5-4-3-2-1 Workout

Site for workout

So I was almost headed to the shower when my friend Lea Anne posted this short 15 minute workout. I figured ... why not? :)

Here is the workout. Since I'd already done my treadmill this morning I did the suggested cardio exercises.

Let me tell you.... those squats were BURNING. I mean, ouch!! I did reps on those instead of seconds (15 reps of each back and forth). 

One thing I loved is that the workout really did seem to speed by. I was just using my heart rate watch (my Polar) to watch the time, so I wasn't checking my heart rate along the way, but it never started beeping, meaning I was in range for cardio.

My average heart rare was 139 for the 15 minutes. That's not bad with strength training and a plank in the mix but I guarantee you .... I got my sweat on!  Give it a try sometime if you are short on time!

Backyard Workout

Here's me in my backyard! Today, I read an article about backyard fitness and I thought that was a good idea, but they had you essentially doing boring things in the yard... I mean, planks... whatever. So, to the garage I went looking for props and ideas...

Our list of exercises included:

1. Obstacle course (aka outdoor seating rearranged) w/weight and burpee-- you pick up the kettlebell and then weave in between the furniture and back. Put it down, do a burpee with no pushup, and then repeat.
2. Roundhouse leg kicks-- I found one of those long squirt things and pushed it into the ground. We just did five reps on each leg of kicking over it and then touching the ground and repeat.
3. Chair runs-- two lawn chairs and you run sprints from chair to chair
4. Tree pull lunges-- I had $1 gadget that I put my stretchy band thing on and hung from a tree branch. We just used it to balance and as resistance and stepped into a reverse lunge.
5. Surfer log jumps-- We have a few wooden things in the yard near a tree that you can step on. So, I put a few of those water foam things you float around on and you just jump off the log over them and repeat.
6. Trampoline-- Yard trampoline #1, do what you want (I have a pogo stick... if I didn't have a trampoline that might have been fun...)
7. Racket Ball-- I had an old racquetball raquet and a lightweight kids ball. It was a balance or toss and catch activity (keep it off the ground). I wish I'd have had a badminton racket and shuttlecock. It would have been better.
8. Trampoline-- Yard trampoline #2, do what you want (if I didn't have a yard trampoline, I might have done jump ropes or something like that)
9. Soccer buckets-- I put two buckets as guides. We just run the soccer ball from one to the other and around the bucket.
10. Cooler pull and frisbee run-- I had a cooler that I threw 2-liters in. I set out two frisbees, one to mark a spot and one to use and then set a marker (box) on the other side. You drag the cooler to the frisbee and leave it, pick up the spare frisbee and run to the other spot to drop it, and then repeat. You are either toting the cooler or running the frisbee each time. 

Demo video by my kids--> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsaJB__lCSQ&list=UU9wQQEwTOd0KKonVpoxvpAA

As usual, we did 20 rounds (2 full circuits of 10 stations) of 45 seconds on, 15 second rest/transition. My heart rate was 151 average and high of 161, so it stayed rather consistent with no real lows. We did have two stations that were low activity (lunges and leg kicks) but most kept you jumping or jogging. 

So... challenge your kids to find fun ways to exercise in your own backyard!

Another Playground Workout ... Blanchard Elementary

Today, we visited a playground near Southeast Missouri State University-- Blanchard Elementary.

Like our standard playground interval circuit, we came up with 10 stations and worked through the circuit two full revolutions with 45 seconds of activity and 15 seconds of rest for a total of 20 minutes. 

Exercise stations included:

• (on the mat section) Duck walks and Gallop runs
• Ladder up/downs
• Climb and slide
• Climb and monkey bar swing
• Hurdles (or modified assisted cartwheels)
• Swing jumps (or modified zig zag runs)
• Climb and slide (other slide)
• Obstacle course
• (on the concrete slab) High knees, bunny hops, box corner line drills
• Jungle gym climbs (or modified squats or squat hangs)

Check out the demo by my kiddos:

My final heart rate numbers--> average of 150 bpm and max of 167 bpm. And... it was HOT today. Whew.

Fitness Blender Cardio, Abs and Butt workout Red light Green light

Here is my red face after this workout. Don't let my numbers fool you... though I averaged in the 130s heart rate, that is due to the fact that they work in ab intervals where you are on the ground and thus, your heart rate drops down. It was a really nice interval training!

My numbers:  132 heart rate average with a high of 156 bpm

Total workout time as just over 25 minutes; that included a warm-up. No cool down was provided.

Essentially, this workout had some more "combination" cardio intervals (such as jumping jacks with a squat in between or  flutter kicks with a squat and 180 degree turn) so they weren't boring. I wasn't a huge fan of some of the ab exercises, but they did "hurt" or rather tire out my abs or obliques, so I guess they were effective.

What was cool about this workout was what they called "red light, green light" and that means that each exercise sequence would be a certain length (I can't remember if it was 120 or 180 seconds) and you would go for a certain amount of time and then they'd call red light; so the thought is you work hard because you know that a break is coming down that 120 seconds or whatever. They did ask during recovery segments that you move in place or jog in place if you felt you had the energy to do so.

I liked it. It didn't involve weights, only body weight. However, some of the floor exercises might be challenging if you have shoulder or hip issues and there is a good deal of jumping, so this is pretty high impact. 

So, for overall toning along with cardio, I give this workout a B+. It seemed to go by pretty fast and had plenty to keep you from getting bored. :)

Playground Workout--Clippard Elementary Playground

So, my two daughters (ages 8 and 12) joined me to work out today. We are trying to do 20 minutes of family exercise daily this summer. Involving them in deciding the workouts seems to keep them more motivated than the days when I say we are going to jog the trail or go for a nature walk. So, we've decided to give this a shot.

It was a bit of a learning experience. It took us a good while to figure out what we wanted to do, the order, and how to adapt it for my younger daughter or anyone who can't do some of the harder things (like monkey bars). So, we were already hot before we even started!

Our 10 circuits were:

• Triangle slide climb
• Step ups/jump off
• Monkey bars or parallel arm lift swings
• Reverse pushups
• Climbing wall
• Slide step ups
• Obstacle course section
• Concrete tunnel/runaround
• Swing
• Swingset Hops (or alternating swing stands on one leg)

Here is my oldest daughter doing the demo of each of the 10 stations!

What we learned:

• Some stations were too hard do do for 60 seconds each. Our original intention was 1 minute intervals with 10 seconds in between. So, 30 to 45 seconds is more ideal. We did one round with 1 minute but I noticed my youngest daughter had to run in place quite a bit (we had a rule to just keep moving if an exercise got too hard). And, by the end, we were all dreading having to start over for the second circuit. So, the second time through, we did 30 seconds on with 15 seconds off. That was better. If you are exercising with a little child, that's probably better. With my oldest daughter, we think 45/15 is a good balance for teenagers/adults.
• We did make the mistake of having pushups back to back with another arm exercise. That was a mistake. In the future we will not put two extreme arm exercises right next to each other. 
• A break might be necessary (walking or light jogging) between sets; since our first set was just too long, we did break with a walk between sets this time

If you try something like this out, please share!!! :) We had fun!

Playground Workout-- Shawnee CAYSA Playground

Today, my oldest daughter, Sierra Beth, and I tackled a new playground. This is the playground from a distance. We came up with 10 exercises that get maximum burn! You will get a great cardio workout and get some strength training at the same time. 

Our circuits list:

• Slide climb
• Wall climb
• Pushups or bounce planks
• Ladder climbs
• Step climb and swing
• Fireman ladder, pike, and slide
• One legged squats
• Sprints
• Balance beam
• Stool steps

I have an Android phone and used the Tabata HIIT timer to give us audio cues to switch. We did 20 rounds with 45 second rounds and 15 seconds for rest/transition between exercises for a total of 20 minutes. There were 10 circuits, so we did each circuit twice.

Here is a link to my demo of the 10 exercises we came up for at Shawnee park and you can watch below... I'm 39 years old, but I can do it, so you can, too!!! --> 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqqEt1xkC4Q

My daughter is much better, though... here's a 12 year old going for it! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghtGS3LPhT8&list=UU9wQQEwTOd0KKonVpoxvpAA

My average heart rate for the 20 minutes of this circuit was 155 bpm! Wow!