Another efficiency technique for workouts is using compound exercises because they work more muscles in less time. Here are five of my favorites:
1. Overhead squats
2. Deadlifts
3. Lunge to curl
4. Clean and press
5. Woodchoppers
All of them use multiple joints and will get heart rate up as well!
Yesterday I mentioned that we need to do cardio, weights, flexibility, and core and balance work. How are we supposed to fit all that in?
Circuit training. And specifically, high intensity interval circuits.
High intensity intervals are the key to getting a lot of cardio in a short amount of time. We do minute-long bursts of exercises that get our heart rates elevated and then recover with less-intense exercise for a minute or two. If we use that recovery period to lift weights and work on our core and balance, we just need to finish up with stretching at the end and voila! It’s a little more complicated than that, but not that much.
Here’s how we plan.
First we plan a warm-up. This is about five minutes (more if we are older, stiffer, recovering from injury, or beginners) of gentle movement, something like brisk walking or light jogging, and maybe a stretch or two toward the end.
Then we pick a few cardio exercises. Think of things like jacks, mountain climbers, step-ups, jump squats, woodchoppers, anything that gets the heart rate really moving. (Don’t do them yet! We’re still planning!)
We need some weight training exercises now. We want to pick more or less the same number of upper body and lower body exercises, so we might choose squats, bench press, deadlift, and flies.
Next, we need a couple of core and balance exercises. This is where we might do multi-directional lunges and crunches.
(We’ll save most of our flexibility exercises for the end.)
Now that we have all our parts, we put them together like this: cardio interval, lower body exercise, upper body exercise, core and balance. Then we repeat with the other cardio, weight, and core/balance exercises we picked. I usually create a circuit of about nine exercises and repeat it three times with rests spaced before the cardio intervals, but experimentation is good. Finish with some SMR and stretching and call it a day! Most people can finish what I’ve just described in under an hour.
Go play.
Every part of our fitness work helps every other part. That’s good news, mostly, because it means that whatever we do is good for us.
However, it also means that when we make sure to get in cardio and weights and flexibility work and core and balance work, it’s even better for us. How does that work?
I’m glad you asked. (Even if I just pretended you did, because I really want to tell you!) Cardio work is our foundation work. We need basic cardio fitness to do pretty much everything else. Weight training is what makes us stronger, obviously, and faster, not so obviously. It’s where we start to see the real changes in our bodies. Flexibility work ensures that we get and maintain a healthy range of motion in all of our joints—we want our fabulous muscles to be able to move us more than a few inches. Core and balance work takes all the gym stuff we do and helps it apply in the real world where things are a lot less predictable.
Maybe that sounds a little overwhelming. A lot of us already feel like we don’t have time to fit fitness in and now I’m saying there are a lot of kinds to do, too. Tomorrow I’ll talk about how to make it work without spending forever working out.
This week we’re getting some aggression out on the weights. Lunge punches are excellent for mood management, metabolism increases, and coordination. Three rounds.
lunge punches | 30 |
bench press | 20 |
1 leg squat | 10 |
| |
kb swings | 30 |
kb twists | 20 |
kb 8s | 10 |
| |
jacks | 30 |
overhead press | 20 |
Russian twist | 10 |
The weather (mostly) is getting nicer. Here are a couple of things to consider before taking the workout outside.
1. Sunscreen. The kind that doesn’t drip into our eyes when we sweat is good.
2. Hat. Even more effective than sunscreen! And it hides our workout hair!
3. Bug spray. Hiking and mountain biking and trail running are all great, but less great when we become a roving buffet for the local insects.
4. Layers. Our days may start out or end up chilly. We may need a jacket and then… not.
5. Snacks. The middle of nowhere may not have any on offer, so bring your own noshes and gulps.
6. Safety plan. Some of the more remote places we get off to don’t have cell reception. Make sure someone knows you are going and when to expect you back! Bring identification, a little cash, and a credit card.
Go play outside!
One of my favorite concepts from Pilates is the idea of the right amount of effort. When we move according to Joe’s principles, we use only the muscles we want to work and we exert the exact amount of force we need to accomplish our task. It’s both beautiful and efficient.
In practice, this means that we don’t do a gazillion half-hearted reps of an exercise in Pilates. We do five or six good ones. We pay attention to things like letting our neck relax and not help with every single movement, no matter what. We unclench our eyebrows and open our fists.
This does not mean that we are not strong. It means that we are strong in smart ways. We know how to use our powers for good.
Go play.
I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of trying something and… hating it. It’s hard. We don’t feel competent. Our feet (or arms or legs or whatever) hurt. We are out of breath, and we want a snack, and now would be a really good time for a nap.
Sometimes that first impression is right and we are going to hate that thing forever. But sometimes, we just need to give ourselves a chance to get used to whatever it is we are trying.
I’m a practical person, so I want to know how much of a chance is needed. For a person starting from the couch, it will take about a month to work up to the recommended 5 days a week for 30 minutes of cardio exercise, or possibly longer. That said, a month in it should feel a lot more manageable. With weight training, it depends on how many times a week a person is lifting and what kind of weight training they’re doing—a simple endurance routine twice a week will probably be all right before a month is out. A person doing max strength work may take a little longer because the challenge placed on the body is more.
No one likes a good dramatic stomping-off more than I do, but let’s make sure we really want to do it before we go. (It’s really embarrassing to come crawling back afterwards…) Let’s give our workouts a chance to work before we give up.
Please note: this does NOT mean that we should not stop immediately if something is actually painful, not just unfamiliar and uncomfortable. We do NOT want to be injured, nor do we want to get used to working impaired. That is not fun.
We can do this.
