It’s that time of year again: Winter has come. Now that many of us in the Northeast or in my case, the Far Eastern Middle West or Just Barely Southeast, it means cold, snow, and that ever slow countdown to March 21st, the first day of Spring. But until that “most wonderful time of the year,” let’s get back on track to society’s Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Those of us who love to see our six pack remain fully intact during the winter months of December, January, February, and March (first three weeks), we usually have to retreat indoors if we wan to keep up our training regimens no, wait, what if the roads are icy? Gasp! No gym then! Well, that’s why we need an alternative gameplan.
We can go with the number one alternative during this time of the year: “My shirt won’t be off for at least another couple of months, so what’s one skipped workout going to do?” That’s like saying “The roads are too horrible to go to the grocery store to get some food so I’m just going to say heck with it and give myself a cheat meal……..or cheat day…..although I have plenty of frozen chicken and steak downstairs, I really just don’t feel like taking the couple of hours out of my day with nothing to do to cook all this food.”
Why don’t we just go with alternative route number two? This route is a little easier and much more sensible to go with, and not only that, a sense of accomplishment will be felt afterward. This means using resources at hand to create yourself one killer workout. Make it intense, make it count. The best type of training for this type of environment is bodyweight training. Consider the example for a cardio routine:
4 circuits, 45 seconds of work, 15 seconds of rest.
Push-ups, reverse lunge, plank, bodyweight squats, burpee, mountain climber, squat hold, sit-out, jumping jacks. Repeat this with one minute rest in between circuits. This workout will take no longer than 40 minutes, it’s all bodyweight, and you’ll feel like you just did a sprint workout.
Got some light dumbbells or resistance bands? Try this:
4 circuits, 25 reps per movement, fewer than thirty seconds rest between movements. First three movements involve weight, and the rest are pure bodyweight.
Biceps curl, lateral raise, shoulder press, jump lunge, decline push-up, lateral mountain climber, jump squats, sit-out, full crunches, burpees. The object is to get 1,000 reps as fast as possible, using good form on each movement.
Want a conditioning workout? Give this a go:
5 rounds, 30 seconds on, 15 seconds off.
Lateral shuffle from one side of a room to another, burpee, walking lunge from one side of the room to another, jump rope (emulate the movement if you don’t have a jump rope), mountain climbers, commandos, bodyweight squats, high knees (in place).
It doesn’t take long to get a solid workout in, and even if you don’t traditionally do these types of movements or styles, the object is to get that workout in with the resources you possess. When the weather fails to cooperate, anything is better than just simply blowing off the workout. For those of us who plan on competing during the earlier parts of the year (April or May) this is a must that we keep to our schedules regardless of what it’s doing outside.
Want another good example? Try taking just one or two exercises that can be done with bodyweight, such as push-ups and mountain climbers, and combine the two by performing twenty-five reps of each in a super-set. Do this for ten minutes. Then, pick two more exercises, like jump ropes and bodyweight squats. Do the same thing. Take thirty seconds off between each set and you have a killer cardio workout right then and there.
Todd Matthews 