Double Whammy!! 2 x Workout of the day - Saturday 7th August and Sunday 8th August 2010

With the weekend upon us, I thought I'd include both daily workouts in the one post, in case I wasn't able to post over the weekend. Monday 9th August will be a rest day, so no workout of the day will be given.

I'm also offering 2 x options with the workouts - you can do them as per usual, one workout per day, or you can do both workouts on the one day, performing the first workout in the morning (say 10am) and the second workout in the late afternoon (say 4pm). Notice I've left about 6 hours in between workouts - this is very important for optimal training considerations as your body will not recover enough to perform to it's maximum abilities in the second workout. More than 6 hours in between workouts is best, but 6 is the mininum.

If you do decide to do both workouts on Saturday (or Sunday, up to you), then Saturday/Sunday becomes an extra rest day.

Now for the workouts!

Our first workout is dedicated to our rear ends - the ass!

Major distraction - please keep reading...

Now fella's, before you jump to assumptions that this workout is for the ladies only, it is far from the truth! Strong, powerful glutes, quads and hamstrings will help you power through in any sporting endeavour, enabling you to run faster, jump higher, move more weight around in squatting/deadlifting based movements, and give you extra thrusting power for the between-the-sheets dance. That sounds alright doe's it not?

4 exercises will headline our first workout - the Bulgarian Split Squat, Single Leg Hip Thrust, Step-up, and Quadruped Hip Extension.

Extremely powerful 'assets'

Our second workout will be some good old jump rope! Jumping rope is a fantastic bone density builder, as 10 minutes of jumping rope is equivalent to 30 minutes of jogging, it creates a tremendous fat burning effect, and will help enhance athletic abilities through quicker feet, muscular endurance, and possible improvements in speed and jumping ability.

I have grave concerns for our friend in the back....

Let's get to work....

Workout 1 (Saturday, or Saturday/Sunday morning):

What you'll need - a sturdy chair and some space, preferably on carpet since we need to get on the floor a bit.

Warmup: I like keeping my warmups simple and SPECIFIC. What I mean by this, is warming up in a way that mimics our workout. On Thursday, I got you to do Squats before Squat Jumps, yesterday was Pushups before, well, Pushups. Today, we'll be doing Box Squats (in this case, Chair Squats).

Aim to do 10-20 repetitions of the following, for at least 3 sets until you feel pretty warm:

You actually want to get your backside on the chair, then stand up, but the trick is, to sit down without shifting your entire bodyweight into the chair. A simple way to help you do this warmup exercise is to think about sitting 'lightly', then standing up, as if you were just barely touching the chair and standing up. Touch and go is the key here.

Workout: As I mentioned, 4 exercises today. I'll start with a photo description for each before I outline the workout:

Bulgarian Split Squat (put your foot on the chair)

Single Leg Hip Thrust (elevate your foot on the chair)

Step-up (simple stuff - step up, then down, using ONLY the leg on the chair)

Quadruped Hip Extension (Focus on the squeeze, and keep your back flat)

We will be performing these 4 movements as a circuit, resting as little as needed in between each exercise, until you finish the Quadruped Hip Extensions, then you may rest for 2-3 minutes.

It is entirely up to you as to how many repetitions you do for each leg on each exercise. I'd like to see you all doing 10-20 repetitions each leg, each exercise as a goal, but obviously you will not be able to do this for some time if you've never tried these moves before.

Try to hold the peak squeeze in each movement for a second or so, really focusing on smashing your glutes, and perform all movements at a controllable speed, focusing more on technique and the quality of your repetitions rather than how many you can do.

Aim to do at least 3 circuits of this today, and a goal would be twice this much, being 6 circuits. Anywhere in between 3-6 circuits is a terrific effort! If you can manage 20 reps of each exercise, and 6 total circuits with 30 seconds rest in between circuits, then I bet people notice what your packing back there as it would certainly show.

Jamie can probably do 6 x 20, easy....

....and gets noticed too.

After your last circuit, repeat the quad, hamstring and glute stretches I outlined in Wednesday's workout: http://mattsthoughtsonfitness.blogspot.com/2010/08/workout-of-day-thursday-4th-august-2010.html

Workout 2 (Sunday, or Saturday/Sunday afternoon).

What you'll need - a jump rope, and some space like soft grass, concrete as a last resort (the harder the surface, the more impact on your joints, which isn't a good thing)

Warmup: Again keeping with our SPECIFIC based warmups, simply jump rope at an easy, very casual effort for 2-3 minutes, sticking with basic two leg jumps. 1 jump per rope revolution too, so no little double jumps in between the rope turns.

Workout: A fantastic fat burning, athletic enhancing tool that we will be using here is the Tabata protcol. This means, alternating between 20 seconds of work, and 10 seconds of rest, for 4 total minutes. If you have a fancy stop watch, then use it here, but for the rest of us, simply perform 20-40 jumps (you should be able to build to doing a rate of 2 jumps per second, hence the 40 reps being equivalent to the 20 seconds) as fast as you are capable of, then rest for a count of 10, and repeat 8 times, which takes us to our 4 minutes. At this stage, you'll rest for 2-3 minutes, then go again!

Tricky son of a gun

2 times through is the goal, but if you can do another tabata, and another, then certainly go for it! 4 times through will give you the daily awesomeness tag.

If your feeling frisky, or your advanced, you can try this - for the first tabata, perform them jumping only on your left leg, then the second tabata, try them only on your right leg....

Cool-down by stretching the calves HARD. Yes, if you haven't jumped rope in quit some time, your calves are going to hurt for the coming day or so, so take the time to stretch them out now.

And that's it! Remember, Monday is a rest day, so no workout will be given.

2 great workouts to help you in many ways, whether it be athletic performance, dropping some body fat, muscular endurance, or just wanting to have some perkier assets.....

.......we get the job done.

Enjoy.

Yours in training,

Matt