Get 'Er Done Intervals

Yesterday I had a one hour intervals and weights session with Cristina at Pura Vida Club.  I text Cristina right before session asking if we were going outside.  YES! I got back.  Ok here we go I thought - one hour of sprints, hops, lunges, shuffles, and other moves that made me tweet out afterward that the new name of my sessions with Cristina are officially called "kick Jen's booty hour."

We did start indoors for sprints.  I'm better at sprints on treadmill so I can watch speed and time.  So after a quick warm up, I was off and running sprints at 6.5, 7, 7.5, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, and 11mph.  I did 30 seconds at each miles per hour then 30 seconds off before going on to the faster speed.

After sprints, we headed outside for some top of the parking garage fun.  First up was set of lunges with ViPR row and shuffles with Cristina adding resistance to the band that was around my waist.  I did 10 lunges with 20 swings and 10 shuffles each side for three sets.

Another series was leg hops over small hurtles and bicep curls.  I did 10 hops then straight in to 12 bicep curls for three sets.

The toughest one for me was the lift of a 24 pound ViPR.  That was followed by jumps over a small hurtle.    Cristina had me do 4 lifts of the ViPR (using 4 small lifts up and down) then 10 jumps.

Here's a look at some of the intervals.

Push Ups & Assisted Hops In Parking Garage Gym

On Monday I had my usual Kinesis and Pilates session with Erin at Pura Vida Club.  It was such a beautiful day that we took my Kinesis session outside and hit the parking garage.  That means running stairs (single steps, double steps, sideways), lunges, push ups, triceps dips, up and overs, jumps, and all sorts of old school fun.  Two of the exercises I did were push ups into side plank and assisted hops.

The the push ups, we found a curb.  I did a push up straight into a side plank then returned to a push up starting position, push up, side plank opposite side, then back to start position.

After running stairs and 10 burpees, I did 20 assisted jumps.  The trick with these is to think about jumping up and over something while holding on to the railing.  Trying to capture a picture while I was at the top of the jump gave Erin and I a great laugh.

Here's a video of both moves:

In Pilates, we did a lot of ab work and some serious work on my hamstring. My tweaked hamstring is giving me fits!  And of course I don't want to totally rest like I probably should.

Take It From The Ten

I went for an intense one hour workout today and took the Mad Abs and Dirty 30 classes at Pure Vida Club.  In Mad Abs, the instructor Jamie used a step, mat, and gliders for the 30 minute class.  After a quick warm up we hit it hard working abs.  My favorite move started in the plank position with hands on the step.  From there we went down on our right forearm and then left and back up to regular plank position.  Then in plank position picked up right leg, took it out to the side four times and then did the same on the left.  Then combined the moves going down on forearms, then up, the legs one at a time out to side.

Next was Dirty 30 with Tim.  He had us do a tough sequence today.  We had a step, mat, weight, and rubber band.  We started the sequence doing 10 reps and worked down to doing 1 rep.  So you do each exercise 10 times, then 9 times, then 8, on down to one rep of each.  Here's the sequence:

Push ups - military style preferred form.

Cross Over Lunges - step one foot in front of the other but at an angle as if you are in a curtsy position, lunge then stand with feet parallel.  Do number of reps on each side.

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


TGU (Turkish Get Ups) - I did these with 5 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.  Split the number of reps between both arms.

Band Row - stand on band, lean forward, the push arms back.

Inch Worm - start in a plank position and walk feet up to hands then back out. This was the hardest one for me.

Jumps on and off step