Save this Full Body Workout

We’re busy.

I have absolutely no illusions with how busy you are and how many people demand of your time.

I also know that your health matters to you but the idea of figuring out how to workout regularly seems daunting. You have too many other things going on and when you sit down to watch Netflix on a Sunday night, you don’t want to plan out your week of workouts.

You want to, I know that, but you also want to stare blankly at a TV and that usually wins out.

That’s why I give you workouts. More importantly, that’s why I give you workouts you can use in a ton of different ways.

As standalone workouts or combining several workouts to give you a longer form workout.

Ultimately it means if you have 10 minutes, you use the 10 minutes.

Use this one today, save the email, and grab it for another day when you know you need to workout but a long workout isn’t in the cards.

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3 Rounds

10 reps each exercise

Bridge hip taps

Single side bench press

Weighted roll up

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Daisy and the Kettlebell

Daisy came into our lives at a time when I really needed her. I knew she was mine as soon as I got out of the car and saw the litter. When I asked her if she wanted to come home with us, she barked at me and stood up. I’m not even kidding. Just like Sully, she has fit seamlessly into our lives. She is our protector puppy. I call her my Mommy Dog because she is always concerned about what everyone is doing and with keeping everyone safe. Especially Grace. That little Corgi has attached herself to my daughter like Grace is her puppy. Daisy goes with me to get Grace up in the morning, and will greet Grace before she bothers saying hi to anyone else in the family. While Grace isn’t always a fan of the attention, Daisy doesn’t care.

This was one of those days when I really needed to multi-task. After an amazing zoom call with my Mommy Millionaire training group, I knew I had to get Grace from school, get everyone organized and fed, somehow fit in a workout and then go back to work for the second half of my day. Some days it’s just that way, it’s like controlled chaos.

The easiest way to get a quick workout on these days is to do something in my room while Grace gets a bath. It’s the easiest way to multi-task by getting my workout accomplished and keep an eye on her in the tub. Problem solved right? Not so much when you have a puppy that has to always be in the mix. Because on these days the most efficient workout is typically a HIIT workout. Those high intensity interval workouts are a total killer and they’re fast. A 10-minute kettlebell workout is sure to leave you breathless and sore the next day.

So that was my plan. I grabbed my kettlebell, set up the bath and got to work. Alternating kettlebell swings and sumo high pulls while Grace was in the tub cheering me on (it’s always good to have a cheering section when the workout makes you want to quit about a minute in), and Sully was having a bone nearby.

I don’t know what happened with Daisy. Maybe she thought the kettlebell was a ball she could catch in her mouth, maybe she thought I was going to play with her using the kettlebell, maybe she just had some excess energy and needed her own workout. Regardless, every time I would go to swing the bell, Daisy would try to jump in the air. Obviously that’s not safe, so the workout turned into swings, high pulls, and puppy deference so I could keep her safe.

What a mess. But that’s how it goes some days with my circus! The absolute kicker was after I finished this kicker of a workout, Grace told me “Hold on Mommy, I can’t get out of the tub yet, I have to work out.” She proceeded to lift one arm above her head, lower it down and then told me “Ok Mommy, I’m done, I can go nap now.” And nap she did (and Daisy did too).

The Gracie Thruster

This story isn’t as much about me as it is about my husband and my daughter. Those two are peas in a pod. People don’t believe but as much as my girl might look like me, she acts just like her Dada and she loves him fiercely. I love that. I love that she seeks him out, and that he’ll wrestle and tickle her. Just like her Dada, my child has ZERO fear and loves anything that causes her little heart to beat a little faster. So when there’s no roller coaster nearby, these two often make up their own death defying games.

It’s a completely normal thing in my house to hear Gracie squealing after being tossed in the air or while being chased during a game of tag. It’s also normal as a result, to hear the dogs barking after both of them, mostly because Daisy is constantly concerned about Grace’s safety (I think Daisy thinks she is Grace’s mommy).

Apparently one night, these two got the bright idea that they needed a new game to play. As I’m making dinner, I hear the happy squealing of my kiddo in the backyard and I didn’t even look up, because that’s so normal. I’m smiling, making dinner, happy that everyone is happy, and at some point I glance up to see Gracie flying in the air above my husband’s head. Like arms out, legs out, flying and thinking it was the best thing in the world.

Hence the Gracie Thruster. You know what a thruster is? It’s a functional movement back from my CrossFit days, where at its essence you’re moving a weight from the ground to above your head. Obviously this is typically done with a barbell or sometimes even free weights, but not with a child, much less my child.

But as I was watching my husband launch the kiddo into the air, it literally looked like she was the weighted aspect of the thruster. He was completing the squat through the shoulder press (with amazing form I might add) and adding in a toss at the top almost like a wall ball (another CrossFit movement where you toss a weighted ball to the same spot on a wall multiple times).

The whole time, all I could think was “well she’s not a small child so he’s working his booty off, but he said he didn’t get a workout in today, so this will totally count.” Sure enough, Gracie made him do this newly formed functional movement 100 times. I’m not kidding. Grace thought they discovered a new game, and my husband was absolutely worked from it.

Grace calls it the Hi-Ya, and every chance she gets, she asks for it, usually in increments of 10.  Now my husband uses it as a chance to get in a little extra workout, because why not multi-task if you have the chance?