The BeWOW Breakdown: A Month’s Worth of Workouts Reviewed
Every month, our Be Well Workout of the Week Fit Testers review last month’s workouts and tell you when and where they’ll benefit you most! See what they had to say about this month’s workouts below.
Workout: A 30-Minute Workout Worth Bookmarking
Listen up! When this workout’s name says it’s worth bookmarking, what it’s really saying is that this workout will etch itself in your brain as you wonder how something so simple can be so difficult. You’re looking at super-high rep counts, but sets that go by quick, so expect to go through this series four or five times in 30 minutes.
Time investment: 30 minutes
Best for: Testing your grit.
Where you’ll feel it most: Arms, shoulders, chest, and core.
FYI: If you’re not confident in your push-ups, start with knees down. And know that you can get a lot out of simply doing a bar hang if you aren’t to the point of doing full pull-ups yet, just hang for a five to 10-second count.
Workout: The 50-Rep At-Home Workout Challenge
This workout didn’t seem that bad on paper, but we felt the burn after just one round through. Keep pushing, though, as it feels so satisfying to finish!
Time investment: 25 minutes
Best for: When you want to work out in your PJs.
Where you’ll feel it most: Shoulders, chest, and triceps.
FYI: You’ll mostly feel this in your upper body, but watch for the sneaky lower body moves.
Workout: Torch Calories in 30 Minutes with HIIT
Don’t worry when the first set of this workout leaves you sucking wind, since each round gets a bit shorter. With that in mind, don’t hold back just because it starts off tough, either. That way, your effort will feel pretty even as you get more tired at the end.
Time investment: 35 minutes
Best for: You can’t make it to the gym, but you can unroll a yoga mat.
Where you’ll feel it most: Hips and core.
FYI: HIIT is all about keeping you moving — but don’t sacrifice form for speed! You’ll get the best burn if your squats and lunges are tight.
Workout: Conquer Your Fear of Heavy Weights
This was a really quick workout that started off easy, but got harder as the reps decreased and the weight increased, making for a great workout for when you’re in a pinch for time, but still want a great burn.
Time investment: 20 minutes
Best for: When you want your muscles to really burn by the end of the workout.
Where you’ll feel it most: Potentially everywhere!
FYI: Be careful with your form as you increase weights. Never sacrifice your form!
Workout: Break a Serious Sweat in 6 Minutes
While some of the moves are tough, you can do 30 seconds of anything! Promise.
Time investment: 30 minutes
Best for: When you don’t want to be bored at the gym.
Where you’ll feel it most: Everywhere.
FYI: If you don’t have a jump rope, just mime the motion and jump without it!
About our testers:
Rebecca Barber is the founder of the Rocky 50K Fat Ass Run, a just-for-fun 50K run that follows Rocky Balboa’s footsteps in Rocky II. She’s a 16x marathoner and 14x ultra marathoner, having started running when she was a kid. She’s an active volunteer with Back on My Feet Philadelphia, where she works to help the homeless community use running as a means to better their lives and find stable employment and housing. When not running all the miles, she is the social media coordinator for The Wharton School.
Alon Abramson is the founder of the West Philly Runners, the creator of RunPhil.ly – a web resource for running in Philadelphia – and the organizer of a number of running events in Philly, including the annual 26×1 Mile Team Marathon Relay, Beat the Bus, and Beat the Commute. Running since high school, Alon is an on-again, off-again runner with ebbs and flows to his mileage and commitment. More recently however, he’s taken a new approach to training, emphasizing cross-training and speed work as much as building up mileage and this has dramatically improved his running performance. When he’s not organizing and running, Alon works as a research project manager at Penn’s Institute for Urban Research, studying energy efficiency best practices. He’s on a number of non-profit boards and works on his whole-home retrofit project whenever there’s free time.
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