Tag Archives: bodyweight

Weekly Moves and Grooves XVIII {Dorm Workouts}

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Frieeeeends!

I haven’t talked to you all week, and that makes me sad. I’m checking in today with my moves and grooves from this week, but I’ll be back tomorrow to tell you all about {my hectic as heck} last week! I LOVE YOU.

weekly moves and grooves

Sunday

5 min. stair master + leg workout

  • 3 sets: 15 reverse lunges each leg (50# barbell) + 16 jump lunges
  • 3 sets: 20 plie squats + 10 pulses (35#) + 10 plank jack burpees
  • 5 sets: 10 box jumps (~20″ box) + 6 hamstring curls (100#)
  • 3 sets: 8 Bulgarian split squats each leg (30#) + 20 squat jumps

I was so excited to find a couple boxes to stack for the box jumps! Boxes and kettlebells are two things I wish FitRec had, but I can’t complain with all the equipment that they have already.

Also, pulsing after plie squats is crazy hard.

Monday

Rest (snow day!)

Tuesday

Lee’s 1000 rep workout

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I didn’t know that the gym was open from 1pm-8pm (snow day hours), so I just did this in my dorm room. It took nearly 40 minutes! Definitely a great bodyweight workout that requires minimal space.

Wednesday

5 min. row warmup + “burpee arm burner” workout + 8 minute ab tabata

I did Hillary’s burpee arm burner and then went back up the ladder with goblet squats instead of pushups. My sweat kept dripping everywhere so I had to wipe my workout area very well. Glam.

For the ab tabata, I did 4 rounds of 10 seconds rest, 20 seconds work:

The spiderman kick through exercise is so fun and works your obliques like no other.

Thursday

Random burpees // Rest

Friday

100 jumping jacks + “Run the World” warmup + bodyweight circuit workouts

Part 1:

3 rounds for time (finished in 15:55):

Part 2:

4 rounds for time (finished in 13:32):

I slept in until 7 am because I wanted to get enough sleep for my anatomy exam that day, and since my roommate was away for a couple days, I just decided to work out in my dorm. One of the most helpful things I’ve learned from fitness blogs and YouTube videos is that you really don’t need much space (or time) in order to get a great workout!

Saturday

upper body workout + row and burpee workout

1) Warmup: shoulder mobility, pushups, planks

2) Upper body workout:

3) This Crossfit workout I found somewhere:

20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2 calories on the rower // 8 burpees between each set // 12 minute cap

I loved this row and burpee workout! I got through 90 calories of the rowing + 4 burpees before the 12 minutes were up. I usually try to row for time, but any time I get to add burpees into the workout is a fun time.

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone! We have a blizzard on schedule today here in Boston (what’s new?).

So tell me:

What was your favorite workout this week?

Do you like bodyweight circuits when you’re running short on time?

 

 

Weekly Moves and Grooves XVII

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Happy Sunday!

It’s been a while since I’ve shared weekly workouts (last year was the last time I did!), and since I can’t do daily posts throughout the week, I thought I’d bring them back on Sundays again. I do these posts for myself too as a way to track progress and see how I feel in terms of fitness on a week-to-week basis!

weekly moves and grooves

Sunday

5 minute stair master warmup + leg workout

Then a ton of foam rolling and stretching! I’ve been trying to spice up my strength training by decreasing reps and increasing weight and sets. It definitely makes for a waddling Alison the following day.

Monday

18 minute plank workout + “Run the World” gymnastics warmup

Lori and Michelle’s plank workout NEVER seems to get easier. You only need a little bit of space for the workout (I did this in my dorm room on our snow day!) and it’s low impact, yet you feel totally spent by the end.

Tuesday

Dirty Burpee Workout

dirty-burpee

This was an early morning workout, woohoo! Although, I was very sleepy in my first class after this.

Embarrassing story: I missed the sign on the track that tells you which way to run depending on which day of the week it is. I didn’t know there were rules, so I was running the way I ran when I first used the track just the week before, but everyone was running the other way (why I didn’t just conform from the start, I don’t know…I’M SPECIAL). Then a guy came up to me and told me I was going the wrong way and that there was a sign with rules for each day. Heh.

Wednesday

5 min. row + shoulders and abs circuit workout

Another early morning with my friend PJ! I came up with this workout to work my upper body since my legs were beat from the past three days of workouts.

5 Rounds // 45 seconds work: 15 seconds rest // 12.5 lb. dumbbells

Thursday

active rest day // bodyweight countdown workout

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 rep scheme of:

burpees, air squats, pushups, and situps

My arms were a lot more fatigued from Wednesday’s workout than I thought (those hand release pushups killed me), so I had to do pushups on my knees in order to move through this workout quickly and keep good form. Still a good way to move in under 10 minutes!

Friday

500m row warmup, then…

5 rounds of: 5 weighted pistol squats each leg (15#) + 500m row

I finished with Lori and Michelle’s 12 minute interval workout that kicked my butt.

Saturday

upper body workout + 8 minute ab tabata

I did some assisted pull-ups, seated rows, pushups, burpees, lat pull downs, and weighted tricep dips. My body was pretty worn out from the week, so it was telling me “nuh uh” during some of the exercises. I just felt kind of weak and tired overall. One of those days!

The 8 minute ab tabata was great though. 4 rounds of 20 sec work: 10 sec rest of weighted Russian twists, weighted toe touches, spiderman planks (first two rounds), modified v-ups (first two rounds), and side plank hip raises each side (second two rounds).

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Hope you all have a great week! Hopefully we have a full week of school this time around (although, it’s supposed to snow again tomorrow).

So tell me:

What is your favorite leg exercise?

How have you moved and grooved this week?

 

An Untraditional Christmas + Double Unders Cardio Workout

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Greetings from Florida!

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I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Happy Kwanzaa/Joyful Holiday Season! My mom, brother, and I were on the road for the past 48 hours (with a brief hotel break in Savannah, Georgia to catch some zzz’s) on our way to Florida, and we have finally arrived! My butt and legs are so thankful. #sittingissues

We were indeed driving all Christmas day, which explains the title of this post. It wasn’t an ideal way to spend the beloved holiday, but there were many festivities happening throughout the week that made up for it!

Christmas Eve Eve

My cousins, aunt, and uncle came over on Tuesday so that we could all spend some quality time together for a day. It was a joy to play with my little cousins, converse with my aunt and uncle, and celebrate the anticipation of Jesus on Christmas! And we ate lots because…’tis the season..?!

Mom and I prepared a buffet spread for the crowd that included curry chicken, green beans, salmon with dill honey mustard yogurt sauce, brown rice, and Singapore noodles from H-Mart. Everything was fabulous!

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Lots of cookies have been consumed in the past few days, but I think these chocolate-dipped peanut butter pretzels from our lovely neighbors take first prize. Oof. Just look at that peanut butter to pretzel ratio.

Christmas Eve

Mom and I got up early to prepare breakfast for everyone, and my cousin Angela also helped make the banana pancakes and waffles with me!

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That photo of the arranged Mickey Mouse pancakes/French toast muffins would be my plate, not my cousin’s. Because I knew I would be in Florida, so Disney, so yes.

The rest of the day involved more fellowship, food, relaxation, and some moves! I did Jen’s 1000 rep home workout before going to Christmas Mass in the evening.

1000repsworkout-621x1024

No equipment, but all sweat! It was a fun, fast-paced, effective workout. However, I only quickly ate an apple after doing this and before going to Mass, so I was starrrrrrving for the 2.5 hours before we went to dinner. Christmas Mass was glorious though, and the hymns were beautiful distractions from my hunger.

Our Christmas Eve dinner was spent at a Brazilian/Italian restaurant called Gaucho Grill. Daliza’s family kindly gave us a gift card for the restaurant as a thank you for taking Daliza to Florida with us this summer (missing you here now, girl). The food was so delicious!

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shared a crab cake for appetizer // Pop’s skirt steak // Ben’s meat-tastic paella // grilled asparagus and spinach for the table // Mom’s gargantuan chicken parm // my scallops with lentils // apple strudel a la mode to share for dessert 

Came hungry, left pretty stuffed, but happy.

Christmas Day

Why did we decide to travel all day on Christmas you might ask? Well, Pop only had Christmas Day off of work this week, but we needed to get to Florida to prepare the house for our family friends who are coming today. Thus, my family decided to spend Christmas Eve together before mom, Ben and I left for our two-day road trip. As I said before, these were not ideal Christmas plans, but we still had lots of family time, so it’s all good!

Ben and I drove the whole way down because poor mom is battling a stubborn, nasty cold that is giving her cough attacks and puffy eyes, so driving for her wouldn’t be very safe.

Morning of travel calls for overnight oats! Bonus points for it being in an almost-empty peanut butter jar.

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A road trip in the northeast also calls for a stop at Cinnabon. The three of us split this [big] baby sans frosting because none of us are too crazy about it— the cinnamon roll is sweet and delicious enough as is! (Sorry, Arman.)

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Virginia is for lovers…me, myself, and I.

After 12+ hours of driving, we hunkered down in Savannah, Georgia for the night. There is no feeling quite like stretching out after being cooped up in a car all day.

Ben and I walked to and from Hardee’s (a fast food restaurant) near the hotel for a refreshing evening walk. We didn’t get anything— just walked in, took a whiff of the burgers and fries, and left.

Afterwards, I convinced Ben to join me in doing this 15 minute arms and abs workout. The chest-to-floor pushups really got us both on that one!

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Too happy about hotel beds.

Friday

Also too happy about free included hotel breakfasts.

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oatmeal with honey, dried fruit, pecans, and banana + eggs

Ben generously took the last 4 hour driving shift all the way to Orlando, where we stopped for lunch at Tako Cheena, a little Asian-Latin fusion restaurant. We all got some yummy Asian tacos!

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tom yum chicken // “sweet stranger” tempeh and veggie // panko-crusted cod // tom yum shrimp // korean beef

And now we are finally settled into our Florida vacation house for the next 2.5 weeks! Moves were desperately needed after two days of mostly sitting, so Ben and I took a stroll around our neighborhood and then I did a quick impromptu workout in our backyard:

double unders cardio workout

This workout plus Florida humidity=drenched in sweat and chugging water like no other. The double unders were really fun though! I’ve improved a lot since this video from the summer!

Dinner last night was a salad of spinach (that traveled all the way down the east coast with us in a cooler) plus balsamic vinaigrette and parmigiano reggiano + half a toasted banh mi sandwich we picked up earlier in the afternoon.

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A couple hours later, I made a late night Publix run for some groceries, but this was the real reason I went:

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Publix ice cream is the besttttttttt. I got the limited edition peach cobbler ice cream…naturally. When I got home from the store, I grabbed a clean spoon and scooped out the melted perimeter of the ice cream carton, because that is where ice cream is in its prime state of matter. And that was all I needed. That big melty spoonful made me content.

There you have it, friends— our not-so-typical Christmas. Then again, what is a “typical” Christmas for us anyway? We almost didn’t make it to Christmas last year.

Thank God for safe travels and of course, for sending His Son as a child to dwell on earth and die for our sins. Wishing you all a blessed weekend wherever you are and whatever you’re up to!

(I unfortunately think I might be coming down with something… It was inevitable considering Ben and my mom have been coughing up a storm for the past week!)

So tell me:

One fun holiday-related thing you did this week!

The best thing you ate this week.

Do you like to jump rope?

Is there a food you like to get on road trips?

Do you love that melty part of ice cream or nah?

Weekly Moves and Grooves XVI {Listen To Your Body}

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 Just popping in (very late) this evening to share…

weekly moves and grooves

Studying for finals swallowed me up this weekend. We are almost home free, fellas!

Sunday

20 min. bodyweight workout from Jess + leg strength

I loved this two-part bodyweight workout from Blonde Ponytail! I did it in my dorm at 7 pm because I wasn’t about that dark and cold mile trek to the gym on Sunday night.

20-mins-body-weight-workout

For the AMRAP, I did 9 or 10 rounds, I believe. I love how it moved quickly and incorporated simple yet effective functional movements. Like my favorite—burpees!

I also did three rounds of 10 pistol squats each leg + 20 Bulgarian split squat hops each leg. Those hops burnnnn.

Monday

5 min. row warmup + 400 Heavy Rep Workout from Hilary

heavy

{via}

This was fun and tough! I used a 20# dumbbell for the single arm high pulls, a 30# bar for the thrusters, and a 35# dumbbell for everything else (the gym here does not have kettlebells). Also, instead of jumping rope after each round, I did 10 pushup burpees. It was quick (under 30 min.) but effective! Just what a college student needs!

Tuesday

30 min. arc trainer + 8 min. ab tabata

I did steady state cardio and it felt like an eternity, but it was a nice way to loosen up after Monday’s workout.

For the ab tabata, I did 4 rounds of 20 sec. work, 10 sec. rest:

Wednesday

Rest

Thursday

5 min. stairmaster warmup + leg workout

This workout was all over the place because I was kind of tired and my back was bothering me, so it was all about listening to my body.

I started with 8 weighted pistol squats each leg + 30 side jump lunges, then 10 regular pistols each leg + 30 side jump lunges, and then I stopped with the pistols there because my lower back wasn’t happy about it.

3 rounds of each set:

  • 12-15 Bulgarian split squats each leg (25#) + 20 jump lunges
  • 20 plie squats (35#) + 8 pulses in plie + 10 pulse squat jumps (pulse five times in squat position before jumping up)
  • 8-10 hamstring curls (90#) + 20 surfer jumps

And then I started this burpee/arm ladder workout with goblet squats instead of swings, but I stopped short because my body was just done. Yes, I could have pushed through, but I wanted to be kind to myself and just stretch.

Friday

arm workout

I warmed up with some pushups and shoulder mobility exercises before jumping into a “wing it” workout.

  • 4 sets: 8 lat pull downs + 12 arnold presses
  • 10 pushup burpees (random)

3 sets of each:

I finished with an 8 minute ab tabata with reverse crunch leg lifts, mountain climbers, and side plank hip raises L/R.

Saturday

Rest/Walking

I will be posting a HECK of a lot more once finals are over because then I’ll be on winter break, during which I will have zero homework. Hallelujah!

 

Weekly Moves and Grooves XII

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Oh, hello.

I totally disappeared last week after I posted on Tuesday. That was completely unintended, but life threw some curve balls as it always does, so I did not get a chance to check in again. Sad face.

Luckily, I have a hefty life update post coming for ya tomorrow, so brace yourselves!

For today, I have this week’s workouts! It was all about quick, efficient workouts this week due to the craziness and shortage of time.

weekly moves and grooves

Sunday

5 min. stair master warmup + leg workout

  • 3×10 squats @ 115# + 20 jump squats after each set
  • 2×10 squats @ 95# + 20 jump squats after each set

3 sets of each:

  • 10-12 hamstring curls (80#) + 30 side jump lunges
  • 15 curtsy lunges (40#) + 16 jump lunges
  • 20 sumo squats

My quads were dying for the next two days. I had never squatted more than 100# before, so this was definitely something spicy, especially with those jump squats in between.

Monday

5 minute jump rope warmup + 18 min. plank workout with double unders 

I took this workout outside by the river since the weather was lovely on Monday. I did Lori and Michelle’s 18 minute plank workout with 50 double unders between each set of exercises. Since my quads were crying from the depths of my muscle tissue, I took it slow and just enjoyed the sunset.

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Tuesday

Rest/Walking

Because my legs were even more sore this day and because a bunch of special people came to visit Boston and it was fan-freaking-tastic, so I needed to soak up every minute with them! Details tomorrow 🙂

Wednesday

Lori and Michelle’s 5 x 50 workout a la dorm

Wednesdays are my long days in terms of classes, so I did this quick but incredibly sweaty workout in the dorm in between classes. (Sorry if I smelled like butt, classmates.)

I ♥ burpees.

Thursday

3.5 mile run + yoga

It took some major morning pep talk to get myself to run in the morning, but I was happy I went (is that what all runners are supposed to say?). Slow and easy at a 9:09 pace.

Friday

Lori and Michelle’s bodyweight arm workout a la dorm (subbed burpees with proper T pushups for the burpee rows)

I’m obsessed with Lori and Michelle’s workouts. They’re quick, intense, and often do not require equipment. Perfect!

Also, do not let the bodyweight aspect of this workout fool you. The power of pushups is real.

Saturday

5 min. row warmup + functional training workout from Julie

This workout is super fun because it moves quickly from one exercise to the next, but it’s also unexpectedly challenging. You think, 10 reps of 7 exercises for 10 rounds? Easy.

But no. At least for me. These kinds of circuit workouts are my faaaavorites though!

Alrighty then, I’m off to tackle the day! Lots of work to do including class registration for next semester (so much stress, holy cow), choir practice, Mass, studying, and blogging!

So tell me:

When was the last time a workout made you insanely sore?

What was your favorite workout this week?