248 Workouts Until New Year’s Eve

One of my goals for 2013 is to complete 250 workouts by the end of December. I will get there by doing an average of five workouts a week throughout the year.

Eight days into the year, I have 248 workouts to go.

I extended my holiday workout hiatus through the first week of January, but never fear — I’ll make up for the shortfall when the weather is warm. Once early morning temperatures are above 50 degrees, I plan to add some 30-minute runs. For now, I’ll settle for five workouts a week. Indoors. Maybe I’ll throw in a few sprints on the treadmill. Maybe I won’t.

During the past two winters, I followed programs with heavy-duty strength training. H.E.A.V.Y. This month I have self-imposed time constraints. For that reason (and to avoid boredom), I’m experimenting with shorter workouts. [“Short” equals 15 minutes.] I begin with a dynamic warmup that’s roughly 15 minutes, so my total workout takes 30 minutes. Only time will tell how effective the shorter workouts are when compared with my normal workouts of 45 to 60 minutes.

For the month of January, my weekly workout schedule looks like this:
Monday = Legs;
Tuesday = Chest/Triceps;
Wednesday = Back/Biceps;
Thursday = Rest/Maybe Walk;
Friday = Glutes/Legs;
Saturday = Shoulders;
Sunday = Rest.

If the sun shines and weather is warm and time allows, I’ll go for a 20 or 30 minute walk outside.

Although I’m a certified personal trainer, I used an app on my iPhone to randomly generate these workouts. They are shorter than what I’m used to by one-half or even two-thirds, but “short” is not “sweet”. I definitely have DOMS (Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness) the next day. I used this 15-minute philosophy for a week in mid-December. I didn’t expect to have such sore muscles. Of course, as always, I used the heaviest weight I could manage while maintaining good form.

By the way, I don’t have a gym membership. I do all my workouts at home. That means you can, too. Don’t use a lack of gym membership as an excuse for inactivity!

Here are yesterday’s and today’s workouts:

Neither workout looks very intense on paper. However, with only 45 seconds between sets and a mere 10 seconds transition time between exercises, my heart pumps pretty fast. One of these days I’ll wear my heart rate monitor so I can see just HOW fast.

Now please excuse me while I waddle into the kitchen for a drink of water… (My legs are definitely feeling yesterday’s squats and deadlifts.)

How are your New Year’s fitness goals coming along? Do you have a gym membership? Why or why not?