I am finally back home and honestly a little depressed to be away from all the Girls Gone Strong. We had an amazing time and we have loads of really exciting things to share with you all in the near future – including our first product, which I know will be one of a kind!
When our training video is available to me, I will then post an complete summary of my time in Baltimore with photos and of course the video!
Even though I am literally just in the door from my long journey I actually feel like a workout.
After travelling for almost 20 hours (mostly sitting) I feel that a short workout will help loosen up my muscles and help me feel more revived as it has been a few days since I trained at all and, there had been a lot of eating out – as you can imagine 😉
The Workout
Some of the exercises today are more technically demanding so I have increased the rest interval and decreased the effort interval. BTW apologies if my writing isn’t as coherent today; I can honestly blame the jet-lag for that!
Set your Gymboss Interval Timer for 18 cycles of 20 seconds recovery and 40 seconds effort and perform 3 rounds of the following 6 Kettlebell exercises. My reps per exercise and weights used are in brackets. Note: I am not going heavy today as I want to work on skill while taking care not to risk injuring my tired body; I just want to feel good from this workout, not exhausted. If YOU want more intensity then feel free to adapt times, weights and exercises for your own goals.
Working with Neghar Fonooni (RKC 2, GGS, and much more), Karen McDowell Smith (RKC 2, RKC Team Leader) and Jen Sinkler, I learned a few pointers to help me improve my KB form, which I am so grateful for. Hopefully the changes will show 🙂
Kettlebell Goblet Squat (20kg) (16, 15, 13)
Two-Handed Kettlebell Swing (20kg) (29, 28, 29 )
Kettlebell Renegade Rows (2x14kg) (16, 16, 15)
Alternating Kettlebell Clean and Jerk (16kg, 20kg) (6, 6, 5)
After this workout I felt great! So glad I did it. Particularly I found it challenging to pack my neck during the KB swing, but Neghar gave me a great cue to remember: “your head follows the trajectory of the Bell”. I had gotten into a bad habit of hyper-extending my neck at the bottom of the swing, so this will help prevent injury in the future.
For those of you who missed my last update, there is a new girl group in town. Girls Gone Strong is the group formed by myself and the other lovely ladies I had the pleasure of getting to know back in August in the USA. We met up to train together and we instantly hit it off. Since then we have been planning a huge movement to help women (and men too) get strong! Our website will launch soon and we are planning another meet-up in just a few weeks time to plan our exciting future together; plus film loads of cool footage of training and more – so stay tuned. You can “Like” us on Facebook HERE, or follow us on Twitter HERE.
Today’s workout is one I did on Friday. It was late on in the day and I was feeling a little guilty for spending most of the day sat on the sofa watching the Mentalist and other things. In fairness to me, I has been working the night before and only managed to get a few useless hours sleep that afternoon – totally inadequate! So is it any wonder that I struggled to pull a strength training session out of the bag! I opted instead for a fun/hateful conditioning workout! Not that this was much easier, in fact it was really tough, but I managed to do an extra round than I planned and afterwards I felt great!
The Workout
The set up is very straight forward. Set your Gymboss Interval Timer for 20 cycles of 15 seconds rest and 45 seconds effort. Then complete 4 rounds of the following 5 exercises:
My weights and reps per exercises are recorded in brackets.
Alternating High Deficit Reverse Lunges (20kg) (14, 13, 11, 11)
Elevated Super Plank Climbers (eek!) (8.5, 8, 8, 6)
I then felt like collapsing into a puddle on the floor! What a challenge this was for me today. Those Elevated Super Plank Climber were TOUGH! Great workout though, just what I needed 😀
That’s all from me today everyone. I hope you all have a great weekend and I will keep you all posted on the happenings with Girls Gone Strong! Oh and don’t worry, I won’t be leaving myomytv – EVER!!!!!
Cheers
Marianne
PS – After watching the video back I was cringing at myself moaning AGAIN about being tired! Just for the record, there are plenty of days when I am not tired like this. These are the days that I use my energy and focus to go and lift some serious weight! As I said my barbell exercises are my focus right now and I use my KBs for conditioning. It’s a great way to train and it works well. And for those who are itching to see my barbell training, then I hope to have some proper footage soon of my typical gym training – as soon as I get filing permission somewhere 😀
PPS – Get excited, because you’re gonna see way more of THIS!
A very quick post today of a very straight-forward Kettlebell and Body Weight Conditioning Workout. I felt like I wanted to do something just to make me feel good. Sometimes just pounding out a good interval workout is all that is required to lighten the mood. That, and my little comedy sketch at the start 😉 Just to clarify, it’s only a bit of fun, so don’t be too offended Tracy Anderson fans! In fact, you can all get me back by laughing at my KB Snatch if you like – I won’t mind 😛
That’s right everyone, I have included my Nemesis again and, guess what, I’m no better at it than before 🙁 But then I haven’t been keeping up my promise to actually practice it *bad me*, so I guess that’ll teach me…
The Workout
Set your Gymboss Interval Timer for 21 cycles of 15 seconds rest and 45 seconds effort and complete 3 rounds of the following 7 exercises. As always my weight and reps are recorded in brackets:
Either KB Double Front Squat / Goblet Squat (2x14kg then 2x16kg) (17, 14, 10)
Two-Handed KB Swing (24kg) (27, 27, 26)
Renegade Row (2x14kg then 2x16kg) (19, 17, 15)
Dynamic Squats (36, 35, 31)
KB Snatch (left) (12kg then 14kg) (16, 14, 11)
KB Snatch (right) (same) (16, 14, 10)
Burpees (17, 14, 15)
So that’s it for today. I WILL be back soon with a new post and in the meantime I hope you all have fun with your training/workouts 😀
First of all, I want to send a HUGE thank you to those people who have very kindly donated to the site! It is very generous and I appreciate it very much 🙂
Secondly, I want to say that I am very pleased with the response to my last post on My Diet Update, because it was great to hear that many of you have also reached similar conclusions from your own experience of “dieting”.
Now for today’s workout. It’s Kettlebells and Body Weight, it’s Conditioning, it’s couplets and, it’s a killer!
The Workout
In case you haven’t noticed, I love couplets or, having shorter sections of intervals/groups of exercises completed back to back for so many rounds. Then a rest. The reason this style works so well, is that you can really put your mind into designing a well balanced workout. Grouping the exercises together with thought and planning to what works well together. I love doing this, it’s like a little challenge all on its own. Then, when complete, each workout is a little master-piece !! Ok, so a little dramatic maybe, but why can’t I take as much pride in designing my workouts than Michelangelo took of his paintings. In my eyes movement in any form is an art!
Don’t know where that came from …
Anywho, needless to say the workout today is made up of couplets – four couplets to be exact. Complete 3 rounds of each couplet before moving on to the bridging exercise, which is pull ups (or some other type of pulling exercise such as rows).
Each couplet is a short interval training workout in itself and I set my Gymboss Interval Timer for 6 cycles of 15 seconds rest and 45 seconds effort.
When I originally planned this workout I had intended the first exercise of couplet 1 to be Alternating Kettlebell Thrusters, but when I started them, I had some pain in my right elbow and triceps, so I had to stop and change the exercise to goblet squats. I was having difficulty with all upper body pushing exercises so I had to cut the push up out of the burpees in rounds 2 and 3 of couplet 2. For everyone else, feel free to try my original plan and see what you think. Beginners, stick to what I did.
My reps/weights per exercise are noted in brackets below:
Couplet 1
Goblet Squat (24kg) (17, 13, 11)
Renegade Row (2x16kg) (18, 16, 16)
Pull Ups (slow) x 3 reps
Couplet 2
Burpees (14, 18, 17)
Side to Side Step Ups (47, 45, 44)
Pull Ups (Slow) x 3 reps
Couplet 3
Vertical Swing Burpee (20kg) (10, 9, 7.5 )
Two-Handed KB Swing (24kg) (27, 26, 27)
Pull Ups (Slow) x 3 reps
Couplet 4
Alternating High Deficit Reverse Lunge (20kg for round 1 then 16kg) (12, 15, 14)
Dynamic Squats (35, 33, 31)
No more pull ups!! LOL Was too tired.
That’s it for today everyone. I hope you enjoy this workout and will leave your feedback below.
For a change I have added new activities to my weekly training. Some of it is for fun and relaxation, but also to work on my flexibility, co-ordination and agility.
Last Tuesday night I began Salsa lessons for example. Dancing is something I have always wanted to do and I was impressed with how much I enjoyed it. I always thought I had two left feet, but I was a little better that expected. However that was just after the basics, so we will see how I get on with more complicated moves LOL! Then, on Saturday I went to a Capoeira class. I was very nervous about this class because I knew it would challenge my balance, co-ordination, flexibility and agility. I found that this type of training was both challenging and very fun! For the last 2 days, my quads and upper back muscles have been rather sore with DOMS lol, just from the bodyweight Capoeira. This shows how much bodyweight exercises can challenge you in a totally different way.
Because of my DOMS, and because I wish to train heavy tomorrow, today I decided to design a workout with mostly body weight exercises. For the Tabata at the end, I used a Kettlebell for swings. However you can always swap this exercise with another body weight one if you prefer.
The Workout
Today’s workout is comprised mostly of body weight exercises, mixing set reps and set times. Complete 3 rounds of the 6 exercises in the first section and then finish with the Tabata below. For the timed exercises, I set my Gymboss Interval Timer for one interval of 45 seconds. Feel free to adjust this time according to your fitness/energy levels. I have suggested a rep range for the other exercises. My reps per exercises are in brackets were I was able to keep track:
Burpees x 45 secs (16, 15, 15 )
Single-Leg Hip Thrusts (left) x 12 – 15 reps
Single-Leg Hip Thrusts (right) x 12 – 15 reps
Jump Rope x 45 secs
Pull Ups x 5
Side to Side Step Ups x 45 secs (47, 45, 46)
For the Tabata below, set you Gymboss Interval Timer for 8 cycles of 10 seconds rest and 20 seconds MAX effort. I used 20kg for my Swings.
Complete 4 rounds of the following:
Two-Handed Swing
Dynamic Squats
That’s it for today. I know it’s a little lighter paced than usual, but every so often we need to deload and take things a little slower. I really enjoyed the change of pace, but I am ready to up my game again for the next workout. I hope you all enjoy this one too 🙂
