My favorite cardio and strength training workouts

At the risk of sounding completely cliché posting about my favorite workouts on January 2nd, I promise this has nothing to do with resolutions, diets, fads, or “new beginnings” (although, more power to you if that’s the journey you’re embarking on today. You can do it!) and more so just because I thought it was time to share with you all what I’ve been loving for workouts recently now that both half marathons are over. I have actually still been working out and not just eating all this food!

Cardio

1. Running:

This will still be my first love, but I’ve cut it back from 20-25 mile weeks to more like 10-13 mile weeks in the past month.

Outdoor runs have been mostly music-less, Garmin-less 3-4 mile relatively easy, steady state runs on the bike trail.

Indoor runs on the treadmill have been 2-4 mile HIIT workouts. I find these to be the best “bang for your buck” kind of workout. They can literally take as little as 20 minutes and in that time I’ll cover at least 2 miles and work up a ridiculous sweat. They’re also great for those days when you really don’t feel like working out so you tell yourself “just 20 minutes”.

These are two of my current favorites:

 

Obviously, speeds can be adjusted to your fitness/comfort level. I’m 99% sure my treadmill is not calibrated correctly at home because at 8.0, I literally feel like I’m going to fly off the thing and I can run that outside no problem during a sprint. At hotel gyms that speed also seems much more feasible, so these are specific to my home treadmill which is apparently fast.

2. Biking:

Now that my bike trainer is set up, this has become a legitimate cross training cardio option. I rubber band my iPhone around my handlebars, turn on an episode of Mad Men on Netflix and pedal away for 47 minutes. I haven’t set up an actual “workout” but I try to pedal relatively easy for the first 5 minutes, increase the resistance for the next 20, increase again for the next 15 and then start a cool down for the remainder. Watching TV really makes the time fly, I highly recommend the ghetto rubber band method.

3. DVDs:

This could be considered strength too but considering it’s body weight and 5 pound hand weights at most, I feel like it’s more of a cardio workout for me. Sometimes this is another option for a quick/don’t feel like doing much today workout or, sometimes I couple this with a HIIT session. Either way, this was the first workout DVD I ever owned and it still does a great job of getting your heart rate up and making you sweat for all of a 25 minute commitment. I usually do this exclusively on level 3.

Strength

Here’s where I confess that I kind of fell off the NROLFW bandwagon. My last update was at the end of stage 2. I did actually finish stage 3 (just never posted about it) but the stage got delayed by half marathon training. Then I decided to take a few weeks break as the half marathons were finishing up and promised to get back to the program after the races. Well, it’s definitely “after” and I haven’t done it.

However, that’s not to say I haven’t been strength training. I just haven’t felt the desire to follow the actual NROLFW program.

1. Yoga:

Again my girl Jillian comes in handy when I’m craving some yoga or a low-intensity strength workout. This is not “fluffy” yoga, my arms are usually jello the day after this dvd from all those damn chaturanga pushups.

2. Upper body:

Some of these are from the NROLFW stages, some are from other workouts I’ve seen around. This usually takes me around 30 minutes and leaves me s-o-r-e the next day. I’m still trying to follow the NROLFW “mantra” and lift heavy. For me right now, most of these sets are performed using 15-20lb. dumbbells. I’m quickly outgrowing the 20 lbers though and am going to need to invest in some 25 lb. ones. Those things are not cheap!

3. Lower body:

NROLFW has what they call a “body matrix” workout at the end of some stages. It’s intense to say the least so I’ve tacked it on to the end of many cardio sessions lately for some added focus on my legs. I’ll be honest, I’m not as diligent with leg strength training given the fact that both my go-to cardio options (running & biking) are leg dominant.

I know you’re looking at this thinking “that doesn’t look so bad” because that’s what I thought the first time too, until I got to jumping lunge #15 and thought I was going to die. NROLFW says to time yourself doing this, then rest for twice the amount of time it took you to do it before doing it one more time. I consider myself in pretty good shape and I’ve yet to make it through a whole second round!

4. Abs:

-Planks have become my #1 favorite ab exercise as of late. I’ll usually do 2-3 ranging anywhere from 90-120 seconds. Here is my expert advice on planks: play on your phone while timing yourself. Twitter makes the seconds FLY by.

-Swiss ball jack knife Almost like a plank, but with movement. Love this one.

-Crunches on the ball.

-Side flexion from NROLFW:

It’s a weird and awkward movement, but it really works your side abs well.

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So there you have it. A usual week consists of 3 runs, 1-2 bike sessions and 3 strength sessions. I’ve been getting between 4-5 days of workouts in a week during the past month, but would really like to increase that to 5-6 now that the chaos of the holidays is behind us.

I have no real goals right now and it kind of feels nice. Sometimes I like having something to work towards, other times I’m fine just keeping my fitness levels steady. I like being able to run 5 miles without any “real” effort so that’s my magic number right now with running. As for strength, I feel like that’s a continual process that I’ll just keep doing and increasing as I outgrow weights.

This nonchalant attitude is exactly how I felt last year at this time after my half marathon so I’m not surprised it’s happened again. Give me 2-3 months and I’ll be itching to sign up for something!

Do you have any fitness goals right now?

What’s your favorite type of cardio/strength training?