284/365 Spring Workout: Legs, Shoulders, and Core

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Truth be told, my workouts for these Wednesdays of legs, shoulders, and core changed from week to week. This was mostly due to me being dissatisfied with what I made and introducing sprint intervals to my treadmill routines. This is the workout I enjoyed the most:

Wednesdays
Deadlifts
Squats on Smith Machine
Lateral Flys
Y-Press-Down (illustration to come tomorrow)
Bicycles
Figure 4 Abs
V-Sits

I repeated the legs exercises 3x12, shoulder exercises 2x10, and core exercises 2x25. You of course should listen to your body and decide how many sets and reps you do should you decide to try out my spring workout.

In health,

Lauren

283/365 Spring Workout: Push Muscles

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

As promised, here are the exercises I used to work my pushing muscles; these are the pectoralis and triceps.

Tuesdays
Push ups on BOSU
Dumbbell fly on incline bench
Overhead cable extension
Dumbbell kickback on bench

Fridays
Bench press
Push ups on bench
Dips on bench
Tricep cable press down
Dumbbell fly on ball
Diamond push ups

As with the pull exercises, I started out with 2 sets of 10-12 reps and moved up to 3 sets the next week. After feeling comfortable with 12 reps, I moved up my weight.

I can definitely see a change in my muscle definition from these strength exercises and my weight loss. I know that I've lost 2.5lbs so far, looking to round it up to 3 by Monday. Next, legs, shoulders, and abs exercises...

In health,

Lauren

PS: If you have any questions about any of the exercises I've listed, just let me know so I can make a handy dandy Paint illustration.

193/365 Circuit Training

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Circuit training is a way of exercising your whole body in a fast-paced routine.

Most gyms have a section with weight machines that are numbered or are arranged close together in a circular or linear manner; this would be your circuit. To start, you would begin with the larger muscle machines, like the cable row or chest press. You would perform say 10 reps then move down the line, working your way to the smaller muscle machines, like the bicep curl or overhead press. This is just one kind of circuit.

Boot Camp classes sometimes run in circuits. You have several stations with different activities; you then work at each station for about a minute or so, then you move on to the next one. I've done a circuit with 4 stations (1 minute per station) where you run on the treadmill, do an ab exercise, do a leg exercise, then a balancing exercise. We repeated this 4 times then did another circuit with running plus 3 exercises for a total of 60 minutes. Phew! That was tough but very fun.

I encourage you to get with some friends, a personal trainer, or a group exercise class and try circuit training. It's exhausting but fun.

In health,

Lauren