Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Lung Workout

At-home workout challenge - Here's my workout for the day:
25 pull-ups
50 hammer curls
50 tricep extension
50 step-ups
50 push-ups
50 v-ups
50 incline press
50 shoulder press
50 leg press
50 calf press
50 face smashers
50 jumping jacks
50 overhead tricep extensions
50 straight arm pull downs
50 pec deck flys
50 jumping jacks
50 mountain climbers
25 pull-ups

You don't have to do all of these, especially if you are just beginning to workout. Pick 5 if you are a beginner, 10 if you are a moderate and try all if you think you can handle it.
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My blog today actually has to do with the workout posted above. When I do this, I move as fast as I can through each exercise and give myself as little rest as possible. It becomes just as much of a workout for my lungs as it is for my muscles. I work up quite a sweat and I'm taking extremely deep breaths almost the entire time. I wanted to throw down a challenge for all of you today.

If you already workout regularly try timing your workouts this week and each day you exercise, try to go a little faster than the day before. The workout above took me 35 minutes. If you don't work our regularly, maybe you can pick 5 exercises from above and time yourself doing them. After you're done, right down the time. Take a day off, and then the following day, do the exact same exercises and try to beat your time from the previous workout. Do that for a couple of weeks and let me know how that feels. If it starts to get too easy, pick 5 more exercises. If it gets too hard, back off a little :)

The key to this workout, and really any workout where we want to hit both muscles and lungs, is to keep moving at a fast pace the entire time. It may feel funny at first, but if you stick with it, I promise you'll like the results. With me, I don't even pay as much attention to form as I do pace. Right now, I'm not trying to bulk up, but I am trying to expand my lungs. The only way to do that is to work them out!!

Anyway, thought I would throw this out there for those that wanted a challenge or a new workout idea!