Beer Belly

 

---

 

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:

 

 

---

 

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

---

 

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. 😀

---

 

Body Circuit Series

For the last two weeks, I’ve tried switching between the same circuits. They go like this:
I used 12.5 lbs for all circuits and repeated each three times unless otherwise noted

Circuit Series 1
Warm up: 15 minutes stairs
Plank rows 15
Reverse fly 15
Push up to side plank 10 each
Curtsey lunge, 15 with lat leg raise 10 regular, 5 non weighted
Plank rolls with leg lift 15 each

Circuit Series 2
Warm up: 10 minutes stairs
Lunge rotation
Dead lift with bicep curls (15 lbs)
Front lever squats (15 lbs)
Lateral lunge with front raise
Lunge bicep curls
1 leg triceps kickbacks
Treadmill: 2 min walk (4.0) + 1 minute sprint (9.5-10.5)
30 Russian twists

Circuit Series 3
Warm up: 12 minutes stairs
Lunge rotation
Dead lift with overhead press
Front lever squats
Abs: 30 bicycle-side dips-long leg lever switch-mntn climbers
Laterals with front raise
Lunges with bicep curl
Squat jumps

Circuit Series 4
Warm up: 10 minutes stairs
Circuit 1
Shoulder press 15
triceps dips 30
side plank dips 20
Hi-lo shelf oblique twists 15 each
Circuit 2
Lateral raises/front around raises 15
tri dips 30
20 mntn climbers+20sec plank hold
(Dying)

Circuit Series 5
Warm up: 10 minutes stairs
Circuit 1
30 Push ups
15 bent over lateral raises
Drop set assisted pullups
Circuit 2
Drop set wide grip lat pull down
Bicep curls

My music theme these last two weeks was particularly hard-core and involved some of these songs: