This is a sponsored feature. All opinions are 100% from Her Campus.
Hey, Workout Women!
Today was a strength training day for me, so I headed to the Emerson gym to find some machines to workout on (I didn’t really have a plan…). But when I got there, I ran into a couple of my friends who were getting ready to do the Core Conditioning class. I didn’t know much about that class, and this was before my friends told me they were sore for 5 days after the last time they did it… so I decided to join them!
The class was a half-hour long, and it was super intense. I know I got a great workout, and I am definitely going to be sore for a few days because of it…!
The class was basically a boot camp, and had me out of breath the entire time! But I stuck with it! Here’s the rundown of the class, so you can do it on your own time if you want!
Core Conditioning:
We started the class off by walking back and forth across the room to warm up, doing a few different things: we did some high knees, some butt kicks, some walking where we pulled our knees into our chest, and some kind of “worm walk,” where we started in push-up position, and then walked our feet up to our hands, then walked our hands back down into push-up position… and repeated.
After we were all warmed up, the real class began… with a workout circuit! The circuit lasted about 7 minutes total, and consisted of 3 rounds of 45-second intervals at each of 5 stations around the room:
1. Standing band row
2. Jump rope
3. Push-ups
4. Body weight squats
5. Sit-ups
After that, I was sufficiently tired… but the class wasn’t over yet! We then did an 8-minute cycle of kettlebell swings, box jumps, and recovery jogging. We each did kettlebell (KB) swings until we were “fatigued,” and then did 2 laps of recovery jogging around the room. We could also substitute box jumps for the KB swings if we wanted to change it up.
And then the class was over… phew! Of course, we still had to spend a few more minutes at the gym because of today’s College Girl Tip…
College Girl Tip of the Day: STRETCH! Often, when I workout, I forget to stretch before and after… but that is not good! Stretching warms up your muscles, and makes it safer for you to workout. One thing I’ve heard that works for me is to think about your muscles as a rubber band. If you try to stretch a rubber band out to it’s fullest when it’s cold, it will probably snap. The same thing happens with muscles. If your muscles are cold, you might end up pulling one! So stretching them slowly before you stretch them all the way out (when you workout) will allow them to warm up before you hurt yourself! It will also allow you to have a fuller range of motion while you workout. Then after your workout, stretch out the muscles you used in your workout! And stretching doesn’t require much extra time, and doesn’t require any fancy equipment, so you have no excuse not to! After the class today, one of my friends said “ahh, last time I did this class, I forgot to stretch afterwards, and ouchhh my body hurt because of it!” Hearing that made me start stretching right away, and I am definitely going to start stretching before and after every workout I do!
I also realized today that I never told you the entire Awesome Abs workout I did last week! Here’s the moves that we did, for a total of only 7 minutes (but I was still very sore afterwards…)!
1. Pilates-style sit-ups (lay down on your back with your arms and legs straight out, then pull your knees in with your feet off the ground, and bring your arms in front of you, sitting up) – repeat 8-15 times
2. Bridges (lay on your side, then place one arm underneath your side at a 45-degree angle. Lift your hip up off the ground, then put it back down) – repeat 15 times on each side
3. Sit-ups (lay down on your back with your legs bent, feet on the ground, then sit all the way up) – repeat 15 times
4. Bridges –
repeat 15 times on each side
5. 1-Leg Sit-ups (the same as regular Sit-ups, but with one leg straight out and one leg bent)
6. Bridges (so many bridges!) – repeat 15 times on each side
Fun Fact of the Day: After the class was over, I headed back to my apartment to shower and get ready for class. I always turn on music and dance when I’m in the shower… but this time I was actually too sore to dance! Yep… that’s how tough the class was (or how out of shape I am…?)!
I hope you girls had an excellent day, and I hope you got your strength training on! As one last note, here is a picture of what I looked like when I got home after the Core Conditioning class (you can tell from the look on my face how tired I was!)…