Firstly, thank you to everyone for helping me reach 10,000 subscribers on my Youtube channel!
The other day I was messing about on the computer trying to create more workout slides for posting on Facebook and for me to use in a special collection I want to put together on the site. After I posted the picture below, I got a few comments asking what some of the exercises look like. What better way to demo the exercises than by actually doing the workout myself and filming it. So, here is another killer workout!
The Workout
The handy photo-slide explains the workout today!
Here are my numbers (reps and weight used):
Quad 1
16kg (18, 17)
Same (18, 16)
20kg (33, 32)
Didn’t count
Quad 2
16kg (16, 13)
16kg (15, 13)
Same (same)
Didn’t count
Quad 3
12kg (21, 18 )
20kg (28, 29)
Didn’t count
(11, 11)
That’s it for today everyone. I will leave you with a little challenge I have set myself. In the video below you will see 2 different sets of me swinging 2x20kg by 8 reps each time. I REALLY want to get 10 or even 15 reps soon, so I will be working on these HEAVY-ASS Swings every day. My goal is to swing the 2x24kg by 10 reps. We will see!
Next post will be the LONG AWAITED hip mobility “drill”/ advice.
9 months ago that I did my last pyramid workout, and it was a total killer! Either, I didn’t make this one hard enough, or I am a lot fitter all of a sudden! That being said, I still found this a really challenging (and fun) workout routine; it left me energised, not dead.
*thumbs up for not being dead* 😉
This post has to be a brief one, but I wanted to ask you to call back tomorrow for a VERY exciting and belated announcement!
The Workout
For anyone who hasn’t done a Pyramid-style workout before, this is how it works:
You choose your exercises (ones which are better suited to set-reps) and then you plan how many rounds you would like to do (I chose 5 rounds). The first 3 rounds you build the reps up and then the final 2 rounds you reduce the reps back to the start. The point of this is to build intensity, and allow for good total volume of reps spread over the 5 rounds. You don’t need your top round (round 3 in this case) to be your usual MAX reps, because you will be pre-fatigued and still have more rounds to go. You are not meant to rest very much between exercises or rounds – this also builds intensity.
This is a workout ladder of death LOL. Normally a ladder will ascend with reps on a “rung”, so it might look like 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 for a set. And you may do that set a few times, resulting in a ton of volume.
I wanted to experiment with keeping the reps the same, but changing the load each rung. It was also a double exercise ladder, as you’ll see.
Basically, death.
NOTE: To make it possible to do with only 1 or 2 weights available, I’ve added another way to do this ladder by keeping the load constant, but changing reps each time.
The Workout
The video really explains everything, but what I did was 4 rounds in total, resting 2-3 mins between rounds:
Rounds 1 and 2
Goblet Squat x 10 reps <== or: 3-4 (sets/rounds) of 4-6-8-6-4 (keep load the same but do these reps)
Two-Handed KB Swing x 10 reps <== or: 3-4 (sets/rounds) of 5-10-15-10-5 (keep load the same but do these reps)
I did it with 16kg, 20kg, 24kg, 20kg, 16kg
Rounds 3 and 4
Two-Handed KB Swing x 10 reps
Burpees x 5 reps <== or if you want to add burpee in: do 2-4 (sets/rounds) of 4-6-8-6-4 (do push-ups in all rungs, or just some)
Again, 5 stations.
The 5 burpees seem easy in your head … not so, once you get to the 24kg :-/
This workout took about about 15 minutes.
Have fun – and I’ll be back soon with more more more 😀
Lately I made a pact with myself that I would try and upload more workouts! I confessed on Facebook last week that I had been increasingly lazy with my conditioning workouts. So, with September around the corner, I thought I might use the 30 day month to pose a challenge to everyone (including myself). The challenge is to do 3 KB and Body Weight Workouts (not all will be posted) each week for the whole month! I will also be doing my 1 or 2 heavy days in the gym, but I realised last week that my conditioning has suffered because of my laziness. It will also be interesting to see if my body composition changes too … I have a feeling it will 🙂
The Workout
I actually posted a similar workout on the myomytv Facebook Page over the weekend and I enjoyed it so much, I thought I’d film it.
Set your Gymboss Interval Timer for 18 cycles of 20 seconds rest and 40 seconds effort (adapt to your own fitness level), and perform 3 rounds of the following 6 exercises (my reps per exercise and weights used are in brackets):
Tactical Reverse Lunges (20kg) (17, 16, 16)
Two-Handed KB Swing (24kg) (28, 27, 27)
Weighted Side to Side Step Overs (6kg) (41, 39, 36)
Burpees (13, 12, 12) – eek!
Inverted Row (12, 1o, 8 ) – again … eeek!
Vertical Pull Burpee (20kg) (9, 8, 7.5) – when did these get so tough?!
Love, Love, Love 18 minutes of HIIT! Done and dusted in such a short time.
It pleases me to no end to say “I’M BACK!”. Thank you all so much for all your kind words of support and endless patience over the past few weeks. It really does mean a lot to me 🙂
In the lead up to this new workout I was limited to doing a few basic lower body exercises and mobility work to really “free up” my ankles, hips and lower back that had become tight from years of paying them little attention outside of loading them up and jumping a lot! Out of everything I have done over the last few months, three recent additions have made the biggest difference:
Hip Mobility
Introducing spinal mobility work (moving the spine in all its intended directions)
Foam Rolling: calves, quads, IT Band, hips, glutes, and my whole back.
I have been so focused on “protecting” my lower back by keeping it rigidly neutral ALL THE TIME, in the same plane of movement, that there is no give in it when I have to move suddenly and/or awkwardly (which I often do in work). By back extends, but poorly flexes (both anterior and lateral flexion). Perhaps my SI Joint has had to pick up the slack?? Who knows, but I think that most of us could do with remembering that, while spinal STABILITY is very important during many activities, the design of the spine suggests it was meant to move, and move in more than 2 directions. Like everything, you must not load these movements until you have achieved good range of movement. Otherwise you will risk injury. You will notice that I perform 2 new exercises in today’s workout. I caution you to take the advice I offer at the end of the video, and use body weight first.
Another small thing I want to talk about now is something else that caused more stress while I was “off training” than I am happy to admit …. I worried about getting fat more than I have for a long time 🙁 I can tell by how I look on camera and how my clothes fit now that I have gained a little weight. I struggle with adjusting my calories to suit my activity levels, and I tend to be an emotional eater – not a good combo when you’re less active and depressed about it LOL! Anyway, I have spent quite a long time “preaching” that by focusing on performance goals, aesthetic goals become less important … hmm, until you are out of action with an injury! Yes, I worried about losing strength, but if I’m honest, I worried more about my body fat and my cellulite than how many pull ups I could still do. Luckily, I resisted the temptation to weigh myself, or that could have made things even uglier, as I dove further into self-pity!
That being said, now that I am back in full swing, I am not going on some fat loss journey (this breeds the fat loss mentality quicker than rabbits on caffine). I worried that my obsession to be lean had come back, and that I would go to extremes with my training and eating to undo the PERCEIVED fat gain. Thankfully, my rational mind has returned and I am simply doing what I was doing (training to reach strength and performance goals) with the PEACE OF MIND that fat loss will be a SIDE EFFECT. What I did learn from the past is that having fat loss as your only goal/main (for me) makes it encompass your thoughts, and your actions become irrational: Like you start doing loads of cardio again, start depriving yourself of the foods you love, cutting carbs (things that you haven’t done in years) … all because you panic that what you did before might not work.
Now I know (in my 30 years wise 😉 ) that I had found what works for me. Strength Training + Intermittent Fasting + relaxed attitude = Best body for Marianne 🙂 This combo worked for me before, so why not again. I now know how important the training is and how, if I am inactive again, I MUST adjust my eating temporarily if I want to look the same.
Fellow Girls Gone Strong Co-Found Jen Comas Keck wrote a great article last week on a similar topic. I highly recommend you read it if you have a tendency to panic at the slight hint that things aren’t working. I found myself nodding in agreement throughout.
ANYWAY – with all of that off my chest, let’s get back to business!
The Workout
There are 4 Triplets in today’s workout. I set the reps and used my Gymboss Interval Timer for some exercises that I set for 40 seconds. I performed 2 rounds of each Triplet before moving on. Of course feel free to adjust the reps, times and rounds to suit yourselves, but this was enough for me today!
Triplet 1
1.5 Rep Double KB Front Squats x 5 – 7 reps (I used 2x14kg)
Burpees x 40 seconds
Side Bends x 12 – 15 reps each side (I used 6kg, but started a few weeks back with body weight only)
Triplet 2
1.5 Rep Single Arm Row (Right and Left) x 5-7 reps (I used 16kg)
Dynamic Squats x 40 seconds
RKC Plank x 40 seconds (legs together method)
Triplet 3
*Russian Hockey Deadlift (aka Rotational Deadlift) x 20 total reps (I used 16kg)
Double KB Military Press x 5 – 7 reps (I used 2x14kg)
Hanging Knee Raises x 12 – 15 reps (purpose to work on unloaded lumbar flexion)
*David Dellanave wrote this very interesting article on different lifts such as the Rotational Deadlift and I will be writing more about my experiences in relation to the improvement in my SI Joint issues.
Triplet 4
Pull Ups x 5 – 7 reps (only managing 5 of these)
Two-Handed KB Swing x 40 seconds (I used 20kg)
Side to Side Bench Jump Overs x 40 Seconds (trying to avoid single leg exercises, plus this is a great core workout!)
Well folks, that is it for today. I felt great after this workout, and I was so happy to have the lovely weather with it. Hope you all enjoy it too!
