Snow Day Home Workout!

Ohhhhh the good old winter. With all of this lovely snow that has been falling in Boston (okay, I'm from Minnesota so I realllllllly should not be complaining...) we have received so many snow days! And with a snow day usually comes laziness. The first thing I said last night when I heard that my gym would be closed today was "well crap, now I can't get my workout in!"

Although with my "no excuses" motto, I found an easy way to fight the winter blues and got a nice sweaty workout done in the comfort of my own room. Yes, the woman who lives downstairs probably hated every minute of that hour while I jumped on our old wood floor with my jump-squats and burpees.... but did I care? Not really :) It felt great!

So snap out of your winter-time lazy mood, blast some jams, and start sweating! Here is a simple workout that is sure to torch calories and boost your mood:

First, start off with a warm up! I used 1-2 songs to stretch out, did a bunch of high knees, butt kicks, and jumping jacks until I felt warm.

Next, accomplish the "10-1" Workout. This consists of doing each of the 5 exercises, starting with 10 reps of each: jump squats, push ups, lying leg raises (lay on your back and use your abs to bring your legs down to hover the floor, and back up), plank jacks (like jumping jacks but in a plank position on the floor), and burpees. Once you finish that first set, move onto doing 9 reps of each exercise. Continue this by doing 8 reps, 7 reps, 6 reps, until you have completed the "10-1" workout! This will get your heart pouding. Try to do this with as few breaks as possible, don't hesitate to grab some water between each set, but keep that heart-rate up!

After completing that, pat yourself on the back and move on to doing 3 planks. Do them each as long as you can! To give you a target, I did 45 seconds, 45 seconds, 40 seconds.

Then, work those abs with 4 rounds of 10 each of crunches, leg raises or V-ups, mountain climbers, and bicycles! This round shouldn't feel nearly as difficult as the 10-1 ladder, and you should really concentrate on your abs- NOT pulling your neck up!

If you still have the motivation after rocking out those abdominal exercises, raise that heart rate one more time with some high knees and oblique tilts to each side!

With that, YOU DID IT!!! Feel proud that you did more than the average person did on your snow day, give yourself a good stretch, and of course- DRINK PROTEIN :)

And if you are feeling super ambitious, try on your old Miss Boston evening gown and see if it still fits....

.... Then breathe a sigh of relief when you can still zip it up. Hey, who cares if it is a little (or a lot) tighter now? It gave me the exact motivation I needed to work hard again tomorrow, whether I'm at the gym or in my own room again :)

Stay healthy!

Morgan