The Holy Obliques Superset Workout

It’s been a while REALLY long time since I shared a workout with you guys. Sorry about that.

This is a workout that I taught in one of my classes a couple of weeks ago. It left everything on my body sore, but especially my obliques. Please note that while this exact workout is not directly plucked from the Modern Woman’s Guide to Strength Training program I’ve been doing, many of the exercises I chose for this workout are GGS inspired.

I used 20 and 25 pound dumbbells for this workout, but please choose weight according to your own fitness levels and the setting you are in. Just make sure you are using enough weight (and enough resistance with the bands) so that you are challenging yourselves. If you don’t understand why this workout is called “The Holy Obliques Superset Workout” the next day, that’s a pretty good indicator of needing to increase the amount of weight you are using.

Instead of putting my cardio blasts in between strength sets like I usually teach, I’ve been enjoying ending class with cardio finishers lately. For the cardio finisher after this superset workout, we did what my friend Jess called a burpee and bear crawl spectacular (this one is from GGS): 10 burpees, bear crawl half the group ex studio. 9 burpees, bear crawl the other half of the group ex studio. 8 burpees, bear crawl, and so on until you get down to your last burpee. This week in class our cardio finisher was to do 20 seconds of jump rope, 10 inchworm walkouts. Then 20 seconds of jump rope, 9 inchworm walkouts, and so on. This sprint workout (either outside or on a cardio machine of choice) is another go to of mine. Box jumps, kettlebell swings, rope or medicine ball slams, the list goes on. Basically the point of a cardio finisher is to get your heart rate up, and it’s appropriate if you are looking to work on cardio conditioning or decrease fat levels without spending hours on a boring machine.

For any exercise modifications or explanation of moves, please email me or leave a comment. That’s what I’m here for.

Happy sweating!

–Let’s chat–
What was the last superset workout you did? What exercises have you been loving lately? What move typically leaves your obliques feeling really sore? Do you add cardio finishers to your strength workouts?

I have a big presentation at work today. I’ll be happy when it’s lunchtime!

Last Weekly Workouts Post of 2013

Hello! I hope everyone is enjoying the last few days of the year. It’s kind of crazy we’ll be into 2014 before we know it. I’ve really been enjoying my time off over the last week, and I’m psyched to wrap up my year tomorrow night at the wedding of two of our best friends. It’s going to be SO fun.

Anyways, I just wanted to pop in and talk about my workouts last week. Holiday weeks don’t necessarily mean rest weeks or time off. For me, they usually mean getting creative with the time I have.

–Last Week’s Workouts–

Sunday
Took Emily’s 20/20/20 class. It was a little rough after Shannon‘s Christmas party the night before, but I powered through.

Monday
I did a 30 minute elliptical workout with pyramid climbs and Tabata work, followed by a 20 minute AMRAP workout.

Tuesday
Since it was Christmas Eve, the Y wasn’t holding any group ex classes after 12pm, and I didn’t have my usual Two A Day. Instead, I woke up early to take my friend Christine’s spin class. She called it her Christmas Eve “sleigh ride,” and it was super fun. I wish she didn’t teach on Tuesdays so I could go more often.

Wednesday
Christmas Day – off

Thursday
Did my 3-2-1 treadmill workout, followed by some heavier lifting for chest and back with Tim. We did these supersets (10 reps of each move, 3 rounds of each superset):
–barbell bench press/cable lat pulldown
–dumbbell incline chest fly/underhand grip barbell row
–standing cable chest press/inverted row

We finished off our workout with some partner abs and called it a night.

Friday
At home workout. I tried out the Day After Christmas Crumble workout via Fitnessista. The description was a fast and furious tabata strength combo, and it certainly did not disappoint. Plus, I got to try out my new resistance bands from Santa Tim.

Saturday
I did 25 minutes of steady cardio on the elliptical, followed by another heavier lifting session with Tim. This time we focused on legs, and our supersets looked like this:
–cable glute extensions (fatigue each leg) / barbell deadlifts (8-10 reps)
–weighted wall squats (fatigue) / barbell squats (8-10 reps)
–weighted lunge pulses (fatigue each leg) / dumbbell side lunges (8-10 reps each leg)

–This Week’s Workouts–

I’m still somewhat playing it by ear…

• Sunday: Took it easy. At home core workout, that’s it!
• Monday: TBD… maybe a biceps/triceps day with some cardio thrown in?
• Tuesday: Hopefully something quick in the morning before we head out to the wedding
• Wednesday: New Year’s Day, likely off after wedding festivities the night before
• Thursday: Back to teaching! See you guys at 6am for the first workout of 2014
• Friday: TBD!
• Saturday: Monique‘s kickboxing class

How are your last workouts of the year going? Anyone doing anything fun for New Year’s Eve tomorrow?

Supersets and Blog Series Love

Hi all!

Hope everyone’s having a fab Tuesday.

<Rewind to last night>

Monday Night Workout

Last night I did Workout 1 from Tina’s Best Body Bootcamp.  Tina divided this 8 week program into phases, with Weeks 1 and 2 focusing on supersets.  In case you are wondering what the heck a superset is, supsersets are two exercises grouped together that are completed back to back with minimal rest between each exercise.

Out of respect to Tina’s program, I will not be sharing the exact workouts with you move by move, but I’ll be sharing some of my feedback for sure!  Last night, I really liked how Workout 1 had us working the first move in each superset to exhaustion.  I’ve done superset work before (I love the extra challenge to my standard strength routines), but never like this.  I could definitely feel the difference in my muscles when I fatigued them before even getting to the main strength exercises, which comprised the second move in each superset.

Last night’s gym sesh also included 20 minutes on the elliptical (5 minute warmup, 5 rounds of 60 seconds on / 60 seconds off of HIIT, and 5 minute cooldown), and teaching my Core Strength class.  If you’re looking for a 20 minute core blast, here you go!!

Quick note:  Due to my change in schedule and new position at the Y, I will no longer be teaching Core Strength on Mondays come August.  While I will miss this quick little abs class, something had to give in order for me to accept the Group Ex Coordinator position.  Bye crazy long Mondays!!!

Anyways, after my workout I worked a floor shift and had a personal training client.  Tried to get a lot of group ex stuff done (did I really just create a new schedule that adds 20+ new classes!?), and had a pleasant interruption when Tim brought me dinner since I was working until 10:30.  Thank you, boyfriend!  Nothing like getting a steak dinner delivered… right to the gym!

Blog Series Love

If you read Fitness & Feta often, you guys know that I have a few different blog “series” including my “Move of the Week” posts with how-to exercise guides, my “Awk Spot” posts that chronicle all the fantastically awkward situations I find myself in, my monthly “Favorite Things” posts where I write about 5 things I’m loving lately, and my weekly Saturday “Words for the Weekend” posts where I share a quote of inspiration, motivation, or sometimes humor.

I thought for tonight it would be fun to share some of my favorite blog series to read in other blogs!  Just in case you guys were looking for some new reading material.  Enjoy 🙂

—>  The Weekend Playlist on These Happy Miles:  I get a ton of music / playlist ideas from this series!  But I also like how Christine includes songs that AREN’T for workout playlists too!

—> Tuesday Trainer on Lindsay’s List:  Every Thursday Lindsay announces a fitness “theme” that will be showcased the following Tuesday.  Between then, bloggers, trainers, etc. all link videos of themselves doing moves that fall under that theme.  This is a great way to find new material, and a great way to also discover new names in the community.  I have yet to upload a video, but I will get there!

—> Friday Countdown on Best Body Fitness:  While I love everything about Tina’s personal training blog, I really look forward to her Friday Countdown posts where she shares things like 5 other blog links she starred that week, 4 things that made her smile, 3 pictures from Pinterest, etc.  She changes it up, and it’s a fun series to run on a Friday!!

—> Client Spotlight on Be Fit With Kristen:  These stories are inspiring!  I love reading about Kristen’s clients’ success.  If you are looking to read about weight loss success and get motivated, you should definitely check this out.

—> Flashback Fridays on Dresses and Desserts:  My friend Shannon’s blog is definitely more for the home lover!  She shares a lot of her sewing projects, and every Friday she does a “flashback” to one of her projects of the past.  Since Shannon and I grew up together and went to college together, it’s fun because I recognize some of these projects from different events we’ve attended over the years!

—> Trade Up Tuesdays on A Better Bag of Groceries:   A giveaway.  Every Tuesday.  Enough said!  Plus, I won once.  I enter every week. 🙂

—> Focus On posts, on Fitnessista:  Gina’s “Focus On” posts are exactly that.  Posts that focus on an aspect of fitness — sometimes a fitness craze like Zumba, sometimes a piece of equipment like the bosu trainer, or sometimes it’s more general weight loss focused like Weight Watchers.  She’s very detailed and obviously I love learning about new fitness trends!

—> Recipe Roundups on Peanut Butter Fingers:  Julie’s “Recipe Roundups” are a monthly feature where she picks a theme such as granola, or pumpkin, and then links to all recipes in her blog that would fall under this theme.  I find that it’s a great way to search for recipes if I only have a general idea of one ingredient I’d like to use!

Do you guys have any favorite blog series that you like to read in other blogs?  

I’m off to the gym!  Time for an hour of kickboxing (I decided that counts as my 20 minutes of steady state cardio for bootcamp), then I’m teaching Circuit.  I’m excited to incorporate moves from BBBC Workout 2 into class tonight – I have a feeling I’m going to get a lot of moans and groans as our legs turn to jello!  🙂