It’s Back-to-the-Gym Season

Photo credit to Shape.com

This fall as we all head back indoors for our workouts, I have a killer circuit workout for you – no boredom, guaranteed!

But first, if you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my tweets about this but if not, two quick ‘housekeeping’ issues:

1) There are going to be a few giveaways coming up in the near future. And they are pretty ‘sweet’, if you get my drift. And on the subject of food I have some pumpkin recipes coming up shortly. Ooh yah.

2) You can find this blog very easily now by simply typing in www.guiltlesslife.com – easy!

3) Send me any comments/suggestions/questions you have but don’t want to publicly state in the comments via email to theguiltlesslife@gmail.com. Some people had been having trouble finding my contact info.

Okay, so workout time!

If you’re anything like me, you get bored fast in the gym. It doesn’t matter what show they have on those TVs in front of the treadmill (why is it always a cooking show? Isn’t it torturous to watch someone baking cupcakes on TV when you’re sweating it out on the treadmill?!), I don’t want to be doing any one thing for more than 10 minutes. I have great admiration for ‘fitnessistas’ who can slug away on those machines for an hour at a time.

My best friend in the gym is a circuit workout. I have lots of ’em, so no worries, more will come! The fact is, circuit training is actually really good for you. It combines cardio with strength training and, if you stretch well at the end, gaining flexibility. They also burn calories really well as all of that stop-and-go action is basically interval training, so long as there isn’t more stop than go (yeah…I’ve done the whole ‘oh, it says rest 1 minute? I thought it said rest 10 minutes!’ trick before too).

Hopefully this workout will keep you interested and challenged. If it’s too challenging, work your way up by customizing the speeds/weights/reps and then build up. That’s great as it gives you a goal to reach which can be more motivating so you keep hitting the gym! I’m super excited too, because the gym in the building we just moved into has a great set-up, so I’ll have lots more toys to play with to come up with some more circuit workouts for you! And hey, if you get bored of the gym, just throw yourself a dance party, hit the water, or try out a yoga class to keep things different! (*You can always hit the MOVE tab at the top of my website for all of my fitness-related posts!).

Um, yes, I would like her abs please.

If you aren’t familiar with the exercises, click on the exercise name – I’ve linked to a YouTube video of the exercise to help you out.

CARDIO WARM-UP – treadmill

Walk quickly on a 5% incline for 2 minutes
Run quickly on a 1% incline for 2 minutes
Walk slowly for 1 minute

WEIGHTS CIRCUIT 1

10 Bosu push-ups
10 Good Morning holding 20lb barbell or 20lb dumbbell (single)
10 overhead tricep extensions (10 each side) with 15lb dumbbell (single)
20 stability ball crunches

CARDIO

4 x 1 minute sprints on treadmill at 3% incline at 6.0mph
(20-second rests in between)

WEIGHTS CIRCUIT 2

12 bicep curls, holding 12lb dumbbells
15 plie squats (you don’t have to hold any weight)
12 bent-over reverse flys holding 10lb dumbbells
20 Russian twists (hold a medicine ball or 10- or 15-lb dumbbell)

CARDIO

4 x 1 minute sprints on treadmill at 5% incline at 6.5mph
(20-second rests in between)

12 one-arm dumbbell rows, each side, holding 10-15lb dumbbells
20 walking lunges, holding 10lb dumbbells in each hand
12 V-sit overhead tricep extensions holding 10lb dumbbell
5 Superman poses, held for 5-10 seconds each time and with a 5-second rest in between

Repeat whole circuit (skipping first cardio warm-up).