Conditioning workouts are a great way to end a tough week in my opinion. If you do them right they will leave you fitter without eating up your strength. As you know the weekends are usually the time when we tend to get a bit lenient with our eating and eat some "cheat" foods. Nothing wrong with it if you have been good throughout the week, but for those who wish to negate the little side effect of the weekend cheating, conditioning workouts are the way to go.
So here are some conditioning workouts for you to do this weekend depending on your goals, courtesy, yours truly. They take very little time and give great results. Choose the conditioning workout related to your current goal and level of fitness.
Muscle and strength building
1) If you are not used to doing conditioning workouts then do any one of the following either after your strength training session or on an off day following a good warm up:
Option 1
Rope skipping- jump rope as fast as you can for 20-30 seconds, then relax for 30-40 seconds. Repeat this sequence for 6-10 rounds
Option 2
Sprints- sprint at 85-100% of max speed for 50 yards, rest for 2 minutes by walking and then repeat for another 4-8 rounds.
2) If you are used to doing conditioning workouts then do the following workout:
Kettlebell & bodyweight circuit
10 double swings
10 kb front squats
10 situps
10 push ups
Get as many rounds as you can in 5-10 minutes. If you do not have access to kettlebells, then you can replace the kb exercises with dumbbells.
Fat loss
1) If you are beginning and your fitness levels are low, then do either of the following options after strength training or on a off day following a good warm up:
Option 1
Sprints- sprint at 80% of you max speed for 50 yards, walk 2 minutes for recovery. Repeat for another 6-8 rounds.
Option 2
Bodyweight circuit: do as many rounds as you can of the following circuit in 10 minutes:
6 push ups
10 crunches
1 minute of shadow boxing
2) If you are more advanced, then do the following sprint/rope jumping and bodyweight circuit.
75-100 yards max speed sprint or 30-45 seconds max speed rope jumping
10 push ups
10 jump squats
Get as many rounds as you can in 10 minutes.
Yep, those should be good enough to help you wrap up a good week of hard work. Let me know how the workouts went for you.
Image courtesy-http://myfitnessdepot.com/outdoors/running-outdoors/sprinting-and-jogging-benefits/
