A Workout For You

Happy Monday! I’m READY for this week! Why so anxious you say? Well it’s my last full week of work before show time! How crazy is that? I still have Monday of next week to do, but that’ll be just one day and then the madness starts!

With 12 days to go this is the week that matters the most in the gym. Peak week workouts are light, so this week I have to go hard or go home! No time to mess around.

Beast mode for sure!

Speaking of workouts, I thought I’d include a good one that was part of my workout from yesterday. It seems simple but believe me you will be out of breath. This is a little something called acceleration cardio. The idea is to do strength training and in between each set you do 1 minute of cardio. It’s similar to when I did my #noequipmentcardio challenge. Remember that? Boy was that difficult! I have a love affair with the stepmill and I’m not afraid to admit it, but the body gets used to certain things so I have to throw it a curve ball every now and then.

This version of acceleration cardio was done with some leg work. You do 4 different exercises, and 5 sets of each, ending up with 20 minutes of acceleration cardio. 20 minutes of cardio done? Sign me up! *That 1 minute is longer than you think though*

• 12 Sumo Squats with 40 lb bar
• 30 second run in place, 30 second jump rope (I didn’t actually use the rope, just the jumping).
• 15 straight leg dead lifts with 40 lb bar
• 1 minute high knees
• 12 alternating lunges with 40 lb bar
• 1 minute jumping jacks
• 10 deep squats with 40 lb bar
• 30 seconds running across gym floor, 30 seconds lateral lunge jumps

Remember 5 sets of each! I finish off the 5 sets then move to the next one, but you could certainly circuit the workout 😉

I also noticed when I was finished I have calf muscles poppin’ that I didn’t have before! Always nice to see gains where you least expect it.

I finished my gym day with cardio and posing. I was lucky enough to have a gym friend take these back shots for me. I am terrible at taking them myself. This self tanner really needs to come off. It broke me out really bad this time! What a bummer. Not doing that again, only show tans!

This is the standard OCB back pose, what they are looking for.

These other two poses are allowed in the T walk portion of my routine that is not judged. The crossing leg pose is not a favorite of mine because I’m afraid I’d lose my balance, but the last one is the one I like!

Oh and for those of you wondering how my couch day went… it was…

well it looks successful right?

NOPE! I couldn’t chill out. I ended up doing a bunch of chores and then went to the gym. Couldn’t relax, couldn’t nap. My brain is in overdrive. I know I’ll slow down eventually, but not going to force myself to sit there if I’m not feeling it! Later on in the night I ended up making a final countdown booklet with all my workouts and peak week meal plans. Because I’m an overachiever, I made it pretty rainbow colors, and each day I get to pull off the day before that I completed. There’s something extremely satisfying about “the final countdown” and being able to chip away at the last few days. Almost there!

12 days to go! Yay 😀

XOXO With a Cherry On Top,

-Minnie