I just love this workout I talked about in my previous post “Doesn’t even compare to a 10 Mile Run or all out 200 yard Sprint!…”! This is the third time I’ve done it, and I am already seeing improvements. I can last longer while performing reps, which means I will able to increase the weight very soon.
I now do 75lbs on bench, 125lbs on squats, and 45 lbs on Clean & Press. If you’re looking for a routine that will allow you to lift heavy and kick your butt on cardio, all in a short period of time, this circuit is definitely for you. Here is the info from my previous post on where I found this circuit and how to perform it-the video below was recorded on my last set.
I’ve been looking for some new ways to incorporate cardio training into my workouts besides running and ellipticals. I have many different circuits in my bag of cardio ideas (all of which are on my workout page), but I have really been searching for something different.
On top of that, I’ve been switching things up and making my workouts a little more intense…less rest between sets, more weight, supersets, incorporating bursts of cardio between sets, etc. But, yesterday after reading a blog from Follow the Lita, I found this little workout that kicked my ass and I loved it!
Dana Linn Bailey has started using some CrossFit workouts in her training and her video can be seen here. She is a monster and the video is extreme motivation to get you into the gym and workout hard.
The workout consists of 3 exercises: Bench Press, Squats, Clean & Press. You are to do 20 reps of each exercise to utter failure with no rest in between. A 2 minute break is given after one complete set of all 3 exercises. Your goal is to complete this 3-5 times.
I never do bench press. I used 65lbs. I can and will do more weight the next time I perform this set. I currently have a semi-neck-injury preventing me from using the Olympic bar during squats. I used 50lb dumbbells instead. I used the Olympic bar at 45lbs for Clean & Press, an exercise I have not performed since 2001 when I was on the Track & Field team in college. My video was recorded on my 4th set of this CrossFit circuit.
A few things to consider…you are performing 20 reps. This is extremely different than performing 8-12 reps. You will use lighter weight than you are used to, but you should be completely exhausted and practically shaking (as you can see here in Dana’s video) because this is a circuit that combines great strength and cardio. Always keep your back flat on the bench and feet planted when performing bench press. And start out a little lighter if you need to gauge your strength on your first set. As you can see in Dana’s video, 20 reps do not have to be completely consecutive…if you fatigued, put the weight down for a few seconds and continue as needed until you hit 20 reps. And grab a friend, because you may need a spotter depending on the equipment you decide to use!
This is hilarious and super informative in a very humorous way. The woman in the video is Alicia Marie. She is a fitness supermodel and you can find her in Oxygen Magazine every month.
Like I’ve said before, when doing the side jumps on the plyo box, you should really push off your foot and spring up into the air, but because my plyo box is in my basement (dang winter keeping it indoors) I don’t push off as high as I should or I’d crack my head on the ceiling.
And pardon my lip syncing at the end. Thank goodness for mute!
5 minute warm-up
10 reps squat, deadlift, walking lunge, squat jumps, side plyo jumps, 1-2 minutes fast cardio…rest and repeat total of 3 times.
I’ve been completely exhausted lately. Going on a month of complete and utter fatigue. It’s exhausting being this exhausted. To add to this complete fatigue, other issues requiring plenty of thought and life changing decisions have added to the stress of being this flat-out tired, sluggish, and lifeless.
My workouts have suffered this past month. If I’m not getting out of bed to workout, there is a definite problem. Then that adds to my stress, because the feeling of completing a workout always makes me feel amazing, and now I’m not getting that.
Saturday morning it took hours for me to finally get downstairs and workout…I mean hours! I finally dragged myself off the couch, with plenty of help from my husband. I decided to go with something a little different for me and did an Insanity dvd. It took about 4 minutes and I was already feeling better and when I finally completed the workout I felt amazing. And the feeling lasted for hours. It’s that feeling of the endorphin rush that always saves me.
I live for this feeling! Exercise, mainly cardio or very high intensity workouts, create this endorphin rush or feeling of euphoria. If you hear people who run (and actually enjoy it) talk about “runners’ high”, this is what they are talking about. It feels as if you can go on forever. Your mood becomes enhanced, you are invincible, and you become ready to take on the day and anything that is thrown at you. You feel less stressful and your sleep becomes better. All of this can be attributed to that endorphin rush.
Endorphins are hormones made and produced in the brain. They are a natural painkiller or feel-good hormone made by the body and released during exercise. These hormones have actually been proven to help people with depression and anxiety. Why do you think doctors encourage exercise to their patients? It helps us on so many different levels. Marathon runners have continued to run on some serious injuries, but the release of endorphins during their run actually masked their pain. Endorphins also act as that second-wind you feel during a workout. It may take as quickly as 10 minutes for some to feel this, and sometimes up to 30 minutes for others.
The hard part for me the past month is getting my workout started. But, missing my workout does even more damage. I know how amazing and fearless I feel after a great workout and what that release of endorphins does for my body, brain, and overall mood. The endorphin rush is helping me make it through the day.
Here are a few bodyweight endorphin rush workouts you can do in your home, no equipment.
Just found this one…remember to be creative if you don’t have equipment…jumprope, jog in place, run stairs.
I’m preachin’ it again! High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is the absolute way to go if you are looking to shape your body and see results quicker than traditional approaches. HIIT has the ability to help you see results quicker than traditional methods of training by releasing growth hormones, increasing your VO2 max, and pushing your body to its limits working at max or near maximum abilities. It is also a great training technique to help get your heart to recover quickly. Getting your heart rate to recover means bringing it down to levels that are lower than they were while working out at a higher intensity. For example, when performing an interval workout, you may get your heart rate up to 176 beats per minute (bpm). Within a minute you are able to bring it back down to 116. Your heart rate does not have to work as hard to pump blood because it is getting stronger with each training session.
Why is recovery heart rate so important? Well, imagine if your heart rate never, ever recovered after a workout. It would probably explode! Being able to get your heart rate to recover quickly means YOU being able to recover quickly. The faster it slows down, the less exhausted you are. Your breathing slows down. You are no longer huffing and puffing.
Most people think of cardio as the only form of HIIT. Even endurance athletes throw in some HIIT in the form of sprints. This allows them to have a faster recovery heart rate and a heart that is able to pump blood more efficiently without causing too much exertion on the athletes’ part. But, don’t think of HIIT as purely cardio. You can perform HIIT with weights as well. One of the ways you can do this is by lifting heavy weights maxing out between 8-12 reps. Maxing out at this weight at 8-12 reps means you can’t lift a single rep more if your life depended on it. Follow this with little rest between sets, no more than 30 seconds tops.
Combining this type of HIIT with weights, along with HIIT with cardio, you have a pretty solid workout program. OnFitness magazine just put out an article that states combining these two types of exercises will have “the heart muscle itself begin to increase its contractility and its ability to pump more blood per beat”. Contractility is the “intrinsic ability of heart muscle to generate force and to shorten, independently of changes in the preload or afterload with fixed heart rates”.
Here is a workout that I do that combines both heavy weight and cardio HIIT for the lower body. I’ll also throw this on my workout page for quick reference.
I take 4 of the exercises that I do for my glutes (which you can find on my workout page). I perform them 10 reps and I’m lifting heavy. I run through each exercise one time, 10 reps each. After each set, I jump on the elliptical and go hard for 2 minutes. Remember, if you don’t have cardio equipment get a jumprope, do jumping jacks, run the stairs in your house, run in place…whatever you need to do! After this I take a minute break and run through it again a total of 3 times. Here’s the program:
5 minute warm up on elliptical (cardio of your choice)
10 reps of each: squat, deadlift, walking lunge, side box jumps
2 minute of elliptical going hard
1 minute water break
Repeat 2 more times
5 minute cool down on elliptical at end
I will use this in place of my traditional glute workout since I am utilizing the same muscle groups.
Listen to your body. If you are feeling pain or something doesn’t seem quite right, then slow down.
I can’t get my biceps to feel sore anymore! And I hate it! I used to love the feeling of heavy arms after a workout, like blocks of cement were just filling up in there. But, I just can’t seem to leave an arm workout without a feeling of complete exhaustion in my biceps anymore. I also don’t feel like I can lift weight that is much heavier than I do now. So, something else needs to change. I understand that the feeling of soreness is not necessarily a good indicator of an amazing workout (I did glutes on Tuesday and still can’t sit on the toilet!), but I do enjoy that heavy feeling in the muscles after a good workout. I have supersetted them, changed rest time between sets, and switched up my routine some. I think what I am going to do next is focus on the negatives.
When lifting weights, your muscle actually goes through two contractions. Most people think of the actual lift of the weight as the only part of the lift. But, there is a second part. Let’s use the Bicep curl as an example to explain both parts of the lift. The concentric contraction is when you take the weight and lift it up towards the body. The muscle fibers are actually shortening during this phase to pull the load up towards the body. As you bring the weight back down to its starting position, this phase is called the eccentric contraction. The muscle fibers are lengthening to help lower and control bringing the load back down. Most people starting off don’t realize that an eccentric contraction is even happening or the importance of this phase of the lift. If you didn’t have eccentric muscle contractions, you wouldn’t be able to sit down in a chair.
For my Bicep workout I’m going to focus more on the eccentric contraction, which is also called the negative contraction. I’m going to spend more time lowering the weight down to its starting position, and not so much on the lift itself. From everything I have read, this is a good change in your routine, but not something you want to do every workout. It can really exhaust your muscles and you want to give yourself adequate rest. It also takes a little more time because you are spending more time each rep on lowering the weight back down. I’m going to do this next Thursday when I do bi’s and tri’s and I will let you know how it goes. Here’s an informative article from Bodybuilding.com explaining negative training.
Ok! You want to kick your own butt, increase your aerobic and anaerobic capacity, and burn calories well after your workout is over…all within 4 minutes? Who doesn’t want this? There is a form of training that can provide all of this for you, but it definitely takes some dedication, lots of towels to wipe the sweat that is pouring off your body, and maybe even a garbage can for some well deserved vomit.
Tabata Training. Tabata training is taking an exercise, or a series of exercises, and performing them 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off for 4 minutes, non-stop, at 100% capability. You can perform Tabata Training with pretty much any type of exercise: running, swimming, jumprope, biking, weight training, combination of exercises (mountain climbers, squates, burpees, plyo (jump) drills,….).
I have done Tabata training with sprints. I sprint full effort for 20 seconds and walk for 10 seconds. I do this continous for 4 full minutes. You end up performing 8 total sets in this 4 minutes. And let me tell you, 10 seconds of rest is nothing! When my 20 second sprint ends, I’m into my 10 second rest still trying to slow down, and then 10 seconds is up and back into my sprints. It’s a very rough workout, but you feel like you have taken over the world when you finish it!
Some advice that I have read says that trying to get through 6 sets the first couple of times is where you should set your mark. This means start off following the 20 seconds on 10 seconds off, but if you feel like you truly can’t make it another 20 seconds on, extend your rest set a little longer. This means you will accomplish less sets in the 4 minutes, but you still are performing each set to exertion. It’s also extremely important to warm up before Tabata training. If you jump right into this without warming up and stretching your muscles, you can really injure yourself. Get in a 5-10 minute warm-up. Do some dynamic stretching. And, do a few sets of the exercises you are performing at around 60% your maximum effort. This will help to loosen up a little more and see where your pace and endurance is at. End with a 5 minute cool down and some more stretching (static).
I’ve provided some links with more info on Tabata training below, if you don’t believe anything I’ve said. The last link has a lot of good info and some great Tabato workouts and videos.
I have not tried this, but a workout you can do in your home, even if you have no equipment. If you need more intensity without equipment, extend your time performing each set and run through the workout a couple of times.
SammiFit 