Hey all,
Do you ever get days when you are bursting with energy and just feel like doing an insane conditioning session? I used to get days when I would just go and sprint down the street all out for as long as I could – just because I had the energy and notion to do it – Maybe the title should read “Insanity Rules”! Anyway, these days sprinting hates me, so I have to turn my focus to other types of exercises like good old KBs and BW 🙂 My attention turns to Interval Training at Home.
I was a little short on time today because I had a list of things to get through, so I kept my workout short and sweet.
The Workout
Set your Gymboss Interval Timer for 18 cycles of 15 seconds recovery and 45 seconds effort and complete 3 rounds of the following 6 exercises. My reps per exercise and weights used are in brackets:
- Kettlebell Vertical Swing/Pull Burpee (20kg) (13, 12, 10.5)
- Side to Side Step Ups (47, 45, 45)
- Two-Handed Kettlebell Swing (20kg, 20kg, 24kg) (31, 31, 29)
- Burpee (14, 12, 12)
- Renegade Row (2x16kg) (18, 17, 15)
- Weighted Dynamic Squats (6kg, 6kg, 12kg) (28, 25, 19)
EEK, those Weighted Dynamic Squats were tough!
Have fun with this one – it’s a great wee workout!
Cheers!
Marianne
Hi Marianne,
I have found your videos to be very useful and informative — thanks for having them available. Have you thought of indexing them in different ways — for example, if I was looking for workouts that had renegade rows, or weighted dynamic squats, is there a quick way of finding workouts that predominantly involved those? Also, maybe organizing by objective — strength, cardio etc; or by length of time involved. I also like the tutorials — for example the one on reverse lunges. It would be great if those were indexed separately and made easily accessible. For example I was looking for one on technique for snatches but haven’t been able to find one on your site. Just suggestions — since I know that just means more work for you.
Keep up the videos — just what I was looking for!
R. D. Nair
Myomy! What a lot of time I must have on my hands to go through each workout and re-organise them! eek! 😉
I can totally see what you are saying and I do want to re-categorise them a bit more, eg “strength” “conditioning” etc or something. But, the beauty of my workouts is that you shouldn’t need to search for workouts that are made up of predominantly any exercise. I never design them that way. Each workout, on the most part, is designed for balance and for the whole body. Eventually I might be able to tag them better, but that is very time consuming. I will tag them better from now though.
Also, most workouts last 20 – 30 mins, so it’s a little pointless to have another category for “time”. Besides you can always adjust the times, reps etc to fit in with your own schedule.
For the tutorials, there are not likely to be many more, so there are few enough to just scroll through without the search needed. At present I have not done a tutorial for the snatch. It is on my ever-increasing “to-do” list. 🙂
I hope you don’t think me rude, but I have been doing this for nearly 2 years and I know just how pain-staking it will be to go through over 200 posts to change things! I could do 5 a day for a while, just so I don’t stab myself in the eye with a sharp object out of shear frustration 😛 Maybe when I win the Lotto, I will just pay someone to re-organise and index my entire site!
I think organising by objective is more realistic and many regulars to my site will know I have been wanting to do that for a while now. Actually probably a year now :-/ I’l do it one day, I promise!! 🙂
I just wanted to say thanks for your website 🙂 It was really useful to have a ready made circuit ready at short notice. This is the type of thing I do with my trainer on a wednesday but couldn’t meet him today.
I did this workout this morning and it was great, challenging, especially the weighted dynamic squats.
Next time I’ll try the 20kg KB, I was doing 16kg with 1. and 3., I matched the rest (though read the dynamic squats wrong and did them all with 12kg).
Oh, and I had 60s rest between each set!! Need to work on that next time.
I followed it with some abs on the gymball, 35 crunches, plank for 90 seconds, 20 crunches, plank for 60 seconds and 15 cruches, plank for 60 seconds.
Sylvaine
Wow, great job! Glad my workouts can help supplement your training 🙂
Cheers
Marianne
Heya, I did this again yesterday with my new gymboss (xmas present :D) and definitely improved on last time.
I kept to the same weights but didn’t rest between the sets and it was truely a great workout. I’ll try a different one next time, probably something to do with chin ups, one of my favorite exercise!
Thanks again for the time and effort you put into this site, the video workouts are brilliant. It can’t be easy to fit it all in and I think a lot of people really appreciate it!
You’re welcome. Have you figured the Gymboss out yet? lol
Have a great weekend 🙂
Hello from long ago! OK, Art of Strength didn’t cut it — strong but too much rest. My long bike rides with my slooow friend didn’t cut it either — I am going to have to ride alone 🙁 And I’ve gained about 5 lbs — the first weight gain in 18 months, and I know its b/c I haven’t be doing your killer metcons.
This did it! I am so glad I am back. Your workouts are the killer combo of strength and conditioning… I don’t know why I bother with anything else! OK, lesson learned… I am back with my tail between my legs.. and I had to take it a bit easier than I would have a year ago!
1. Vertical swing burpees 12 kg (2 kg less than usual) 11.5, 9.5, 10
2. side o side step ups, touching 40, 39, 40
3. 2 handed swings 16 Kg (used to be 20kg on a good day) 27, 26, 27
4. Burpees 11, 11, 11
5. Renegade rows 12 kg 18, 18, 16 (nothing lost here!)
6. weighted dyno squats ooh no! 15 kbs 23, 20, 23 Evil warmed over.
Now onto a mobilityWOD to cool down.
Excellent. Not very sweaty, but my pulse was up about 145-150.
It snowed last night anyway, all highways in or out are closed today, so there was no way I will be cycling this week, except inside on the trainer.
Hugs
~ Gillian
Hi Gillian!! It’s great to hear from you! I was thinking about you recently wondering how you were getting on!
Don’t feel bad about trying something new, I think everyone has to find a combination of what works for them, both physically and mentally. Sometimes a change is good. It’s great to have you back! 😀 You’ll be hitting your old numbers sooner than you think!
So, have you moved house and all? (I apologise if you have already mentioned this in the forum, but I easily over-look stuff sometimes, as I busy looking for questions mainly 🙂 )
Hug from me too
Marianne
Good workout. Will give it a go for sure.
ps. You are looking hot. 🙂
Hi Marianne,
I have done this workout yesterday and again today and it is deceivingly hard! 6 exercises seems OK, but those weighted dynamic squats are good, in an evil way.
A nicely tailored workout once again that I can feel doing me good.
I reckon that I have reached a good level of fitness, judging by my recovery from a workout or a hard badminton session, and your workouts are the reason, many thanks.
I must chase up the physio I use to get a proper fitness test done, for some definitive measure of my fitness.
Best regards, Peter
Thanks Peter – let us know about your fitness test 🙂
I did this workout this morning and was sweaty and exhausted at the end! It was great! I used a 20lb kettlebell for the first time today!
YAY! Good for you Ann. How did you find the heavier Bell?
not going to lie, since i have only done one workout , which was yesterday in a week, today’s was tough, and i will admit, i could only get through two rounds. However at the end i did add 10 round the worlds, 10 taticals each side, 10 regular swings and 10 goblet squats, and 10 elevated plank climbers.
Wow, you added in quite a bit there at the end – good job! 😀
How would you do the burpee/vertical swing with a dumbbell?
Rachel, you could use 2 dumbells and either do an upright row instead of the overhead pull, or do a double or alternating dumbbell snatch from the floor. I think the snatch would be better if you can do them 🙂
Hey Marianne!
I’ve been wondering this and have yet to ask. I realize that the home workouts you do are certainly strength geared, and it is evident that you also load up the barbell quite effeciently but I just don’t understand how often or in what way you train… does that make sense? I train heavy with weights- compound, and difficult bodyweight variations, and see that you obviously do/recommend the same! But I am just leery of trying stuff like this along with the other stuff because I need enough rest for power in the weight room or I’d be toast. Do you do these sessions along with barbell training in the following days? Is this just more strength- geared than it appears because the kettlebells are probably heavy so you do less barbell?
All of this is just curiosity into how you schedule your training and find optimal strength and recovery abilities 🙂 Thanks
Hey April,
I think I need to write a post on this, because I must get asked this question every day 🙂
I only train 4 times per week. 2 days I do strength training in the gym (all compound exercises with BB or BW), then I do 2 KB and BW conditioning workouts on separate days. That means I have 3 full days recovery per week. I’m not exactly sure what you are asking when you ask if these workouts are more strength-geared than they appear? The weights in KBs are a lot lighter than what I lift with the Barbell, but I am still able to maintain my strength without the Barbell. If you look at question 9 in my Interview with Bret Contreras, his answer may help you understand why my workouts compliment my strength training so well.
I would imagine if I always trained the way I do in the gym, I would burn out.
The question of “how much recovery” is often an individual thing too. So, what is enough for me might not be for someone else.
Have I answered your question? Sorry if I haven’t :/
Hah woops must’ve missed the other commenters asking the same question! You answered well and I gave a look at your interview with Brett.
I’m trying to find my personal recipe for good strength results along with adequette recovery.
I have a farely dominent history of full body barbell, but the passed couple of months I switched to 4 days a week of upper/lower. As these got increasingly intense, I found myself under a “delayed-onset burnout.” After taking a partly accidental, extended break, I’ve come back refreshed and have decided to do a 3-day full body routine recommended by Nia Shanks over at the JCDfitness blog. While it’s simple, I can tell that it too will be increasingly intense, and dont know if I can take full body blows with only one day in between anymore! Is it wrong to hit a muscle with only one day in between? I’m planning on being really careful and smart with my intensity and truly listening to what my bod says. I notice the larger muscle groups need the rest significantly more than the smaller (this even goes for saying my upper body will heal quicker than my glutes and lower body as it is much smaller). I was just curious to what you found works for you. You’re fortunate to have access to kettlebells! I don’t. Sometimes I think I’m afraid to let go of what I think “should” work for me and just do what my body would like better. Like I’m afraid to find out what my recovery needs really are… as if it will have me training a whole lot less frequently…makes me feel like I might “miss out” if I take it easy more often. Just struggeling for balance I suppose. Haha strange huh? Anywho thanks for the help!
April, I don’t think it is always wrong to hit a muscle group after one days rest. It depends on how you feel. It might even be different week to week. Maybe you need to look at the duration and volume of your training? Like it’s all very well planning to train 3 days per week, but are you training intensly for an hour or more? Maybe you could shorten your workouts and do 4 shorter sessions?
What are your training goals? I don’t think KBs or my workouts will negatively effect your recovery. Even if you lay off the heavier stuff and include a bodyweight workout once or twice a week, it might let you see that just because you are not doing your usual type of training that your strength will not disappear. You will be reinforcing good mechanics, so it may actually benefit your lifts and your recovery. Try it for a few weeks and see. You won’t lose your fitness in that space of time 🙂
These three days are “intense” but not long. 45 minutes..when my rest is long. In fact one of them, is hardly taxing. (this is my first week trying this “program” and today was particularly un-draining). Previously I just had too much volume AND intensity going at the same time and I didnt take it well, if anything I got hurt! I’m actually small-framed as well, so it almost feels that much more taxing on my CNS to go so hard with so much volume, so frequently, while I don’t even have a great big body to handle it all. Not to mention some pressures of a new job at starbucks and finals and stuff… 🙂
I read your newest blog entry and am the EXACT same way when it comes to “following something prescribed.” I can’t do it. I’m a rebel for it… I always wanna change it or adjust it, not because I’m ADD or inconsistent but because I ligitemately don’t always “feel” like what the cookie cutter program is prescribing- some days I actually can take or need more, sometimes I truly need less.
Youre recommendation is great and I plan on taking it up! I’m trusting it won’t destroy my strength levels, but even possibly help!
Thanks for the newest post to clear everybody up!
Hi Marianne,
Linked in through Girls Gone Strong FB page.
What are weighted dynamic squats ?
Thanks,
Joe
Hey Joe, thanks for stopping by 🙂
Did you watch the video of the workout? You will see me perform this exercise there. It’s much easier for you to understand what it is by watching it, as it hard to explain 🙂
Cheers
Marianne
PS….also, what brand is your platform. I’m in the market for one and if it’s adjustable, then that may be my best best bet instead of getting 2 platforms.
Hey Garry, It’s a Reebok Deck and it is indeed adjustable. The levels are 9” and 15”. If you follow the link it will take you to Amazon where they sell them. It is very sturdy and I love mine. Was a great buy 🙂
Hi Marianne,
Thanks very much for the link but unfortunately, the Reebok Deck is not available in the states, only in the UK. They won’t ship over here. I’ll keep looking.
Garry
Aw boo! Pity 🙁 Hope you find one!
Au contraire! http://www.fitter1.com/Catalog/Items/Reebok%20Deck.aspx
I have a question, too, as someone new to your site, Marianne. Is this workout supposed to kill me? Because I think it killed me. Your sweet demeanor belies your beastliness!
EEK, you’re on to me 😉 LOL It should be very very challenging – but noone should die from my workouts 🙁 Then I’d have no comments and no reason to continue!
Hi Marianne,
One question on this workout….on the step ups, how high is your platform. Is it 12″ or 18″ or is it something else.
It’s a great workout. Thanks.
Garry