The No-Gym-Required New Year’s Workout Challenge: Week 3
Okay, friends, I want you all to give yourselves a big round of applause. You’ve made it halfway through the Challenge — only two more weeks to go! — and that is AWESOME. Keep that can-tackle-anything attitude going through this week’s workouts. Ready, set, sweat!
Monday: The Challenge
Now that you have two solid weeks of workouts under your belt this year, let’s revisit the Challenge workout you did in Week 1. You are going to go through the exact same workout that you did to begin the month to gauge your progress and see how far you’ve come. Since you already know the drill with this workout, use that to your advantage to push yourself through the parts that were a big challenge to you at first. Remember to record how fast you run your mile and how quickly you make it through the workout because you are going to revisit this workout one more time before the end of the month.
Here’s what you are going to do: First, you’re going to head outside. Always start by warming up for a few minutes. This can be a light jog or a fast-paced walk. Once you’re warm, run (or walk, or walk/run, or whatever it takes to finish) until you complete one mile. (This is four laps around a track or you can run with a fitness app to gauge your distance.) Record how long it took.
Next, you’re going to do a strength circuit. You’ll start with 10 reps of each exercise in the circuit below and then do a 30-second sprint (this can be done on any piece of cardio equipment at the gym, running outside, or in your living room doing toe taps on a step, high knees in place, running up and down the steps, etc.). After that, you are going to repeat the circuit doing nine reps of each exercise followed by a 30-second sprint, then eight reps followed by a 30-second sprint, and so on until you complete one rep of each exercise and one final sprint.
The Challenge Workout Circuit
• Run 1 mile
• Complete the circuit doing the reps as follows: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Burpees
Sit-ups
Push-ups
Lunge jumps (do the number of reps indicated on each side)
Arm haulers
Skiers (do the number of reps indicated on each side)
Tricep dips (do on the side of a bench, coffee table or couch)
30-second sprint
Tuesday: Cardio for 30 to 60 minutes
Choose any form of cardio you’d like and get going! This can be running, dancing to Beyoncé in front of your mirror, biking — whatever makes you happy. Just make sure to keep going for at least 30 minutes.
Wednesday: Yoga or Pilates
Because Wednesdays call for some zen, are we right? You can either go to a yoga or Pilates class or, if you don’t see yourself making it out of the house, you can opt for an online on-demand yoga class. Pssst: Verge Yoga has tons of online options here.
Thursday: Interval Workout
It’s interval time! Let’s amp up your cardio today with these calorie-burning, high-intensity sprint intervals. Start by warming up for a few minutes, then crank up the speed for a series of sprints, with some much needed recovery in between. This workout is a great way to challenge your cardiovascular ability, burn a ton of calories, and sweat, regardless of your fitness level. So get ready to work hard during the sprints, and enjoy your recovery intervals!
60-second sprint :: 60-second recovery x 2
50-second sprint :: 50-second recovery x 4
40-second sprint :: 40-second recovery x 6
30-second sprint :: 30-second recovery x 8
20-second sprint :: 20-second recovery x 10
Friday: 4-to-1 Workout
For this workout, you’ve got four sets of exercises to do. For the first set, you are going to do four rounds of four exercises, doing 10 reps of each. Then, for the second set, move on to three rounds of three exercises, doing 20 reps each. The next set is two exercises for two rounds,doing 30 reps of each. Then, the final set is one round of 40 reps of just one exercise. You got this!
10 x 4
Lunge jumps
Burpees
Tricep dips
V-up abs
20 x 3
Knee drive hops
Decline push-ups
Crunches
30 x 2
Skiers
Mountain climbers
40 x 1
Ab twists
Just getting started? You can check out the first two weeks of the No-Gym-Required New Year’s Workout Challenge here and 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 Monday right here on Be Well Philly.
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