“I’ll Sleep Like A Baby Tonight” Workouts
I almost didn’t type this post. Not because I’m not in the mood to blog or anything. Come on. When does that ever happen to me? I almost didn’t type this post because my upper body is sooooo S-O-R-E. I worked it good this morning!
For a long time I feel like I just went through the motions of my strength training. I went in and did challenging workouts – kind of hard not to challenge yourself with a workout beast – but I never felt like I pushed past my comfort zone. I guess it makes sense seeing as I have focused a lot on running and training for different races, like my first 5K, my first 10K, and now my first half marathon (Savannah RNR, baby!).
The thing is, I love strength training. I get pumped up (ha!) to see my strength increase or to leave a workout with my muscles shaking.
Yes, I ask random gym folk to take pictures of me…
So, I decided to do something about that this week. Instead of sticking with the two full body workouts I have been doing, I broke it up a little differently.
- Monday = Legs / Shoulders / Abs
- Tuesday = Back / Chest / Biceps / Triceps
- Thursday = Full Body (my own circuit, Group Power class, or Physique 57 DVD)
With this breakdown, I can still train my legs lighter to keep them fresh for running, but have the time and energy to up the intensity of my upper body training once a week without feeling rushed to get through a full body workout. I really like splitting up my workouts like that so far this week! Here’s what they looked like:
Legs (3 x 12-15) / Shoulders (3 x 8-10) / Abs (3 x 25)
| Superset 1 | Superset 2 | Superset 3 |
| step – ups | leg extension | speed skaters |
| barbell upright row | side raises on Bosu ball | hanging knee raises |
Upper Body (all 3 x 8 where the last rep or two was HARD)
| Superset 1 | Superset 2 | Superset 3 |
| push-ups | barbell bench press | triceps dips |
| wide grip lat pulldown | dumbbell row | bicep curls on balance disc |
Check out how I create my strength training plans!
Splitting up the workout like this gave me the chance to take more time for rest periods and to up the weights on a lot of the moves. It felt fantastic! And I’m still feeling it now. 
For some cardio action today, I decided I didn’t really feel like the elliptical so I held off until the afternoon. I actually really enjoy splitting up my cardio and strength training if I my schedule allows it because then I feel I can give more to each workout.
When Peter got home this afternoon, I headed to our basement gym to spend some quality time with Cathe – one of the all-time best DVD trainers around.
I popped in her 40/20 HIIT workout which features a 25 minute workout including a warm-up, 16 interval drills, and a cool-down. It’s short and to the point, but man will it get you winded! You do a different plyometric style drill for each round – working hard for 40 seconds before taking a 20 second rest and moving to the next exercise. I feared the tuck jumps would cause a heart attack from the pounding it did in my chest. Yowza!
Hopefully these challenging workouts will help me sleep like a baby tonight! I’m determined to not get behind on sleep again. I don’t foresee many naps in the near future, after all.
- Do you like lifting heavier weights?
- What is the weirdest place you have asked someone to take your picture?
