Thursday, September 30, 2010

Workout Tips for When you're Busy, Busy, Busy

Due mostly to a unique schedule this past week and partially to personal preferences (I really only like to workout in the mornings), my regular workout routines were put on hold. In fact, the last full workout I had was last Friday.

Now, if a workout schedule is being temporarily disrupted (I'd say for no more than a week), then one can either take a complete break from working out or, as I did, include some modified workouts (I'll include examples below).

However, if a schedule is changed for a longer period of time, then some big adjustments need to be made. For example, I knew that my schedule was only changing for about a week. So since I only like to workout in the mornings, I just more or less took the week off. But if the schedule would have been more permanently changed, then I would have, as the Scriptures say, "Girded up my loins" and moved my workout to another time of day whether I liked it or not.

Okay, now for some easy examples of modified, just-do-it-and-get-on-with-your-life style workouts.

Option #! Resistance Training using what I call MMG (Major Muscle Group Exercise)

Here the goal is simply to give every major muscle group one round of exertion. It will probably take less than 5 minutes and although one's heart rate might go up, it's doubtful that you'll break a sweat (which makes it easy to jump right into the shower when finished and get on with your day)

Examples of exercises that might be used (choose ONE exercise from each of the following groups and go to 2 reps short of failure).

Push-up, Dumbbell Press, Bench Press

Body-weight squat, Barbell Squat, Bulgarian Split Squat

Pull-up (overhand grip), Reverse Row, Dumbbell row

Plank, Stability Ball Plank, Ab-wheel roll-out

Chin-up (underhand grip), Dumbbell curl


For me the one day (I think it was Monday) workout was: 20 push-ups, 12 Bulgarian Split squats/leg, 10 pull-ups, 10 ab-wheel roll-outs, and 7 chin-ups (with knee-ups) with no rest between exercises.

Done! Five minutes tops. Breathing heavy but no sweat.

Option #2 for quick cardio

Actually, you'll get a touch of a cardio workout from option #1 above too. But on non-resistance training days, here are some cardio options. Simply use one or more of the following, depending on time available. Again, these are obviously not full-blown workouts, but they at least give your body some movement when precious little time is available. Also, most of these I'd suggest to do on a 24 second work/36 second rest schedule. Simply do as many rounds as time permits, though probably no more than 10 rounds (which would still only be 10 minutes!).

Standard Jumping Jacks. Yep, they've been around forever, but they are a classic way to involve almost all the muscles in the body from head to toe. Use them as a warm-up for the exercises to follow or use them in interval fashion as described above. Just be prepared for some sore calve muscles if you're not used to it.

Jumping rope. Get a good jump-rope (preferably heavy nylon with roller bearings in the handles) and have at it. For a harder workout, either increase the speed or raise your knees higher. You'll be panting when you're done!

Shadow Boxing. I know basically nothing about real boxing. But I do know that enthusiastically throwing punches into thin air can soon leave you gasping for it. Just don't extend your arms completely when you let the punches fly.

Running in Place. Raise the knees high and pump the arms hard IF you want (and are physically qualified for) a harder workout.

Hopefully these tips will come in handy when time and/or space is tight but you still want to stay on track with your workout routine.

Blessings,
Kent

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