BeWOW: Run-and-Tone Workout


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This week, we’re going to combine your speed work and conditioning. This workout is really going challenge you, but trust me: You’ll feel so accomplished and strong at the end, it’ll totally be worth it.

Here’s how it works. Scroll below and you’ll see three sets of three exercises each. For the first set, do 10 reps of each exercise, repeating the set five times. For the second set, do 15 reps of everything four times through. For the final set, do 20 reps of each exercise three times.

As an added challenge, you’re going to complete a few sprint intervals. After you warm up, kick the workout off with a fast, light-footed quarter-mile sprint on a treadmill or indoor track. Then, after each set of exercises, do another quarter mile sprint, finishing the workout with by giving it all you’ve got one last sprint. By the end of the workout you will have sprinted a full mile. Pretty impressive! Let’s get to work.

BeWOW: Run-and-Tone Workout

Warm up: Light jog or dynamic stretching, five minutes.

Quarter-mile sprint

10 x 5 Set
Lunge jumps (10 each side)
Plank row (10 each side)
Toe touch

Quarter-mile sprint

15 x 4 Set
Chest press on physioball with dumbbells
Ab twists
Plié squats

Quarter-mile sprint

20 x 3 Set
Kettlebell swings
Bicycle crunch
Lateral lunge

Quarter-mile sprint

Explanation of exercises
*Click the links below for video how-tos.

Lunge jumps: Start standing with feet together and step forward with the left leg into a lunge, bending knee to about 90 degrees. Jump as you stand back up and switch legs before you land, so your right leg is forward. Lunge again, then jump, putting your left leg forward, and so forth. Left and right counts as one.

Plank row: In a push-up position with your hands on free weights, row one weight up and back, keeping your hips square to the floor and squeezing your shoulder blade. Lower and repeat on the other side.

Toe touch: Lie on your back, with legs up, feet reaching to the ceiling. Reach up with your hands and touch your toes.

Chest press on physioball: Lie with your head and neck on the ball and feet on the floor, lifting your hip and squeezing your glutes. With weights in hands, bend your elbows 90 degrees, so your arms make L shapes straight out from the shoulders. Push the weights up to the ceiling until your arms straighten. Return to starting position and repeat.

Ab twists: Sit on the floor with knees bent, heels pressing into the ground. Lean back slightly and use your abs to twist side to side.

Plié squats: Standing with feet a little further than hip width apart, turn your feet out and do a squat.

Kettlebell swings: Standing with feet about hip-width apart, hold a kettlebell in front of you both both hands. Bend your knees into a squat, swinging the kettlebell back through your legs as you drop down and forward to about shoulder height as you stand. Repeat in a fluid motion.

Bicycle crunch: Lie on your back in sit-up position: feet on floor, knees bent, hands behind the head to support the neck. Lift your feet off the floor, extend your left leg to straighten, and twist your torso as you touch your left elbow to right knee. Draw the left leg in as you push the right leg out, and twist the other direction, touching your right elbow to left knee. Repeat by alternating sides in a fluid motion.

Lateral lunge: Standing with feet together, step to the side in a lunge, making sure your knee doesn’t bend past your toe. Return to standing and lunge on the other side.

>> Did you complete this week’s BeWOW? Tell us how you did in the comments! Or, feel free to tweet at us about it using the hashtag #BeWOW. Check out all the BeWOW workouts here.

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Audrey McKenna Hasse is the owner of A.M.Fit, a personal training and healthy consultation business on the Main Line. You’ll find her workouts every week right here on Be Well Philly.