Fitness Friday: Favorite Pinterest Workouts

Hello and Happy Friday!  I am taking a trip back home this weekend to celebrate a few very special people.  My best friend just gave birth to a baby girl on Wednesday and I can't wait to meet her!  And, another friend of mine is currently pregnant with twins and I'll be attending her baby shower!  Babies, babies everywhere.

Now onto some business...

I wanted to thank everyone who provided feedback on my Fitness post last Friday. There were a lot of good ideas and concerns in there and I'm going to do my best to address them.  In an attempt to give myself some consistency and structure, I'm going to try to devote Fridays to Fitness posts.  This may be every Friday, or every other Friday, and I plan on addressing everything from stretching to workout recaps to beginning a running program.  Please feel free to contact me via comments or email (Jillyruns@yahoo.com) with any topics you'd like me to cover on Fridays, and I will respond!

My main point of that post was that I believe we need to start shifting the mindset in America that thinks fitness is a completely separate entity from good health and health care.  As we saw, by the very definition of the word, fitness is an indicator of good health, and I don't believe you can be truly healthy if you do not have a baseline level of fitness.  As far as 'baseline level', I'm still not sure how to quantify that, but I'm going to do some research and see if I can come up with something amalgamated from a variety of professional resources. 

I think the hardest part for everyone is getting started, followed by sticking with it (when they don't see immediate results).  I think many people feel that perhaps they are just not inherently athletic and so fitness is just something they'll never be 'good' at.  But I don't think 'fitness' and 'athleticism' are interchangeable terms.  You don't have to excel at sports or be born with natural gifts to be able to go for a walk or do simple exercises in the comfort of your own home.  I don't think I'm particularly athletically gifted but I just love moving, playing, and trying new things.  [This is probably the reason I love hanging out with kids so much; we are kindred spirits.]  I like to run, but I am not particularly fast.  I am a solid middle-of-the-pack runner and will never win any big races, but that doesn't stop me!  I also mentioned that I played a lot of sports growing up and that's true, but what I didn't tell you is that I completely STUNK at a lot of them!  Perhaps one day I'll do a post on a list of the sports I've tried over the years and the ones I've completely failed at! Haha Maybe that will give you some courage to get out there and Just Do It :)

Also, as I previously mentioned, you do not need a gym membership or fancy equipment to work out.  Case in point: Calisthenics.  Calisthenics are great for improving endurance and strength, and if you perform them in High Intensity Intervals, great for burning fat.  They are also great cross-training/strength-training exercises for runners.  I get a lot of my at-home workouts from Pinterest, and I'm going to share some of my favorites with you today (these were created by other Pinners, not me). 

Most of them are short (15-30 mins) and can be easily modified to suit your needs.  Just decrease the number of reps suggested or do modified moves (ie. pushups on your knees instead of standard pushups).  For beginners who are unsure what some of the moves may be, I wish I could post photos of myself modeling them, but alas, I have no one to take pictures of me!  There are mirrors at my gym, so maybe one day I'll just go in and selfie a bunch of moves so I have personal stock photos for you?!  In the meantime, you'll have to Google/Youtube them, or just ask me. 

Without further ado, here are a few of my favorite go-to workouts (all of these can be found on my Pinterest "I Work Out" board):

Source/via Pinterest

 

 

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Source/via Pinterest

*Be careful - This one is more advanced*

 

 

If you're snowed in this weekend, or staying indoors because of the insane polar vortex, why not pick one of these and give it a try!

 

Also, I'd recommend you check out the FREE 7 Minute Workout app that I blogged about last year.  A couple of years ago, the American College of Sports Medicine came out with a study stating the benefits of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and published the specific 12 moves in this program to be a scientifically excellent workout. 

 

It is a Tabata style workout, in that you are performing moves at a high intensity for 30 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest (true Tabata is 20 secs on/10 secs off), and it is pretty intense and comprehensive.  I usually run through the circuit 3 times for a total of 21 mins of work and that's plenty, but you can start out just doing it once and it will be worth your time!  [There are a few of them in the App Store, but this is the one I use by Bytesize]

 



 

Well, that should be enough to keep you busy for the weekend!  I hope you all have a great one!

 



*Disclaimer:  I am not a personal trainer or medical professional; these are simply exercises I enjoy and recommend.  If you have medical or health concerns, please consult a professional before beginning any exercise program.*

 

 

Do you work out at home?

Ever done the 7 minute workout?

What are your weekend plans?!

Boot Camp, Part Deux

I realized I haven't done a workout post in ages so I thought I'd update you all as to what I've been doing for exercise lately, other than chasing babies around all day.  As you may recall, at the end of last year, I joined a boot camp style workout studio for a month on a Groupon, and not only did I not die, but I loved it!  (Check out this post, and this one.)  The only problem was the monthly membership fee was not sustainable for me - same thing goes for CrossFit.  So I recently bought another Groupon for a month of boot camp at a different studio in the city, and have been attending Believer's Fitness Boot Camp in Mt Washington for the past month.  No surprise here, but I am of course LOVING it.  Here are my thoughts on the past month.

STUDIO:  The space is bigger than the last place I went but set up very similarly.  It's a big open warehouse type building.  The floor is artificial turf, and all the equipment we may need is lined up around the exterior so there is plenty of wide open space for all the running drills we do.

WORKOUTS:  Are 1 hour sessions and are different every single day - love this!  Much like my last boot camp experience, you never know what you're walking into on any given day and that excites me to no end! Hahaha, I can't wait to get to class to see what kind of torture we're in for :) 

There is a basic formula though.  Each class starts with a warm up that lasts about 10 mins.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the warm up board one day but they go something like this:

Run 2x (length of studio) at 25%
Skip 1x
Heel walk up/Toe walk back
Cradle walk 1x

Run 2x at 50%
Mountain climbers 25x
Arm circles 10x each arm
Jump squats 25x

Run 2x at 50%
Grapevine 1x
Side shuffle 1x
Lunge forward up/backward down

Run 4x at 75%

Then, we get into the meat of the night's workout.  All workouts are based around High Intensity Interval Training.  We would usually do 45 seconds work/15 seconds rest.  Sometimes the ratio would be 1 min work/15 sec rest.  Most of the time, the coach would set up stations around the gym with different exercises we would be doing, but sometimes we would just run back and forth across the room, stopping at either end to do the exercises.  The interval sessions usually lasted 25-30 mins and were intense! 

Exercises for each station included things like:  Plank variations; Squats, lunges and leg work with weighted medicine balls; High knees ladder running; Jumping over obstacles; Suspension cable leg and arm work; Free weight arm/leg work; Ab work on the ball; and much more.  This past Monday we spent the entire night sprinting and lunging back and forth across the room, stopping for a minute on each end to do either core work at one end, or arm and leg work with the weighted medicine ball at the other.

The night usually ended with some core work, followed by some stretching.

 

 

VERDICT:  Boot camp is my jam, for real.  Its basically the part I loved most from CrossFit and utilizes many of the same elements of CrossFit, except for the heavy lifting (which was my least fave part anyway!).  I love super high intensity workouts and I love that every day is different.  I literally feel like a kid walking into a candy store every night! 

 

I'm not sure if I would financially be able to swing a membership here either, plus my Nanny Family is moving next month, so the studio location will be much further out of the way, however, I'd like to see if there is some way I can continue boot camp sessions at some point on the regular. 

 

I've talked about the benefits of HIIT on here before and really do believe they enhance your performance - in terms of speed, strength and endurance - more effectively than doing solid state cardio or lifting.  I suppose I'm just going to have to continue buying up every Groupon in sight for every studio in the city of Baltimore!

 

As far as running, I've only been doing it 1-2 times a week in between these sessions (low mileage/3-5miles) and just realized last week I have a race on Sunday!  Eeeeeek....cue panic.  I'm running the Baltimore Women's Classic 5K this weekend which is always a good time (It's one of the largest female-only 5ks in the nation).  This is the race for which I coached a training group last summer.  I was going to coach again this year but just didn't have as much free time in the evenings.

 

I PR'ed my 5K time at last year's race, however I was doing speed work all summer with the training group at the track, and that obviously isn't the case this year!  So as far as time goes, I'm going to run until I feel like I'm about to die...and then just keep going until I see the finish line.  Isn't that what the 5K distance is all about?!  I'll let you know how it works out :)

 

Pinterest

I'm highly considering a pair for the race...

 

 

That's all I got for now.  Happy Thursday to you all!

Have you ever done boot camp style workouts?

Do you incorporate HIIT into your training?

Is your 5K racing strategy similar to mine, ie. RUN TIL YOU DIE?!

The 7 Minute Workout - For Real

Jillyruns/Pinterest

 

 



I know this sounds too good to be true, but hear me out on this one.  I read about this workout app on another blog a few weeks ago (Finding My Strong) and knew I had to try it.  I mean really what did I have to lose, other than 7 mins of my life?!

So I went directly to the App Store and downloaded this bad boy onto my iPhone.  It's a FREE app by the way, and I believe it's also available for Android devices.  The workout consists of 12 body weight moves that you perform for 30 seconds each, with 10 seconds of rest in between.  You can literally do this workout anywhere and the only equipment required is a chair (or something you can do tricep dips/step ups onto).  This is a HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout similar to Tabata.  (Tabata is 20 seconds work/10 seconds rest.)

For the past year or so, I've been in love with HIIT workouts.  A few of the reasons being:

• The workouts are shorter in duration than standard steady-pace cardio workouts
• Workouts can be done anywhere
• Require little to no equipment
• Improve athletic performance, endurance and speed
• Greater fat burning than standard cardio
• Combines strength training with cardio

Obviously to be an endurance athlete, you need regular longer workouts every week, but I love doing HIIT in between run and lifting days.  I feel like they help make me faster and stronger and I have definitely seen results in fat burning and toning.  These type of workouts do what standard steady-state cardio can't in terms of getting ripped. Hahaha!  But seriously they are a great addition to your workout regimen.

Soooo, how did this one pan out?  Going into it, I figured I would probably go through the circuit 3 times to get a good workout and that proved to be just the right number of sets!  Before you begin, you can click on each of the 12 moves in the list within the app, which will launch a demo video of that move, in the event there are any you are unsure how to do.  These are the moves:

1. Jumping jacks
2. Wall sits
3. Push-ups
4. Abdominal crunches
5. Step-ups onto a chair
6. Squats
7. Triceps dips on a chair
8. Planks
9. High knees running in place
10. Lunges
11. Push-ups and rotations
12. Side planks

I knew how to do all of these so I was pretty much set to go.  Once you press 'Start' on the app, you have a 10 second countdown and a soothing voice announces the first move.  GO TIME!  You should go all out for 30 seconds.  The soothing voice will then pipe back in and tell you it's time to rest for 10 seconds.  Yippee!  I'm not gonna lie.  During the first round, 10 seconds felt like too long to be resting.  But by the 3rd round, um no.  My heart rate had zero chance of going back down and that 10 seconds seemed like 2 seconds.  So, after 10 seconds, the voice comes back on and announces the next move.  It goes on like this for 12 moves/7 mins.  After each 7 minute set, I grabbed a quick drink of water, and then started the app again for a total of 21 mins.

This may not sound like a full cardio workout but remember you are going ALL OUT/sprinting for 30 seconds over and over again so it's much different than doing a comfortable 30 min steady-state cardio workout.  You get results in less time here.


Verdict:  I really love this workout, the app in general, and the fact that it's Free!  If you travel, if you're on vacation, or if you just don't have the time to make it to the gym that day, this app is so convenient.  Start it up and just do what the voice tells you to do.  How easy is that?!  I've used this so many times since I downloaded it about 2 weeks ago.  I encourage you to go to the App Store right now, download this baby and give it a try.  You have nothing to lose but 7 mins - WORTH IT! 

I personally think unless you are an absolute beginner or just getting back into exercising you should do this more than one time through, but you could split it up throughout the day.  Do one circuit in the morning and one at night; or even tack this onto the end of a run for additional conditioning/strengthening.  I like that it has a pretty even mix of upper body, lower body and core moves.  It's pretty much the perfect easiest little circuit in my opinion.  (I am getting no kickbacks here, I just really like this app!)


So what are you waiting for?! Go workout for 7 mins and then let me know what you think!!


**Disclosure:  I am not a doctor or medical professional so please be safe and use your own personal judgment when starting/doing any workouts I feature!


Do you like HIIT workouts?

Would you/did you try this App?  What did you think?

Bootcamp Wrap-up

My month-long membership at EA All Day Fitness is coming to an end; in fact, tomorrow will be my last workout!  The past four weeks have literally flown by.  I would venture to say that these workouts have probably been the most intense I've had to date and I'd say they were on par with the workouts I did last year during my month-long CrossFit trial in terms of intensity.   This experience has definitely proven to be one of my best Groupon purchases to date! 

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It's not often that I feel really challenged or pushed to my max during a workout; I guess mostly because I work out solo.  I guess I go too easy on myself!  The only class I take regularly at the gym is Body Pump and while it's a great strength training class and I occasionally up my weights, it's pretty much the same succession of moves every week and the level of high intensity bursts of activity is just not there.  When I run, I mostly run for distance, meaning I rarely (if ever) do speed training.  Now of course some runs are harder than others, depending on the day, terrain, etc, and I do push my pace on occasion but again, I'm not sprinting and I'm not carrying around any weights with me so there's no resistance training there.  When I swim, I swim for time.  I'll usually tack on some sprints at the end of the workout but I'm not sprinting the entire time.  On the other hand, I've definitely maxed out several times during the past month at some of these boot camp workouts, but in a good way.  I think the combination of the instructor's enthusiasm and support throughout, plus the team atmosphere in the studio, allowed me to give just a little bit more than I probably would on my own. 

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In addition to being challenged, I've also learned some new moves and picked up a lot of ideas that I can incorporate into my own workouts going forward.  To give you an idea, here is the basic framework for each hour long workout session:

- Most sessions would start off with a 10 minute dynamic warm up that consisted of 60 seconds each of 8-10 different exercises including:  plank, squats, lunges, jumping jacks, running in place, high knees, inchworm to cobra, among others.  The warm up would also sometimes include an 800 meter run.

- After the warm up we'd get into the circuit for the evening.  Sometimes we would do the whole circuit for 45 mins, sometimes there would be 2 or 3 different circuits that we would rotate between for the duration of class. 

- The circuits were pretty much anything our trainer could come up with!  One class we had to go through this obstacle course for 45 mins straight:  Several box jumps in a row, 15 burpees, jumping over low hurdles with a band around our feet all the way across the studio, plank-walking under a series of high hurdles back across the studio and then long jumps all the way back across again - over and over again!  That one nearly killed me.  I could run 5 miles in 45 mins and not feel even remotely as wiped as I did in 20 mins of doing that crazy man course!

- If the weather was decent, sometimes he'd take the workout outdoors for the day.  One night we did a partner workout.  We had to run 400m across the parking lot, then each do 10 burpees over each other while our partner held a plank.  Then we had to run 600m back across the parking lot and do 20 partner push ups (clap hands with your partner in between).  After those, we ran down to a tire flipping station where we had to flip monster 80lb tires about 20 times before moving onto the final station which was holding 45lbs in each hand and walking 100m each!  Phew.  My partner was pretty awesome though so we kept each other motivated.  And even though I was freezing when we stepped outside, about 2.5 mins later I was sweating like crazy. 

- Some other moves we did throughout our workouts this month:  one legged burpees (try them!), using 30lb sandbags to run stairs, suspension cables for arm workouts (pull-ups, curls), squat thrusts, wall sits with weighted medicine balls (kill me). 

It would be impossible to recap everything I've done over the month, but I hope this gives you a good idea what the workouts were all about and what I've been up to for the past month.  The workouts were varied, intense, and fun, and I enjoyed every minute of it!  Almost...

True story.

 

I would consider myself to have a fairly high fitness level at this point, and the studio instructor actually said the same to me one night, however, he mentioned that at this point it's more about getting stronger and faster for me.  He works with people of all fitness levels, from those just starting out to athletes trying to improve their performance, and these boot camp workouts can be scaled for people at every level.  I want to condition myself and my body not just to benefit my running, but because I want to reach a bit higher and see what else my body can do.  I want to see how lean and strong I really can become. 

I'd really love if I could continue on with this studio, even if it's just a couple of days a week between running and other workouts, however I think just like CrossFit the cost is going to be much too prohibitive!  If I purchase a few basic items I could probably do some of the workouts at home.  If I had all the time and money in the world, I'd really love to spend it conditioning my body, however that will probably never be the case for me, or most people.  Between work, family obligations and life in general, most people can't devote hours to working out.  But I think if you do an hour or even a half hour of super high intensity workouts like this a few days a week, you can see pretty incredible results.  Just like this guy:

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Your turn!

 

What's the last workout you really enjoyed?

 

What do you do for cross-training?

 

Have you ever done boot camp style workouts?