PopSugar At-Home Tabata Workout

Workout from--> http://www.fitsugar.com/-Home-Tabata-Workout-22825569

This was a relatively short, but difficult (for me, anyway) workout. I found it to be challenging. Of course, I'm sore from my three workouts yesterday but it did push me pretty hard!

Essentially, it's a tabata workout, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, repeat 3 times with a strength burst of 25 reps of something in between. My full workout came in at about 13 minutes:

Overall, I'm pleased with my heart rate (138 bpm average) considering the 20/10 pacing. I would certainly recommend this for someone, especially if you do a short run or something first.

Here's the list-->

PopSugar Standing Abs + Jump Rope Workout (20 minute interval training)

I follow PopSugar online and they post workouts about every day or so. I made sure to give this one a try since I despise most ab workouts AND I enjoy jump ropes.

Workout details are here (it's not a video, but just pictures and times):
http://www.fitsugar.com/Jump-Rope-Workout-20-Minutes-34635656

I did not use an actual rope for this; I just mimicked the jump rope and jumped in place. But, I enjoyed it. Essentially it's a no rest exercise with jump ropes for 1 minute followed by a standing abs exercise for another minute. It's five different standing exercises total and two rounds.

The outline is:
Jump Rope
Low to High Wood Chops (w/weight)
Jump Rope
Overhead Dumbbell Side Bend (w/weight)
Jump Rope
Kick Crunch
Jump Rope
Row with Twist (w/weight)
Jump Rope
Overhead Circle (w/weight)

I liked the workout. The overhead circle got my heart rate lower than I'd like so I would have preferred something different for the last exercise, but overall it was a good workout.

My heart rate floated between 120 and 150 most of the time, depending on the workout part. Average was 133 with high of 159 for a total time of 20 minutes.

As I put on about 5 pounds in the last 6 weeks with the busy school schedule, too much eating out, and too much ice cream (darn it) I have really got to focus and get back on track for summer!

Hope your summer is off to a great start!! Keep on moving!

Trampoline Workouts

I honestly love rebounding. If you aren't entirely familiar with what that is, it is basically jumping on the trampoline. And I know many people who are my age or a little older probably have difficulty jumping for various reasons, such as our bladder weaknesses, equilibrium issues, and other things that are a sure sign of our age.

But despite all of that sometimes in the early morning or late evening, I like to borrow my children's toy, the trampoline in our yard, and just start jumping. As you know, I like to exercise with my heart rate monitor so that I can make sure I am getting a good enough burn for my time.

Tonight, I enjoyed a 20 minute rather easy workout with a 148 heart rate average. Not too shabby. If your kids have one... give it a try! Trust me when I say that 20 minutes can really work up a sweat!

You Are Your Own Gym

I've been doing "You Are Your Own Gym" workouts the last week. It's a three DVD system with three workouts on each DVD. There is a beginner, intermediate, and advanced DVD. If you do the warmup and cooldown, they are probably 20-25 minutes for a workout. I typically do my own warm-up and cool-down and don't use the stretches on the DVD. 

I did the intermediate Friday/Saturday and I was super sore Sunday! So, tonight I moved on to the Advanced Circuit Training on the advanced DVD. As you can see below, it was four exercises--Iron Mikes (basically jump lunges), Bouncing Push-ups (gag), Jack Knives, and Hip Raisers. Each exercise is 20 seconds long with a very short transition time and then a 20 second rest after all four before you do the next round. Eight rounds. Eight. Long. Rounds.

Honestly, they are somewhat repetitive. Even between levels, you see some of the same exercises. But, I do find them to be effective (or at least, I am sore in places that I am not typically sore!).  I still run and do other aerobic exercise or weights, but this is a nice one to add to my arsenal.

Overall, for the 18 minutes or so of active workout, I maintained an average of 142 bpm with top heart rate of 168. I'm pleased. As I get better at these type of workouts, I feel like I have to work really hard to get heart rates up that high (unless I am running or doing lots of jumping) so this was a great workout with TONS of sweat. I'm a mess!!

I ordered this from Amazon.com-->  

http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Your-Own-Gym/dp/B00AM7EQYC/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

30 Day Fat Burn-Cardio Extreme Workout

30 Day Fat Burn-Total Body Shred

Extreme Full Body Workout Journey Gym

So, the YouTube heading says this is a 20 minute workout. It's more like 27 minutes. So, there's that. Make sure you have time.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MiS8XSlwtg&feature=youtu.be

I really liked this workout. You need an aerobic step. I have one and I don't use it much. Most step workouts are so repetitive and don't really get my heart rate up too much. The step they have on the video.. it's cool. It has some sort of handles and built in resistance. I don't have that, so I used 10 pound free weights. 

My heart rate average was 129 bpm, which was pretty good. It had some extreme ups and downs but never dropped real low (got below 120 a few times, but not tons once I got it up after the beginning). Some of the exercises were pretty challenging (I get scared jumping up with two feet onto the top of the step!) but you'd do an exercise for 30-60 seconds and if it was something that you had to balance on one leg or step with one leg, your supporting leg got super tired. So, good muscle fatigue. 

Anyway, I liked it. I'd like to make my "own version" of this with free weights and my favorite parts of this with variations. I came up with some good alternate exercises even if I do say so myself. :)

Try it!