Tough Upper Body Circuit Workout

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Here’s another great circuit workout. It was particularly tough on the arms and the core. Good luck.

As with all the circuits… do the exercises for 1 min and do the circuit three times with minimal rest between exercises and between circuits.

1. Lat pull ups (you can either use a TRX style apparatus with grips or just use a bar a couple feet above the ground with your feet out in front of you)

2. Box jumps

3. Incline pushups (with feet up on something sturdy about 1 ft high)

4. Walking lunges holding weights overhead

5. High plank with opposite arm and leg balance (from a high push up position raise your right hand out in front of you and your left leg up, switch sides)

6. Sit ups with a medicine ball (we do them with 12 lbs, bring the ball completely over your head to the ground when you go down)

7. Single leg wall sits (holding a weight shoulder height in front of you… try 10 lbs for starters)

8. Mountain climbers

A Butt-Kicking Circuit Workout

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The goal of this workout is to do the circuit three times with as little rest as possible. Good luck!

Do each exercise for one minute unless otherwise noted.

1. Walking pushups (do a regular pushup, place one hand about 6-12 in forward with the feet rotating slightly in the same direction, do a pushup, place the other hand about 6-12 in in front of your other hand with the feet rotating slightly to that side… keep going).

2. Walking planks

3. Body squats (100, 75 during the second and third time through the circuit)

4. Jump rope (100 jumps as quickly as possible)

5. Burpees

6. Crab walks (make sure to keep your butt up and off the ground)

7. Flutter kicks

8. Mountain climbers

Circuit Workout of the Week

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Today was a doosie!

We did this circuit three times in a row with minimal rest between sets and between exercises. Each exercise we did for 1 minute.

1. yoga pushups (also called dive bombers)
2. situps with a medicine ball
3. jump rope (100 jumps instead of for time)
4. squats with a medicine ball
5. T planks (in an upper plank position, jump your feet wide and then back to the middle)
6. squat presses (squat with overhead arm press – weight about 15 lbs)
7. reverse flys
8. side planks (45 sec each side)

This was a great workout that hits all the major muscle groups. Doing this circuit three times in a row without any rest also got a bit of cardio involved too. Have fun!

World’s Tryout Wrap-Up

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Well my husband came home happy about his tryout. He was happy with the way he played and super excited about having played with so many other good players. He thought he gave it his best shot and had showcased his talents to the best of his ability.

Unfortunately, he was not one of the 11 men chosen to play on Team USA. My husband is, of course, a little disappointed, but he still loves ultimate and will continue to play at a high level with some of the best players in the country.

Check out this great article about the East Coast tryout and meet the members of Team USA.

T Minus 4 Days Until Tryouts

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There are 4 days left until the East Coast tryout for the U.S. Worlds Team. The tryouts are being held in Washington D.C. where it promises to be a chilly weekend.

For those interested… USA Ultimate posted a great article in anticipation of their West Coast Tryout which was held this past weekend in San Francisco. It details some of the expectations for the tryouts, what the coaches are trying to achieve in terms of team balance, and the adjustment abilities of the athletes to playing co-ed. One of the subjects stressed in the article was the importance of what the athletes have been doing in the off-season. Those that come into the tryouts in good shape will certainly have a leg up on those that have been relaxing for the last 4 months.

That being said, my husband is excited about the coming weekend and looking forward to playing ultimate with some other great athletes.

We’ll keep you posted when they figure out the final roster!

It’s Been A While

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The reason I’ve been absent for so long is a simple one. I’ve been busy.

Also, my husband and I joined a local gym and got roped into personal training. It was much easier than I thought it was going to be and the price was right. We have a deal for group training (both of us at the same time) twice a week. So we set some goals and jumped right in.

Because of that I am no longer designing workouts, but have decided that I still want to share what we are doing. That way, those of you that don’t have the benefit of a personal trainer or have trouble designing effective workouts can benefit from our experiences.

I’m just going to jump right in because it seems ridiculous to catch you up on 6 weeks worth of workouts. The only thing I will say pertains to our goals…

My goals were fairly simple. Train to run a marathon in the fall without getting injured.

My husbands goals were to build some power and strength and work on agility and flexibility for his upcoming Team USA ultimate tryouts (which are in 2 weeks).

Anyway we have been doing circuit work for a couple weeks to work on strength, explosive power, endurance, and flexibility. Today’s workout was particularly tough.

7 stations, start wherever you want, 1 min at each station, 4x with 1 min rest in between:
1. step ups with 50-80 lbs (women-men weight)
2. hang cleans (these are a type of olympic lift and I recommend asking a trainer to show you how to do these properly before trying them. check out this video to get an idea.)
3. yoga ball crunches
4. kettlebell squats (touch the kettlebell to the ground each time
5. walking planks (I have called these plank pushups in the past)
6. side lunges with a 10 lb medicine ball
7. quarter mile sprint

Ultimate Training: Intervals and Circuits

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This workout combines long interval training with short circuit work.

Running interval work:
30 minute run – 2 minutes jog/ 2 minutes of running at a good clip (it should be effort levels of 3 for the jog and 7 for the run portions)

Ladder work:
Long ladders – set up 3 cones 15 m apart. Run to the first cone, back to the start, run to the second cone, back to the start, run to the third cone, back to the start. Rest. Do the first set running forward both directions. The second set is side shuffles, and the third set is forward on the way out and backpedal on the way back. Rest 1 min between each set. Repeat the three sets.

Circuit work:
Set up a box with sides of 30 m. The goal is to sprint around the box, stopping at each corner to complete a task. The task at corner 1 is 10 pushups, corner 2 is 10 squat jumps, corner 3 is 5 lunges on each leg, and corner 4 is 10 burpees. Do not rest between tasks or sprints until you get back to the beginning. Rest for 3 minutes and repeat.

Strength Workout # 7: Circuit Fun

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Workout:

pushup circuit –  yoga, regular, yoga, twist, yoga, arm raise (do 5 of each of the pushups with minimal rest in between)
20 chops on a bosu ball
20 dips
20 shoulder shrugs
20 pushups with feet on a chair
bridge hold with 10 leg extensions (hold your body in a bridge position – butt off the floor and extend your foot from your knee. You will be balancing on your opposite leg, but make sure not to let your butt sag. Alternate legs and do 10 total extensions)
20 crunches on a yoga ball
20 lunges on a bosu ball
ab circuit – regular crunches, leg lifts, side to side touches, flutter kicks (flutter your feet about 4 inches off the ground while you are lying on your back), plank, bicycle (do each exercise from 1 minute, for a total of 6 minutes)

Challenge: regular pushups to exhaustion (make sure to keep track of your records)

Strength Workout # 6

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The workout:

10 lunges each leg
10 squats
20 calf raises each leg
20 supermans
10 bird-dogs each side
20 spiderman pushups
plank for 30 sec (during that time raise each leg 5 times during the 30 sec)
10 inchworms with a twist pushup at the bottom
side plank for 30 sec each side (during that time raise your upper leg about 6 inches, do that 5 times during the 30 sec)
10 yoga pushups
20 bridges (hold the last one for 30 seconds)
20 pikes on a yoga ball
10 circles with a medicine ball each side
wall sit for 45 sec (make sure that your knees are at 90 degrees)
20 side to sides with a medicine ball
10 pushups with a twist