30-Minute Circuit Workout

Happy Hump Day! I apologize for my extended absence, and my lack of a Survey Sunday, but things are getting busy, busy, busy at school. I say that, but today I was pretty much just another body taking up space within an already t00-crowded school. Sure, I was a reader for the STAAR Biology test today, and I continued to monitor until 9:15am, but after that, I can't say that I offered many contributions to the day. 

While yesterday we were on a post-STAAR odd schedule, and I had class back-t0-back-to-back-t0-back, today was an even schedule, and the only "class" I had was volleyball. I unsurprisingly got a lot of random work done today, and I took a break to collect and return the tests, but I arrived home feeling good about all that I accomplished. I've planned out my final weeks, I've created most of the worksheets and activities I want my students to complete, and I've almost got my final exams printed off and sent to the copy room. S U C C E S S. And because I don't have a sixth period, I jetted out of school a little bit early today, and I got home, and got in a good workout, before I would have even gotten home had left at my normal time. So, let's talk workouts, shall we?

This particular circuit is one that I would consider to be of the total-body variety. I was sweaty and tired and worked out in a way that I haven't been in a while. It's no secret that I'm a big-time fan of endurance cardio-type exercise, but it's good to mix things up every once in a while. I tried to alternate one minute of cardio with one minute of strength training, because you know I still have to get my daily cardio fix!

Here's how it worked. I completed each exercise for one minute before (almost) immediately moving onto the next one. Surprisingly, many of the minutes passed quickly, except for the shuffling and the skaters minutes. But the skaters became less horrible once I started actually doing them correctly, in that I started going for distance rather than speed. That's when I started feeling it in the backs of my legs and glutes! On the pushups minute, I did 30 seconds of regular pushups, and then finished out the minute with 30 seconds of tricep pushups. I completed significantly fewer tricep pushups, but hey, you gotta start somewhere! And let me save you a little bit of time by explaining what equipment you will need.

• Jump rope
• Barbell (for jumping over with the burpees, and for the chest press)
• Medicine ball (for Russian Twists)
• Mat
• Dumbbells (your preferred bicep curls weight, and maybe one lighter set, as a minute is a long time)
• Box

Once I completed each exercise one time through, I set myself back up and went through it once more. I took time to get water and catch my breath, but then I was back at it! And as I mentioned earlier, I was a sweaty mess by the end of it. But even one of the trainers at the gym told me I had quite the circuit going, so I'll take that compliment and run with it! We'll see how I feel tomorrow, but I'm already anticipating a nice, easy swim to be in the books.

Have a great one, and check back tomorrow for another post. I promise this time!