I have been loving adding more weights into my workouts these days, but I’m not the type of person who can just sit at a squat rack for a half and hour and be happy with my workout. Some can, it’s just not me. I need to get my blood moving and my heart pumping while still getting in that resistance that strength training provides.
I have been doing workouts for the past couple of months that involve 2 7 minute circuits done twice for a total of 28 minutes (not including breaks between circuits). I loved this style of workout when I first started, but recently, they I haven’t been as motivated to bang them out and found myself counting down the seconds until the timer rang out to me that I was finished. So, when I was creating my workout today, I wanted it to be something a little different. I didn’t go for time, but just focused on getting everything completed with proper form and, let me tell you, my muscles are really feeling it right now.
Up & Down Pyramid Workout
For this workout, you’re going to do a squat and press (using 5-10lb weights) and a box jump. If you can’t do box jumps, a weighted step-up is fine, but each step only counts as a half rep. The pyramid goes like this:
- 15 squat & press, 1 box jump
- 14 squat & press, 2 box jumps
- 13 squat & press, 3 box jumps
- 12 squat & press, 4 box jumps
- 11 squat & press, 5 box jumps
- 10 squat & press, 6 box jumps
- 9 squat & press, 7 box jumps
- 8 squat & press, 8 box jumps
- 7 squat & press, 9 box jumps
- 6 squat & press, 10 box jumps
- 5 squat & press, 11 box jumps
- 4 squat & press, 12 box jumps
- 3 squat & press, 13 box jumps
- 2 squat & press, 14 box jumps
- 1 squat & press, 15 box jumps
This is such a killer and your arms and legs will be burning at the end of it. Seriously, I was struggling walking this afternoon taking Boo out. It was so fun to switch it up a little bit and play around. Plus, it never hurts to just jam out to some tunes while jumping on and off a box like a little kid. Fun Fact: I used to do box jumps on the steps outside my last apartment because I could never find a small enough box at my gym. Keep an eye out, you’ll be surprised how many weird little places to workout there are as soon as you start looking.
-sj
Love & Lunge 