I love this workout. Let me clarify, I love to hate this workout. What do I hate more? Steady-state cardio.
No, I really did enjoy the fact that this workout seriously kicked my a**. I mean kicked. my. ass. It was intense. It got my heart rate up in a hurry and it stayed there. It is one of those workouts that if you did more workouts that were similar in format they would get a little bit easier. Or at least you get use to the intensity and use to the feeling of having to push through. It always was a good reminder of why it is important to change up your workouts to challenge your body.
One of our local gyms use to have a class on Saturday mornings that was military-based training (much easier, but similar exercise techniques). The guy that taught the class was Donny’s friend from high school who was in the Marines and kicked my butt each and every week.
I honestly miss those classes sometimes. They weren’t quite cross fit, but he would change thing up every week and maybe do a tabata-style workouts one week or a workout similar to the one above. It was occasionally based on a number of rounds. Other times it was based on time (you would do round after round for a set amount of time). For example, you’d see how many rounds of the suggested workout you could finish in 20 minutes.
One of the worst classes was based on time. You had to do 100 mountain climbers, 100 jump ropes, and 100 burpees. Yes…. 100 burpees. The first two things were pretty easy but the 100 burpees were awful! But I did it all and can now say I’ve done 100 burpees in a single workout. Boom.
I think part of the reason I loved those classes is because I am really competitive. I always wanted to be done first and I always wanted to complete the most rounds. I am still competitive, but I have to compete with myself. I definitely need a friend that lifts about what I do (or more) that will start challenging me. Any takers?!?!
My sister, Lindsey, is in my bootcamp class and Jodi generally partners us together. Lindsey has a really strong chest so she can bench press more than me. Think it is a coincidence that I want to increase what I can bench press? I think not. It drives me crazy when she can easily bust out more reps at a higher weight than me.
Again, I definitely need a guy or gal to train with occasionally to challenge me. If you want to (or know someone who would want to) let me know! I need the challenge.
I recently decided that I need to change up some of my workouts to keep my body guessing. Again, I haven’t done a workout in this format for a while so it was quite difficult for me. I managed 2 full rounds without feeling like death, the 3rd round was difficult, and by the 4th round I was sucking air! I needed to rest more during the exercises of the 4th round and needed to catch my breath before the final stint on the treadmill. It was difficult to say the least.
This workout is very customizable for different fitness levels. If you are new to fitness then complete fewer rounds and use very light to no weight on the exercises. You can always rest between rounds as well. If you are more advanced then you can move at a quicker speed and use heavier weights. Also try to challenge yourself when it comes to running the 1/4 mile…try to get it done in the shortest amount of time possible. In fact, try to complete each round as quickly as possible. Time each round if you would like and try to beat it each time!
Below are links for each exercise if you are unfamiliar. I couldn’t find them all at Bodybuilding.com so bear with me. The others are YouTube videos that I thought showed the exercises pretty well. Maybe I need to start having Donny video me doing the exercises so I won’t have to hunt for them all!
Enjoy. I hope you love this workout, or at least love to hate this workout!
Lunges (these are shown without weights but I encourage you to hold weights)
Are you competitive with others? How about with yourself?
