I love compound exercises because we get more work done in less time, plus we exercise our brains coordinating all that movement! Three rounds.
woodchoppers | 30 |
upright row | 20 |
pushups | 10 |
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overhead step ups | 30 |
squat heel lift | 20 |
Arnold press | 10 |
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lateral bound or side lunge | 30 |
skullcrushers | 20 |
Russian twist | 10 |
The Amazing Stickie is a stickler for good form. She knows that the good morning exercise is very similar to a deadlift, but because of the way the weight is carried it can actually help improve deadlift form. To do good mornings, Stickie uses a weighted bar. If no weighted bar is available, a broomstick is a useful tool.
Stickie begins standing in good posture with her feet about shoulder width apart. She holds the bar across her back slightly below the top of her shoulders. Then she hinges forward at the hips and straightens back up. The bar helps her to keep her upper spine straight, which keeps her lower back from having to do too much work.
Sets of ten are good.
It’s time for a periodic reminder: drink water!
Dehydrated people are crabby people. Dehydration also contributes to injury. None of our body processes run as well when we are dehydrated. Plus we eat less when we’re properly hydrated.
Need another reason? We get to stand up more often because we need to use the bathroom when we’re drinking enough.
Do it.
We made it to the end of another month! Gold star for us!
This is a good time to pause and take a look at how things have been going. Are we getting the results we want from our workouts? How are we feeling? Are we stronger? More flexible? Or, conversely, have we been focusing too much on opening the fridge door?
If things are going great, great! We can pat ourselves on the back and carry on.
If not so great, also great! We have data! We know what isn’t working. That means we can figure out the next batch of things to try.
What do you want from the next months? Anything I can do to help?
End of the month means time for a shorter circuit just to wake up our bodies with something different. Four rounds!
1 min cardio | |
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mountain climbers | 30 |
lunge twist | 20 |
1 leg squat | 10 |
kb swing | 30 |
renegade row | 20 |
chest lift | 10 |
Today the Amazing Stickie is working with medicine balls again. This exercise can be done alone or with a partner. When Stickie does it by herself, she thinks of the part where she goes to fetch the ball as part of the work, but having a friend does make it easier. Either way, she begins standing in good posture, holding the medicine ball at her chest with her elbows a little out to the side. Using her arms, she thrusts the ball forward and tosses it away from her. Sets of 10 are good.
Sometimes the person we are when we plan our workouts is not the person we are when it comes time to do the workouts. This can happen for any number of reasons (alien invasion, cranky baby, sore hammies…). Why it happens is not that important. Having a backup plan is, however, helpful.
I was recently reading a habit blog that suggested making a list of things that make us feel good for those times when we need to be reminded of how to feel good. I am shamelessly stealing the concept and applying it to our workouts. We need to make a list of exercises or a list of workouts that make us feel good.
In practice, this might mean that when we look at our planned workout, see that there are burpees, and think we might die right then, we choose, instead, to substitute an exercise we like for the burpees, like maybe flies. Another way this could work is that we could look at our planned weight workout, recognize that we’re sore already, and choose some restorative Pilates instead. We can all adapt. We just have to remember to plan for it!
Go play.
