Quickie Workout

After a beautiful weekend filled with family time, two great runs (one 10-miler and one 2 1/2 mile recovery), happy hours and delicious food, it was back to the gym today.  I started off my workout with 25 minutes on the elliptical at a challenging resistance with varying inclines.  It got my heart rate up and warmed me up for the upper body workout that was to come.  My arms got a short, sweet workout that wasn't lacking in intensity and saved me plenty of time to continue to hang out with my sister.  My workout looked like this:

• Chest press and bent-over rows superset 
• 4 sets of 20, 15, 12, then 10 with weights increasing on each round
• Chest flyes and flat bench renegades superset
• 4 sets of 15 with moderate weight 
• Hammer curls, overhead presses and triceps kickbacks giant set
• 3 sets of 12 using moderate weight
• Tricep pressdown and bicep curl superset
• 3 sets of 12 with challenging weight on cable machine
• Windshield wipers and W arm extensions
• 2 sets of 12 with moderate weights (be nice to those tender shoulders :-) )
• 3 minutes of various plank exercises resting as needed

I was so glad I had my sister here to watch the boys so I could have 45 minutes to myself to get in a good workout at the gym while not having to give up my morning time with my husband.  A good sweat session truly does the body AND mind good.  I even came home to two sleeping babies.   I'm so spoiled.  Gotta love my sisters...all 3 of them!

Full Body Weights and Plyometrics Supersets

This morning I combined a couple of workouts and must say I was pretty impressed with the outcome.  I super-setted each weightlifting exercise with a plyometric exercise.  I did 4 rounds of each superset .  For the weightlifting exercises, I completed 15 reps for the first two rounds and 10 reps for the last two round. Plyometric moves were done for 20 seconds the first two rounds and 30 seconds the last two rounds.  Here's how I paired up my exercises:

• jump ropes and sumo squats with dumbbell
• high knees and flat bench chest presses
• mountain climbers and dumbbell bent over rows
• jumping jacks and overhead shoulder presses
• plank jacks and zottoman curls
• burpees and dumbbell deadlifts
• jump squats and dumbbell pullovers
• butt kicks and triceps kickbacks

I finished up the workout with 10 minutes on the elliptical and 100 squats with 15 pounds dumbbells.  SUCCESS!

The Last 3 Days...

After a weekend with my sister in Naples, relaxing at the pool, enjoying happy hours, trying out new restaurants, my body was ready to get back to business this week. 

Monday was legs day.  I popped in a favorite DVD--Jackie Warner's Power Circuit Training.  I did the 15 minute lower body segment and am still sore from it today, 2 days later.  Guess I had gotten a little lax with my lower body workouts.  I love her approach--3 exercises for each muscle group: hamstrings, quads, and buttocks.  Do each exercise for a minute nonstop and then do a power burn for the fourth minute, which means you do all 3 exercises one more time for 20 seconds each.  You hit your muscles hard and are finished with your workout in no time which is just what this momma needs.  I also squeezed in a 4 mile run and the usual MuTu core exercises.  I really hope to feel confident enough to wear a bikini again this summer.  We'll see.  There's still a lot of work to be done there but time is on my side. 

Yesterday was my upper body workout day.  I started off the workout with a chest and back supersets routine.  I did 10 reps of each exercise for the first round, 12 reps for the second round and 15 for the 3rd round.  There was no rest until each superset was done, when I rested for about 30 seconds.  The supersets included the following exercises:

• Flat bench dumbbell chest press and bent over dumbbell row
• Incline bench dumbbell chest press and incline bench dumbbell row
• Dumbbell pullovers and bent over straight arm kickbacks

I then did 3 minutes of nonstop bicep exercises including narrow hammer curls, zottoman curls, wide curls, rotating curls, SLOW curls, etc. followed by 3 minutes of nonstop shoulder exercises including overhead presses, reverse flyes, lateral raises, front raises, upright rows, etc.   Finally, I finished up with 3 rounds of a triceps giant set as I still try to get my triceps in line with the strength of my biceps.  The giant set included 12 reps of each of the following exercises, completed one right after the other without stopping, with 30 seconds of rest between the giant sets:

• Flat bench triceps dips
• Narrow grip bench presses with a barbell
• Lying dumbbell triceps extension with dumbbells
• Triceps rope extensions on the cable machine
• Triceps kickbacks with dumbbells

I rounded out the workout with 20 minutes on the elliptical and 5 minutes of plank exercises.  It was  a GREAT upper body workout!

After 2 days of muscle-building workouts, I made today a cardio day.  I did 30 minutes on the elliptical at a challenging intensity with some 30 second sprints and some good "hill climbs."  It made me a sweaty mess.  I'm off to do my 5 minutes of plank exercises and calling it a day. 

Make yours a great day!

Hit 'Em Heavy and Hit 'Em Hard Legs Workout

It seems like the less time I have to work out, the more focused and efficient I am.  I guess it's kind of like how I felt when I was in high school and college where it seemed like the busier I was, the more focused I was.  I actually seemed to do bes in school when I was busiest with extracurriculars.  There wasn't time to slack off.  I see the same thing happening at times in my adulthood, at least in terms of my exercise.  Even though I had a limited amount of time in the gym this morning, I still got in a VERY good workout.  I knew what I needed to do, knew how much time I had to do it in, and was focused to get it done.  It was legs day and I decided to hit 'em hard and heavy.  It gave me that sweet pain which I know will lead to results.  Here's what it looked like...

Move	Weight	Repetitions	Sets
Split squats with bosu ball	15 lb dumbbells	15 (each leg)	3
Sumo squats on smith machine	70 pounds	15	3
Deadlifts – with barbell	70 pounds	15	3
Hamstring ball curls	Body weight	15	3
Glute bridges with weight plate	25 pounds	20	3
Squats on smith machine	40 pounds	25	4
Plank variations	Bodyweight	1 minute	4

*****Colors indicate exercises that were super-setted. 

It was an adaptation of a workout, shown below, which I found at pbfingers.   I get tons of inspiration from her workouts.  She has a similar workout style to mine but her legs are stronger than mine.  I'm getting there and I hate to rest so I tend to fatigue faster.  I know, I know...excuses, excuses....  What can I say, I'm a supersets kind of gal. 

I finished up my workout with 12 minutes on the elliptical.  For the first 10 minutes, I did 30 second sprints with 30 second recoveries.  I finished with a 2 minute cool down.  Like I said, I hit 'em hard.  I got in, I got it done, and I got out in less than 30 minutes.  Now that's what I call a stellar workout.