A blog about my life, fitness and fun! (...and maybe a few cat pictures...)

A blog about my life, fitness and fun! (...and maybe a few cat pictures...)

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

A Crazy Summer Workout!

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One of my favorite things to do on a hot summer day is go out in the yard and do some sort of crazy circuit workout that involves cardio, core, plyometrics, and anything else I can think of. Half the fun is designing the workout. The other half of the "fun" is powering through with the sun beating down, sweat dripping in my eyes, and grass sticking to the backs of my legs.

I haven't done one of these in a long time. My knee troubles probably seem like ancient history to you, but I am reminded of my wonky knee every time I push myself a little too hard. But yesterday, I just thought, "F&CK IT! I wanted jump and squat and mountain climb- KNEE BE DAMNED!"

**Spoiler Alert!!! My knee actually held up pretty well, but I was totally prepared to suffer any consequences bestowed upon me.**

So I lugged my kettle bell, jump rope, stability ball, beach towel, deck of cards, and the HUGEST glass of water in the world out to my front stoop and got started. I had on my tightest, shortest black shorts and a cut off green camisole that was acting as a sports bra. (My goal was to push myself hard while at the same time getting a tan.)

Here is what I did:




Deck of cards workouts go like this: Each suit represents an exercise. You pick a card from the deck and do the number of the exercises indicated on the card. Example: 9 of hearts would be 9 burpees. Face cards equal 10. Aces normally equal 15 but I made my Aces 150 jump rope rotations. I also assigned a 1 minute plank to the jokers. You go until you get through the entire deck.

The workout above took me 27 minutes.


This is how I did the ladders. I started with 5 burpees. Then I did 10 push ups and 5 burpees. Then I did 15 jump squats, 10 push ups, and 5 burpees... You get the picture.

Both of the Ladder Workouts took about 9 minutes.




As I started my cool down, me knees felt like jelly. "This must be what it feels like to do an Ironman," I thought to myself. Then I laughed because it was probably about 1% of the difficulty of doing an Ironman. When I finally got in the house, and chugged my second glass of water, I felt sort of nauseous. It was the heat. Or the burpees.

So, what does all this random jumping around translate to? Here are the final stats!

Run- 2 miles
Burpees- 115
Squats- 85
Push ups- 135
Sit ups- 85
Jump rope rotations- 800
Planks- 2 min.
Jump squats- 60
Plank w/ knee tuck- 60
Wall sit- 50 sec.
Jumping jacks- 100
Stability ball pull ins- 30
Kettle bell swings- 50
Mountain climbers- 60
Bicycle crunches- 60
Tell me about your craziest circuit workout!
Favorite at home exercises?
Do you enjoy designing workouts as much as I do?

15 comments:

  1. Wow that is a hardcore circuit. I don't do circuit workouts and after reading this post, I never want to lol.

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  2. NICE!!! I've never done a Deck of Cards or Ladder workout. I'm mildly interested because it sounds like a great way to exercise, but I don't think I would like it at all. Too much hard work :) The other day I challenged Adam to do 10 minutes straight of jumping jacks. I can only last a couple of minutes but he made it all the way! I might need to start doing stuff like this so I can challenge him to more things (and actually win)!

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    1. Maybe you two could do a workout like this together and see who craps out first :)

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  3. I love the Deck of Cards workout. I never do them by myself, only in my circuit class. But maybe I should start doing them at home. I've worked out at home the last four days. I think I got a little tired of the gym. My trainer always makes us do 20 of each exercise when we get a joker. Your joker assignment is much nicer!

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  4. Daaang. This looks awesome! I wish our damn backyard would get finished so I can do outdoor workouts like this (I don't want to do them in the front where neighbors can see. Ha.)

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    1. Oh my neighbors prob think I am bat shit crazy!

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  5. Dang, that is some intense work for outdoors in the middle of the day!! Were you able to get that tan you wanted? hehe

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    1. lol the sports bra tan is coming along nicely, thank you for asking :)

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  6. Owwww. I thought about doing this and then decided nahhh I'll do something similar just not as much. How are you walking right now?!

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    1. Haha I should do an update tomorrow... My ass hurts pretty bad (my actual ass) and my back hurts. I can't figure out the back thing other than I must have had bad form when doing something. Maybe the planks?? The great thing about the card workouts is that you can pick whatever exercises work for YOU or what you enjoy.

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  7. Meg you are super hard core! You must be ripped like the hulk!!! I need to do more of this stuff as soon as I'm on vacation. Seriously.

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    1. LOL you are funny. I wish I were ripped like the hulk! I think I am just stubborn and don't know when to stop.

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  8. i'm terrible about working out at home...it's the treadmill or...pretty much just the treadmill. i usually stick to classes for everything else...

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    1. I don't always feel like doing it at home, the mood def needs to strike me! Classes are super fun, though!

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