Ideas to mix up your exercise routine

I incorporate several different types of exercise into my week.
Weights, running/sprints, squats, kick boxing, jumps, push ups, crunches, etc. I mix it up!

Why Women Should Lift Weights
http://www.active.com/women/Articles/Why-Women-Should-Lift-Weights.htm?int=23-42
Note from above article: Many women are convinced that lifting weights will transform them into fist-pounding, growling wrestling stars. I get it. No woman wants to look freakishly ripped. However, unless a woman is taking large doses of hormones and eating pounds of protein a day, she won't be able to look like a man.

Women don't have enough testosterone to get the big muscles. A program of whole body functional movements (lunges, dead lifts, squats, presses) with low repetitions of progressively heavier weights will make you stronger, not bigger. This is key.

Peak 8 Fitness
http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2010/12/24/a-fountain-of-youth-in-your-muscles.aspx

Here's a summary of what a typical Peak Fitness routine might look like sprinting or jumping:

1. Warm up for three minutes - jog
2. Exercise (Sprint/Jump) as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds
3. Recover for 90 seconds, walk
4. Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times (14 minutes)

Since we need 20 minutes add in crunches, push ups and burpies.


Here are some of my routines:
Monday--Wednesday--Friday I do whole body circuit training.  I do 15 different exercises with lighter weights and high reps with no rest in between each exercise.  I do three to five sets of these for a total workout time of around 30 minutes.  I start off with flat bench press, then triceps kickbacks, shoulder shrugs, shoulder press, bent over row, curls, squats, toe raises, heel walk, kettle ball lift, pull ups, push ups, 50 jumps, 10 second all out sprint and then incline push ups.  Most of these are performed with dumbbells.


Tuesday--Thursday I do some type of high intensity workout where I do short bursts off all out movements followed by a resting phase.  Some days I have done the Peak 8 Fitness routine see above. Other days I have combined burpies, mountain climbers, punching bag, sprints on treadmill and bear crawls into a high intensity workout.  How I perform it is I start off with a 3 minute warm up on the treadmill and then I do a 30 second sprint at a incline of 20% and a speed of 6, I then go directly to punching the punching bag as hard as I can for 30 seconds, after that I go to the burpies and do 10 of those and then to mountain climbers for 30 seconds and then finish with 100 feet of bear crawls where you are walking on your hands and feet.  I have also did sprints outside on a hill, I have a very steep hill   going up to my house it has to be at least a 25-30% incline and I will do this for 5 sets.


Saturday--Sunday: I have been doing more of a cadio work out with running outside or going on walks. Today I went on a run with a friend, yes in the rain. :) We went 3.7 miles. There are several hills near my home so it's a great, challenging workout!


When I need to change it up I go to Comcast Cable; they have a whole selection of workouts to choose from. The Cardio Blast is kick ass (so many squats and crunches-squats and burpies are KING!) I also like some of Julie's work outs - kick boxing blast? These are so convenient and saves drive time if you normally go to the gym. I also like Julian Michael's' work outs and Insanity.


Good luck and remember to drink water, cool down and stretch after each work out. :)