Guys, I’m wiped. Stick one of those meat thermometers in me. I’m done. Cooked. All I want right now is a shower and bed. (And to brush my teeth because gross.)
Today was my official start to *baseball stadium announcer voice* MARATHON marathon TRAINING training 2015 2015 15 15…! Maybe I should make some computer graphics for that like TV news.
Anyway, my first day is a non-running day. *womp womp*
So I have strength scheduled for Mondays, and since I’d like to get a little leaner, I’m back to doing Metabolic Effect “spark” circuits.
Dude, I forgot how killer they are! I was a sweaty, shaky, thirsty, hot mess! And that was before I worked out. Just imagine the after. *shudder*
The circuits consist of four compound exercises. You do 12 reps of each exercise before moving on to the next one. You rest when you’re completely out of breath.
I can tell I’m stronger than the last time I re-started ME circuits because I was able to do 5.5 rounds of the four exercises in 20 minutes. I used 12-pound dumbbells, so I might need to up it to 15 pounds on Wednesday.
Here’s what I did in 20 minutes:
12 squats with a double dumbbell row
12 crunches with a dumbbell press
12 squats with a double dumbbell curl
12 squats with dumbbell side arm raises
So all that, 5.5 times. How many squats is that? I did the first one 6 times…so that’s 72 total squats for that part…and I did the final two 5 times…so that’s 120. ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-TWO SQUATS.
Did I stop there?
Hell no! Why? Because I want to do this awesome “Build a Stronger Butt” workout by Bret Contreras (and I hate myself). So, after teeter-tottering down to the bus stop to pick up my son, I came back and did:
3×10 barbell hip thrusts (except I used two 20-pound dummbells because I don’t own a barbell and I wasn’t at the gym)
3×10 goblet squats holding a 20-pound dumbbell (MORE FREAKING SQUATS…what’re we up to? 222, NBD.)
3×10 romanian deadlifts with two 20-pound dumbbells. I know I can go heavier with these–just did like 95 pounds on a barbell last week. But I need to do them at the gym and, alas, I was at home.
The butt workout only took 5-10 minutes. Worth it!
You know what? I don’t really like working out at home. During my ME circuits Bennie (the dog) kept walking right where I was swinging my dumbbells for side-arm raises. And then hanging over my face when I was trying to do the crunches.
Then, as I’m doing the most awkward hip thrusts ever using my exercise ball and the dumbbells, my 6-year-old son comes in my room bouncing this little air-filled green ball, which he then loses, which then rolls right under my butt as I’m lowering down and my butt bounces off the ball and then he’s trying to reach under my butt to try to grab it and I may have snarled at him.
WHY does everyone need to be within arm’s reach of me while I’m working out?! Does this happen to you, too? Or, just me?
Have you tried ME circuits? What do you do for running strength? What works for you?
1 comment
I don’t have kids, but my dogs are terrible when I try to work out at home. Thy think that planks are just play time and will climb under and on top of me. Ridiculous!