boot camp workout - fitknitchick

Feeling better bootcamp workout: work, rest, repeat

After eight days without exercise (does hauling laundry up and down the stairs and making and re-making beds count?), I’m heading back to the gym this morning to teach a ‘feeling better’ Boot Camp workout.

I love my Wednesday morning boot campers. They’re strong, funny and hard-working. Their energy is infectious (and I’ll be drawing heavily on it to get through the hour). While I always encourage them to ‘go at their own pace’ and to ‘take a break when they need it’, today’s workout will really highlight the ‘work, rest, repeat’ principle.

Rather than give them a set number of repetitions to perform, I’ll be timing each exercise and drill, asking them to give it their all for as long as they can, then rest before moving on. Although my timer will be set for 40 s of work and 20 s of rest, participants are allowed to begin their rest break earlier, as long as they’ve pushed themselves to fatigue. This is the ‘rest-based interval’ approach as described in The Metabolic Effect Diet (the book is fabulous, as is their blog!).

I find that using rest-based intervals results in participants pushing themselves harder than they might in a more rigidly defined interval workout or when they feel like they must work right until the end of a timed interval. It’s also a great format to use when you’re recovering from illness or getting back to exercise after a long hiatus.

Today’s bootcamp workout will be focused on the ‘functional four’; squats, lunges, pushes and pulls performed as small circuits with cardio bursts thrown in at random.

Set your Gymboss Interval timer for 12 rounds of 40 s work and 20 s rest. Start with circuit 1; perform each exercise or drill for up to 40 s, rest 20 s and move on to the next exercise. Repeat circuit for a total of 3 rounds. Rest 2 minutes and move on to circuit 2.

Here we go!

As always, feel free to Share, Tweet and Pin this workout!

Which was your least favourite exercise? Ha!

Disclaimer: Although I am a registered Personal Trainer, I am not YOUR Personal Trainer. Always adapt workouts to suit your body and fitness level. Always consult your doctor before beginning a new exercise program.

Get out of your fitness comfort zone! Try the ‘Accumulator’ today

Yesterday, I did a scary-hard workout. Something way out of my fitness comfort zone.

A fellow Canadian Fitfluential Ambassador challenged me to try his “303 Rep Challenge”.

Now most of my workouts are in the 8-10 rep range, so the title scared me a bit. Fortunately, the exercises maxed out at 50 reps (which is still an awful lot for me!). Check out the YouTube link below (and for more information about the program, click through to Brad Gouthro’s website; feel free to admire his abs, but don’t tease him about them!).

I did the ‘Spartan Advanced Female’ program with a few modifications. I used a band for my pullups and I split the program in two, doing half the required number of repetitions for each exercise in the circuit repeated twice (same volume, just breaking it up a bit). It took me 23:45 and my legs were toast by the end.

BUT, I felt great AFTER it was all over. Sometimes you need to get out of your fitness comfort zone to keep moving toward your goals!

With that thought in mind, I put together an extra challenging workout for my morning boot campers. I called it ‘The Accumulator’. The workout involved eleven exercises and only required some dumbbells, a step and a mat (you could easily do this at home!).

The format of the class was quite simple. Round 1, perform 16 reps of exercise 1. Round 2, perform 16 reps of exercise 1, perform 16 reps of exercise 2. Round 3, perform 16 reps of exercise 1, perform 16 reps of exercise 2, perform 16 reps of exercise 3. And so on.

By the end of the 11th round, you’ve done 176 reps of the first exercise. You might need to lower your weights or take an easier progression as the workout proceeds. The best thing about this style of training is the ever-increasing ‘break’ between sets of the same exercise (my class didn’t see this as a positive ). I gave water breaks at the end of exercises 3, 7 and 10 each round.