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

Reflect: Strength 2

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!

Reflect: Strength

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.

Monday Workout: 12 Days of Christmas

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

 

Monday Workout: Love, Not Despair

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
mountain climbers	30
deadlift/good morning	20
curls	10
squat raise	30
db thrust	20
brains	10

 

Monday Workout: Flexible

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
suitcase swings	30
bench press	20
quadruped lateral raise	10
skater jump/curtsy	30
flies	20
pretty princesses	10

 

Monday Workout: Distraction

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
mountain climbers	30
renegade row	20
hamstring curls	10
burpees	10
flies	20
plank to pike	10