A Week of Workouts (November 2016)

When this blog first began, I used to share my day-to-day life and post three times a day. This inadvertently meant I shared my daily workouts with you guys and since writing about fitness and sharing workouts has always been one of my favorite things to do in this space, I thought it might be fun to pop in every once in a while to share what a week of workouts around here looks like these days. (Please let me know if this is of interest! I’m thinking I’ll do something like this once a month or so!)

My weekly workouts change frequently but often include a mix of nap time at home workouts, Burn Boot Camp (BBC) workouts, rest days and walks or runs around the neighborhood with Chase and Sadie.

Last week, I spent the first few days in Florida but concluded the week back in North Carolina. Below you will find a little glimpse into what my fitness routine looked during a random week in November 2016!

A Week of Workouts (November 2016)

• Saturday: Timed:Exercise Total Body Workout

I made it to two Timed:Exercise classes during my short trip to Jacksonville last week and loved the workout! I attended a Saturday morning class with my sister and brother-in-law and the three of us agreed Saturday’s workout was no joke! We completed as many rounds of the above workout as possible in 30 minutes. (Disregard the five rounds note at the bottom of the screen since a handful of people surpassed five rounds!) My sister and I got through six rounds and at the end of the workout I was cursing superman pushups! Just when you think pushups can’t get any harder…

• Sunday: Rest Day

Sundays are almost always a rest day around here! I love taking a day completely off of exercise and look forward to lazy Sundays at home with my family. We’ll still often get outside and take Sadie on a walk or something at some point during the day, but it’s never super strenuous. Last Sunday I was in Jacksonville, so I spent my rest day with my family and enjoyed a fun cookout at my sister and brother-in-law’s house.

• Monday: Upper Body Superset Workout

I wanted to squeeze in a quick upper body strength workout on Monday but didn’t want to spend a long time at the gym since I was sneaking away during Chase’s naptime and wanted to be back at my parents’ place by the time he was up. This upper body superset workout did the trick and worked my biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest and back less than 30 minutes.

• Tuesday: 10 to 1 Bodyweight Workout

(Sweaty post-workout pic from Snapchat – Find me at juliepbfingers)

On Tuesday, I hit up the gym in Florida and went through the 10 to 1 Bodyweight Workout I shared on the blog a few months ago. I warmed up with 15 minutes of incline walking on the treadmill before tackling the workout and my workout flew by! This workout is one of my all-time favorites because it’s fast, sweaty and doesn’t require any equipment. The perfect travel workout!

• Wednesday: BBC Stack Workout

After five days away from boot camp, I made my return to BBC on Wednesday last week and was handed a hefty serving of humble pie. Stack workouts are always challenging for me (possibly more mentally than physically) and Wednesday’s workout was called the “Beast Maker” stack workout and more than lived up to its name.

To do this workout, we began with one minute of renegade rows. We then progressed to one minute of push ups before we went back to one minute of renegade rows, followed by push ups and then mountain climbers. Then we went back to the top and began with renegade rows again, followed by push ups, mountain climbers and squats… And so on!

A new exercise was added to the bottom of the stack every time, but we had to go back to the top to make our way back down the stack before adding the new exercise. (Please let me know if I’m not explaining this well and I’ll definitely address any confusion!)

To conclude the stack workout, we combined all of the exercises for one “beast maker” exercise and repeated it non-stop for two minutes. We were all absolutely dripping sweat by the end of this one!

• Thursday: BBC Ladder Pulse Leg Workout

The pulsing included in this workout took me back to my pre-baby Pure Barre days with tiny movements that immediately made my legs feel like they were on fire!

To complete this workout, we went through three total rounds. The first and second rounds, we completed each exercise for 90 seconds each before moving onto the next. For the final round, we dropped it down to 60 seconds.

Now here’s where the fun begins! During each 90 or 60-second timeframe we had to work up and down a pulsing ladder. To do this, you’d complete one tiny pulse at the bottom or top of each exercise, followed by two pulses, then three, four and five. Once you hit five pulses, you started back at one and worked your way back up the ladder until time ran out.

Here are the exercises from Thursday’s Ladder Pulse Leg Workout:

• Kettlebell Squats
• Equalizer Bridges
• Alternating Lunges
• Stability Ball Hamstring Curl
• Bosu Ball Hop Overs

To better explain the pulses, let’s look at the kettlebell squats. To begin, complete one full squat, but at the bottom of the squat, pulse one time before raising back up. Then lower your body back down to a squat and pulse two times at the bottom before raising back up… and so on until you reach five pulses at the bottom!

• Friday: Biceps/Triceps/Shoulders Tripod Workout

HOORAY for arm dayyy! After chatting with some of my workout buddies, I think I’m in the minority when it comes to loving arm day at the gym, but it’s my favorite! Friday’s workout was a good one and incorporated two tripods that we completed in groups of three.

The first person was the pace setter and completed 15 reps of the first exercise in each tripod before signaling the group to rotate. The next person to rotate to complete the first exercise now took over as pace setter and counted 15 reps. We did each tripod non-stop for 10 minutes before moving onto the next one.

• Saturday: BBC Burst + Core Workout

After a brief warm up, Saturday’s Burn Boot Camp workout focused on burst training (plyometrics) and core exercises.

We completed three rounds of 20-second bursts of each exercise pair before moving onto the next. After two total rounds of the entire workout, we went back through and completed two additional rounds of 20 seconds bursts of each exercise pairing before moving onto the next for the third and final round of the workout.

• Grasshopper Burpees + Jumping Jacks
• In-and-Out Crunch + V-Sit Hold
• Touchdowns + Squat Hold
• Bicycle Crunches + Flutter Kicks
• Burpees + Butt Kickers
• Forearm Plank with Alternating Hip Taps + Plank Hold
• 180-Degree Squat Jump + High Knees