Bootylicious -- The Original

Complete 5 rounds as fast as you can of the following circuit:

1 min spin bike on high resistance, standing up (Pump up the resistance until it's too difficult to pedal sitting down. Stand up, using the handlebars only for balance)

1 min spin bike on low resistance (This is your rest period. Just pedal at a comfortable pace)

1 min spin bike on medium resistance, sprint!! (Turn up the resistance from your easy minute and pedal as fast as you possibly can for the entire 60 seconds)

30 Body-weight Speed Squats (complete these squats without added resistance as fast as you possibly can)

16 Jumping Lunges

12 Navy Push-ups (do a normal or girl push-up then bring one knee to the elbow on the same side. Complete another push-up, then bring the other knee to the other elbow. Keeping going until you've done 12 push-ups total)

25 Bicycle Crunches (every 4 turns counts as one repetition; put another way, every OTHER time one elbow touches the opposite knee, count one rep. If you still don't get it just don't even worry about it.)

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Part 2 (Do 3-4 rounds of these two with 0 rest. This is called a superset.)

30 Double Leg Calf Raises
50 Jumping Jacks


Congratulations! You are now on your way to being bootylicious.

Inspired

So I've been inspired. Finally.

My sister started keeping a blog because she's going to be a famous photographer someday. So I'm going to start keeping up with mine because she's my older sister and everything she does is cool, and thus I want to have one too. Needless to say it will be nowhere near as artistic as hers and probably not half as entertaining, but maybe it will at least inspire you to work out. Or something.

I realized today that more than I miss the paycheck of personal training, I really miss the actually doing it. I miss the people I trained, spending all day in the gym, seeing the same people come at the same time every day and do the same 500 bicep curls in front of the mirror and wonder why they've stopped getting bigger. I miss people asking me for workouts or why their this hurts or their that feels weaker. I miss making up crazy intense workouts that make you wonder why you ever dragged yourself to the gym in the first place.

Realizing this gives me a little bit of hope for my future too. I've spent the last four years trying to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life and have been too scared I'll get bored with whatever I choose to want to commit to it for real (as in, get a full time job doing it). But I think personal training is different. For a year and a half, I never once didn't want to go to work. Never. Not one single time did I ever wish that a session would be over sooner. And I can't say that about any other job I've ever worked.

So maybe I have a future after all. In something other than watching ABC re-runs.

Sarah's Workout

I give all credit for this workout to my friend Sarah. I do not pretend to own the rights to her creativity.

Do each exercise for 50 seconds, then take 10 seconds rest before beginning the next exercise. Complete 4-5 rounds for a total of 20-25 minutes.

Roundhouse kick with left leg, jump down into push-up position (you do not have to do a push-up. If it's too easy, add it. I didn't think it was too easy)

Roundhouse kick with right leg, jump down into push-up position

1-2-3 Push-up (aka Mountain Climber Push-ups: Do 3 mountain climber steps, then a push-up with one leg bent, knee to elbow style. Do 3 more mountain climber steps so that the opposite leg is now bent and do a push-up. Keep going.)

Ninja Jump/Sandbag Squat (begin kneeling on both knees; in one swift movement, jump to your feet. While squatting, pick up a kettle bell or dumbbell you have sitting on one side, stand up with the weight, and squat down to place it by your foot on the side opposite where you picked it up. Keep going, switching the weight to the opposite side each time.)

Wall Climbs/Dive Bombers (Dive bombers: look them up online, they're common, you'll be able to find them; Wall Climbs: Begin in push-up position with feet against a wall. Walk your feet up the wall, bringing your hands in toward the base as well, until you are in a handstand position against the wall, chest touching the wall. Walk yourself slowly back down. And go again.)

This one and the last one were quickies. But they're intense and will get your heart rate up high enough to burn a good amount of calories after you're done while your body is still recovering. That phenomenon is called EPOC for Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption. Mini exercise physiology lesson: This means that your body is still consuming oxygen and burning energy as if it is still in exercise mode, even though it's not. So the higher you get your heart rate up during physical activity and the crazier the intensity, the longer it will take for your body to return to lazy, resting mode and, thus, the more calories you will burn post-exercise. Good story. Stay tuned for future educational programming.

Staircase to Hell

This workout takes 20 minutes. Do as many rounds as you can in that time frame:

1 stair run
10 Wall Ball Throws
1 stair run
10 Jumping Lunges
1 stair run
10 Box/Bench Jumps
1 stair run
10 Deadlift, RDL, or Sumo Deadlift
1 stair run

Try for 4 or 5 rounds. This means you will have to run up and down the stairs super fast. Good luck breathing.

Leggy legs legs

Warm-up: None needed. But run half a mile or so if you really want to.

Do this first part as a circuit 4-5 times as fast as you can:

Exercise	Weight/Resistance	Sets x Reps	Comments
Plyometric Side-to-side Push-ups	Body weight (on your feet or on your knees)	12-20 reps each side	Stack 1-3 25-35lbs plates on the ground as your platform
Kettle Bell Swings (one arm)	20- 50 lbs (whatever is comfortable without straining your back)	10-15 each side	Power from your hips
Speed Squats	Body weight	35-50	Squat down at least until your thighs are parallel to the ground, go further if you can
Pull-ups	Bodyweight or with assistance	8-15
Overhead Walking Lunges	25 lb EZ bar + weight (5-10 lbs each side)	12-24 steps total	Keep elbows locked overhead to stabilize weight

Now do this:

Exercise	Weight/Resistance	Sets x Reps	Comments
Leg Press	Push yourself	3 x 12-15	Super-set leg press and ab exercises for added difficulty
Russian Twist and/or Double Crunches	10-15 lbs medicine ball or weight	3 x 10-12 each, or 25 of one exercise

Cool-Down: Stretch if you need to. Make a protein shake.

There's more coming I swear!!!

So my goal over Thanksgiving break:

Post all the insane workouts I've done since I last updated. Which was like a million years ago. So stay tuned...

Burn Them Calories

Warm-up: Trust me, you don’t need one

Workout: Push your way through this workout with little rest as fast as you can.

(Laps are around an HPU indoor track which takes 13 laps to make a mile which doesn’t make any sense. Do the math and run appropriately or just take 1 lap to mean approximately 150-200 meters)

Run 1 lap

50 Jumping Lunges or Squat Jacks

Run 2 laps

40 Burpees

Run 3 laps

30 Mountain Climbers (every 4 count as 1)

Run 4 laps

20 Gator Walks

Run 5 laps

10 Stair Runs

Run 4 laps

20 Pull-ups

Run 3 laps

30 Push-ups

Run 2 laps

40 Double Crunches

Run 1 lap

50 Lunges

Cool-down: Run 1 lap. Stretchy stretchy. Have a sandwich.