Park Bench Circuit Workout

Oh hey. Miss me?

I’ve taken a step back from the blog a bit to work on things like planning my wedding (venue research takes so much TIME), starting to ask my bridesmaids to be a part of my wedding party (obviously need to put together theme gifts for that), putting together a memory book for my dad’s 60th birthday, and getting some preparations together for my friend Erica’s bridal shower this weekend. I also took some time to myself to just breathe and enjoy some downtime during the couple of weekends I had free.

Today I wanted to pop in and share a fun workout that I taught in my class yesterday morning. The theme was “all you need is a park bench.” If you don’t feel like exercising indoors, don’t have a lot of equipment at your disposal, or simply want to change things up a bit, this one is for you!

In this workout, you will do each exercise for a total of 60 seconds before moving on immediately to the next move. Sometimes I find that 60 seconds can seem like a long time to do something for, so if that’s you, here are some ways you can break up some of the moves to make the time pass a little faster:

• Step ups: Do 30 seconds of a true step up, but change the last 30 seconds to be a step up with knee lift. You can do this for both the front and side facing versions.
• Pushups: Do 30 seconds of regular pushups. Then do 15 seconds of pushups with the right leg raised and 15 seconds of pushups with the left leg raised.
• Climbers: Do 30 seconds of slow climbers and 30 seconds of faster ones. Warning: these burn your shoulders after a minute of pushups!
• Toe taps: Alternate between 15 seconds slow taps, 15 seconds fast, etc.

In class, we broke up the workout by doing a running lap around the Y in between each round of the circuit., and we did three rounds total. Short on time? Try just one or two rounds for a ten or twenty minute sweat sesh. Want more? Go for a fourth. Want to throw in some abs at the end? Try doing in and outs, bicycles, decline side planks, and elevated foot v-ups all with the bench as well.

There are a lot of options with this, just make it your own and pick something that works for you!

At the end of class, we played on the monkey bars! Everyone took turns doing isometric holds in a chin up position. It was fun to play on the playground toys, but I wish there were more swings. One just isn’t enough for my class members to all do TRX inspired moves at the same time. I also wish we could go outside year round for bootcamp, baseball diamond, and playground workouts, but it’s already starting to get darker in the morning. What the heck!?

–Let’s chat–
Have you ever done a park bench workout? What other park bench exercises could I use in a different workout? What about playground moves in general?

Hope you guys have a great day!