Another Great Lower Body Ladder Workout!

Hey everyone,

It has been awhile since we've completed a ladder workout, so we decided to add this component into our lower body workout a few days ago.  Ladder workouts are excellent for both strength and conditioning.  If you take only very short breaks, they can be completed fairly quickly as well, giving you a great workout in a short amount of time.

Car Pushing and Kettlebell Swings

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Over this past long weekend, we decided it was time to do a killer strength and cardio workout, including one of our favorite types of exercise - car pushing!  Combining this with some kettlebell work, gave us a great full body challenge.

Contrast Workout

Hey everyone,

We recently developed a new workout format which we have tried out a few times (with good results so far).  It is a contrast workout, which applies a strict focus on a few exercises (i.e. a minimalist approach).  This workout format really suits an upper/lower body split routine.  It incorporates strength training, but also targets muscular endurance.  This workout is targeted more at the intermediate and advanced level (i.e. it may not be appropriate for beginners).

Lower Body Kettlebell and Trap Bar Workout

Hey everyone,

For this lower body workout, we chose 3 foundational compound exercises.  Two of the exercises we completed were core exercises from the HKC Kettlebell certification we completed in December 2012 (the TGU and Kettlebell Swing).  The 3rd exercise (the Trap Bar Deadlift), is not a kettlebell exercise, however it uses the same hip hinge movement that is used in the swing.  We feel we have a much better grasp of the proper technique for these exercises after completing our certification course and have been incorporating these exercises frequently into our workout routine to perfect them!

Traditional Lower Body Workout

Hey everyone,

Having recently tried a 'traditional' upper body workout, we decided to revisit this format for a lower body workout.  In this type of workout, you pick your exercises and move through them one at a time, doing your sets and taking ample rest in between.  These types of workouts are best suited for when you have plenty of time, since they seem to take about an hour, on average (depending on how many exercises and sets you do).

Traditional Upper Body Workout

Hey everyone,

Sometimes we get nostalgic for the kind of workouts we used to do when we went to a 'big-box' gym.  They were lengthy, yet pleasant workouts.  We would pick several exercises and just do them sequentially, one at a time, taking ample rest in between each set.  This format of workout works well if you pick challenging compound exercises and lift heavy weights (for strength building).  It can also be a social, relaxing workout when you take a break between sets to chat.  That's why this workout style is great when you have lots of time, like on an evening where you have nothing else to do, or on a weekend.

A Versatile Workout for Either Home or the Gym

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One of our readers recently asked "I'd like to work out with the free weights instead of the machines, but I can't afford to have a personal trainer show me which exercises I should be doing. I'm looking for a series of free weight exercises, that work out both upper and lower body, that I can do by myself at the gym..."

Pulling and Pushing Workouts

Hey everyone,

Last week we completed back-to-back full-body workouts and found that completing them on consecutive days was quite tiring and did not allow enough time for muscle recovery. This weekend we decided to do things a bit differently. We split the exercises into pulling (i.e. back and hamstrings) on the first day, and pushing (i.e. chest, quads and shoulders) on the second day.  

Upper Body Workout - Getting Stronger!

Hey everyone,

Since it is the weekend and we have more time for our workouts, we decided to do an upper body strength workout.  We decided to use a couplet format (two exercises super-setted together), but had longer rest periods in between sets to allow for our strength levels to recover.  We also tried to pick challenging exercises where we'd be lifting heavier weights and targeting multiple-muscle groups with each exercise.  In short, we focused on getting stronger.

Strength Training + FGB - Lower Body

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With a successful strength training + FGB workout for our upper body (see previous post), we were excited to try out this format for a lower body workout.  It turned out to be another great workout!

Strength Training + FGB - Upper Body

Hey everyone,

In recent workouts, we have really enjoyed the combination of strength training and conditioning work.  Both aspects are uniquely challenging and taxing and support our overall fitness goals.  This week, we tried out a new workout format which incorporates both strength training and conditioning, though a mini-Fight Gone Bad (3 FGB 5-minute circuits).

Strength Plus Tabata!

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For today's lower body workout, we wanted to ensure that we targeted both strength and conditioning.  Lately, we have combined regular sets with finishing circuits to achieve this.  Today, we switched it up and chose three foundational leg exercises, which were followed by Tabata sets.  The result was a great blend of strength work and fast-paced conditioning.

Some strength, some circuit

Hey everyone,

After work, we came home and got ready for our upper body workout.  We wanted to include some strength work, while also focusing on conditioning.  Thus, we chose to do a strength + circuit workout to meet both objectives.

Strength + Circuit

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For an evening workout, Alex was craving some strength training, while Tannys wanted to push the pace and complete some circuits.  So, what did we do?  We designed a strength + circuit combo, targeting our upper body.  With the exception of a mid-workout injury (details below), it was successful and enjoyable!

Ideally it's from delayed onset muscle soreness, not a strained muscle!

Hard vs. Simple

Hey everyone,

Over the last couple of days, we did two very different workouts.  In both cases, we came home from work and weren't really feeling in the mood to exercise.  By taking a few minutes to mentally move past the workday, have a snack, and motivate each other, we committed to working out.  Again, this is an example of where working out as a couple (or with a friend) can help you stay committed to your fitness.

Hybrid Workout

Hey everyone,

For today's lower body workout, we decided to combine strength and conditioning components.  Our last few workouts have been density-style or FGB (due to time constraints), so we wanted to focus on heavy lifts and building strength, without neglecting our conditioning.

Workouts - Strength-based leg workout & battleropes!

Hey everyone,

As Tannys wrote earlier, we are both feeling a bit under the weather (admittedly, her more than me).  Perhaps it was the travelling, with exposure to more people, altered routines and diets, etc.?  In any case, I wanted to do a workout this evening but didn't want to put my body under too much stress and risk developing a full-blown cold.

Workouts - Strength + Circuit

Hi everyone!

We were very excited that it was finally Thanksgiving - a long weekend!  On the Friday night, after work, we took the time for a longer leg workout.  We started off with a strength component of three exercises, with four sets of each (plus warmups).  Then, we finished with two circuits of three exercises, with a brief rest in between those circuits.  This latter part was more for metabolic conditioning and as a finishing component (i.e. we used lighter weights and had virtually no rest in between the sets in the circuit).  Here's the workout:

Strength:

1. Deadlifts (rack-pull version)
2. Front squats
3. (Front) barbell step-back lunges (i.e. holding the barbell in front, as in the front squat)

Circuit:

1. Alternating kettlebell deadlifts
2. Kettlebell swings
3. Kettlebell bulgarian split squats