You know you have gotten a good workout when any kind of movement makes you wince with pain. To be honest, I’ve never really been strength training’s biggest fan. I guess you could call it a love/hate relationship: I love the results but hate doing it! Cardio, however, I OWN IT J! As much as I solely enjoy cardio, I am not seeing the results I want any more. Therefore I have decided to suck it up and replace 2 cardio workouts per week with strength training sessions.
I completed my first proper one yesterday and shock horror, I loved it! Although it felt weird to leave the gym after merely doing 10 minutes of cardio, I left on such a high: my heart rate was elevated for the whole session & I was sweeeeaaating! It was pretty hawt 😆 . What kept me motivated was going in with a printed plan, photos included. I’m normally SO clueless when I enter the weights section and unfortunately I don’t have the luxury of any nearby body pump classes. I assume my sesh was kinda effective as I left with a souvenir: NEXT DAY SORENESS!
Here’s the plan that I rolled with. I’m not including dumbbell weights as it’s subjective but I tried to lift heavy enough so that if I did any more than 12 reps, my form would be compromised. This entire workout took me about 50 minutes, plus a few more for stretching
After 10 minutes warm-up on the cross trainer, I completed 2 sets of 12 of each of the following 12 exercises:
-
Dumbbell squats
- Rear lateral raise
-
Dumbbell deadlift
-
Dumbbell bench press
-
Dumbbell shoulder press
-
Overhead triceps extension
-
Biceps curl
-
Pushups (on my knees)
-
Crunches*
-
Abdominal hip raises*
-
Plank, 45 seconds x2
*I completed 2 sets of 20 for these exercises
For cardio workouts that will similarly kick your butt, check out this or this.
I think I am abusing cardio these days, but can’t help it, love it much 🙂 I am incorporating some strength training in my routine slowly though.