Fitness Update - Plus TGU Challenge!

Hey everyone,

Over the past couple of months, we have tried a few new workout styles.  We feel it is important to make these changes to help keep motivated and keep our muscles guessing. Read on as we discuss how these changes worked for us, as well as our next fitness challenges.

Back in January, we broke down our exercise regime into three different workouts, focusing on core exercises.  In February, we tried the "one a day" workout regime. Essentially this involved completing only one exercise per workout (e.g. squats) or focusing on only one body part.  In March we branched out a bit and added "pushing" and "pulling" workouts to our "one-a-day" workouts.  For more details on these workouts, check out some of our previous posts.

Overall, we feel that over the past few months we have really improved on our basic "lifts".  Spending an entire workout doing just deadlifts, for example, really familiarizes you with the exercise and helps to perfect form.  It was also helpful for us to continue completing our exercise together, taking the time to critique each other.  Another helpful tip is to take a video of yourself completing the exercise and then review the video after to see for yourself how you look.

As April approaches, we have elected to go back to an upper body/lower body split again. This entails working all upper body muscles in a single workout (i.e. chest, back and shoulders), followed by a workout focusing on the lower body (i.e. quadriceps, glutes and hamstrings). We plan to intersperse these with workouts focused on metabolic conditioning (i.e. stair carries, battleropes, cycling).

Our most recent workout was a lower body focus.  We completed our exercises as couplets (paired exercises), with 3 sets of each couplet.  We then finished off our workout with a Turkish Get Up (TGU) challenge.  See below for what we did:

Couplet A

1. Double kettlebell racked squats (Alex - 2x24kg, Tannys - 2x12kg)
2. Double kettlebell lunges - holding kettlebells at sides (Alex - 2x24kg, Tannys - 2x12kg)

Couplet B

1. Straight leg deadlifts (Alex - 225 lbs, Tannys - 40kg)
2. Alternating kettlebell deadlifts (Alex - 40kg, Tannys - 24kg)

TGU Challenge

• 10 TGU's for time (both completed in 2:58)

We both found the workout exhausting, but felt great once finished!  The 10 TGU time challenge was definitely tough.  We aim to challenge ourselves again soon by adding on reps, yet trying to maintain a good time.  Try it and let us know how it goes for you!

-Tannys & Alex