Sunday, June 12, 2011

Kickin Butt

Sometimes weekends are full of rest and relaxation.

Sometimes weekends are all about butt-kicking hard work.

Take for instance last weekend.  I opted for lots of rest, forgoing all formal workouts.  I spent my time with friends and family and shopping.

But this weekend (while still full of fun with friends) was also full of sweat and hard work.
On Saturday morning, I took Marsha out to the Davidson College track.  I have been doing track workouts for a few years now and I always enjoy them.  Even when it is hot and humid!  They are challenging, but the mix-up keeps it interesting.

Saturday's workout went a little something like this:

1/4 mile walking warm-up
1/2 mile sprint straight-aways, walk/jog corners
1/4 mile walk
stadiums
1/4 mile walk
1/8 mile lunges
leg lifts on bleachers
1/4 mile walk
box jumps
1/4 mile walk cool-down

This work out was an intense on the legs and I really felt it!  It is hard to explain some of the exercises but I will try my best:

Stadiums:
Run up and down bleacher steps all the way across
Box Jumps:
On the lowest step, we timed 1 minute each and did forward jumps (up and back) and then right and left side.

Leg Lifts:
With one leg on a lower bleacher, and one on a higher bleacher, you walk across lifting each leg toward the side doing an oblique crunch. 

Perhaps next time we head out to the track I will try to video some of our exercises for you!

Marsha and I finished up on Saturday and I headed to the Farmer's Market before fueling up and spending the rest of the morning at the church helping out with clean up.  There are lots of changes going on around our church and major reorganization has been going on!
Iced Coffee and Blueberry Larabar hit the spot.

I welcomed another intense workout this afternoon (Sunday) with Marsha.  Because our legs were so exhausted, I created a weight session that was heavy on the arm exercises.  Because I knew we would just be strength training today, I wanted to incorporate some calisthenics to get our hearts pumping.

Arm Strength Training


6 count push up (burpee)
cable bicep curls on bosu ball
3 point shoulders


mountain climber
cable row seated or standing
lateral and front raises on bosu ball


box jumps/step ups
chest press on ball
assisted pull ups


ones and twos
cable overhead tricep
flye with dumbell




So the workout went like this:

Start with your calisthenics for 1 minute.  Rotate between two strength moves, doing each one a minimum of 15 reps.  Repeat calisthenics and rotate again between the same two moves.  Then move on to the next set.

Example:  Burpees for 1 minute.  25 Cable bicep curls.  15 3-point shoulder raises (on each arm).  1 minute burpees.  25 cable bicep curls.  15 3-point shoulder raises.  And then move on to the next set (mountain climbers, cable row and lateral and front raises)  Get it?

I don't think I realized how much the calisthenics would work our legs.  We were both sore from yesterday and really had to push our limits to make it through a full minute on each of those exercises.  Overall we really enjoyed this work out and highly recommend it for a total body, heart pounding sweat session!

I worked-out hard this weekend, and I played hard this weekend.  Between dinner out with friends on Friday, a day on the lake for Kristen's birthday on Saturday, dinner and drinks with Susan on Saturday night, and all the fun time spent with Marsha, I certainly had a jam-packed weekend!
So that's where I will conclude tonight's post.  Time to get to bed and rest up for another week.  Can you believe it is just one more week until I leave for Africa!  It is time to get prepared.  I have lots of food I need to use up in the house, packing to do, cleaning...not to mention work!  Oh boy!

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