Inspired by this awesome infographic all about HIIT from Conditioning Research, and looking to mix things up, today I tried a Turbulence Training-style workout. TT is something created by the awesome trainer, athlete and blogger Craig Ballantyne (youtube him for lots of videos). Essentially, it involves mixing heavy lifting and high-intensity cardio into one big HIIT workout. Here's what I did:
Warmup: 1 mile jog
Turbulence training:
1 minute HIT jump rope followed by 8 reps of lifting; alternate between 8rep sets and 1 minute jump rope
I put together a little circuit of deadlifts, weighted squats, weighted lunges, plank leg raises, and a weighted squat/side lunge w/leg lift. I did this circuit twice, with 1 minute of high intensity jump rope in between each individual move.
All told, it took me 25 minutes and was pretty damn difficult. Guess what: jumping rope for a minute straight is tough! Usually I do 30 seconds.
After I finished the TT workout, I did a quick but very intense ab routine of leg lifts, bicycles, and weighted situps. I did 10 of each move and repeated the circuit 3 times with no breaks. My abs, they burned.
Then I hopped on the stair climber. Five minutes later I nearly fell off. Um, so, yyyeeeaahhh, I need to work stair climbing into every workout until I can do it longer than five minutes, because that shit is EXACTLY what the mud is going to feel like.
I've had barely anything to eat today. Bad, I know. I had three eggs in the morning... and then water all day. I'm about to go make myself a huge amount of food. PEACE
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Bodyrock and home hot yoga
Bodyrock has been doing this thing lately where they'll put up two or three 4-minute routines and you can mix and match. So, mix and match I did!
Yesterday was a rest day (because I did my strength day on Sunday instead of Tuesday), so today I did a Bodyrock and some yoga. For Bodyrock, I mixed together 12 minutes of workout. Here's what I did:
Sean's Ultimate Burpee Bodyweight Workout Scores:
Regular Burpee: 8
Star Burpee: 6
Side Burpee: 6
1 Leg Burpee: 6
--SEAN'S BODYWEIGHT ONLY WORKOUT--
One leg squat jump
One arm pushup
One leg pushup
High Knees
ABS AND BUTT
Laying leg lifts 18
Hanging knee raises front and sides 6
Knees together squeezes
Knees apart squeezes
The burpees were killer, especially the star burpees. One-armed pushups? UH NO. I couldn't even do one, on my knees. So I def need to work on those, like a lot. I just pumped out lots and lots of regular ones.
I think I enjoyed the abs portion the best. I like the laying leg lifts (I don't have an exercise ball like Lisa-Marie does in the video, so I just lay down on the floor and held the bedpost as I lifted). Holding on to something above my head kept my back more stable and allowed me do to the lifts with WAY better form than usual. I don't have a dip station, so I do the knee raises hanging from my pullup bar, which has the added benefit of strengthening my hang ability, which needs to go up by a LOT if I'm gonna do monkey bars in May.
I followed up this 12-minute workout with a 20-minute vigorous yoga session in my bathroom, which I've figured out how to turn into a reasonable semblance of a hot studio by running the shower for a bit to build up some steam, then sticking my space heater in there to heat everything up. I think I need to put the space heater on the floor instead of the counter next time, because heat rises and the floor ended up staying pretty cool. But otherwise it was awesome! Gonna do yoga every day in there and save myself a bundle paying for hot studio membership.
Tonight I roasted a chicken using the greatest chicken recipe ever, which I've used before and I can honestly say makes the juiciest, best chicken of all time. Next time you have a whole chicken, do it. Don't be fooled by the simplicity of ingredients and preparation. It's unbelievably good.
Tomorrow is Leg Strength back at the fire station gym. *puts on sunglasses* YYEEEEAAAAHHHHH
Yesterday was a rest day (because I did my strength day on Sunday instead of Tuesday), so today I did a Bodyrock and some yoga. For Bodyrock, I mixed together 12 minutes of workout. Here's what I did:
Sean's Ultimate Burpee Bodyweight Workout Scores:
Regular Burpee: 8
Star Burpee: 6
Side Burpee: 6
1 Leg Burpee: 6
--SEAN'S BODYWEIGHT ONLY WORKOUT--
One leg squat jump
One arm pushup
One leg pushup
High Knees
ABS AND BUTT
Laying leg lifts 18
Hanging knee raises front and sides 6
Knees together squeezes
Knees apart squeezes
The burpees were killer, especially the star burpees. One-armed pushups? UH NO. I couldn't even do one, on my knees. So I def need to work on those, like a lot. I just pumped out lots and lots of regular ones.
I think I enjoyed the abs portion the best. I like the laying leg lifts (I don't have an exercise ball like Lisa-Marie does in the video, so I just lay down on the floor and held the bedpost as I lifted). Holding on to something above my head kept my back more stable and allowed me do to the lifts with WAY better form than usual. I don't have a dip station, so I do the knee raises hanging from my pullup bar, which has the added benefit of strengthening my hang ability, which needs to go up by a LOT if I'm gonna do monkey bars in May.
I followed up this 12-minute workout with a 20-minute vigorous yoga session in my bathroom, which I've figured out how to turn into a reasonable semblance of a hot studio by running the shower for a bit to build up some steam, then sticking my space heater in there to heat everything up. I think I need to put the space heater on the floor instead of the counter next time, because heat rises and the floor ended up staying pretty cool. But otherwise it was awesome! Gonna do yoga every day in there and save myself a bundle paying for hot studio membership.
Tonight I roasted a chicken using the greatest chicken recipe ever, which I've used before and I can honestly say makes the juiciest, best chicken of all time. Next time you have a whole chicken, do it. Don't be fooled by the simplicity of ingredients and preparation. It's unbelievably good.
Tomorrow is Leg Strength back at the fire station gym. *puts on sunglasses* YYEEEEAAAAHHHHH
Monday, December 19, 2011
TRIUMPH
I FINALLY managed to drag my increasingly dimpled ass out of bed in the cold and dark to go to the gym before work. HUZZAH, PLAYERS.
It wasn't even that hard, because I stuck to the flow I'd come up with the previous night, wherein I got up at 6, immediately put on a pot of coffee, then took River for a 45-minute walk. By the time I got back I was awake and my body was warmed up. I drank my bulletproof coffee (which sounds gross but is AMAZING and to which I am completely addicted), got changed, and got to the gym by 7:30. Yes, yes, I'm aware that this doesn't seem all that early to those of you who have to be on the metro or road by 6 to get to work on time, but whatever, I don't have to be at work till 10 so a 6:00 wakeup is early as shit for me.
Here's what I did:
Warmup - 1 mile on treadmill
Metcon - 5x5 Burpees, Dips, Tuck jumps, Mason twists/medicine ball, and Split lunges, for time. My time: 9:11.
HIIT - Sprint/walk intervals, 1:1 min, 20 minutes
It was a good workout. The metcon portion was harder than I was expecting. I was seriously winded and had to take a couple breaks in there.
Today I packed my lunch tin with mango chicken sausages and steamed broccoli with a bit of TJ's vodka sauce for flavor, plus a tiny cut up green apple, some almond butter, and a couple slices of cheese. Tonight is usually my "cheat night" because I'm at the station, but Saturday was definitely a cheat night due to the Xmas party I went to (I actually did excellently food-wise, just ate a lot of meat and salad, but I did indeed try some of the many desserts). So tonight I'm going to try to walk the straight and narrow. Let's hope we don't go to the burger place. I am a whore for sweet potato fries.
It wasn't even that hard, because I stuck to the flow I'd come up with the previous night, wherein I got up at 6, immediately put on a pot of coffee, then took River for a 45-minute walk. By the time I got back I was awake and my body was warmed up. I drank my bulletproof coffee (which sounds gross but is AMAZING and to which I am completely addicted), got changed, and got to the gym by 7:30. Yes, yes, I'm aware that this doesn't seem all that early to those of you who have to be on the metro or road by 6 to get to work on time, but whatever, I don't have to be at work till 10 so a 6:00 wakeup is early as shit for me.
Here's what I did:
Warmup - 1 mile on treadmill
Metcon - 5x5 Burpees, Dips, Tuck jumps, Mason twists/medicine ball, and Split lunges, for time. My time: 9:11.
HIIT - Sprint/walk intervals, 1:1 min, 20 minutes
It was a good workout. The metcon portion was harder than I was expecting. I was seriously winded and had to take a couple breaks in there.
Today I packed my lunch tin with mango chicken sausages and steamed broccoli with a bit of TJ's vodka sauce for flavor, plus a tiny cut up green apple, some almond butter, and a couple slices of cheese. Tonight is usually my "cheat night" because I'm at the station, but Saturday was definitely a cheat night due to the Xmas party I went to (I actually did excellently food-wise, just ate a lot of meat and salad, but I did indeed try some of the many desserts). So tonight I'm going to try to walk the straight and narrow. Let's hope we don't go to the burger place. I am a whore for sweet potato fries.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
1000 rep challenge, modified
I decided to change the 1000 Rep Challenge a bit because some of the exercise just don't do it for me, and also I'm not a huge fan of the order of things. So I changed it to be more suited to my needs and have a better flow.
10 Burpees
10 Chair Dips
10 Tuck Jumps
10 Eagle Abs
10 Mountain Climbers
10 Side Plank Switches
10 Split Lunges
10 Pushups
10 Turkish Getups
10 Mason Twists
Tonight I did 5 rounds of this, so 500 reps, followed up by a kettlebell tabata. It was about 20 minutes of working out. Tomorrow I go back to lifting and run intervals in the gym, yay!
10 Burpees
10 Chair Dips
10 Tuck Jumps
10 Eagle Abs
10 Mountain Climbers
10 Side Plank Switches
10 Split Lunges
10 Pushups
10 Turkish Getups
10 Mason Twists
Tonight I did 5 rounds of this, so 500 reps, followed up by a kettlebell tabata. It was about 20 minutes of working out. Tomorrow I go back to lifting and run intervals in the gym, yay!
Heavy lifting
Yesterday I was supposed to go to the Getting Started class at Crossfit Fairfax, but as I prepared the night before and looked into how long the class is, I realized that with travel time, there was no way I would have time to go and still do all the things I had to do yesterday (lots of errands and then baking for the Fire Rescue Christmas party last night). So instead I decided I'll go to the GS class on the 28th, in about a week. That one I'll have more time for, as it's post-Xmas.
As for my workout, it had been about a week since my last heavy lifting session, so I was feeling the call of metal. I went to the fire station gym and did the following:
1-mile jog warmup
5x5s (Weights below are on each arm with dumbbells, cumulative with the barbell for deadlift; so for example, I shoulder pressed with a 25-pounder on each arm, but deadlifted 74 pounds total between the 44lb bar and 30lb of weights. I could have used the bar for bench presses but I'm too much of a pussy to do that without a spotter, TBH.)
Shoulder presses @ 25, 25, 25, 30, 30
Bench presses @ 30, 30, 30, 30, 35
Standing pulls @ 25, 25, 25, 25, 25
Bicep curls @ 20, 20, 20, 20, 20
Deadlifts @ 74, 74, 74, 86, 86
HIIT running: 20 minutes, 1:1 min sprint/walk intervals
It was a good, long, hard workout. I love lifting. Today I have... dun dun dun... the infamous 1000 rep challenge. Yaaaaaay! Last time I managed to shave 9 minutes off my time, so we'll see if I can get any faster this time.
As for my workout, it had been about a week since my last heavy lifting session, so I was feeling the call of metal. I went to the fire station gym and did the following:
1-mile jog warmup
5x5s (Weights below are on each arm with dumbbells, cumulative with the barbell for deadlift; so for example, I shoulder pressed with a 25-pounder on each arm, but deadlifted 74 pounds total between the 44lb bar and 30lb of weights. I could have used the bar for bench presses but I'm too much of a pussy to do that without a spotter, TBH.)
Shoulder presses @ 25, 25, 25, 30, 30
Bench presses @ 30, 30, 30, 30, 35
Standing pulls @ 25, 25, 25, 25, 25
Bicep curls @ 20, 20, 20, 20, 20
Deadlifts @ 74, 74, 74, 86, 86
HIIT running: 20 minutes, 1:1 min sprint/walk intervals
It was a good, long, hard workout. I love lifting. Today I have... dun dun dun... the infamous 1000 rep challenge. Yaaaaaay! Last time I managed to shave 9 minutes off my time, so we'll see if I can get any faster this time.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Quick tabatas
Okay so yesterday didn't go exactly as planned re: hill sprints and kettle bell and what have you. I, as usual, ran out of time. So I did a quick 15-ish minutes that was really intense.
It was essentially intervals of jump rope tabatas and a three-move circuit. I did a tabata of high knees on the jump rope, then popped down and did 10 pushups, 10 Turkish getups with my 20lb kettlebell, and 10 abmat situps. Then I jumped straight back into another tabata. I managed to get in three tabatas and three circuits in about 15 minutes... I can't remember my exact time.
Then I hightailed it to state EMT testing, which was nerve-wracking. I'm pretty sure I failed the Trauma station. Crap. But at least I'm DONE!
I'm also proud of myself that I didn't go crazy with stress eating at the bar last night. My whole class came out to celebrate and I a) stuck to wine even though I REALLY WANTED a beer, and b) didn't stuff my face with the many plates of cheese fries that were going around. I had a bite of a chicken tender and that was it. Go me.
Today I need to do my Tough Mudder workout, but I have to work all day and I'm pretty hungover and I didn't get much sleep. So, we'll see. It might behoove me to just take a rest day, since I haven't had a rest day all week and I'm doing the three-hour Getting Started class at Crossfit Fairfax tomorrow morning.
It was essentially intervals of jump rope tabatas and a three-move circuit. I did a tabata of high knees on the jump rope, then popped down and did 10 pushups, 10 Turkish getups with my 20lb kettlebell, and 10 abmat situps. Then I jumped straight back into another tabata. I managed to get in three tabatas and three circuits in about 15 minutes... I can't remember my exact time.
Then I hightailed it to state EMT testing, which was nerve-wracking. I'm pretty sure I failed the Trauma station. Crap. But at least I'm DONE!
I'm also proud of myself that I didn't go crazy with stress eating at the bar last night. My whole class came out to celebrate and I a) stuck to wine even though I REALLY WANTED a beer, and b) didn't stuff my face with the many plates of cheese fries that were going around. I had a bite of a chicken tender and that was it. Go me.
Today I need to do my Tough Mudder workout, but I have to work all day and I'm pretty hungover and I didn't get much sleep. So, we'll see. It might behoove me to just take a rest day, since I haven't had a rest day all week and I'm doing the three-hour Getting Started class at Crossfit Fairfax tomorrow morning.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Tough Mudder Training
Since Arwen is kicking my butt dedication-wise, I need to start updating this blog regularly with my Tough Mudder training. I have indeed been working out, but I just haven't had the time to really be diligent in updating this blog. No more! This is now serious.
Last week I did lots of lifting and sprinting workouts at the station gym. It was nice getting back to lifting. I love bodyweight workouts and all, but sometimes you just want to lift big heavy pieces of metal over your head, you know? However, I sort of went too gung-ho and exhausted myself. This week I'm taking it a bit easier, doing shorter, more intense workouts and keeping the treadmill intervals to just a couple days.
Another thing about the past couple weeks is that I'm in the throes of EMT testing for the county and state and am still stuck out of the house almost every night until 10-11 doing that. I will be SOOOOOO HAPPY when this class is over and I have my nights back--which is actually basically now, because Tuesday was our last real class and tonight is final state testing. Good gravy it will be good to have my bedtime back to normal. Doing this class basically completely robbed me of the ability to get up early in the mornings, which meant that my workout always got pushed, which meant that sometimes it didn't happen. Now I can start going to bed early, getting up early, and getting serious about TM training.
Over at Bodyrock, things are certainly different, but still good. They have a bunch of new trainers in the videos, and they're all really good. I miss Z a ton, but it's not lime the workouts aren't still great. Yesterday I didn't have much time to work out so I did "The Workout That Got Away", which Kyla and Sean created when they were hung over. It was really short, just a single tabata of split lunges and mountain climbers, but it was intense (obviously, it was a tabata), and I was definitely sweating at the end. Then I tacked on Lisa-Marie's 3-minute Abs workout, which was basically 10:50 sec intervals of bicycles, balancing v-ups (HARD), and weighted situps. I chose to do Abmat situps (I don't have an Abmat at home; I just use a pillow) for the last interval, and really pushed it, so my abs were burning bad by the end.
Day before yesterday I did the step-up sumo squat challenge from a while back on Bodyrock. You set a chair next to you, then do a squat, step in and up onto the chair, lift the opposite knee to your chest, then step back down and do another squat. You do this 100 times on each leg. I only did 50 on each because by 40 I could tell that if I did 100 I'd be hobbled the next day with soreness. 50 each took me about 8 minutes (just for reference, Jess from Bodyrock did 100 each in 11:27, which is just absurd and I don't know how she did it). Then I did a circuit of pushups, situps, and dips for another 10 minutes. It was a good workout.
Today I plan to mix some jump rope, hill sprints, kettlebell, and box jumps, and also take a 2-mile run. I have to get back into the running groove so I think I'll do a short run as a warmup from here on out.
Last week I did lots of lifting and sprinting workouts at the station gym. It was nice getting back to lifting. I love bodyweight workouts and all, but sometimes you just want to lift big heavy pieces of metal over your head, you know? However, I sort of went too gung-ho and exhausted myself. This week I'm taking it a bit easier, doing shorter, more intense workouts and keeping the treadmill intervals to just a couple days.
Another thing about the past couple weeks is that I'm in the throes of EMT testing for the county and state and am still stuck out of the house almost every night until 10-11 doing that. I will be SOOOOOO HAPPY when this class is over and I have my nights back--which is actually basically now, because Tuesday was our last real class and tonight is final state testing. Good gravy it will be good to have my bedtime back to normal. Doing this class basically completely robbed me of the ability to get up early in the mornings, which meant that my workout always got pushed, which meant that sometimes it didn't happen. Now I can start going to bed early, getting up early, and getting serious about TM training.
Over at Bodyrock, things are certainly different, but still good. They have a bunch of new trainers in the videos, and they're all really good. I miss Z a ton, but it's not lime the workouts aren't still great. Yesterday I didn't have much time to work out so I did "The Workout That Got Away", which Kyla and Sean created when they were hung over. It was really short, just a single tabata of split lunges and mountain climbers, but it was intense (obviously, it was a tabata), and I was definitely sweating at the end. Then I tacked on Lisa-Marie's 3-minute Abs workout, which was basically 10:50 sec intervals of bicycles, balancing v-ups (HARD), and weighted situps. I chose to do Abmat situps (I don't have an Abmat at home; I just use a pillow) for the last interval, and really pushed it, so my abs were burning bad by the end.
Day before yesterday I did the step-up sumo squat challenge from a while back on Bodyrock. You set a chair next to you, then do a squat, step in and up onto the chair, lift the opposite knee to your chest, then step back down and do another squat. You do this 100 times on each leg. I only did 50 on each because by 40 I could tell that if I did 100 I'd be hobbled the next day with soreness. 50 each took me about 8 minutes (just for reference, Jess from Bodyrock did 100 each in 11:27, which is just absurd and I don't know how she did it). Then I did a circuit of pushups, situps, and dips for another 10 minutes. It was a good workout.
Today I plan to mix some jump rope, hill sprints, kettlebell, and box jumps, and also take a 2-mile run. I have to get back into the running groove so I think I'll do a short run as a warmup from here on out.
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