Are You Ready for Twenty Fourteen?

Happy New Year everybody! Here is my newest swing workout based on the theme "twenty-fourteen".  It's also designed to fit into my "10 x 10 Project" because it's a routine you can progressively make more difficult as your conditioning and skills improve and I'll lead you through the options in the video!  (I also have them written down below for you to follow)




This workout uses 14 sets of 45 second intervals.  15 reps takes 22.5 sec., half of a 45 sec interval.  14 was close enough to 15, and in fact I like it better for a number of reasons....but you'll find out some of those later in the year!  I did a version of this workout in class this morning that was KILLER!  So much so that I think I'll lead my group through it once a month!

Here are the three progressions, each set starts every 45 seconds.

#1

10 x 14 
140 reps total

This adds on 4 more sets, 3 extra min, 40% more swings, to your 10 x 10 workout! Enjoy, you earned it!

#2

10 reps x 4 sets = 40 reps
14 reps x 10 sets = 140 reps
180 reps total

This adds 80% more work than our traditional 10 x 10 while still only taking an additional 3 minutes to complete!

#3  This is the workout I demonstrate in the video above!  But I talk you through the first two options.

10 reps x 4 sets
14 reps x 4 sets
15
16
17
18
19
20 x 1 set each (I got so excited during this last set and grossly miscounted!  I ended up doing 24 swings!)
201 reps total

Wow!  This is a super advanced conditioning level! But the good thing is that, eight of the work sets are less than equal work to rest, so if you can push it in those last 5 sets you can do 100% more work than before!

To make this workout a completely "equal work to rest" routine, simply do ALL sets of 15 reps "on the 45 sec" intervals.

The start of a New Year can itself be very motivating!  I hope to continue on with my "10 x 10 Project" swing workouts and other ways to improve our lives in ten ways, and/or ten days at a time!  In fact I'll start again today!  I'm going to research and share ten past blog posts that I wrote that have to so with motivation....geez, I hope I have ten!  (kidding)

Here's the first one:

Hope for the New Year (2007)

So much has happened to me in the last few weeks, in the last few days, I can only wonder what this next year holds for me. Two years ago today I was happy. My life was good. Yes, I was fat, but I never defined myself by my weight. I always felt that I was smart, talented, and had a good life. I enjoyed eating a lot of food and took responsibility for the results of that. In fact, besides being physically uncomfortable at times, I felt the biggest drawback of being so overweight was the judgement other people had about me because of my size. I felt invisible, not respected, and I did feel shame about my weight. 

Being Mark Reifkind's wife, many times I wanted to hide. Married to a personal trainer, and being so overweight, I remember asking Mark, when he would want to introduce me to a client or friend ," Did you tell them I'm fat? You need to tell them I'm fat, because I don't want them to be surprised." I felt bad for him because I didn't want my weight to be a reflection of him. After all, should the "Worlds Best Personal Trainer" have such a fat wife? 

I knew I had it in me to lose the weight and start exercising, I just didn't want to. Why? I don't even know the answer now. I think everyone knows how to lose weight. The question is why don't you want to? I, personally, don't think it matters why. You and I have the rest of our lives to try and figure that out, if we want to. It doesn't change the fact that 2+2=4. In other words, the fact is if you count your calories, eat less than you do now, and start some sort of exercise, you will lose weight. You don't need me to tell you that. 

Instead of scientific facts, what I want to offer is hope. Hope that you can recover from being overweight. Hope that you can recover from being out of shape. Hope that you can recover from being ashamed. Hope, so you can feel healthy, strong and proud. And that you can also come through it looking and feeling better than you ever have before. 

That's what training kettelbells has done for me. I tell everyone that my diet (food) changed the size of my body, but kettlebell training changed the composition of my body. And I wouldn't of believed it until I experienced it. Kettlebell training has given me hope. Hope that I can keep the weight off and feel and look great. Sometimes I think if I only would of known about KBs 10 years ago I might never have gained so much weight. I hope that you find the motivation this year, and if I can give you any, I will. If you have already found your motivation, like me, I hope you keep it going strong. 

And then again in 2010:

http://tracysfoodandthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/hopeeveryday-of-every-year.html:

Are you ready for 2014?  Now is the time.