Love Month: Love your muscles strong

Another way we can love our bodies is to love our muscles strong.  Yes, I realize that this means weight work, but again, love isn’t always nice even while it is being kind.

A digression that is sort of relevant:  when I was in high school or thereabouts, my dad was sure I would not survive on my own because I couldn’t open jars myself.  My days as a 90-pound weakling are behind me now.  I can even open jars for other people.  Strength training for the win!  Also tasty jam!

 

We all know that strength is practical.  Not only do we have to open jars, we also have to carry groceries, lift kids, move the furniture around, schlepp the laundry, and so on.  Doing those same tasks will build skill and ability, but we get their faster with strength training.

 

As I mentioned last week, strength training is good for our bones.  It also helps us maintain a healthy body mass distribution:  more lean tissue is good for us!

 

Need more reasons?  It’s good for posture, it makes us look better, and it increases our sense of personal power.

 

Sometimes love looks like barbells.

Monday Workout: Slow then not

We start slow on this one and then we get a bit more intense and complicated with our compound exercises.  Three rounds.

 

opposite knees	30
good morning/deadlift	20
1 leg db pass	10
squat raise	30
(lunge to) curl to overhead press	20
truck driver	10
db circles	30
kickbacks	20
toe reaches	10

Love Month: 6

Jumping is great for both cardio fitness and bone strength.  Here are six things to try:

 

1.     jacks (regular, plyojacks, plank jacks)

2.     burpees

3.     box jumps or depth jumps (jumping on or off a fitness box)

4.     jump squats

5.     jump lunges

6.     lateral hops (extra fun with a BOSU

Love Month: Love your bones strong

Most of us probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about our skeletons, but another way we can love ourselves is to keep those bones strong.  There are a couple of good ways to do this.

One is to eat right, including plenty of calcium.  Y’all know what to do there, right?

 

Another is to work with weights.  Those dumbbells do more than make our muscles strong!  Bones increase strength in response to stresses like lifting weights.

 

Choosing the right cardio can also help.  Bones get stronger in response to impact with the ground.  That means that swimming, while great for cardio, has less of an effect on strengthening bones than walking.  Exercises that include jumping (jacks, jump lunges, jump squats, box jumps, burpees, etc.) help with this, too.

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: Strong Arms

I am in the mood for arm and core strength, so we have exercises that work all the way around the arms, some upper body weight-bearing, and various core challenges.  Three rounds.

 

squat to leg lift/ticktock	30
bench press	20
bench dips	10
woodchoppers	30
flies	20
renegade rows	10
1 arm clean and press	30
curls	20
butterfly crunch	10

 

Monday Workout: Impact and Balance

We’re working on impact and balance today.  If jumping is not your thing, sub regular squats and side lunges for the jumping kind.  Three rounds.

 

(jump) squats	30
rows	20
round lunges	10
kb swings	30
kb twist	20
kb 8s	10
lateral bound	30
kickbacks	20
plank up down	10

 

Monday Workout: Short

We’ve got a lot going on in a short circuit today.  Choose the step up to reverse lunge for more challenge.  Four rounds.

 

1 min cardio
step ups or step up to reverse lunge	30
pushups	10
flies	20
squat raise	30
renegade row	20
V sit press	10

Monday Workout: Compound and Balance

We’re working compound exercises and balance this week.  Three rounds.

 

push press	30
curls	20
bench dips	10
woodchoppers	30
skullcrushers	20
truck driver	10
1 leg deadlift row	30
db thrust	20
Russian twist	10

 

Monday Workout: Classic

We’ve got all the classics this week.  Vary the difficulty by varying the weight or speed or complexity (as in substituting plyojacks or modified jacks for jacks).  Three rounds.

 

jacks	30
bench press	20
YTA	10
kb alt arm swing	30
kb hammer curl	20
kb halo	10
mountain climbers	30
flies	20
brains	10

 

Monday Workout: Not a Fork

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
step touch	30
Bulgarian split squat	20
Arnold press	10
1 arm clean and press	30
rows	20
pretty princesses	10

 

Monday Workout: Benchmark

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
bench press
fly
row
kickback
pushups to fail
pretty princesses
brains

 

Monday Workout: Endure

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
woodchoppers	30
rows	20
pushups	10
squat to leg lift	30
flies	20
windscreen wipers	10