Workout Description
First off let me just make this one thing perfectly clear: I don’t have an average workout. I change things up all the time. Every workout isn’t for every person. So I want to give you a bit of a description and maybe that will help you see if my type of workouts are something that may work for you and your workout buddies.
You should always start with a warm up that lasts anywhere from 5-10 minutes. Every workout I provide gives ideas on what to do for the warm up.The whole goal is to gradually get the muscles and mind ready for that day’s workout. I believe in a dynamic warm up. This means doing movements and activities that raise the temperature of your muscles, increase your heart rate to a workout level, and prepare the muscles to do the movements that will be involved. By the end of the warmup, you should be breathing harder, warmer, and even have broken somewhat of a sweat.
I believe the most effective workout are those with high intensity activities for a short period of time with short “breaks.” This could mean some sprinting, racing, jumping, skipping rope, or stationary cardio activities (an all-time favorite being burpees over and over), or resistance exercises. We may run through agility patterns, jump on and off of curbs or low walls, go through obstacle courses or agility courses, charge up hills, run stairs in a bunch of different ways, or just run sprints of varying lengths in different ways (skipping, shuffling, hopping, etc), or do short sets of bodyweight or resistance activities. On other days we'll do workouts that are shor-burst oriented, but work on sustaining activity and effort over a longer duration. I think that playing at your workout, makes it a ton of fun. So I try to work in some sort of games – group games, individual games, games with partners. I find that when your mind is on winning, putting a ball into a goal, over a net, or passing or catching balls, the work is easier.
To build strong, powerful bodies, I sometimes use bodyweight only or I break out the dumbbells, medicine balls, kettle bells, weighted poles, sandbags, resistance bands, scooters, ropes, tires and anything else that comes to mind. Again I focus on high intensity activities done for a short time, then a short “break” and on to the next. It moves pretty quickly. Some of the things I do may bear a slight resemblance to exercises done in a gym, but only a slight one. I tweak and mix and match activities so that we challenge lots of muscle groups and get your whole body involved. It's all about fusion - putting different activities together to create interesting, challenging, effective workouts. We move quickly from activity to activity making it quite the cardio, and endurance challenge. We do plenty of running and other movement types between and in the middle of our strengthening activities.
Now here’s another thing about the workouts I put together and the way I workout. Short breaks. These breaks aren’t standing around, hands on your knees, or sitting on the grass. Some groups breaks last forever and resemble a picnic or coffee break. The muscles get tight and cold with that long of a break. My "breaks" are either a quick stop for a swallow or two of water, or, and this one is the most common, a new activity. A different activity that is lower in intensity is usually my idea of a break. It keeps the muscles warm and loose and then you are ready to go hard again. As you get fitter, the breaks should get shorter. This will increase your fitness level.
We do ab and core strengthening activities every single day. It usually comes at the end of the workout but not always. Again – I love variety. Your body needs to be kept guessing to get the most out of your fitness workout. We hit those core muscles in every way I can dream up anywhere from 10 - 20 minutes.
I save the real stretching for the end of the workout. I believe that stretching is most beneficial at the end of a workout when the muscles are warm. Good stretching of the large muscle groups will make the post-workout soreness much less.
If you have good workout buddies, you should find yourself laughing while sweating, pushing and challenging each other to really put out real effort, teasing and encouraging each other through the tough stuff, and holding each other accountable.
Working at your own level is key. I have, what I call, The Push Factor (PF). It's a way of measuring your intensity and effort in the workouts. It's a 1-10 scale, where 1 is sleeping, and 10 is just before you pass out from over-exertion. In most of our lives, we seldom if ever exert ourselves above a level 5 on a scale from 1-10. That is pitiful, but true. Think about it. How often do you push yourself, really exert yourself past what is comfortable? Not much, I bet. I really believe that for a workout to truly benefit you, you’ve got to push beyond your comfort zone. You’ve got to challenge yourself to push further. Work at a PF 7-9 on the high intensity stuff.
Now, what it takes for you to be at certain Push Factor may be different from someone elses – so you can always modify any workout to fit you, by adjusting distance, time, repetitions, weight, etc. Don’t work at someone else’s level. Work at your own. If you overdo it you could injure yourself. If you drop down and cruise, you’ll get nothing out of it. Push yourself, never settle for what’s comfortable. You’ll feel fantastic when you have accomplished the workout. It will translate into every area of your life. When you start to get a peak at what you are actually capable of you’ll say, “Hey, I got through that really tough workout when I didn’t think I could, I can get through this too.”