I promise that I didn’t plan to follow the salted fudge brownie recipe with a workout but I think it works nicely with the whole theme of my blog…workout hard, eat well! 🙂
I have a workout to share with you today that I did myself on Tuesday. I only had a 30 minute window to get my workout in so I needed something that would combine strength and cardio and I was in the mood to do legs. So I present to you…Legs on Fire!
This workout combines three of my favorite things…lunges, burpees (yes, I actually love burpees) and running. There is a fourth movement, wall balls, but I can’t say that they’re on my list of my favorite movements. I find them slightly more tolerable than I used to but they’re still brutal. I included them because they’re so effective and you get a three-for-one benefit of cardio, legs and shoulders with them.
I made a video demonstrating the form for each of the movements (minus the running).
Let’s break down the workout.
Lunges
I’m asking you to perform front stepping lunges holding a kettlebell or dumbbell at your chest. This is for two reasons…1) to add weight/intensity to the movement and 2) to encourage you to keep your chest lifted and to keep you in the proper form. Front stepping lunges are AMAZING for the glutes but people have a tendency to let the chest fall forward. Holding something at the chest helps with this. So even if you have to use a very light weight, try the goblet lunge.
In addition to not letting the chest fall forward, please keep your knee aligned directly over your ankle and don’t let it come forward of the foot or cave inward. Really drive off that front heel when you push back from the step forward.
Burpees
Burpees are challenging no matter how you slice it so just get these done. Modify to your ability level. I show four different burpee variations in the video starting with the most challenging and scaling down to the least.
Wall Balls
Wall balls are a combo of two movements, a squat and a toss overhead. The thing I see most often here is not squatting deep enough. You want to squat to about parallel (if your body allows) and then explode out of the bottom of the squat as you toss the ball up. Focus on catching the ball high to avoid wall ball smash to the face/chest/stomach. That is no fun.
Running
400 meter (0.25 miles) run at the end of each round. Hop on the treadmill or map a course outside.
Please let me know if you have questions and I love feedback if you try it! Happy sweating!
