squats each leg |
5 deadlifts |
6 burpees |
7 pushups |
8 renegade rows |
9 mountain climbers |
10 jump lunges |
11 kb swings |
12 plyojacks |
It’s no secret that I love kettle bells. But don’t despair if there aren’t any available! A dumbbell held by the end works much like one in a swing. Three rounds.
kb swings | 30 |
kb twists | 20 |
kb 8s | 10 |
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mountain climbers | 30 |
deadlift/good morning | 20 |
curls | 10 |
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squat raise | 30 |
db thrust | 20 |
brains | 10 |
This workout is a flexible one. Folks who want more challenge can add the back lunge to the step ups or swap renegade rows for the regular ones. If jumping is not appropriate, folks can still get their rotational work done with curtsies. And plain lateral raises are always available for those who don’t want to be on hands and knees. Whatever folks choose, aim for three rounds.
step ups | 30 |
rows | 20 |
kickbacks | 10 |
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suitcase swings | 30 |
bench press | 20 |
quadruped lateral raise | 10 |
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skater jump/curtsy | 30 |
flies | 20 |
pretty princesses | 10 |
There is a fair amount of weight-bearing on the arms in this workout. That’s all right: the hamstring curls will distract us. (Or, as always, we can choose to modify. We are adults and can make our own good decisions.) The short circuit means—you guessed it—four rounds.
1 min cardio | |
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mountain climbers | 30 |
renegade row | 20 |
hamstring curls | 10 |
burpees | 10 |
flies | 20 |
plank to pike | 10 |
This workout has some options built in. Want to make it more challenging? Add a back lunge to the step ups. Need things a little easier? Sub in plain pushups for the shoulder tap ones. Three rounds.
step ups | 30 |
deadlifts | 20 |
skullcrushers | 10 |
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suitcase swings | 30 |
rows | 20 |
shoulder tap pushups | 10 |
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woodchoppers | 30 |
bench press | 20 |
V sit press | 20 |
This is a great workout for back strength. Both the kettlebell swings and the good mornings work the whole back of the body. The tap backs are not far behind (heh). We need our back strength for the renegade rows and lateral raises as well! Three rounds.
jacks | 30 |
renegade row | 20 |
lateral raise | 10 |
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kb alternate arm swing | 30 |
kb hammer curl | 20 |
kb halo | 10 |
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tap backs | 30 |
good mornings | 20 |
brains | 20 |
This week we’re doing some things across the body and asymmetrically, so we get bonus points for core and balance. Three rounds.
ball kicks | 30 |
flies | 20 |
curls | 10 |
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alternate knees | 30 |
bench press | 20 |
db thrust | 10 |
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1 arm clean and press | 30 |
rows | 20 |
pretty princesses | 20 |
