These piglets have the eye of the tiger!

This little piggy did high knees.
This little piggy did none (but he did jumping jacks).
This little piggy did boxing.
This little piggy had fun (doing burpees).
And THIS little piggy did jump rope… all the way home.

This is a little Tabata workout I threw together the other day when I was looking to do a light little workout.Nothing light about it… I was pretty sore the next day! lol. This is a great beginner workout OR more advanced workout. I say either because the beauty of doing any Tabata type workout is that the more fit you are, the more difficult it is because you can rep out more reps. I think that this would be a great little workout on the road travelling.

The workout consists of 5 exercises done in 5 sets of 8 rounds of Tabata protocol (20 seconds balls to the wall then 10 seconds rest). The entire workout takes around 25 minutes.

If you want a great online timer to help you time your Tabata… I use this one.

1. 8 rounds Tabata high knees. Run in place as fast as you can bringing your knees up as high as you can.
2. Immediately into a 60 second front plank.
3. Immediately to 8 rounds Tabata jumping jacks. Hopefully self explanatory. Go as fast as you can!
4. Immediately into a 60 second left side plank.
5. 8 rounds Tabata punching bag. If travelling or no bag then shadow box!
6. Immediately into a 60 second right side plank.
7. 8 rounds Tabata burpees with pullup. If no access to pullup (traveling or don’t have a bar at home) then just do regular burpees. To do a burpee, stand up straight. Squat down and place your hands on the ground. Kick your legs out behind you. Do a pushup. Jump your feet back to your hands. Stand up. That is 1.
8. Immediately into a 60 second front plank
9. 8 rounds Tabata jump rope. If you don’t yet own one… go buy one. This is a great piece of workout equipment that is only around $10. Many of my future workouts are going to require a jump rope.
*10. If you have access to it, do 1 set heavy deadlifts & one set hanging power clean and presses.

This may be a little hard for the begginers but is great because you can do it in the comfort of your own home. Do not be discouraged if you can’t finish the workout. Keep building up until you can!

No capes, no flexing, just me

So before we dive into our next “Exercise for beginners” post tomorrow, I wanted to cater a workout to some of you out there ready for more advanced workouts. I give you “Escape From Hell”. Why is it called that? Because there is running, climbing, pressing, fighting and a lot of pain.

Ideally, I would like to be able to complete 4 circuits of this workout. For this first time run, I got through 3. I am a little disappointed because I think I could of done better but it was still killer.

The circuit:
The following exercises are to be done in a row with as little rest as possible.
1. Start out with 60 jumping jacks.
2. Move immediately to burpees that include a pullup at the top. I used my new gymnastics rings for my pullups but bar pullups are fine.
3. Move to a 30 sec stair stepper sprint. If you don’t have access to a stair stepper, you could try doing high knees here or sprint up some real stairs.
4. Move to 30 seconds of punching bag. If you don’t have a punching bag then shadow box (punch at the air or at yourself in front of mirror… just don’t punch the mirror).
5. Muscleups. Once again, I used my rings but a bar is fine. You can also substitute this with a set of pullups followed by a set of dips or vica versa.
6. Walking lunges.
7. Deadlift. Heavy and hard 8-12 reps
8. Hanging power clean and press. Again heavy and hard 8-12 reps.
9. Rest
10. Repeat

Here were my results:

Give it a try! What do you think?

Did you really think I wouldn't have a fun picture? lol

*Unedited pic is viewable on the “About the SoG” page gallery.

Nothing like relaxing in the new jacuzzi after a hard workout!

Last night I did a pretty intense fun workout that I thought I would share.It is a circuit that I put together from a mixture of other popular circuits like Craig B’s. I know that there are a lot of other exercises than burpees in here but I liked the sound of it!

Do each exercise one after the other then rest and then hit another circuit. The burpee portion of the circuit is done until failure. I made it through 3 circuits and finished up with 2 sets of spiderman pushups (15&8). I would like to be able to make it through 4 or 5 circuits.

 
Give it a try and let me know what you think! If you don’t have the stair stepper, try stair sprints or high knees. If you don’t have the punching bag try jump rope or jumping jacks. Be Creative!

P.S. I think I may be getting too skinny! (Right, like I ever thought that would be a problem). What do you think? I might try upping my food consuption some.