Post-Turkey Day Recovery Workout

The turkeys and cranberries have been eaten, I'm stuffed with stuffing, and the pumpkin pie is long gone. Another Thanksgiving success and as usual, I have friends and family to thank for it all. However, the workout routine took a minor hit during vacation time and today was day one to get back into it.

Did it hurt? Yes. More than a little.

Was it fun? Sorta. But not entirely.

Did it completely cancel out a weekend of Thanksgiving bingeing? Not even close, but it's a start.

For some workout inspiration today, I headed over to LaurenConrad.com and searched for something fast, simple, and effective. Miss Conrad did not disappoint!

I have been a fan of LC since her reality TV debut, and I enjoy seeing the cute and pretty things found on her website. Although she may not have gained fame for her fitness expertise (more so for the cute and pretty things), she endorses workouts and nutrition tips that are balanced and sound. The workout of hers that I did was intended to be a treadmill workout. However, since I have a slight disdain for treadmills and the weather today permitted an outdoor workout, I hit the outdoor track to complete all this.

LC's workout goes as follows:

I modified the workout so I could do it on the track. Also, I'd never be able to do some of the exercises for 3 minutes straight without modifying (like jump lunges and push-ups…that's just whack). Here's how it all went down:

• Warm-up: 5 minute jog
• 25 regular push-ups (not modified/on knees)
• 1 set of 15
• 1 set of 10
• 800m run at 7:30 per mile pace (2 laps on 1/4 mile track)
• 2 sets of 20 jump lunges
• 800m run at 7:30 per mile pace (2 laps)
• 3 sets of 10 sumo squats
• 800m run as fast as my feet would carry me (about 7:00 per mile pace)
• Abdominal workout - 2 sets of each:
• 10 crunches with feet off ground, knees bent to 90 degrees
• 12 bicycle crunches (24 per side, rotating)

Then I rounded out the workout by jogging the long way home, which took about 16 minutes going at a moderate pace. If you're not up for the jog or just don't have time, be sure you get at least a little cool down jog or walk in before you call it quits. 

After a good stretch and plenty of water, I feel ready to get back into it. At least until Christmas. 

Body Remix

Lately my posts have been inconsistent and sparse. For this, I do apologize, but as for my excuse, I am in the process of moving. The move started in October, and between hotels and temporary housing, my husband and I are still not in our permanent home. Hopefully I'll be back up and running with some decent blog posts consistently by the new year!

In the meantime, I have not forgotten about exercise. Actually, I've been pretty consistent about that. One of the first things I did when we got to our new city was scope out the gym. Although the layout was a bit unusual (cardio machines facing each other…what's up with that?) it looked like it had a decent amount of equipment, so I shed my sweatshirt and decided to hop on a StairMaster for a little while. Well, not even 30 seconds into firing up my iPod, I was approached by a staff member telling me that I could not work out wearing the tank top I had on. What? Am I really being excused from the gym because of my workout top which I wear all of the time and have never even thought someone would deem it inappropriate attire for the gym? Yes. It happened. Apparently I'd missed the sign at the door indicating that no one may wear anything sleeveless in the building.

The top I was wearing looked similar to this one, from Target:

So with my tail between my legs, I scurried out of the building while nervously pulling my sweatshirt back on. That was so unusual! I mean, could they not have just let me wear my sleeveless, racer-back style workout top that completely covers my midsection just that one time, because it was my first time? I guess not.

Anyway, I decided to go do my own workout instead, in a place where sleeveless tops are permitted: the great outdoors.

Outdoor track, all ready for an athlete!

I did a Nike Training Club workout. If you missed the post where I raved about this app, here's the rundown: it is awesome; you can virtually customize your workout; you will get a great workout every time; the app is free.

I did the one titled "Body Remix," however, I did not have any equipment (not even a mat!), so I really had to improvise with some of the moves. I'll give the rundown of what I actually did here.

Open the app.
   > Click "Get Toned"
      > Click "Advanced"
         > Click "Body Remix" (the first workout on the list)
And get started! Now if you have equipment and want to do the workout as it is all laid out, be my guest. You will get a fantastic workout. If not, follow along here:

Feeling excited to work out. Let's do it!

• 1 minute: Back pedal and jog forward
• 2 minutes: Slide and glide (left and right)
• 2 minutes: Light jog
• 1 minute: Recover
• 1 minute: Burpees
• 1 minute: Push-ups
• 1 minute: Plank
• 1 minute: Ski jumps (sometimes I call these "speed skater jumps")
• 2 minutes: Walking lunges
• 2 minutes: Bunny hops (get low into a squat position, take tiny jumps forward on the balls of your feet)
• 1 minute: Bicycle crunches
• 1 minute: Toe touches
• 1 minute: Kick-downs (laying on your back with legs straight up, lower legs to the ground without actually touching the ground, then sweet them back up to the starting position)
• 1 minute: Push-up to frogger (do a push up, hop feet forward and to outside of hands like you're doing a burped with a wide jump, hop them back so you land in push-up position, repeat)
• 2 minutes: Squats
• 1 minute: Triceps push-ups
• 1 minute: Walking lunges
• 30 seconds: Mountain climbers
• 30 seconds: Knee tucks (start in a push-up position, hop feet in and bring knees towards chest, then hop back to starting position, repeat)
• 2 minutes: Standing hamstring stretch
• 1 minute: Pretzel stretch (glute stretch)
• 2 minutes: Standing quad stretch

And you're done!

This is how I felt when I finished that workout:

But I lived to tell you about it!

I included a few instructions above, but if you get the app you can see full instructions as well as short video clips of how to do each exercise. Any modifications that I made were not so complicated that you can't figure out what they are. And if you think so anyway, just leave a little ol' comment here!

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. 

Workout Wednesday

I know that today is Friday, but I did this workout on Wednesday and my calves and quads are still reminding me of that. 

Last weekend was one of much celebration when my husband and I traveled to Atlanta to witness the marriage of my good friend Jenelle and her tall, handsome man friend, Sahile.  

Aren't they just lovely in love?

We're pretty good looking too, actually.

So for me, that meant 3 days off from exercise, fresh bagels with cream cheese each morning, a few too many cocktails from the open bar, and delightful meals from other nooks and crannies of the city of Atlanta including a fried egg BLT (with a side of extra bacon...what!?) from Kaleidoscope, a burger and fries from The Brick Store Pub, and of course, tacos and guac from Tin Lizzy's. I don't regret eating any of that stuff because it was delicious, but oh boy, I think it wreaked havoc on my system! As one of my former nutrition professors once said, "A bad meal can do more bad than a good meal can do good." Read that again until it makes sense. This was so true for me over the weekend. 

So while perusing through the highly entertaining world of Pinterest and trying to recover from feeling so bloated and useless from the weekend, I stumbled across this "Killer Kardio" workout and decided it would be the perfect thing to jump start myself back into some high-intensity exercise. 

And how did it go? Oh wow. Yeah. I did do some damage over the weekend. It's a hard workout anyway and I was doing it in 85+ degree weather with high humidity (I'm a southern gal, I can handle some humidity). But oh, wow. By the last set I thought my arms were going to fall off. Read over it for a minute, commit yourself to it, then I'll give my own re-cap. 

(source)

So here are a few things I did differently. 

Frist, instead of doing each of the "1 minute" exercises for a full minute, I did them for about 50 seconds, rested for 10 seconds, then started the next one at the top of the new minute. Does that make me a slacker? I didn't think so. 

Second, burpees. I did sets of 15 instead of 20. Why this adjustment? Well, even though I'm strong and fit, I've never done that many all in one set. Usually I max out at about 12 or 15 on burpees anyway, so with all of the other exercises in there  and considering that many of the ones listed that utilize upper body are very shoulder-heavy, I had to cut back on these just a bit. 

Third, push-ups. I did 20. Ya know, I'm just hardcore like that. (It's only one set, you can do it too!)

Fourth, I altered the running part. Before I even started with set 1, I did a 7-minute jog to warm up. Then after sets 1 and 2 I ran a little bit faster than usual but decreased the time to 5 minutes. Then at the end of set 3 for the run, I did a 10-minute cool-down jog instead of the 5 minutes fast like before. Even then, I felt like I was going to collapse. But I slept so well that night and felt quite accomplished from completing the workout that I did. 

The thing that makes this interval-style workout different from many of the other ones I do is that this one is all cardio. Well, I guess push-ups and tricep dips are not, but for the rest of the workout your heart rate is going to be soaring and there is very little opportunity for "active rest." When I design workouts for myself I tend to put active rest intervals in there a lot. That is, after I've worked one muscle group really hard, the next exercise will not involve that muscle group. I won't necessarily get a break in the workout, but it does give me a chance to recover just a teeny bit. 

This workout, however, I did not design for myself. The hardest part? I would say the high knees. Oh yes, getting those knees up repeatedly is no easy task. If you're going to do this, really try and push yourself through the parts that are toughest for you. During high knees, really try to pull your knees up to hip level (like in the illustration) - or even higher. At least if you tell yourself that's what you're going to be doing it will keep you maintaining that high intensity level rather than gradually slowing down. If you need to modify some parts of it like I did, you know your body best so do what it tells you to do.

Set some reasonable goals and try to stick them out for the entirety of the workout. You can do this; even at the end of the workout image you see that you are not going to die. How exciting is that? But also like the image states, when you're done you need to drink some water...lots and lots of it!!

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.

30-minute gym workout

I just hate that when I hear someone say that they "worked out for like 2 hours!" Bitch, please. You went to the gym, changed your clothes, walked on a treadmill for 10 minutes, lifted a couple of heavy things, took 20 water breaks, 30 minutes to stretch, and another 15 in the locker room after that. You did not exercise for 2 hours. If everyone who said they worked out for a solid 2 hours actually did it, I think we would have many more fit people in this country than we actually do.

Oh, and also, you don't have to work out for 2 hours a day to be in shape.

Hence, I give you the 30-minute gym workout. That doesn't include a major warm-up, cool-down, or any stretching, but you'll definitely be out of that gym in under 45 minutes. And it's an awesome workout because it involves my favorite...interval training! The whole time, it's all intervals!

Part 1: 15 minutes on the elliptical
First, scope out an elliptical with arms. That is, you will work your upper body at the same time as your lower body. Doing cardio with your upper body (exercises such as swimming, rowing, and ellipti-cising??) gets your heart rate up much more quickly than a lower-body focused workout (running, stair-climbing, biking, elliptical without arms) because for most people, the muscles in your upper body aren't conditioned for this kind of hard work. Even if you're quite conditioned, using upper body for cardio is still a lot of work and can really ramp up the intensity level (read, calorie burn) in your workout.

So here's how the elliptical interval workout goes, minute by minute. By the way, if you can program your elliptical switch between intensity levels during your workout, this will be much easier. The elliptical machines at my gym don't have this feature, so I just have to pay attention to the time and do everything manually.

0:00-2:59. Warm up, easy/moderate pace. Play around with the intensity/resistance level on the machine to see how much you can handle. My elliptical goes to 25, and my warm-up is usually between 8-12.

3:00-4:59. Time to get intense. Turn up the resistance so much that you can barely handle it. For me, this is at a 17. Go, go, go. 2 minutes of hard work!

5:00-5:59. Recovery. Easy pace. Can be the same as your warm-up. I set the machine between 8-10 normally for this. Also during this time, switch the direction which your pedaling.

6:00-7:59. Ramp up that resistance to what you were doing before. Try your best to go the entire 2 minutes without lowering the resistance. Also try and maintain your same speed (speed, on an elliptical, can be measured by the RPM's on the display). Go, go, go! Use your arms too!

8:00-8:59. Recovery. And switch the direction you're pedaling. You've probably noticed by now that it's easier for you to pedal in one direction than the other. Avoid doing the "easy" one for the remainder of the workout.

9:00-10:59. Up with the resistance! You're close to being done with this workout. Maintain the speed you've been doing, or try to go a little bit faster. If you must lower the resistance slightly during any of the high-intensity intervals only do so after you're sure you cannot go any further, and even then, maintain your speed. Don't reduce your resistance and your pace!

11:00-11:59. Recover. Switch direction of pedaling. You're almost done.

12:00-13:59. Final intense interval! Absolutely try to push yourself in these last 2 tough minutes. Arms, legs, breathe, speed...all of it!

14:00-15:00. Recover/cool down. I know, it's only one minute, not much of a cool down. But that's okay. The workout is halfway over, and your body will be warm for the remainder of it.

Don't take too long of a break. Grab some water, catch your breath, and head on over to an open space or open group exercise studio. If there's no class going on, you can usually go ahead into an empty studio and use it to work out on your own.

Part 2: 15 minutes in the Studio
Or slightly open area/floor space that your gym offers.
Equipment needed: Jump rope, 2 hand weights (5-10 lbs each),  6-12" step (like the kind they use in step classes), mat.
If you don't have these pieces of equipment, do not throw a fit and give up on me. I'll give equipment-free alternatives.

How it works: 
There are 5 exercises. Start each on a 1-minute interval cycle. You might finish the exercise before the minute is up, so that time is meant just for a little recovery. If you don't think you want to spend all those seconds recovering and catching your breath, you can start the next exercise earlier, hence, finishing this part of the workout in under 15 minutes. Repeat this 5-exercise cycle 3 times.

1. 1 minute. Jump rope.
2. 30 seconds. Crossover mountain climbers (like a regular mountain climber, but when your knees come up, cross them over towards the shoulder on the opposite side of your body. If this doesn't make sense to you, just do regular mountain climbers.)
3. Bicycle crunches, very slow pace, 16 reps (so 8 per side)
4. 45 seconds. Lateral (that's side-to-side) hops over the top of the step. Go fast, reach for the floor when you land on either side. 
5. Plank rows. You're in push-up position with a weight under each hand. Row your arms, one at a time, leading with your elbow. Slowly lower the weight back down and alternate sides. Do 12 reps (6 per side).

Alternative, no-equipment option:

1. 1 minute. Jumping jacks.
2. 30 seconds. Crossover mountain climbers. Thought you were getting out of that one, did you??
3. 50 second plank. It would be nice to have a mat for this. At the very least, maybe a little towel under your forearms.
4. 45 seconds speed skater jumps. There are some variations of this exercise. Do the one that feels very difficult for you to complete in 45 seconds.
5. 15 push-ups. 

For a cool down, you can walk/light jog on the treadmill for 5 minutes or pedal lightly on a stationary bike for this amount of time. If you live super close to your gym, like I do, you can just jog to and from the place and your warm-up and cool-down are taken care of. On that note, if you do warm-up before you even get to the gym or if you do so on a piece of equipment other than the elliptical, then you can just jump right into the elliptical intervals instead of spending the first 3 minutes warming up on there.

I'd recommend stretching when your're done as well. This workout is very core-focused but works shoulders, quads, hamstrings, glutes, abs, back, and triceps, so focus on those for stretching. And gulp some ounces of water too.

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?