Sprints, Upper Body & Core

Today was intervals and weights with Cristina at Pura Vida Club.  We started with springs of course!  After a quick warm up, then minute run at 6mph, I did 7, 7.5, 8, 8.5, 9.5mph, and 10mph 30 second sprints with no problem.  During my 10.5mph sprint I felt my right hamstring tighten up.  I decided to go ahead and try 11mph but at 18 seconds into the 30 second sprint my hamstring said no and I quickly bailed off treadmill.  Cristina had planned for me to do box jumps and other leg exercises but did a change of plans on the fly.

Instead we focused on arms and core.  I started with alternating 12 assisted pull-ups and what I can the caterpillar crawl for 15 hands forward then 15 hands back.  I did three sets of each.

Another exercise set was 12 chest presses with crunches on the ball followed by 14 opposite leg and arm lifts in plank.  The plank move looked easy but I quickly found out it is tough really focusing on balance and core strength.  As soon as I was done with three rounds of that set, I told Cristina that I obviously needed to do those because they were tough.

I also 12 chest wide bar pulls with 12 weighted leg kicks.  When Cristina was setting up the weights for the leg move, I said "5 pounds?!?!?!" She said just try it.  Well it was actually 7.5 pounds and I quickly found out why she went light weight.  Balancing on a bent leg with weighted leg bent and off ground, then kick forward extending leg from knee down isn't easy!

Here's a look at those exercises so you can try them too.

With the hamstring flare up I got a little extra stretch time on it.  Yes I give in.  I'm going to Airrosti to get it worked on.

Let's Do Opposites

Yesterday was my usual Monday Kinesis and Pilates session with Erin at Pura Vida Club.  After a jump rope warm-up, Erin said let's do opposites today.  She incorporated the Move Chair with the Kinesis cables.

Here's one of the moves of opposites.  While pressing the chair's pedal down, I did a double arm row.  Working opposites means full body workout.  It may look easy but keep the balance and form are tough.

This was my last session with Erin before my 40th, exactly one week from today.  While we were in the Kinesis room she let me know how proud she was of me for sticking with it for a year.....not quite there but close.  With fitness goals, a lot of folks get frustrated, get busy, get lazy, or just give up.  Not me.  She knew I was determined to see this through and that's exactly what I'm doing.  Sure is nice when someone let's you know he or she is proud of you.  Erin has been so motivating to me through this year.  I'm certainly lucky to have her as a trainer and a friend.  Of course she knows this quest doesn't just end on Tuesday.  I'm going to have to come up with the next challenge to go after.

After we did about 40 minutes of Pilates infused Kinesis we headed in to the Pilates studio for jump board fun.  That's 3 minute series of double and single legs jumps on the reformer.  An example is jump board with feet parallel for one minute, next minute feet in V position, and third minute alternating feet together and wide.  That's 3 minutes with no breaks.  Since we were doing opposites, Pilates was more of a cardio Pilates.

Constant Climber, Renegade Rows....Great Weight Intervals

Yesterday was intervals and weights with Cristina.  I usually workout with Cristina on Thursdays but had to change because of a lunch meeting this week.  In the session I hit the ground running....literally.  After quick warm up it was into sprints.  These are 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off at 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, and 11mph.  I was really pumped that I only did 30 second rest before the 11mph sprint.  Sometime I'll take 40-45 second before that one.

I didn't get much of a break before hitting the Constant Climber machine to do oblique pull downs for 40 seconds on each side.  These were paired with 10 box squats on each leg.

Then to renegade rows and what I'll call weighted side hops.  The second one is actually to help me with form.  With lunges I tend to turn my toes in slightly instead of pointing toes straight ahead, so these hops are suppose to help hip flexors fire better so I don't turn in.  Those rows are tough to do with weights that roll!  I did 20 renegade rows (alternating 10 on each side) and 10 weighted side hops on each leg.

One other set was biceps and triceps.  As Cristina said when I did a drop set to exhaustion on biceps, "Your biceps need a little love"....in other words they need a lot of work to be ripped!  Those alternated with overhead tricep push downs, which I actually went up on weight with each set.  Got to do 12 of each for the three sets, until the last set of biceps when Cristina dropped the weight and made me keep going with bicep curls to exhaustion.

With the exercise pairs, you do both exercises for 3 sets with minimal rest between sets.

Here's a quick look at how to do the exercises.  Have fun!

Lots of Lunges

Last Thursday was intervals and weights with Cristina at Pura Vida Club.  Instead of coaching me through and time watching, Cristina ran the sprints with me.  I love it when a trainer jumps in and does some of the exercises with me.  We did 30 second on, 30 seconds off at 7, 7.5, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, and 10.5 mph. Then off to do some weight sets including the constant climb machine.  Never done that one...and certainly felt it through the weekend.  I think Cristina was on a lunge kick Thursday because I certainly had to do a ton!

Here are some the exercises including:  Lunges with ViPR Twist, Side Lunges with Weights, Constant Climber, and Bosu Lunges with Overhead Press.

Have fun trying these at the gym!

Push The Circuit

Today I made it the the Mad Abs and Dirty 30 classes at Pura Vida Club that I love to take on Wednesdays but hadn't been able to make in a couple of weeks.  There was no ease back in to class with Mad Abs class set up in circuit style.  So I jumped in and pushed hard for an hour.

Here's the set up for the Mad Abs class that Cyndie taught:

Burpees with weights (I did mine with 10 lbs)
Back Raises on the ball
Plank
Side twist with bands
Crunches with body bar
Side crunches on Bosu ball

Each exercise was for a minute (if side then switched at 30 seconds).  We did 3 rounds of all exercises.

That was just the beginning....Dirty 30 included burpees, of course!  But the burpees had a twist.

Here's the breakdown:

Front Lunges - 20 each leg
Squats - 20
Tuck Jumps - 20
Reverse Lunges - 20 each leg

Medicine Ball Chops - 15 each side  Using weighted medicine ball, start with ball to one side raised up over a shoulder, then slide or chop the ball across your body to the outside of the opposite hip as you squat slightly.

ViPR Push - across room and back  The ViPR is a weighted tube.  You basically bear crawl on your hands and feet as you alternate hands to push the weighted tube across the floor.  I started with the heaviest one for the first round but dropped to a lighter one for the other two.

Nasty Thing - 15 reps  Okay I laughed when Tim wrote it on mirrors.  It should be caused burpees that make you cuss.  Start in push up position, row one arm, push up, row other arm, push up, jump feet to hands, stand up,  extend arms overhead, then return to start position.  Here's the kicker....do these with weights.  First round I did 8 pound weights, but for other two rounds dropped to 5 pound weights.

I got through almost three rounds before the 30 minute class ended.  I was in to my third round of my last set of Nasty Thing and finished five.  I was bound and determined to finish three rounds so I kept going and finished the last 8 of the set.

Pushed it and got it done!

Intervals & 2 Sets Weights

Thursday was my intervals and weights training session with Cristina at Pura Vida Club.  I went in really tired but was still able to push in the workout.  I started with sprints at 7.0 mph and increased .5 mph with each sprint.  These were 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off the treadmill.  Because I was tired I only went to 10.0 mph.  During sprints we laughed because with my crazy schedule, workouts are my therapy!

Then it was in to weights.  Cristina had me do exercises in sets.  Some counts were 12 and some were 6 depending on the move.

One set of 12 was lunges with row.  That was followed with ViPR push ups.  These were 6 on each side of putting one hand on the ViPR and other on the floor for push ups.

Another set was triceps pull downs with side lunge for 12 followed by Bosa Ball leg lifts of 6 on each side.

Here are the great gym moves.

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 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!

Balancing Act on the Foam Roller

Monday was my usual Kinesis and Pilates session with Erin at Pura Vida Club.  One of the exercises Erin had me was on the foam roller.  I have this love-hate relationship with foam roller when it comes to using it for stretches.  I love the benefits but if you use one, you know it can be, well let's just say there can be some wincing and breathing through the roll, especially for calves, hamstring, and IT band for me.

I love when Erin incorporates the foam roller in to abs or back exercises.  She did that Monday with a balancing move that works abs and helps with hip stabilization.

Here's Erin explaining the how to do the exercise.

Intervals & Weights

Thursday was a one hour session with Cristina of intervals and weights.  It was my first push hard workout since tweaking my back and taking two full days off.  I started with sprints of 30 seconds running, 30 seconds off of treadmill.  I did 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5, 8, 8.5 and 9mph sprints.  The goal was to push but not go all out and if back hurt at all stop.  I did fine.  Then she shifted me over to alternating assisted pull ups and lunge step ups.  From there it was on to triceps pulls and weighted leg side lifts.  I really liked alternating upper and lower body in exercise pairs.  Here's that set of exercises.

Next it was on to biceps then a few things with the ViPR.  One of those moves I felt my back so had to modify slightly the alternating swing ViPR squat to overhead press to other side.  It's a move that I've done before with a swing squat, lift, and hop but didn't do the hop because of back.  Last was stretching and I was done for the day.

It was nice to push but not over do it!   

Slow Count Pilates

Monday was my usual Kinesis and Pilates session with Erin at Pura Vida Club.  Erin had a treat for me with some new moves she learned at a training session in New York.  She put me through the ringer doing what I call slow count Pilates.  They were 3-4 minute series of moves done on the reformer.  Each move is done for a minute with  a four count out and four count in steady count for the minute.

They are tough!  The plank series was 3 minutes of just hold on and hope you make it.  But I loved the change and something new to shock the system.

Here's the plank series with Erin cueing the moves.

Working The ViPR Outside

Today was high intensity intervals and weights with Cristina at Pura Vida Club.  We added an extra 30 minutes today to get some great cardio and strength exercises in.  Cristina knows I like to workout outside so as I as I got there we headed out to the top of the parking garage.  After a little jump rope to warm up, I quickly found out the ViPR was my workout partner today.  I actually really love working out the weight tubes.  Exercises outside were 30 seconds then rest 30 seconds with the exception of flipping the ViPR.  That one was 10 reps on one side then 10 on the other.  I did 3 rounds of everything including ViPR shuffle with press and ViPR lunge with press.

Then we headed inside for some weight work including what I'll call an upside push up and box slow one leg squat.

Here's a quick look at five of the exercises I did today if you want to try them.

Intervals, weights, abs, and stretching all in an hour.....this was a jam-packed work your butt off one hour session.  

Parking Garage Intervals

Thursday I did a high intensity intervals workout with Cristina.  But this time we headed out to the parking garage instead of inside at Pura Vida Club.  Since I'm still dealing with a pulled hamstring, Cristina said no sprints until it's better.  That does not mean the intervals are any less intense.  Using a giant rubber band and the ViPR, Cristina managed to once again kick my butt.  But in this workout I not only had my own resistance to use, Cristina pulled on the band in opposite direction as I tried to run and shuffle the other way.  Each interval was done for 30 seconds with 30 second rest.  Each pair of intervals was done for 3 rounds.

First up was what I call band hops.  I did fast small hops side to side inside of the band with Cristina pull band the other way.  We did three rounds of those on each side.

Next was what I call the sled pull and ViPR slams.  I put the band around my waist and ran forward pulling Christina, who was pulling in the opposite direction.

For the ViPR slams, I slammed the ViPR down as hard as I could in a lunge position then quickly shifted over to other side.

The next pair of intervals was band shuffle runs and ViPR put downs.

Next up band shuffle runs.  I put band around waist and shuffled with left lead for 30 seconds then back with right lead for 30 seconds while Cristina pulled band in opposition direction.

In the ViPR put downs the goal is to get the end of the ViPR as close as you can to the ground and you quickly move forward and backward.  I did the left arm for 30 seconds then right arm for 30 seconds.  On these I need to work on getting closer to ground.

Here's video of band hops, ViPR slams and ViPR put downs.  The ViPR is a weighted tube.

Obliques On Ball & 3 Tier Dirty 30

Today was my usual Wednesday Mad Abs and Dirty 30 classes at Pura Vida Club.  Today Cyndie had us use the ball for almost the entire class.  I loved two moves that work the obliques.  For the first one lay on your back with lower legs on top of ball.  Arms are flat either by your side or out in a T position. Simply rotate legs over to one side then back to center and rotate to other side. Do this for 30 to 60 seconds.  It's a great warm up move or stretch.  The other is a Russian twist.  Lay on the ball at shoulder blade level.  Feet of the floor and flat from shoulders to knees.  Extend arms and clasp hands. Rotate hands to one side turning fully so shoulders stack, trying to keep hips squared, then back to center and over to other side.  Do this for a minute.  Both are great moves for obliques.

In Dirty 30, Tim did a little different workout today.  It was just 3 exercises. Push as hard as you can in the first set.  Here's the workout:

400 meters (.5 mile) - Can do on treadmill, elliptical, or rowing.  I elected to run.
40 squat presses with 10 pound weights
40 ViPR pushes (it's sort of a bear crawl pushing the weighed ViPR tube)

200 meters
20 squat presses
20 ViPR pushes

100 meters
10 squat presses
10 ViPR pushes

I did all my running in the 7:30-8 minute pace and actually finished all three sets in under 20 minutes.  Tough, effective, and quick!

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.

Fell Off A Box

If you were at Pura Vida Club yesterday about 12:15pm then you likely saw me fall off a 2 foot box/stand when I did a squat jump. It was one of those slow-mo falls. I landed on top of the box but shifted weight back just enough that I looked like I was one of those Nestea plunge commercials from the 80s...except there was no pool or water to fall backward into.

I was really tired yesterday and completely brain-fried that I forgot my camera for workout.  If I would have remember it, Cristina would have totally caught that fall on video.  Good thing for me I guess.  Bad for you since you miss out on a seriously good laugh at me.

Once making sure I was okay, trainer Cristina said, "Well, at least you know what it feels like to fall."  Yes I do and then what it feels like to laugh at yourself then get right back up and try again.  I had no problem jumping high enough to easily clear the box but for some reason my brain didn't want to trust I could do it. Determined, I jumped again and again. That first fall was the only one in high intensity intervals session.

I warmed up with a few minutes of walking but instead of doing sprints, since my right hamstring is super tight and bothering me, Cristina had me go to the rowing machine for row sprints of 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off. I did these for 8 minutes staying under 2:12 for 500 meters pace.  The last one I went under 2:00 pace for part of it.

I stretched out my hamstring on the foam roller for a few minutes.

Then it was over to the 2 foot box/stand.  First exercise was stand on top of box, lunge, step hop on top of box, then lunge with other leg and repeating as fast as you can for 30 seconds. Then repeating two more times.

Next the the box squats. After the fall I did one set of 10 then a set of 6.

The weighted ViPR was next.  Cristina pulled out one of the biggest (i.e. heaviest) ones. She had do a side lunge leaning the ViPR over to the side, then up and quick switch to lunge other side.  I did three rounds of 30 seconds going as fast as I could with 30 second rest in between.

She dropped the ViPR weight for me to do lunge presses. As soon as I tried, my hamstring said no.  So she switched me to fast squat presses - squatting with ViPR at chest level then pressing it overhead as I stood up.  Being bull-headed I tried lunges with press for the second round and powered through but for third round of 30 second interval I went back to the squats.

I wrapped up the 30 minutes high intensity intervals with more rolling of the hamstring on the foam roller. Guess I need to use mine at home more!

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!

Calves Roll Out

I did my usual Monday Kinesis and Pilates training session with Erin at Pura Vida Club.  My calves were still sore from being shredded in the step class I hadn't plan to take last Thursday.  My calves were so bad Saturday it hurt to walk!

Some how that still didn't get me out of running the stairs in Kinesis.  Erin had me do cable work with so quick intervals to get the heart rate up like 20 seconds of mountain climbers used Bosa ball will ball side down and flat side up then straight into push ups keeping Bosa ball in same position, then  repeat.

In Pilates she put the through the ringer as usual but left some time in session to roll out my calves.  Erin used a bar to roll on them then had me use the foam roller.  I'd used the roller before for my calves but only rolling calves on it, not rotating leg on the roller.

Here's Erin talking me through the calves roll out.

Did Not Mean To Take Step

Thursday I had one hour for a workout - that was it, no more, no less.  So I bolted over to take the new 11:30am Fit Body class at Pura Vida Club.  The class description was:

Give your metabolism a kick start with this cardiovascular and muscular challenge. Keeping your heart rate elevated with bouts of cardio intervals while sculpting the entire body with balls, bands, weights and more. cardio * strength * flexibility

So when I went in and the instructor said grab a step and mat (and nothing else), I should have clued in that it wasn't going to be what I thought it was.

I quickly figured that out as we started in to warm-up.  It was a step class.  A few folks left shortly after the class started.  I'm sure they were like me and expecting a different class.  But I was an aerobics instructor for awhile and always hated it when someone walked out.  So I decided I was already there and to go all in for it since I only had that hour.

After about 20 minutes I remembered why I gave up teaching step.  My knees do not care for it and it does require a lot of concentration to follow routine, something I hadn't really mentally prepared for since I thought the class was something different.

I made it through but it was a long hour workout.  I did enjoy the few one minute drills like push ups, tricep dips, lunges, and jump overs we did.  I just wasn't in to doing a step routine.

Oh well I got some cardio. But my knees and calves have paid for that class for three days now.

After the class I headed over for my final Airrosti appointment on my shoulder.  Dr. Wilson said I lean my head when rotating my right shoulder.  That's probably why I still had some tightness.  So last treatment and it feels good.  Love being able to rotate shoulder without pain!

Going The Rounds With High Intensity Intervals

I was absolutely thrilled I was able to squeeze in a high intensity intervals session with Cristina at Pura Vida Club today. With the snow it was looking like I was going to have to cancel which would have meant a no workout day for me. Instead I got a good old-fashioned butt kickin' today.

Cristina had me start with a quick warm up on treadmill then right in to sprints of 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off. I did sprints at 6 mph, 6.5 mph, 7 mph, 7.5 mph, 8 mph, 8.5 mph, 9 mph, 9.5 mph, 10 mph, and 10.5 mph. Thinking I was done there...boy I was wrong. After a 40 second rest, I hit 11 mph for 20 second then a 30 second rest and 30 seconds back at 8 mph.

At some point in 10 mph spring, Christina said, "You're getting in the best shape of your life." Yes I'm going for it and pushed through. In the 11.5 mph sprint, she said, "You've got this." Yes I did....but barely!

We moved on to the ViPR, or weighted tube.  Cristina had me do three 30 second rounds of curtsy lunges with a jump up should press.  After the second round, I looked at her and said you're going to make me do three rounds aren't you. She just looked at me and smiled.

Next the ViPR drag. That's starting in plank position. Drag the tube with one arms. Move backward three hand placements then drag tube with other arm and repeat sequence for 30 seconds.  I did three rounds.

Finished off with a warm up 30 seconds on rowing machine then three rounds of 30 seconds rowing as hard as I could with 30 second rest in between.

Here what the ViPR and rowing exercises look like: