STORY TIME
Today's Workout 🏋️♂️
You’re guaranteed to walk away knowing you kicked some a$$, burned some calories, and didn’t waste the day.
🌟 Save this Workout 🌟
HIIT work is my go to “I don’t have enough time to spend an hour on a workout 🏋️♂️ “ workout.
It’s efficient AF and it’s hard AF.
You’re guaranteed to walk away knowing you kicked some a$$, burned some calories, and didn’t waste the day.
E2MOM
3 rounds
10 reps each exercise
Deadlifts
Burpees
Squats
Rest 1 minute
3 rounds
10 reps each exercise
Push press
Burpees
Squats
Rest 1 minute
3 rounds
10 reps each exercise
Renegade rows
Burpees
Squats
Reframe Your Workouts
Working out can’t be a punishment or something we HAVE to do. It can’t even be that check in the box on our To Do List.
Let’s rethink how we think about working out.
I tease my clients a lot that they always act like they’re getting tortured and yet they come back ALL. THE. TIME.
Not because they necessarily love the hard work, but because they know that finish line isn’t something anyone can take from them.
Working out can’t be a punishment or something we HAVE to do. It can’t even be that check in the box on our To Do List.
It doesn’t have to be something you love either.
Maybe it’s your moment of sanity in an insane schedule, maybe it’s your moment of peace when the kiddos are pulling on every last thread of patience you have. Maybe it’s your reminder that you’re a bada$$.
Time to find that reason.
Start with the workout below!
Tabata
Switch exercises each round
12 rounds
Swings
Bent over row
Bridge hip taps
Crunches
Sit in Discomfort
That’s the thing about working out: you’re not going to see change from a place of comfort. From the place of doing the same thing on repeat.
I am asking you to voluntarily sit in a space of discomfort.
Especially after the past couple years of LIVING that life, who would willing do that?
right?!!
Who in their right mind would WANT to be uncomfortable?
That’s the thing about working out: you’re not going to see change from a place of comfort. From the place of doing the same thing on repeat.
But you know that…
You also know that if you don’t step into those moments of discomfort NOTHING is going to change.
EMOM
15 minutes
Switch circuits each minute
Circuit #1:
12 tuck ups
12 toe touches
Circuit #2:
12 deadlifts
12 jump squats
Circuit #3:
12 bicep curls
12 push press
Consistency is Key
Reality is that not every workout is going to be the best workout. It’s not going to feel like Disneyland.
Maybe you’re just starting a new routine. Maybe your routine is on point.
Keep showing up.
Even when it gets sticky.
Even when it gets hard and you want to quit.
On the mornings you would rather stay in bed, on the afternoons when work and being a part time chauffeur to all your kids’ activities is taking up all your time.
Especially on the days you don’t feel like it.
That’s what will get you the change, the results, the transformation you’ve been working towards.
Not the best workouts everyday, but the consistent workouts.
Reality is that not every workout is going to be the best workout. It’s not going to feel like Disneyland.
If you’re pushing yourself, it very rarely ever will.
But at the end of the day, what matters the most is you showing up regardless of all that extra noise and all those things you think are holding you back.
AMRAP
6 minutes
8 seated overhead tricep presses
8 bridge hip taps
12 Russian twists
Time to Embrace the Booty
I know we’re in the age of the booty. Finally popular culture has caught up with every rapper I’ve ever heard who’s never rapped about a little butt.
The majority of your muscle mass is in the lower half of your body.
I know we’re in the age of the booty. Finally popular culture has caught up with every rapper I’ve ever heard who’s never rapped about a little butt.
As someone who’s got some *cough cough* junk in the trunk…I’m totally about it.
Workouts are focusing on it, plastic surgery is focusing on it, shoot there’s those pants on TikTok too…
Clients are asking for workouts that focus on that shot glass a$$ (I had to ask a client what that meant by the way and it made me feel old af).
Here’s my thing: the development of those muscles are much more than the aesthetics.
I know we focus on the mirror results and there’s nothing wrong with that, but muscle development has to be about more than what you see reflected back at you.
Don’t get me wrong, if the aesthetic piece is what initially pushes you to develop those muscles, I’m here for it. It’s the same end goal, so whatever gets you there and gets you to develop those habits.
But just so you know, here’s why I’m focused on the development of those muscles:
✔️ proper pelvic alignment
✔️ less low back pain
✔️ prevention of knee injuries
✔️ balance
✔️ stronger gait (that’s why you walk)
So work on that booty all day long, seriously every workout if you want because to me it means the quality of your life will improve because those ailments won’t be as prevalent.
Grab the workout below to help develop ALL those muscles!
4 Rounds
10 reps each exercise
Single side lateral lunge
Hand to hand swings
Single leg deadlift
How to Make HIIT Work
You get into the interval and you push super hard right from the start, gassing yourself out in the first 10ish seconds. That makes you want to take a break, and when you do that, you’re not utilizing the interval in the way it was intended.
How do I work a HIIT workout?
When I started getting certified to train people, I got certifications in the modalities of fitness that interested me. The first being CrossFit.
Back in the day, the components of CrossFit were unheard of to the majority of the population. The biggest of these being the utilization of HIIT in a workout routine.
Over the years, with the popularity of CrossFit and HIIT workouts growing, HIIT is one modality of fitness I train on a consistent basis.
It is also, arguably, the one that intimidates people the most. There’s hesitance to try it because it looks cool but also scary as hell, and the general thought of getting that uncomfortable during a workout doesn’t endear us to do the workout.
Buuutttt…while there’s great science behind its benefits, there’s also strategy behind how to start it.
Here’s what I notice:
If you’re new to it, it’s intimidating AF. You see those people making the burpees look easy and you’re like “well, that’ll never be me”.
That breathless feeling sucks. You either come to love it or hate it but there’s often no in between.
A lot of people train HIIT incorrectly. This is what I mean:
You get into the interval and you push super hard right from the start, gassing yourself out in the first 10ish seconds. That makes you want to take a break, and when you do that, you’re not utilizing the interval in the way it was intended.
HIIT work is not intended for you to break until the break is written in. You gotta earn that rest girl.
Here’s my Top 3 Tips for Pacing Yourself During a HIIT Workout for Optimal Results:
Find a comfortably uncomfortable pace. That’s the pace where you don’t feel like you need to take a break 15 seconds in but you do feel like you’re pushing your limits.
Choose the appropriate weights. Heavy enough to challenge you and not so light that you feel like you’re breezing through the work.
Take advantage of the rest. That’s why it’s written in. For you to use it to recover your breath and your heart rate so you can push just as hard on the next interval.
The Science Behind HIIT
I could do things I never thought I would be able to do, and never thought I would be able to do again after my injury. It helped restore my sense of self.
Why do HIIT workouts work?
When I first started going to a CrossFit box in 2007, I went because I wanted to prove to myself that I was still strong after my injury knocked me on my literal ass. After working out at an insane pace for so many years, just to land myself on bed rest, and then to be denied by the community I thought was my family, I was LOST. That’s putting it mildly. I was flailing.
I remember a friend telling me about this CrossFit concept of working out. Olympic lifting, hardcore interval training, body weight work, and gymnastic style exercises that could be done quickly.
It worked perfectly with my work schedule, but more importantly it worked perfectly with my heard. I needed a mindset reset so I could regain the confidence I lost, and also find a place where I felt like I belonged.
Back them, CrossFit and this HIIT style of workout was not a thing. There was ONE box in San Diego, in a not so safe neighborhood. But damn did I fall in love with it.
I loved being able to move heavy things. I loved being able to move quickly, I loved the community I was in, and mostly I loved the results I was getting.
I felt strong.
I could do things I never thought I would be able to do, and never thought I would be able to do again after my injury. It helped restore my sense of self.
But no one around me understood how I could get results from a workout that was 7 minutes long.
HIIT now is a trendy workout. CrossFit is trendy af.
People love it because they see the same results I saw all those years ago, but don’t quite understand the science behind it. My current clientele included.
Here’s a basic way to explain it:
You know when you workout, your heart rate increases. HIIT training exploits the increasing and decreasing of your heart rate as a means to build muscle and burn calories.
Think of it like this: you know in that HIIT workout when you get breathless and you feel like maybe you might just barf?
That’s your body going into an oxygen deficit.
When your workout is complete, your body is determined af to restore it pre-exercise state.
It does this through increasing your metabolic state. Increasing your metabolic state means you’re burning more calories. Burning more calories means you’re going to see better results.
Granted, this rate at which your body can restore its pre-exercise state is different for every body, it does work for every body.
The way to make this work more efficiently is to make sure you’re pairing your nutrition properly post workout. That way you can maximize the caloric burn post workout, seeing even better results.
Why Do HIIT Workouts Work?
You know when you workout, your heart rate increases. HIIT training exploits the increasing and decreasing of your heart rate as a means to build muscle and burn calories.
When I first started going to a CrossFit box in 2007, I went because I wanted to prove to myself that I was still strong after my injury knocked me on my literal ass. After working out at an insane pace for so many years, just to land myself on bed rest, and then to be denied by the community I thought was my family, I was LOST. That’s putting it mildly. I was flailing.
I remember a friend telling me about this CrossFit concept of working out. Olympic lifting, hardcore interval training, body weight work, and gymnastic style exercises that could be done quickly.
Grab Free Workouts!
It worked perfectly with my work schedule, but more importantly it worked perfectly with my heard. I needed a mindset reset so I could regain the confidence I lost, and also find a place where I felt like I belonged.
Back them, CrossFit and this HIIT style of workout was not a thing. There was ONE box in San Diego, in a not so safe neighborhood. But damn did I fall in love with it.
I loved being able to move heavy things. I loved being able to move quickly, I loved the community I was in, and mostly I loved the results I was getting.
I felt strong.
I could do things I never thought I would be able to do, and never thought I would be able to do again after my injury. It helped restore my sense of self.
But no one around me understood how I could get results from a workout that was 7 minutes long.
HIIT now is a trendy workout. CrossFit is trendy af.
People love it because they see the same results I saw all those years ago, but don’t quite understand the science behind it. My current clientele included.
Here’s a basic way to explain it:
You know when you workout, your heart rate increases. HIIT training exploits the increasing and decreasing of your heart rate as a means to build muscle and burn calories.
Think of it like this: you know in that HIIT workout when you get breathless and you feel like maybe you might just barf?
That’s your body going into an oxygen deficit.
When your workout is complete, your body is determined af to restore it pre-exercise state.
It does this through increasing your metabolic state. Increasing your metabolic state means you’re burning more calories. Burning more calories means you’re going to see better results.
Granted, this rate at which your body can restore its pre-exercise state is different for every body, it does work for every body.
The way to make this work more efficiently is to make sure you’re pairing your nutrition properly post workout. That way you can maximize the caloric burn post workout, seeing even better results.
Fuck Cardio
There’s pride in challenging yourself though. There’s pride in being able to say “hey I did that” after a tough as nails workout. There’s a sense of accomplishment in knowing that you did the hard thing. You pushed through, you prevailed and now you know you can keep going.
Hard workouts suck. There’s no two ways around that. Hard workouts make you question your life choices, lead you into thinking you would rather be doing literally ANYTHING else except for what you’re doing in that moment. Like those taxes you’ve been neglecting to file…
It’s the HIIT workout that feels like it’s never going to end. That workout where the breaks don’t seem long enough and you’re counting down the minutes until you can move on with your day. Ever wondered how long a minute can last? Go do some burpees for a minute and find out. I promise, literally everything else you ever do will feel shorter than your minute of burpees.
But hey, with no challenge, you will see NO change. That much I can promise. And I don’t promise ANYTHING to my clients. Except that. Change, transformation, getting out of the mom jeans and back into that sexy little LBD that’s been accumulating dust in the back of your closet all comes from challenging yourself. It’s in those moments of questioning, of breathlessness, of SHOWING UP that change is made. I can also promise that staying in that comfort zone you’ve created for yourself hasn’t worked, you’re not seeing any change.
There’s pride in challenging yourself though. There’s pride in being able to say “hey I did that” after a tough as nails workout. There’s a sense of accomplishment in knowing that you did the hard thing. You pushed through, you prevailed and now you know you can keep going.
Here’s the thing: I’m always proud of you and I’ve never doubted your capabilities. I have this tremendously blessed position of being able to observe you and I know you can do it. I know that change you want so badly that you can taste it isn’t actually unreasonable or outside of your grasp. You just have to WANT to get uncomfortable, you have to embrace the hard workouts, you have to be willing to take that first step.
You know that even when the workout sucks and you want to quit, no one will be able to take that feeling of accomplishment once it’s over away from you. You can totally own your success as much as you can own your failure, so take your hard workouts one at a time. Take the challenges one at a time, and then over time you’ll notice, it gets easier.
