Fat-Frying Gym Workout

Not-so-newsowrthy: IT'S SPRING!

And you have come to me for some toning workouts. Whether or not it's swimsuit, beach, and pool weather for you, it will be before you know it. Or at the very least, you're bound to find your beach at least once this season.

So this is a gym workout. I know I've said it before, "gyms = germs" but we're going to move past that for an hour or so (the workout shouldn't take more than that), and just sanitize yourself when you're done.

What you're going to need:

• An elliptical
• A medicine ball (between 4-10 lbs)
• A mat for ab exercises
• A treadmill

Let's get to it!

The Warm-up Segment:

10-12 minutes on the elliptical

• Really we could say this is an extended warm-up. Start as slow as you need, and gradually get your heart rate up during this intro to the workout (around 130-140 beats per minute). If your machine doesn't have a heart rate monitor, then just go by your rate of perceived exertion (RPE), which I look at on a scale of 1 to 10. Your warm-up should be around a 6 or 7. For a better idea of this "scale," you can think of this:
• 1 RPE = lounging around, pressing buttons on the remote
• 10 RPE = sprint like all hell has broken loose and you're being chased by a bear
• What I did for my warm-up was like a mini-interval workout, repeated twice:
• 3 minutes moderate pace
• 2 minutes hard
• 1 minute recover (easy), and switch direction of pedaling

The Body Toning Segment: 

• Medicine ball push-ups:
• Get into the push-up position and place a medicine ball under one hand and leave the other hand on the floor as usual.
• Do 3 push-ups with the ball under that hand.
• Roll the ball over to the other hand and do 3 more push-ups.
• Repeat this pattern until you have done 12 push-ups total (6 on each side).
• You will look something like this:

• Bicycle crunches:
• Lie on your back with your feet off the ground and knees bent at a 90 degree angle. Make sure there is a wide open space between your chin and your neck, and your eyes are focused on the ceiling. Gently place your hands behind your head, keeping your elbows pointed out to either side. 
• Simultaneously lift your right shoulder blade off the ground, turn and twist your upper body to the left, turn your right elbow to the left as your upper body twists, and straighten your right leg as you extend it to the ground without letting any part of your leg actually come in contact with the floor. 
• Return to the starting position and repeat on the other side. Do these at a relatively slow pace - it's easy to let your form get sloppy on bicycles. And under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you let your knees come in over your chest. The further your legs are from your body, the more this exercise will engage your core. 
• You should look something like this:

• Squats holding the medicine ball:
• Get into the basic squat position: toes pointing forward, feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart, back straight, and eyes looking forward. 
• With a medicine ball (or dumbbell or weight plate) in your hands, hold it in front of you like this as you perform your squat:

• Women's Health calls this a braced squat because you are bracing yourself, contracting your abs, and maintaining good posture the entire time. 
• Do 10 reps. 

• Plank with pendulum taps:
• Start in basic plank position.

• Holding your core tight and your upper body steady, lift your right foot up and inch, then move your leg out laterally, tap your toe to the floor gently, then return to the starting position and repeat on the other side. 
• Repeat for the first 20 seconds of the exercise, moving at a moderate tempo.
• Hold the last 40 seconds of the plank without moving. 

• Lunge jumps holding the medicine ball:
• Holding a medicine ball straight overhead with both hands, get into a lunge position.
• Make sure there is plenty of distance between your feet and you have a stable base. You may want to take each foot an extra inch or so out to either side to make sure your base is stable.
• Quickly sink down into your lunge, do a powerful jump, switch the position of your legs, and land with your feet again in a stable position.
• Your exercise should resemble this, except you will have that medicine ball overhead in your hands the whole time:

You're definitely warm now, if you in fact did do that 3 times. I was sweating halfway through!

If you're a beginner, you may feel better doing those 5 workouts only twice through. If you're more advanced, try for 4 or 5 rounds. 

So moving on to...

The Sprinting Segment:

Repeat that 10 times.

That's right...10 sprints, 10 recovery periods. Personally I prefer to end on a sprint, but if you'd rather start with one and end on a recovery interval, then by all means - do what you gotta do to get it done!

I'm not a fan of workouts that tell you the exact mph you should be moving at during a treadmill workout. We're all at different levels, and while 6mph is torturous for some, it's just not going to cut it as a decent workout for others. 

• Your "easy" pace should be strong but sustainable. Maybe just a hair faster than what you would do for a warm-up. RPE should be around 6. 
• Your "hard" pace should be one that you would not be able to sustain for the whole workout. You should be gassed and needing to catch your breath by the end of each 1-minute interval. RPE should be 9 or 10. 

You may have to feel it out for the first few rounds of running before you find your stride. Don't be afraid to speed it up a bit faster than you think is right. You just may surprise yourself and get through it! And remember, it should be hard during the sprints...that's what the recovery segments are for. 

Have yourself a little cool-down (RPE = 2 or 3) when you're done (3-5 minutes jogging slow or walking on the treadmill), and take a few minutes to stretch, specifically focusing on your legs and glutes. 

Happy spring!

Equipment-Free Workout

For two reasons, I am so very excited to share my recent workout.

First, it was a wonderfully refreshing and invigorating workout. Lately I've been doing mostly running as well as 25 push-ups and 50 crunches per day. Good workouts, sure, but those can become mundane after a short while.

Second, getting in a workout like this is a good reminder that I am well on the up-side of recovery from the winter crud…at least 95% better, in my opinion. Just a little sniffle here and a few coughs there, but nothing to run to the doctor about.

I was inspired by a workout I found from Women's Health. Actually, I confess, it's been probably a year since I first discovered the workout, bookmarked it, then put it off indefinitely.

There are just 4 moves involved in this workout, and I incorporated some running for more of a cardio boost. The following images show a good example of how each move is done, but for a more detailed explanation, head to the actual link from Women's Health.

Move 1: Squat and kick

Move 2: Jumping lunge

Move 3: Push-ups

Move 4: Mountain climber

Women's Health explains that you can do a workout with these moves according to the following instructions: Do the first move for 30 seconds, then do the second one for 30 seconds. Rest one minute; repeat three more times. Perform the third and fourth moves in this same pattern. Push yourself to do more reps during each successive workout.

Now that is a good workout and all, and if you're crunched for time it's definitely going to serve you well.

Here's how I did it though:

• Warm-up: 5 minute jog at a medium pace

1. Move 1: 20 seconds, 10 seconds rest
2. Move 2: 20 seconds, 10 seconds rest
3. Move 3: 20 seconds, 10 seconds rest
4. Move 4: 20 seconds, 10 seconds rest
5. Run 800m (2 laps) on a 400m track at about 8 min/mile pace

• Repeat (1 through 5) 4 times
• Cool-down: Walk 2-3 minutes, then jog slow for about 5 minutes; stretch and hydrate

The 12's Workout and a Long Run

Maybe it was all the pasta I've been eating this week, but I had a LOT of energy yesterday and frankly, felt like I could conquer the world. When I realized that was an unrealistic goal, I decided to just do a really long workout instead.

So this is a workout in which a few circuit-style exercises are embedded into a long run. I am always a fan of that. The entire run was a loop (not just out and back) for a total of 6 miles. It's a run I've done before, but I have never stopped in the middle of it to do another workout.

The first run segment was 2.2 miles. I did this in my best time yet - 17:35 for a 7:59 pace. Woop!

At my pit stop, it was time for the circuit workout.  Since my favorite number of all time is 12, I decided that I would do 12 reps of everything. Not an incredibly hard workout, but with 3.8 miles still ahead of me, I didn't want to collapse when I was done with it all. 

And here's your motivational text image to get you through it:

Push-ups: you can modify these if you need to, of course.

For the step-ups with a leg lift, I was lucky enough to have picnic tables under a pavilion where I did this workout. If you don't have that, you  can just do alternating lunges. Basically just take a long step forward, bend both knees to about 90 degrees (but don't let your back knee touch the ground) and then come back to standing with both feet together. Switch your lead leg and repeat. 

If you want a little extra sumpin-sumpin' to work your booty, you can do a step-back lunge with a leg lift. For that, start standing with feet together, take a long step backwards, and bend both knees to 90 degrees (just don't let your knee touch the ground). When you come back to standing, lift your back leg as far up behind you as you can, hold it there for a "one-one thousand" count, then carefully return to your starting position. That's basically what I did, except I was stepping up onto the bench of a picnic table and lifting legs up and behind. Count each rep as one, so that will be a total of six per side.

Burpees, oh burpees. They are hated by some, despised by many. But burpees and I have come to terms with each other. I can think of few other exercises that work so many muscle groups so well. Burpees cover your shoulders, arms, quads, hamstrings, core, and of course your heart because they will get that heart rate up. Do what you have to do - grit it out, sing a song, yell and scream, breathe - but just do them.

Now for the part where you see "bicycle crunches"...I didn't do those for all three rounds, but if you can't think of any other abdominal/core exercises then bicycle crunches are a good choice. Other ones I did to switch it up: v-crunches and v-bicycles. Other options for you:
1-minute plank
12 toe-touches
12 cruches with feet up, knees bent to 90 degrees
1 minute flutter kicks

Wasn't that fun? Okay, running again. Just picked up where I left off and finished the loop!

So I slowed down a little bit. 9:08 pace. Can I blame the burpees maybe? I think I'll do that. But that's the thing when you go run a loop. It's not like an out-and-back where you know you can just turn around whenever. When you run a loop you get to the point of no return: the halfway point. You could turn back, but it would make no difference. If you go any further there would be no point in turning back because then you would just be adding distance. And no matter what you do, you have to get back to where you started, preferably before the sun goes down.

I've known runners to ask friends to drive them out to a certain point, maybe 6 or 7 miles from home, and then leave them there to run back. (Remember when I said that runners were a little bit crazy? Yeah, that's what I was talking about.) That is dedication, and that is discipline. Not to mention, it takes confidence and courage to train that way. You have no choice but to get it done!

So if you do this workout, or even just an abbreviated version of it (I'll admit, that is a lot of running), set your mind to start and keep going until you arrive at the finish line. Don't cut out any parts halfway through. You may suffer a little bit, but you will gain a lot physically and mentally.

If you're a Pinterest regular like myself, or if you've even seen examples of seemingly "crazy" workouts (you know, the kind where you're doing hundreds of reps, or even thousands, of a huge variety of complex exercises?) you probably think that sort of workout is simply absurd and never going to happen. Like it's for someone else and not for you. While it's true that "those" workouts are not for everyone, it does not mean they are for no one. And I guarantee that the people that lead those workouts once thought the exact same thing and they did not start exercising like that overnight either. And also, they are still learning.

I'll save my own tale of the unlikely way I became a fitness instructor for another day. But what I can say - and what I do say - to those in the classes I teach is, "Push through it. Don't stop. You can slow down and catch your breath or modify the exercise, but don't stop."

Workout Week

I confess, I have been a bit of a slacker lately. My workouts have been less frequent, less intense, and shorter than they were earlier in the year. I could chalk that up to about a hundred different reasons...work, studying, football season, doing things around the house, the weather changing, wanting to spend time with friends, I'm too tired, Breaking Bad episodes...and so on. They're the same old stories that I always heard when I was working as a personal trainer, but it all boils down to the same darn thing: excuses.

Now I know better than anyone that some excuses are very valid. And I also know that willpower has a lot to do with it. When I write out a workout for myself to do, I may doubt myself a dozen times and make bargains in my head. Maybe we can just do two rounds instead of three?...how about I do mountain climbers for 30 seconds instead of 45?...halfway into this workout already, I think it's okay to cool down now because it's been hard enough. But in the end it's only me who it's going to affect. And the more I allow myself to to this the more I'm going to make it okay.

Don't get me wrong...I have not fallen off the wagon completely. I just see myself slipping a little bit here and there and it's just time for a check-in.

So this week I have made it a goal and priority of mine to get back to my usual "hardcore" workouts each day. I feel confident that somewhere during each 24-hour period I can find one or two hours to get some cardio done.

So for today I'm posting the week's worth of workouts. I know it's only Wednesday, but part of the reason I'm posting beforehand is so that I can hold myself accountable to actually do it.

Monday:
Long run in the morning, 44 minutes.
Done and done. Great way to start the week!

Tuesday:
10 minute run at 8:30 pace
10 minute circuit-style workout (3 rounds)

• 10 push-ups
• 30 seconds high knees in place
• 20 crunches
• 10 burpees 

10 minute run at 8:30 pace or faster
Done. The runs were great but I was feeling it on the burpees. Really had to push through that last set!

Wednesday:

• Nike Training Club Workout: "Razor Sharp."

If you don't have this (free!) app, I would highly recommend that you get it for interval workouts.
To get to this 30-minute workout, go to the app's main screen and then press "Get Workout."
> Choose Goal: "Get Lean"
     > Choose Level: "Advanced"
          > Choose Workout: "Razor Sharp"
You'll need a few pieces of equipment for the workout (dumbbells, medicine ball, and a mat), but you can always improvise or go without. I, for one, do not own a medicine ball so I plan on either using a dumbbell or nothing at all for those exercises.

• 20 minute run at a moderate pace. 

This is the Godzilla of my weekly workouts. When will I do it? Probably around 6pm tonight, when I get home from work (but hopefully earlier), and that means I will probably make a late (9pm-ish) dinner. No, I don't enjoy eating dinner that late, but it happens from time to time and that's just life.

Thursday:
Long run in the morning, 50-60 minutes.
When? After the sun comes up but before it gets too hot outside. The plan would be to start the run between 6:45 and 7:00 am.

Friday:

• Yoga (45-60 min).

Now is a good time to share yet another one of my favorite workout resources: DoYogaWithMe.com. I've searched far and wide on the interwebs for free yoga videos and I have found many. However, this is the best I've found so far. Typically when looking for "yoga" online I've either found basic picture-tutorials or brief videos that skim over a small selection of yoga poses. Do Yoga With Me offers full classes that you can follow along and even choose your level of difficulty and class length. No yoga master myself, I typically opt for beginner or intermediate classes that are one hour or shorter. I've only done a handful but I've never been disappointed. And even sweeter - you don't have to pay a dime or even join with your email address. Finally, fitness the way it should be - free and accessible to all. I say "namaste" to that!

• Light to moderate-paced jog (20-30 minutes).

When? Ideally in the morning, as is ideal for workouts in general. It's not a work day for me, but that doesn't mean there's nothing else to do that day or evening. 

Running Errands, Literally

After I wrote this workout down on my "Errands" notepad I thought it was kind of funny that I had picked that paper for it. These were actually the things I had to "run" around and do! Gosh, I do love a good pun. 

First of all, I wanted this to be a workout that I could do with my husband. Gotta keep up that "fitness couple" image, ya know? So that's why I threw the body builders in there. Sounds so manly. (But really it's just kind of a variation of a burpee.)

1. The warm-up.
I ran a 0.9-mile loop around my neighborhood because, well that's just how my neighborhood is. If you're using a track just go ahead and run a full mile, please. 

2. Getting crazy with some circuits!
Body builders. If you've never done a body builder, sometimes called an 8-count body builder, there's a great little photo sequence of a man doing one over at military.com. For all of you people too lazy to click your viewing convenience, here is that exact picture:

So very manly, huh?
Basically you crouch down and hop your feet back like you're about to do a burpee. But then, all the sudden, you do a push up instead. Then, hop your feet out to the sides like you're doing a jumping jack on the ground, hop them back in, and then come back up to standing. I did 10 reps per set, but my super jacked and manly husband did 15. 

Switch jumps. They're kind of like lunge jumps, but you go faster and and only bend your knees a slight bit on the landing to absorb the impact - don't drop your back knee down as far as you would for a true lunge. I'd never advise to do real lunge jumps for a full minute. Switch jumps are a little bit easier (but still challenging enough for me to consider for one of my workouts), and you'll definitely be feeling the burn before the minute is up.

V-crunches. I demonstrated those in this former post. The embarrassing picture that accompanied it is this one:

15 reps - very do-able. I used a 5-pound weight plate held against my chest for all reps in all sets. Go me. 

The running! Oh boy this part got me today. And that's because I was trying to keep up with my super speedy spouse for the whole distance (just under 3/4 of a mile, 0.7 to be exact). I'll give him all the credit for that...he is one fast runner. 

3. Round 2 of the circuit craze.
Body builders...deep burn. Got 'em done though.

Back extensions. Laying on the ground/mat/floor of the garage face down with hands gently behind your ears and elbows out to the sides, lift your upper body (chest) and lower body (feet, knees, and thighs if you can) off the ground. Hold for a "one-one thousand" (or "one hippopotamus" in my case) count, slowly lower. 15 may be too many reps for beginners. If that's your case, reduce to 8 or 10 reps. 

Oblique v-crunches. Same as the post from above, I did those before because they are so darn hard!

16 reps, so that's going to be 8 per side, rotating between each. 

Run, run, run, again. Yes, my second run was slower than my first. 

4. Repeat all of part 2 again. Just to finish all this madness we started (Body builders, switch jumps, and v-crunches.)

Then do a regular plank. Note on your plank that your body is as flat and straight as possible (like a plank! Crazy they named it that.) Now I know that some people have more of an arch in their back than others and that's okay. Just focus on holding your core in, staying stable, and focusing all of your thought and energy into your core. Common places where that energy is mis-directed: your face (don't clench your teeth or hold your breath), and your hands (don't clench your hands into fists - try to keep them open and relaxed). 

Then do your final 5-minute fast-paced run. Any and all energy left should go into that run. It's okay if the speed doesn't match or beat previous times, just think about lengthening your stride, keeping your head up, and pumping your arms to help propel your legs forward. That sounds kind of odd I know, but the faster your arms are moving, the faster your legs will go too. If you need an example of that (and want to see something hilarious) just look at a power-waker. I'm lol-ing already. 

5. Cool-down.
You are D-O-N-E. Yay. Jog slow until you catch your breath, then walk to loosen up. You don't necessarily have to do the same distance as you did for your warm-up, but the longer you go the more of a chance you give your body to really loosen up and help reduce the chance of too much soreness.

Oh, and that's what the stretching and water are there for too! 

You will hate me for this workout, but you will love me in the end. Happy muscles! 

Just Doing It

Like my highlighter art on a 5x7? No I'm not in high school. I was just taking a break from staring at my computer screen at work one day and that's how this piece of art came to be. 

So here's a pretty tough, 3-part circuit-style workout, and I invite you to to give it a shot. The "circuit" (part 2) is meant to be repeated 3 times before moving on to the run. If you're more of a beginner, then do it only once or twice through. If you're more advanced you can do it 4 or even 5 times.

So here we go...

1. Elliptical.
You can spend these 15 minutes however you please, but try to make your time worth in on the machine. I did an interval-style workout, going 2 minutes hard and 1 minute easy and repeating that cycle 5 times. Whatever you do, try to keep your RPM's from fluctuating too much, and keep your heart rate and breathing up. This is cardio, and that's how you work your heart and lungs!

2. Circuit.
For each bullet, do the exercise for 45-50 seconds each, and then rest for 10-15 seconds before moving on to the next exercise. That way, each run through it should take no more than 5 minutes.

For the first one, the squat/shoulder press/side leg lift, you can do the exercise somewhat like this exercise from Women's Health.

...except you don't have to use a step (I didn't, I just did this standing on the floor), and you can use dumbbells instead of a weighted bar. And to make it truly a "shoulder press," press the bar or weights above your head when you move from the squat position to the standing on one leg position. Alternate sides as you are doing this.

For the last part, where I wrote Russian twist and plank, you can really do any abdominal or core exercise you please. I just wrote these down because I know they are always tough and it's easy for me to tell if I'm slacking off or cheating with these (because my form goes to crap).

3. Run 400s (that's one lap on a 1/4-mile track).
I know you don't want to do it, but it really is for the best. The idea here is to just drain the rest of your energy. You'll be able to tell if you were really pushing yourself or not from the previous circuit based on how fast you can run the 400 meter repeats.

If you're not lucky enough to have a track right by or in the gym, you can use the treadmill and do the same distance on there. Yeah, I don't like the treadmill either, but you've got to run on something with a marked distance.

This part is all about speed. Any energy you have left should be gone by the time you're done. You should pace yourself to go very fast during each 400, but not an all-out sprint, because you want to actually be able to finish each one running. After each 400, rest for about 1 minute (no more than 1:30) before getting back to the starting line and going for the next one. Be sure to make a note of your time after the first one and try to either match or beat that time for subsequent laps.

4. Cool-down.
This is going to feel so good, because you are done! You can walk it or jog it, or do a combination of both. Just catch your breath, lower your heart rate, and try to loosen up your muscles.

Be sure to get a good stretch after all this too. I was pretty sore the next day after doing this workout (mostly legs), and sometimes there is no amount of stretching that will alleviate that pain, but it can help a little bit.

And in case you're wondering about the status of my bum ankle, it's feeling about 99.5% better, so I deemed it safe to complete this workout. When it's back to 100% you better believe I'll be adding back in some lateral hops and trickier balance moves...there's been nothing worse lately than my bum ankle making the rest of me feel like a bum, so I am very ready to get back on the workout train hardcore this week!

You Can Do Whatever You Like

I like to read interesting books at night before bed. Unfortunately, this sometimes keeps me up so late that I refuse to wake up an hour early in the morning to do my workout. What am I supposed to do? I know the obvious answer: read late because being mentally present the next day is not really important.

Okay, kidding. This is what I did...I planned ahead for next time. After sleeping through a workout one fine morning, later that day I decided to plan out a workout that I would do the next morning. There is no way I could write out plans like this the morning of. The brain is still dreaming of sugarplums when my alarm goes off, so that's why the morning "workout" tends to be just running. 

Aren't my nails just precious looking? That's lavender polish with two (yes, two!) golden-flecked accent nails. 

So here's the gist of the workout: it was hard.

Yes, many of my workouts are hard. But since this one combined lots of intervals with some intense running, it really stacked up the intensity level overall. Not the hardest workout I've ever done, but it was a great one nonetheless.

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of this workout was the "fast run x 5 min" portion. After doing all the calisthenics, burpees, and jump roping, the leg muscles and bones just want a break. But you cannot give them one! You must run as fast as you can for 5 minutes. Yeah, that sucks, and I'm a workout nazi. But that's what will truly make you stronger, faster, fitter and leaner - pushing through that pain and fatigue just when you feel like it's almost too much to handle.

You can do this workout in a gym and use a treadmill for the running portions if you please, but I created the workout based on the roads and paths around my neighborhood. My warm-up/cool-down route takes me about 8 minutes to jog, and I can complete a different, shorter route in about 5 minutes when I run fast (or about 6 when I'm getting exhausted).

As you can see, at the bottom of the workout, I predicted that if you repeat the "circuit" portion 4 times, then it will take about an hour to get through the whole workout. If you repeat it 3 times, you can complete the workout in about 50 minutes. Basically, I estimated that each section of the workout would take 10 minutes. That was a gross underestimation. Unless you're going to use an interval timer to keep yourself on track, allow about 12-13 minutes for the "circuit" here each time you do it.

So that part where it says "repeat 4x"? Yeah, that ended up being 2 times for me! I really wanted to do the circuit 4 times in an hour, and maybe that can be a goal of mine this summer for this workout. Basically by the time I had finished the circuit twice I was already at about the 45-minute mark for my entire workout. And as much as I would have loved to play hooky from work and just keep on exercising in my garage, I knew I had to cool down and go take a shower eventually. So I finished up that second circuit, did about 7 minutes of core exercises, completed my cool-down jog, and then called it quits.

So basically, you can do whatever you like on this little ol' workout. It will be a lot of work anyway around it. If you're even more of a workout freak than I am, repeat that circuit 5 or 6 times!

Also, you might be looking at what I wrote down for my workout and thinking, she did 8 push-ups and 16 crunches. She is not a workout freak...she's kind of wimpy. Oh no, friends. If you're doing these things slow enough and with the right form, you should feel the burn after about this many reps. That's right...slow down your workout to make it a better one. Except for the running part or any true carido - that's meant to be fast. But if you're truly conditioned and 4 or 5 rounds of squats, push-ups, rows, burpees, and ab exercises makes you feel like you did nothing more than blow out a candle, by all means - add a few reps to each set. You can do whatever you like. You know that.

4321-Burn

I recently taught a fitness class called "4321-Burn." Toughest. Class. Ever. The good news? It's only a 20-minute workout (maybe 25 with a warm-up and cool down) and it will remind you that you got a great workout for the next week or so. Yes, you will be sore. But in the 8 or so years I've been teaching fitness classes this has been one of my favorites to teach.

So here's how it works: 4 minutes of high-intesnity cardio, 3 minutes of strength/resistance exercises, 2 minutes of core exercises, 1 minute of stretching. Repeat twice. No breaks in between, except for that 1 minute of stretching. The 4 minute segment is broken down into 30-second intervals. After all, I don't expect anyone to maintain 4 minutes of high-intesnity cardio with no breaks. It should be that tough - that you need a little break in there.

Before class I will always plan out and write down what the workout will be. This was a great one for several reasons:
1) It makes you sore from head to toe.
2) I used it on more than one occasion.
3) There is dried sweat all over the page I wrote it on, which means I was sweating like a whore in church while doing it. Just imagine how the participants were feeling those days!

For this workout, I suggest you set a timer to go off at 1-minute intervals. You can get a great free one from the Apple App Store called "Interval Timer." Sorry about the tricky name, you'll just have to try and remember it.

Anyway, here we go:

For this workout, you'll need a pair of weights (5-8 lbs), a mat, and it would probably be nice to have a little towel to wipe the sweat out of your eyes. If not, that's okay too. You won't drown.

Warm-up (about 3 minutes)
Jog or jog in place
Walking lunges
Straight leg kicks while walking forward

4 minutes of cardio
30 seconds high-intensity: 10-count mountain climbers followed by 1 push up
30 seconds recovery: jog in place
30 seconds high-intensity: 10-count mountain climbers followed by 1 push up
30 seconds recovery: jog in place
30 seconds high-intensity: squat jumps (tag the floor at the bottom, reach hands up on the jump)
30 seconds recovery: jumping jacks
30 seconds high-intensity: squat jumps (tag the floor at the bottom, reach hands up on the jump)
30 seconds recovery: jumping jacks

3 minutes of strength/resistance
1 minute: reverse lunges, overhead press with the weights while going into lunge position (should look somewhat like move 4 from this Women's Health workout)
1 minute: push-ups, modify if needed
1 minute: plank row, alternating the side you lift each time

2 minutes of core
1 minute: oblique v-crunches
1 minute: toe touches

1 minute of stretching
Focus on chest, abs, and triceps

4 minutes of cardio
30 seconds high-intensity: speed-skater jumps
30 seconds recovery: jumping jacks
30 seconds high-intensity: speed-skater jumps
30 seconds recovery: jumping jacks
30 seconds high-intensity: burpees
30 seconds recovery: jog in place
30 seconds high-intensity: burpees
30 seconds recovery: jog in place

3 minutes of strength/resistance
1 minute: regular squats, hold one weight in front of you with straight arms, arms parallel to the floor
1 minute: bicep curls (do variations - front lifts and side lifts)
1 minute: forward lunge + oblique twist, alternate sides for each rep

2 minutes of core
1 minute: plank with "windshield wiper" toe taps, alternating sides
1 minute: flutter kicks

1 minute of stretching
Focus on arms, abs, and legs

For a cool down you can jog or walk. Continue to stretch all muscle groups, and drink plenty of water. Don't you just feel great now?