Push It With Intervals & Weights

Today was one hour of intervals and weights with Cristina at Pura Vida Club.  Which really means one hour of push me to the max.  I went in full of energy and ready to rock after a great day of work and 45 minutes of running around scrambling to get a few errands done.  We hit it right away with sprints after a warm up.  That meant 30 seconds running on treadmill at 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, and 10.5 miles per hour with 30 second breaks in between.

After sprints, it was some arm work, several intervals with VIPR, squats with 85 pound barbell, more arms including TRX moves of pull ups and triceps extensions.  All weights were three sets of 12.  All intervals were 30 seconds with short rest in between.  Goal with intervals is 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off like Cristina has me do with sprints.

Here are a few of the exercises so you can see how to do them if you want to try them out!

Got 30? Go High Intensity Intervals

Yesterday was a high intensity intervals session with Cristina at Pura Vida Club.  I love the tough, kick your butt 30 minute workouts.  Cristina does make me laugh though when she tells me I have another round with a smile.

She had me start with a quick walk then jog warm up on treadmill as set up for sprints.  My right hamstring has been a little extra tight for a few days so I did 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off sprints from 6.5 mph up to 10.5 mph, increasing speed by .5 mph for each sprint.  I had an average pace of 8:42 mph.

Next up lateral jumps shuffle and forward hurdle hops.  Let's just say I wasn't exactly Miss Graceful on those!  These drills are not something I normally do, which is great because they are that much more of a challenge.  Cristina had me do 4 passes of lateral then rest, 4 passes of forward (right lead 1 & 3, left lead 2 & 4) then rest, then do two more rounds.

Then to the ViPR, or weighted tube.  I did a squat swing through then hop twist.  Cristina had me start with just squatting and swinging the the tube up before I advanced to adding the 180 degree jump.  I did three sets of 10 of those.

Here are those two exercises:

I finished out with some glute and hamstring stretches. In and out of gym in 30 minutes...and got a workout that kicked my butt!

Digging Deep To Get Through

Tired, I trudged in to Pura Vida Club for my usual Wednesday Mad Abs and Dirty 30.  Sarah taught Mad Abs.  She had us do 60 second cycles today.  We started with a plank series. Yes started with 60 second in plank!  We did planks, a great pilates series that usually part of her class, and used the ball (mine was a weighed ball) for moves like hip lifts and roll-ups.  Love that she ended the class with mountain climbers and burpees as a warm-up for Dirty 30.

Chalk it up to being tired, gloomy weather, or combination of both but I found myself having to really psyche myself up for workout today.  I knew I was going to have to dig deep just to get through Dirty 30 today.  Well it was definitely one of those workouts that wasn't just going to make me sweat or exhaust me, but one of those that pushes you beyond what you thought you could do that day.

Tim had us do 8 exercises and repeat the cycle as many times as we could in a 30 minute time frame.  Here's the catch - all exercises done while hold weights.

Here's the workout:

Speed Squat - 30 reps
Push Ups - 14 reps
Burpees with press - 10 reps
Speed lunges - 10 reps each side
Bent Over Row - 20 reps
Shoulder Press - 20 reps
Run 4 flights of stairs - 2 times
Turkish Get Ups - 10 reps (both arms this time. Start on back, holding weights perpendicular to floor. Sit up pushing weights to ceiling and return to start position)

Since there were so many of us in class we broke off in small groups and started on different exercises. I started with burpees and ended with push ups as a cycle.  I got through the cycle 3 times plus a fourth round of burpees and lunges.  That was everything I had today.

This afternoon I went to Dr. Brian Wilson at the recently opened Airrosti office in Denver.  I did Airrosti in San Antonio.  It's a rapid recovery treatment for any soft tissue or joint issues.  My right shoulder has been bothering me a lot lately and I was actually going to try to get in to Dr. Jason Garrett back in San Antonio during my next visit.  A lot of pro athletes do Airrosti and I found it does wonders for my shoulder.  I also have issues with my IT band from time to time and get treatments for that too when needed.  It helps me heal quickly so I can push to the next level.  It hurts worse than heck during treatment but results are phenomenal!  Getting pain free is the goal.

Partner Mad Abs & Weighted Dirty 30

I know when I walk into the room for Mad Abs and Dirty 30 at Pura Vida Club that I'm in for an intense workout hour.  Today's workout was a killer as usual.  For Mad Abs, it was a new instructor for me.  Cyndie had us partner up so I got to partner with my friend Amanda, who's a Pilates instructor at the club.

We started sitting next to each other in a V-sit (feet on floor or off) and taking a medicine ball to the outside, tap it on floor then toss over to your partner to do the same thing for 30 seconds.  Then you spin around on the floor and do the same thing for another 30 seconds to work the other side.  Then we sat on the floor facing each other with toes touching, one person takes ball, lays down on floor then crunches up to seated position and toss ball to partner who does the same thing.  We did this for 30 seconds.  Next is the leg push down.  You lay on the floor, legs extended straight in the air, and grabbing on to partner's ankles.  The partner standing up pushes your feet/legs toward the ground. You do that for 30 seconds.  Then you extend one leg hovering above the ground, the other leg extended and do single leg push downs for 15 seconds then switch to other leg.  Then you switch positions with your partner.  Do that series a second time....and that's just the first series we did in Mad Abs.  Other series included tossing the ball, crunching up to do punches, mountain climbers, and moving planks.

Next on to Dirty 30 with Tim.  He did Tabata style today.  We did each exercise for 20 seconds then moved on to next exercise or rested for 10 seconds.  We also did each exercise with some sort of weight.  Here's the series:

With body bar (I used 12 lbs one):
   Row Lunges - start and stay in a lunge and row body bar with straight arms alternating sides
   Squats - Wide grip on body bar and power squat
   Rest
   Repeat but lunge with other leg for 2nd round
   Repeat a 3rd and 4th time alternating lunge positions
   Rest after 4th round is active rest as you move to next exercise station

With weighted tube:
   Bazooka lunges - gripping tube, lunge forward and bring tube up to shoulder as if you were holding a bazooka. Bring tube down as you step back then lunge other side taking tube up to other shoulder. You want a quick pace on these.
   Speed skate - move side to side in a speed skate motion, extending tube out side to side and not up.  Again you want quick pace.
   Rest
   Repeat 3 more times
   Rest after 4th round is active rest as you move to next exercise station

With weighted handle ball (I used 14 lbs one)
   Kettlebell Swing - squat then swing kettlebell up to shoulder height as you stand up.  You should feel this in glutes not shoulders.
   Lean Over Row - lean over and stand on one leg with other leg extended (you look like a T), with ball or free weight in hand of side of your standing leg, row elbow up then down
   Rest
   Repeat but do lean over row on other side
   Repeat 3rd and 4th time alternating lean over row sides
   Rest after 4th round is active rest as you move to next exercise station

Repeat entire series again.
 

Mad Abs & Dirty 30

Today was one of those days that half the battle is getting to gym.  Well I made it and pushed it hard for an hour with Mad Abs and Dirty 30 classes at Pura Vida Club.  Sarah started her 30 minute Mad Abs class with a plank series.  In the class we used the Bosu ball, body bar, and gliders for full body movements that focus on the core.

After than I went straight into Tim's Dirty 30.  It's 30 minutes of doing cycles of a exercise series.  This class is tough!  Today Tim had us do a series of five moves starting with 10 reps each then repeating the cycle with 9 reps, 8 reps all the way down to 1 rep of each move.

Here are the moves in a cycle:
Bent Over Plate Row - bend over at waist with 25 or 45 weight plate (or use two), arms extended, then pull elbows back in a row movement.

Push Ups - on toes, military style.

Forward Lunges each leg - Tim gave me a great tip.  If you do these in place then lean forward slightly.  You'll feel it in your abs more and save your back.

Burpees - Plank, jump feet to hands, then jump up reaching hands to ceiling, returning back to plank

Turkish Get Ups (TGUs) - I did these with 3 pound weights.  Start on your back with one arm up to ceiling with weight in hand.  Use the other hand to help you sit up, then stand up, all while keeping the weight high reaching up to the ceiling, then go back to start position in the reverse of how you got up.

You can do the moves in any order but do them in same order for each cycle.  If you are short on time and need to blast it out this will do it!