One on One Recap: AMRAP
The holidays are upon us and schedules are getting tight. Matthew and I met up the Wednesday before Thanksgiving for my one on one workout. He knows how to prepare me for a meal.
He set out some dumbbells, a mat and the white board.
One on One Recap: AMRAP
As Many Repetitions As Possible (AMRAP) was a new workout for me. The workout only had three exercises, the dumbbell thruster, push-up and air squat. Matt gave me the goal of at least two rounds of these exercises in 3 minutes, but three, he said, was totally doable. Then I'd get to rest a minute.
The first exercise was the dumb bell thruster with 15 pound weights. I only had to complete 3 repetitions of this exercise. As I made it through the rounds, I looked forward to this exercise as a very short lived break.
The second exercise was the push up. Matt coached me on these as I was putting my arms out too far. They needed to be more aligned with my chest. With 6 repetitions of this exercise, it still didn't seem so bad.
The final exercise, was the killer: air squats. He tells me that this exercise is also called "Toyotas" but said he didn't know why. Oh my, I feel old. I told him about the old Toyota commercials where there was always someone jumping in the end. He had no recollection of this. I did not look nearly as happy as the old Toyota actors triumphantly jumping next to their new automobile completing 9 repetitions of this exercise. Matt kept me honest by making me squat low before jumping up.
My first time through, I made it to three rounds and had time left. Matt told me to stop take a little more rest than the minute. He kindly ticked off each round on the white board. I was completely winded by the end of each complete round the circuit. My chest was hurting like I had done a sprint.
There is part of me that really likes the simplicity of this workout, but it was hard. After the 3rd round, Matt didn't write down my three. I reminded him as I certainly wasn't going to repeat it.
Post Thanksgiving Body Weight Workout for the Win
Unfortunately, the Saturday group workout was cancelled due to the holiday, but there was a Friday morning workout lead by Lesley that looked awesome from the Facebook pictures, but I wasn't back in town in time to make it. Drat. I heard about that workout since from some of my classmates and it was killer they said.
Thankfully, I had a body weight workout that Matthew had put together for me back when I went to Virginia for Baconpalooza that I received too late to do while on my trip.
It began with a push up ladder doing 10 sets increasing the repetitions by 1 each set from 1-10. This gave me the opportunity to use my push up stands. My arms were shaking by the end of that, so I knew I was on the right track.
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Next up, tabata squats. Matthew wasn't messing around. 8 rounds of 20 seconds of squats and 10 seconds of rest. He did not specify what he meant by rest and since our definitions differ, I alternated between true rest (my definition) and holding the squat at the bottom (his definition) each round.
I alternated between the two final exercises in this circuit: crunches and knee tucks. He assigned 3 rounds of 33 reps of each of these exercises. This was incredibly difficult and I had to take a few breaks during each round but I completed all of the repetitions. My paleo kitties added difficulty to this routine as they saw my hair/head as a moving play toy.
Short, sweet, but effective. That's Efficient Exercise at the gym or at home. I can't wait to get back into the gym next week.
Informal poll: Did anyone else's family look at them funny for doing some post Thanksgiving meal squats?
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