Happy Friday!
This week flew by – and so did the month of February! Can you believe it’s already March? I can’t…
This week, I started off with a wonderful post on the blog talking about a variety of different nutrition and health myths. If you missed it, make sure to read it here.
Workout of the Week
This week, I wanted to share a no equipment workout that utilizes a larger area of space, like a track, a yard, or field of some sort.
Here’s the deal: perform each movement down the length of the area, at least 10-20 yards. Turn around and perform the next movement on the way back. Continue, shuffling through the movements in order, doing the walking lunges and squat walks twice. Rest 1 minute and repeat the entire cycle 3-5 times total.
So, to begin, you would do broad jumps down, turn around and do the walking lunges back, then the walking lunges again, then squat walks twice, then plank walks (switching directions halfway through if desired), then shuffle burpees, and finishing with an all-out sprint. Simple and fun, right?
Movement How-To’s:
Broad Jumps: Stand with feet shoulder width apart and toes behind the “take-off” line or start line. Swing your arms back while bending the knees. Explode up out of your squat, thrusting your arms forward to propel you forward. Take off and land with both feet. See this video.
Walking Lunges: Stand with feet shoulder width apart, hands on hips. Step forward with your right leg and sink into a lunge. Push through your left foot and come forward into a lunge on your left foot. Continue, lunging across the length of the area. Repeat once each direction.
Squat Walks: Squat down and walk across the area, staying low in the squat the entire time. Turn around at the end and repeat. See this video.
Plank Walks: Get down into plank position, up on your hands, back flat, butt down, and core engaged. Walk your same-side hand and foot out to the side, moving your plank along the length of the area. Halfway through, turn your body around so that you are leading with the other hand and foot. See this video.
Shuffle Burpees: Squat down and shuffle about 2-3 steps across the length of the area. Stop, place your hands on the ground, hop your feet back so you are in a plank position, hop back up, and start over with the shuffle. Try to make this as fluid of a motion as possible. See this video. (P.S. In this video, the girl performs a pushup at the bottom of the burpee. That is another level which you can choose to do if you want!)
Sprint: Run as fast as you can across the area. Then, rest 1 minute and repeat!
Got it? Hopefully as the weather gets nicer, you can find a space to perform this workout! Have fun with it :)
Advice of the Week
Today I wanted to talk briefly about goal setting when it comes to fitness. So often, we set a goal for ourselves and want to jump right into it and reach it the next day. We want to go from squatting 35 pounds to 135 pounds overnight, or go from running a 10 minute mile to a 7 minute mile. I hate to break it to you, but that will not happen.
Rather, when it comes to achieving fitness goals, you have to learn to trust the process. Take my New Year’s goal to deadlift and squat 1.5 times my bodyweight. I’m not going to just walk into the weight room tomorrow and put that weight on the bar and go. No no no no.
Instead, each day I’m going to take active steps to reach that goal, even if they are small. It might mean doing one extra set of squats or putting just 5 more pounds on the bar for one deadlift rep. No matter what, I’m making progress towards my goal slowly, surely, and safely.
When it comes to your fitness goals, what you do every single day matters. Daily actions, no matter how small, will add up and get you closer to your goals.
Sometimes, the process takes longer than we anticipated or wanted, but trust me, it’s worth it. In the grand scheme of things, six months to a year is a relatively short amount of time, especially for larger fitness goals. Trust the process – you will be successful!
My Workouts
For my workouts, I've been trying to find a balance between lifting and taking/teaching classes. It's hard when I want to do all the things, every day! But, I know that my body needs balance and rest, so I really am trying to achieve that by taking a rest day every Wednesday, and focusing on resting adequately between sets when I am weightlifting.
I also wanted to talk about one of my favorite moves that I always include in my workouts: single leg deadlifts. No matter what weight I use or how often I do this movement, I always feel it in my glutes the next day. P.S. It’s a fabulous booty-builder :) Here’s a video of the movement, if you want to check it out.
Depending on how I’m feeling, I like to switch up the rep scheme and equipment I use to perform this movement. Sometimes, I’ll use to dumbbells. Other days I’ll use a kettlebell or barbell. You can also do this without weight, just focusing on balance and proper form. Either way, they are fabulous for your legs!
That's all I have for this edition of Fitness Friday - have a wonderful weekend, and I'll be back with a brand new post on Monday!
xoxo Olivia