Cardio Drumming...my experiment.

I recently attended a cardio drumming class in town. It was interesting and very appealing to different levels of fitness. For me, I had a lot of fun. Since I have an aerobic ball, I set mine up on a crate in the living room and used two small trash cans on the side that I picked up for less than a buck at Walmart. I did buy some actual wooden drum sticks online for about $5.

When I attended the class, it didn't seem to really get my heart rate up. But I did not have my heart rate monitor on that day. So today, I create a playlist on YouTube of some cardio drumming videos that were online and let it run continuously while I had my heart rate monitor on. These were some that I thought were not too complicated to learn and that weren't too easy when it came to cardio. Bear in mind that I really try to get into it and squat deep and make big arm motions when I do these activities.

Cardio Drumming playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTMnu3as_aGb5kFMAyNbKBnejMj4wOKCP

My results...

You can see that my average heart rate was nothing great. 105 is not at all where I like to be. However you can definitely see where each song changed and how quickly my heart rate would come down in between songs. So my goal over the next week is to find a few popular songs and try to create some more difficult and more heart-pumping routines on my own.

It is a lot of fun though and I do want to mention that time really does pass quickly when you are doing cardio drumming exercises. And a stepwise, if you are counting your steps, it counted me as just over two miles in about 28 minutes so that's not too bad.

Lean Machines-10 minute interval training (YouTube Review)

Today, I decided to do a short interval workout before hitting the treadmill. I found these two guys, called the Lean Machines, and decided to give their workout a try. It's basically 30 seconds of high knees alternated with another exercise. The first three rounds it is high knees/squat thrusts, second round is high knees/jump squats, and final round is high knees/burpees (no pushup). Since there is no "true down time" in this workout between reps (high knees is not really rest!) it is pretty hard core.

Starting from resting heart rate, my average heart rate for the duration was 145 bpm, which is pretty good for a 10 minute burst workout. Obviously, with these specific exercises, you might need to be in decent shape to get started and you must be able to handle jumping (this isn't real knee friendly).

But, if you need something quick to do, it seemed to go pretty fast! If you are new to this stuff, my advice would be just to NOT stop moving. Even if you get tired. Walk/jog in place if you can't do the exercises full out, but just don't stand still or sit. Great for a good sweat!

Good luck!
Video-->  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MPZ6X_14xg

Monique St. Pierre Circuit Burnout

Review

I got a great deal on a DVD fitness system, Circuit Burnout, Monique St. Pierre on Amazon for less than $18 with free shipping on my Amazon Prime. Tonight, I decided to try the Total Body DVD. This is a roughly 25 minute video that includes a short warmup and cooldown and a 5 minute bonus round (called the SuperSet) as well. All total, my workout tracked on my heart rate monitor as 29:09. I like to keep my workouts between 20-30 minutes, so this worked perfectly. 

Here's my official stats. Good calorie burn as it was intervals. Average heart rate was 123 and max was 159. I would have liked a higher average, but with the warmup being pretty low key, it wasn't surprising. It took a little bit to get the heart rate up.

The workout was total body, so very much a mixture of things ranging from weights to abs to jumping. A few of the moves I remember include.... curls to shoulder press, plank rows, diamond jumps, ski lunges, and several others. I despised the abs... but I guess that's because it's probably my absolute weakest feature. There was a little bit of jumping at times, though not for very long. They did have a gal doing modifications throughout the video, though.

After the workout... always like seeing some sweat dropping off my hair! :)

I felt like this was a decent workout. Some of the in between times were too long and I felt the need to run in place or do jumping jacks to try to keep my heart rate from dipping too terribly. We'll see how the other 4 DVDs are!

NOTE: The Amazon reviews mention the video quality not being the best. It's true that it probably wasn't filmed in a high dollar studio. The microphone isn't perfect, but the trainer is motivating and this first DVD didn't have any issues for me. However, I don't run it off the DVDs... I have a program I bought called WinX DVD Ripper Platinum that I use to pull the video off the DVDs so I can put it on my tablet that doesn't have a DVD player. There was no skipping or issues for me. But, yes, the quality is not excellent. :)

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. :)