Beer Belly

 

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So, it’s festival season. It’s warm, it’s sunny; it’s time for weekends filled with live music, pool days, and barbecues. Time for fresh local veggies, fair trade burgers, and beer. Lots of beer. With the farm-to-table, eats on wheels, vendor sampling culture of Atlanta summers comes fun cocktails and craft beers.

Picture this scenario (and try not to relate): You work, hit the gym most days, and keep a clean, orderly diet during the week. Then, around noon on Fridays, the texts and Facebook invites roll in. You’ve got a choice this particular week between the local music and beer festival Saturday and a weekend on the lake with friends. You pick both. Eh, split it down the middle to maximize fun-having. So you rock out. You get home Sunday night and start laundry and you feel like your stomach is involuntarily sticking out, ever so slightly. It’s because of the 16 craft beer samples at the festival (damn that Monday Night Eye Patch Ale and it’s deliciousness!) and the corona-brat-pretzel-chips-and-hummus combo at the lake, and you know it. UGH, what to do?

Luckily, I’ve experienced this pseudo beer belly a time or two and, while it may simply be a mental disposition (your body can’t literally transform in 24 hours), it still doesn’t do the ‘ole confidence any favors. So, I’ve crafted the beer belly workout–a quick and dirty circuit that requires nothing but your body and your determination to shake off the physical evidence of your weekend adventures.

I once did this little circuit four times in a 15 minute window (I crushed it, and still use this time frame as my goal each time I bust it out), and had a noticeably tighter tummy the next morning.

It goes like this:

 

 

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Warm up: 50 jumping jacks

20 push ups

20 crunches

+ Superset 20 bicycles

15 Spider planks each side

+ Superset 30 plank side dips

20 lunges each side

25 lb squat walks (crouch and step side to side – about 30 total)

OR 30 squats, medium speed

30 squat jumps

Repeat up to 5x

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Here’s a little summer workout playlist I’ve been digging:

I like my workout playlist a little heavy, but peppered with a few fun EDM tunes and sprinkled with some rap. Sorry if I offend with my bizarre love of metalcore. 😀

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Heavy Weight Circuit Week

This weekly workout plan is based on my workouts since last Saturday. I’ve dubbed it Heavy Weight Week since I incorporated some heavy lifting and sprinkled in lots of high intensity cardio bursts. This plan begins with a couple days of full body sets, then allows the muscles to rest a bit with cardio-focused, non-weighted circuits.

 

 

Workout Playlist: April

Day 1 Circuit – Full Body
warm up: 10 minutes stairs
Circuit 1
12.5lb lunges + bicep curl (15 each)
40lb bar deadlift/row (4/4 x 4)
25lb plate squats + front raise
Repeat 3x
Circuit 2
15 TRX plank in/outs
12.5lb plank twists (10 each)
Repeat 3x

Day 2 Circuit
warm up: 10 minutes stairs
12.5lb plank rows (15 each)
12.5lb bench press + chest fly (15 each)
40lb deadlift/row (4/4 x 4)
Repeat 3x
Row machine in/out planks (15)
Mountain Climbers (30)
Curtsey lunges + leg lift for 15, bicep hold for 15

Day 3 Cardio + Upper Body
2 mile run (with traffic stops)
15lb shoulder press (15)
triceps dips
mountain climbers (30) + bicycles (30) + side plank dip (30 each)
Repeat 3x
Repeat ab cycle: mountain climbers (30) + bicycles (30) + side plank dip (30 each)

Day 4
10 minutes stairs
12.5lb lunge + triceps extensions
plank twists (10 each)
25lb plate squats + front raise
15lb split leg lunge + bicep curl (15 each) (WOO. died)
30lb bar side step squats (3 squats in place, 3 steps x 3 each side)
30 mountain climbers
row machine in/outs (15) – I really need to man up and do more like 30 reps here
Sprint – 1 minute
Repeat 3x

Day 5 Cardio + Non-weighted circuit
Run (about 1.2 miles to the gym)
5 minutes stairs
5 minutes weird elliptical thing
20 push ups
30 side plank dips (each)
30 bicycles
30 scissor/flutter kicks (as in, not lazy small kicks, but not kicks so big there’s lots of rest – enough of a balance that abs are painfully engaged the entire time)
spider planks (15 each) These are a plank where you bring opposite knee into opposite elbow – I’m sure there’s a better name. I’m weird)
1-2 minutes high resistance really weird stair stepper thing to recover
Repeat 3x
Run 1.2(ish) miles back to car.

Day 6
1 mile run
12.5lb plank rows (15 each)
12.5lb bench press + chest fly (15 each)
40lb deadlift/row (4/4 x 4)
Repeat 3x
Row machine in/out planks (15)
Mountain Climbers (30)
15lb Curtsey lunges: 15 reps weights on shoulders/15 reps in bicep hold. (DYING)

Circuit Series Three

This past week, I arranged my workouts so that I hit three full-body circuit days and focused on upper body the other days. Sunday was an outdoor park circuit and the rest of the week was spent indoors with some serious circuits.

Since I’ve been trying to maintain a rotation between these and last week’s circuits (or some variation of them), I have come to realize that this pace can quickly wear the body and mind down. My lightbulb moment/revelation (I have many of these) for this week is kind of a dichotomy:

Lightbulb Revelation Part One: I know that our bodies have their limits, and I know that it’s important to let our bodies rest and avoid mentally driving ourselves into a plateau. That said, there’s a fine line between ignoring our body’s need for rest and allowing ourselves to become complacent with rest. For me, when I allow myself to rest for too long (i.e. more than two days), I find that the chances of slipping into a comfortable routine exponentially increase.

Lightbulb Revelation Part Two: When I walk into the gym feeling low, tired and just not particularly confident in my kick-assness, I’ve found that if I just get through the warm up and half of my first circuit, I began to mentally conquer that laziness. Then, once I’m through the first circuit and on to the second round, the movements come more easily. Then it’s on to kicking ass. So, I’ve tried to tell myself to just get in and give it a shot on those mentally brutal days. Works like a charm.

The weather was strangely amazing last Sunday in Atlanta, so naturally everyone and their twice removed cousin’s boyfriend’s sister and their gaggle of best friends and everyone of their kids were at our city’s favorite park. My friends and I whipped out the ‘ole basic outdoor circuit workout. There were three of us, three circuits and we rotated until we each completed all three. It went like this:

Circuit A
25 squats
20 pushups
20 switching lunges (total)
Run set of stairs up and down, then run a hill.
Circuit B
30 triceps dips
15-20 inverted pushups
20 plank rolls with leg lift*
Run set of stairs up and down, then run a hill.
Circuit C
15 burpees
15 angled chin ups**
Run set of stairs up and down, then run a hill.
* Plank position, rotate until in side plank, quickly switch to other side. pulse each leg straight up, contracting the glutes. Repeat.
**So we worked out near a set of concrete stairs, using the handrails as the bar. Complete 6-7 chin ups holding the bar underhanded with feet extended in front, heels on the ground, toes pointed up. Switch to face opposite direction halfway through.
Monday
1 min walk/ 1 min sprint x3
1 12.5 lb and 1 15 lb (busy at the weight rack)
Plank row
Reverse fly
Plank Push up
Curtesy lunges
Plank rolls+leg lift
1 min walk/1 min sprint x3

Tuesday
14 minutes stairs level 10
1 Circuit 3 sets
Lateral lunges
30 bikes-15+dips-30+30 long lever leg raise switches
Lunge bicep curls
Front lever squats
Deadlift with overhead press
One leg kickbacks
15 Squat jumps

Wednesday
12 minutes stairs/off/had somewhere to be

Thursday
12 minutes stairs, 20 push ups
Circuit 1 x 3
20lb shoulder press drop set
30 triceps dips
Side plank dips 15 each side
Wood chop 15 each side
20 mountain climbers+15 sec hold
Dropset lateral raises 15,12,10
Dropset front around raises
Dropset front raises
20 mountain climbers+ 15 sec hold repeat 3x

Friday
5 minutes treadmill (feeling very slow and tired today)
Circuit 1 3x
20-30 push ups
15 Bent-over lateral raises (12.5 lbs)
Assisted wide-grip pull ups
Circuit 2 3x
15 lunge rotations each
15 front raise + squat (like a lever) 
15-20 deadlift + two bicep curls30 bicycles each side + 30 long lever leg raise switches + 20 mountain climbers