If this year has taught us anything, it’s that things don’t always go according to plan! This same lesson applies to your fitness journey.
Having a plan to help you reach your goals is a great starting point to any endeavor. This can be a huge help especially for your fitness journey as it helps you to stay focused on your goals. Having flexibility with your plan and staying focused on the end result, your health goals and overall well being, is just as important as having a roadmap for your journey.
Yet when your plans fall short of your expectations, it might feel like you’ve failed. Maybe your goal was as simple as exercising five days per week, but you had to work more than you expected and fell short and only trained twice this week.
Building a healthy and fit lifestyle isn’t about perfectly following a plan every single day. It’s about showing up for YOU and YOUR health daily in ways that work for you.
So the next time something comes up out of the blue and your plans fall short simply remind yourself that this journey isn’t about being perfect! This journey is about the long term commitment you made for your health and fitness. Learning to adapt to whatever comes up along the way is crucial if you want to be successful.
Here are three quick heart-pumping fat-burning cardio workouts for you to try this week (NO EQUIPMENT NECESSARY). Be sure to share your favorite one on our Private Facebook Group Training Page!
25 Minute Cardio Interval Ladder Drill
During this cardio workout ladder, you will gradually take your heart rate through the zones until you hit RED (you can always adjust the top of the ladder to YELLOW if you’re not feeling RED that day).
- Minutes 1-8: BLUE ZONE – 8minutes
- Minutes 9-12: GREEN ZONE – 3 minutes
- Minutes 13 & 14: YELLOW ZONE – 2 minutes
- Minute 15: RED ZONE – 1 minute
- Minutes 16 & 17: Recover down to GREEN
Ladder #2: Perform right after Ladder #1
- Minutes 18-20: GREEN ZONE – 3 minutes
- Minute 21 & 22: YELLOW – 2 minutes
- Minute 23: RED ZONE – 1 minute
- Minutes 24 & 25: Recover as much as possible – 2 minutes
- MEPs = 61 (not including warm up, minutes 24 & 25 of final recovery, or additional cool down)
- 18 Minute Cardio Ladder Drill
18-Minute Cardio Intervals
This workout is designed with periods of YELLOW / RED during the work phase and periods of GREEN during the recovery. If you are training for a running race, use a pace that is at or faster than your desired race pace for the work phases and a pace that is slightly slower than your race pace for the recovery pace.
- Minutes 1-4: GREEN ZONE – 4 minutes
- Minutes 5-7: YELLOW/RED ZONE (work phase) – 3 minutes
- Minutes 8-11: GREEN ZONE (recovery) – 4 minutes
- Minutes 12-14: YELLOW/RED ZONE (work phase) – 3 minutes
- Minutes 15-18: GREEN ZONE (recovery) – 4 minutes
- MEPs = 60 (not including warm up and cool down)
If you are feeling like you really want to get after it, you can combine some of the elements from the above workouts, or even complete two of the workouts back-to-back to get your heart rate up!
Packed Pyramid Cardio Workout
This pyramid is organized into periods of BLUE, GREEN, and YELLOW. You will gradually work your way up into YELLOW at the peak of the pyramid, and then gradually come back down.
- Minute 1: BLUE ZONE
- Minutes 2 & 3: GREEN ZONE
- Minute 4: YELLOW ZONE
- Minutes 5 & 6: GREEN ZONE
- Minute 7: BLUE ZONE
Repeat x 2 (for a total of 3 times up and down the pyramid = 21 minutes) MEPS = 60 (not including warm up and cool down)
Before each workout, it is recommended a light warm-up of 5 to 10 minutes in the BLUE and GREEN heart-rate zones. You can warm up with a walk, jog or jump rope. It is also recommended that you stretch and cool down for at least 3 to 5 minutes and perform a few stretches for all major muscle groups you worked holding stretches for 20-30 seconds. All three workouts can be completed using your favorite mode of cardio and/or muscular endurance (so long as you can achieve and sustain the recommended zones).
Grab your belt and pump it up!
