Motion is Life ~ A Variety of Work Outs and Movement

Posted by Dr. Mom Online in Exercise on February 24, 2010

As 2010 clicks along, I’m continuing with my plan to MOVE in a purposeful way every single day. What I mean by that is not just doing normal daily activities, like work, errands, household chores, etc. I mean intentionally moving in a way that meets my body’s requirements – providing an overall variety of movement like, endurance, strength, power, balance, flexibility, speed, and so on.

No, I don’t do each of those every day, silly… I DO have a job and a family to take care of! I do some combination of spinal hygiene (stretching, proprioceptive moves and postural exercises) each morning, and the rest is sprinkled all over the place!

I’ve had a narrowed focus for the past couple of weeks – I’m doing a bit more of the high-intensity interval training right now. It’s a two-fold purpose. 1) My body just feels like it right now! And, 2) I very recently was informed that we’re blessed enough to be heading someplace very warm next week. Not much else can motivate you to step it up another notch than finding out you’ll be living in a bathing suit (in public) for a week… and that you won’t be able to totally escape being caught in a family photo or two!

Here’s what the last week has looked like:

Wednesday

This was sort of a “cardio intervals” work out. I couldn’t get away for a running/sprinting work out with the kids off school last week, so I modified the plan.

1 minute of Bosu ball “scoots” – kind of side skipping over the Bosu ball at a quick pace, going from side lunge to side lunge

1 minute straddle jumps onto Bosu, landing in wide squats when down on the floor, popping up onto the ball

30 seconds of reverse lunges off the Bosu ball

30 two-foot bench jump-ups

1 minute of alternating side bench jump-ups – same type of move as the Bosu scoot!

Abs: 30 recumbent straight leg raises off bench

30 two-foot bench jump-overs – *warning* – these can be dangerous little buggers! I had two more jumps to go, and was needing a little extra oomph, so I used my arms a little bit too much. I ended up gouging a dent out of my forehead with own thumb nail!! Duh! Tip – when you get tired, don’t use your arms for assistance tooooo much!

30 side-to-side parallel bench jump-overs

30 alternating swivel chair kicks – great for abs! Swivel kicks over a high-back chair. It’s surprising how heavy our legs are!

(I think this was about a 20 – 25 minute work out… forgot to write it down as I tended to an silly bleeding forehead before going in to the office!)

Thursday

25 squats on flat side of Bosu ball with 2 x 25 lb. dumbbells on shoulders

20 chin-ups

20 decline push-ups onto flat side of Bosu ball

alternating squats/front kicks for 1 minute

15 wide biceps curls with 2 x 15 lb. db’s

30 dips with feet on flat side of Bosu, ankles crossed

15 lateral shoulder raises with 2 x 15 lb. db’s

25 (each side) lunges with rear foot on chair, front foot on round side of Bosu ball – 2 x 25 lb. db’s

15 (each side) 1-arm rowing with 50 lb. Bowflex cable

20 chest presses with 80 lbs. Bowflex cables

18 biceps curls (ea.) with 30 lb. BF cables – held #20 for 30 seconds

20 overhead triceps French press with 30 lb. BF cable

20 dead lifts off the bench, 2 x 35 lb. db’s

20 side-to-side lunges, over the top of Bosu, 2 x 25 lb. db’s

30 alternating bench step-ups with 2 x 25 lb. db’s

25 jack knives on exercise ball

1 minute mountain climbers

Took Guinness for a long walk.

Friday

(usual morning routine)

Ran 3.5 miles. “Normal” run for the first 1.5-2 miles. 45-60 seconds intervals of sprinting/2 minutes of jogging/walking for the last 1.5+ miles.

Took Guinney-Bopper for a walk.

Saturday

Usual morning routine of stretching, proprioceptive moves + more abs work, calisthenics and yoga. Approx. 25 – 30 minutes.

Sunday

(morning routine – short one)

Ran 5 miles – normal run for first 2.5; intervals for the last 2.5. Did 6 or 7 intervals of 80-100% effort for 45 – 60 seconds, with recovery periods of 2-3 minutes for most of them… some longer if they included going back down to normal running pace.

Abs: two sets of 30 pelvic/leg lifts with medicine ball between knees, two sets of crunch variations with 35 lb. db on chest – 12 & 16 reps, 25 oblique crunches on Bosu ball (each side) with medicine ball on chest

Walked dog-breath, too.

Monday

This work out was supposed to be a high-intensity fat-burning work out, but I kind of ran out of steam by the time I got around to it! The kids were off school and we had been playing out in the NEW deep snow for a l-o-n-g time… my legs were whooped! The work out was still really good, just not as high-intensity as I had originally planned.

I’ve misplaced the details of the work out, but I can tell you the basic exercises I did…

squats on the flat side of Bosu ball

2-arm rows on ball

chest flyes with dumbbells while lying on ball

dead lifts

alternating lunges

biceps curls and reverse grip triceps kickbacks on Bowflex

lateral shoulder raises while kneeling on Bosu ball

a couple 1 minute “intervals” of kneeling on exercise ball

wall squats and wide squats

hamstring/glute curls with exercise ball

Abs: ab vacuums, plank poses – front and side, bent and straight arm

Tuesday

(morning routine)

45 minutes of Tae Bo

Abs: pretty much the same as what I did on Sunday, just added stwo sets of straight leg raises (15 each) with medicine ball between feet

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