Around the world in 60 minutes

We all love Tuesdays around here because they mean that the Sac Fitness Fairy gets to creatively wreck me in new and painful ways, all in the name of getting my ass in shape. Today I actually did an exercise I’d never done before, ever in my entire life. Considering my background that’s actually somewhat surprising. And it hurt. A lot. I think I’m in love.

But before we get there, we start with a mile on the ‘mill. Since i managed to thoroughly kill my favorite treadmill (rest in pieces), I had to hop on “Old Bertha”. The numbers on the screen mean nothing. I was running at “6” and a “1” incline, which apparently meant I was running almost an 11 minute pace mile. My legs begged to differ. I’ve become quite good at reading my ground speed and I was at about a 9 minute pace in terms of effort, but anyhow who cares… It was a warmup.

Running all finished we moved on to… more running! LSD (long slow distance) is all well and good but sometimes the body needs sprints. So we cranked Bertha up to “7” (whatever that meant) and ran 45 second sprints with 15 second rests. 8 of the things.

Then, just because my legs weren’t destroyed enough, 30 box jumps. GO GO GO.

Then we moved to strength training. SFF’s love of all things “full body” in regards to exercise made her choose “Around the Worlds” as my first exercise, and I’d never seen or done anything like them. You hold a dumbell with both hands, each hand on each end, and squat with proper form (butt back, chest up, etc). You hold the dumbell off to one side. Then as you rise, trace a half circle off to the side of yourself with the dumbell until you are standing up straight with the bell above you. Squat again, continuing the circle until you are holding the bell on the opposite side. That’s a rep. Reset and do 15 per side. Slow is best and you have to watch your form. This movement is difficult primarily because it is a “control” move. If you’re throwing the weights or jumping up you’re doing it wrong. Slow and steady wins the pain.

Next we moved onto an odd one. I’m not even sure what to call it. You hold a dumbell in each hand and stand on one leg. Keeping the core tight you lean forward and push the free leg back. Hold your head up and keep leaning until your hands(still holding the bells) are close to the ground, your back is straight and flat, even with the ground with your leg completing the “table” effect. It looks like something you might do in yoga, or even dance. The balance is tough and you are constantly straining with your arms to keep from tilting over, while holding your core tight. 15 per side.

Finally we moved to inclined “knee up” pushups. Feet go on the box we were jumping onto earlier, you do a pushup and as you come up, one knee comes into your chest. That’s one. 15 per side.

Then we rewound to the box jumps and did it all again. Then a two mile run. Then I ate like a pig, fell over and a magical unicorn wrote this post.

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