This is the last of my scheduled vacation posts—I’ll be back blogging in real time tomorrow (or the next day … let’s see how jet lag treats me).

Also, don’t mind my struggle-bus pistol squat pictures—I can’t freaking do them (well) to save my life. But that’s exactly why they’re in this workout! Gotta keep working at them…

30-Minute Jump Roping + Strength Training Workout

Equipment I Used:

• Jump rope (I have the Nike Weighted Jump Rope and LOVE it)
• Gymboss Interval Timer

You’ll go through a circuit of jump roping and bodyweight exercises three times. The circuit alternates between 60 seconds of jump roping and 60 seconds of strength training (30 seconds on each side/arm/leg). To make things easier, I set my interval timer for 31 rounds of 30 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest. This setting will tell the timer to beep every 30 seconds, accounting for two 30-second periods of rest in between each completed round of the circuit. Keep in mind that while jump roping, you’ll go through one of the interval beeps, staying with it for a full minute.

GO THROUGH THE FOLLOWING CIRCUIT THREE TIMES:

Jump Rope | 60 seconds

Side Plank Kicks | 30 seconds right, 30 seconds left

Start in a side plank (if you have wrist issues you can do this on your forearm) with right hand stacked underneath your shoulder, left leg hovering in the air, and left arm outstretched overhead. From here, kick your left leg in front of your body as you bring your left hand to meet it—it’s like a scissor chop. Return to starting position. Your goal is to never rest the left leg on the ground (or on top of your right foot)—always have it hovering.

Jump Rope | 60 seconds

Pistol Squats | 30 seconds right, 30 seconds left

If you’re not a pistol squatting pro, I highly recommend doing these on a bench or other elevated surface—it helps me a ton! This way, you don’t have to worry about holding the non-squatting leg up in front of you. Start facing sideways with your right foot standing on a bench/step and the left foot dangling off the edge. Squat down on the right side, sending your hips and booty back and down behind you (don’t let the knee jut farther forward than the toes). You’ll want to hold that left leg as far in front of you as you can while you squat, so that as you lower, it takes a good distance before that left heel touches the ground below the bench/step. When you’re as low as you can get into the squat, press up through the right heel to return to standing.

Jump Rope | 60 seconds

Side Push Ups | 30 seconds right, 30 seconds left

Lay on your left side, left arm hugging your torso (to get it out of the way), and right hand planted firmly on the ground in front of you, aligned with your shoulders. Push your upper body off the ground with that right arm (hips are your point of contact with the floor), then slowly lower without ever fully coming to rest back on the ground. Continue.

Jump Rope | 60 seconds

Starfish Crunches | 30 seconds right, 30 seconds left

Start laying on your back with arms overhead. Arms and legs should be out wide so that your body is forming an “x” shape on the ground. From here, lift your legs an inch off the ground, engaging your core. The goal is to never let them come to rest, but if you’re a beginner, do so in between reps. From this starting position, crunch up, bringing your right leg straight up into the air as you bring your left arm up and across your body to touch that right foot (get as close as you can—it’s ok if you don’t actually make contact). Slowly lower back to starting and then repeat, going in the same direction for the full 30 seconds before switching over to the opposite hand and foot.

Jump Rope | 60 seconds

Push-Off Side Lunge | 30 seconds right, 30 seconds left

From a standing position, step your right foot out wide to the side (both feet still face front), bending the right knee and lunging down to bring your left hand across the body down to the floor by your right foot. Next, push off that right foot to bring yourself back up to standing, and as you do, drive the right knee up towards your chest and hop up into the air on the left foot. As you land, send that right foot immediately back out wide, sinking into your next lunge.

I rested for 30 seconds in between each round. Feel free to stretch that out to 60-90 seconds.

WEARING | leggings, tank & sneakers c/o Puma

Enjoy the workout! Can’t wait to share some pics and stories from my Australia trip on the blog—stay tuned!!!

There’s nothing like a move to make you hate every piece of at-home workout equipment you’ve ever purchased! I’m in the process of moving into my boyfriend’s apartment, and this will be the SEVENTH time I’ve moved since graduating college in 2010. Woof. Luckily, I don’t have to be out of my house in Southie until the end of August, so it’s a gradual move and I can do a little bit at a time—slowly decontaminating his place (kidding…but not really), and bringing over small carloads of my stuff here and there. Still, the kettlebell collection, med ball, hand weights and rest of my at-home workout gear has been getting its fair share of dirty looks from me lately. To remind myself that it’s worth moving, I put together this quick HIIT workout last week using as much of it as I could.

GIVEAWAY! One workout aid that is not a burden to move is my Gymboss Interval Timer, and lucky for you wonderful readers, my friends over at Gymboss are letting me give away one! Enter using the widget below today’s workout tutorial (scroll down). I’ll pick a winner on Friday evening.

15-Minute HIIT Workout

Equipment I Used:

• 25-lb kettlebell
• 6-lb medicine ball
• Jump rope
• Stability ball
• Power wheel
• Gymboss Interval Timer
• Exercise mat

Set an interval timer for 15 rounds of 45 seconds of work and 15 seconds of rest. You’ll go through the following exercises 3 times. This workout will get you sweaty and out of breath, focusing especially on the core.

• Power Wheel Ab Roll Outs: Get on your knees and hold the power wheel centered on the ground. Your arms are going to stay straight throughout this. Slowly extend your arms, rolling the wheel out as far as you can go, lowering your torso. When you’ve extended as far as you can, slowly roll back to starting point. You’ll want to keep your butt down during these—think of your back, butt and hamstrings as one straight line. Try not to stick your butt up (I know it’s tempting on that tough roll-in).
• Kettlebell Swings: Start with kettlebell on the floor between your legs and lift it up to starting position with both hands, flat back, using your legs to lift. With kettlebell hanging between your legs, use your arms as a pendulum, and swing the bell to chest-to-eye level by thrusting with your hips while keeping your core tight as you stand up straight. Swing back down and repeat. Your knees should remain slightly bent, but the main source of movement is hinging at the hips—not so much squatting. I use a 25-lb bell.
• Med Ball Sit ‘n Toss: Lay on your back with arms stretched overhead, holding on to your medicine ball (it should be hovering a couple inches off the ground—don’t let it rest on the floor). Lift the medicine ball forward as you sit up, keeping arms straight, and lift it straight above your head as your body comes into upright sitting position. Bring ball into chest and toss up into the air. Catch and slowly lower to the ground, bringing ball back overhead behind you.
• Jump Rope
• Stability Ball Prone Oblique Twists:Get into a plank with your shins on a stability ball and your hands on the floor, directly under your shoulders. Draw your knees into your right shoulder, keeping feet on the stability ball, and then return to center. Repeat to the left.

WEARING | leggings: Lululemon / tank: thanks to my friends at Game Plan! / sneakers: Nike

Since I usually get a lot of comments about whatever leggings I’m wearing in these workouts (that’s why I love you guys! haha), just a heads up that although these leggings look cool, the mesh across the knees makes them uncomfortable to workout in if you’re doing anything that involves kneeling.

Gymboss Interval Timer Giveaway

On Friday evening I’ll randomly select a winner. Use the widget below to enter—just leave a comment letting me know what piece of workout equipment you’d love in your home. I use mine all the time for HIIT workouts and during the Tone ‘n Torch class I teach at Btone!

The following post is sponsored by FitFluential LLC on behalf of PUMA. All opinions are my own (duh).

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I taught three classes on Saturday and four on Sunday, so it was a megaformer-filled couple of days for me. I’ve found that I absolutely love instructing group fitness and am actually contemplating getting spinning certified this coming weekend so I can expand into different types of exercise and studios. I’ll keep you posted if that happens!

As for today’s routine, I got the chance to try out some new PUMA gear thanks to FitFluential, and put it to the test in this cardio core workout. The first thing I noticed about the Formlite XT Ultra sneakers was how lightweight they are—which I love. The outsole has a funky design of pods and flex grooves to help with dynamic motions and grip, so it’s a good sneaker for a lot of the workouts I post here where you’re jumping around all over the place.

I think the Graphic All Eyes on Me tank and Graphic ¾ Tight are both super cute. They’re comfortable and fit well, and held up great during a sweaty workout. The tank has a really cute cut-out back detailing and I love the ombre color paneling of the leggings. My girls are on the smaller side, so I didn’t find this to be a problem at all, but I should add that the tank’s cut and built-in bra make it super boobielicious (that’s now a word; go with it). I’ve recently noticed this is actually becoming more common in the cut of workout tanks—a lot of the tops I’ve gotten in the past couple months are like whabam! when I put them on (if you catch my drift haha). Again, not an issue with my little chest, but something to be aware of when buying.

Now on to the workout!

Cardio Core Workout

Equipment I Used:

• Jump rope
• 6-lb medicine ball
• Exercise mat

You’ll go through 5 rounds of the following circuit as quickly as you can. Try not to rest; but if you do, take no more than a minute in between rounds.

• 20 Reverse Toe Touch to Crunch: Start on your back with feet staight up, perpendicular to the ground, holding a medicine ball in outstretched arms over your head. Bring the ball up towards your toes, crunching your upper back and shoulders off the ground. Lower back down, reaching arms overhead (but not letting the ball come to rest on the ground) and do a reverse crunch, lifting your butt and hips off the ground, pushing feet towards ceiling. Lower back down. That’s one rep.
• 20 Plank Jump Jacks:Start in a plank position. Jump both feet up towards your hands. Jump them back into plank position. Jump feet apart (like a horizontal jumping jack) and then jump them back together into your starting plank position. That’s one rep.
• 50 Bicycle Crunches:Lay on back, hands behind head. When you crunch up towards your bent left knee, your right leg should be extended out and not touching the ground. Switch sides, crunching over towards the right with your left leg extended. That’s one rep.
• 20 Side-to-Side Elbow Plank Hops: Start in a plank position. Jump feet to the left, back to the center, to the right, back to the center. That’s one rep.
• 60 seconds Jump Rope (two-footed)
• 60 seconds Jump Rope (high knees)

WEARING | sneakers, tank, leggings: c/o Puma

Cheers to a productive Monday! Only five more days until the weekend…

I’m back from Mexico! Each time I go on a trip, I get so excited about all the blog-worthy pictures I can take and ambitiously plan out all the amazing posts that will come from them. The outfits I wore, hotel room workouts I did, a food diary post about what I ate—every vacation, I think about the endless blog potential. And every vacation, I come home with four blurry iPhone photos and…well, that’s about it.

On the one hand, it’s a shame and I’m a terrible blogger. On the other hand, I think it’s a really good sign that I’m doing something right. Sometimes, you’ve gotta just shut the computer, enjoy life and the people around you, and experience things without worrying about documenting it all on social media.

I’m pretty deep, huh? In actuality, the resort we stayed at didn’t have Wi-Fi and after a couple mild panic attacks, I was forced to just put away my iPhone. It was good for me.

And Mexico was great—the wedding was beautiful, we went snorkeling, the food at the resort was delicious, and despite the continuous drinking, it really was so relaxing. I even got in a couple workouts!

Now that vacation is over, I’m excited to get back to my usual fitness grind, and did this AMRAP Quickies workout yesterday morning before tackling my dreaded post-vacation email inbox.

AMRAP Quickies Workout

Equipment I Used:

• Jump rope
• 15-lb kettlebell
• Exercise mat
• Timer

AMRAP stands for As Many Reps/Rounds As Possible. That means no breaks between exercises and pushing yourself as hard and as fast as you can without sacrificing proper form. You’ll do three 5-minute AMRAP mini workouts. In between each, jump rope for 2 minutes for a quick cardio blast. The first AMRAP will focus on lower body exercises; the second on upper body; the third on abs.

I used my Gymboss Interval Timer and set it for 3 rounds of 5 minutes of work and 2 minutes of “rest” (jump roping). During the five minutes, I pushed through as many rounds of the mini routine as possible until the timer went off, then grabbed my jump rope and went straight into my cardio blast. Full breakdown after the pictures.

5-MINUTE AMRAP—LOWER BODY

• 10 Jump Squat Lunges: Start in a lunge position, both knees at 90 degree angels. Jump up, landing in a squat position. Do a jump squat. Jump back into a lunge position, this time with the other leg in front. Each time you land after a jump squat, that’s one rep (1 jump lunge + 1 jump squat = 1 rep).
• 20 Tip Toe Pulse Squats (Alternating): In a deep squat position, lift one heel and pulse up a couple inches and down a couple inches back into the squat. Repeat, this time on ball of other foot. You’re staying low in a squat throughout the whole 20 reps—these are small pulse movements.
• 10 One-Leg Hip Bridge Thrusts (Each Side): Start in a bridge position, one foot firmly on the ground with knee bent, the other lifted straight up in the air. Thrust your hips towards the ceiling, engaging your glutes and hamstring to lift body into an inclined position. Lower hips down until they’re just a couple inches off the ground and repeat.

2-MINUTE JUMP ROPE

5-MINUTE AMRAP—UPPER BODY

• 10 Push Ups: I did triceps pushups, keeping my elbows locked in tight next to my sides as I lowered down. Halfway through the second round, I needed to modify and do the pushups from my knees—I’m getting stronger but still
• 10 Superman Lifts: Lay on your stomach, arms overhead. Lift arms, chest and legs off the ground, squeezing those glutes and back muscles. Hold for a second, then lower slightly (but not all the way down to the ground) before repeating.
• 5 Kettlebell Clean ‘n Press (Each Side): With feet a little wider than shoulder width apart, bend knees and bring kettlebell from a straight-arm hanging position to closely held by the center of your chest with arm bent. From there, straighten legs as you extend your arm skyward. Reverse the moves to bring yourself back to starting position. Try to keep the kettlebell towards the center of your body throughout this move. When done correctly, this isn’t just an upper-body workout, but great for your core.

2-MINUTE JUMP ROPE

5-MINUTE AMRAP—CORE

• 10 Full-Body Crunches: Start laying on your back, arms overhead, core engaged, legs straight and hovering off the ground. Crunch your chest up as you bring your knees in towards your chest, wrapping your arms loosely around your knees. Extend everything back out, lowering down into starting position.
• 10 Side Plank Lifts (Each Side): Start in a side plank position. Lower your hips towards the ground, and then lift upwards, crunching into an arch passed your original straight plank position. Continue lowering and raising.
• 10 Hip Dip Planks (Alternating): Start in an elbow plank position. Keeping shoulders level, twist your torso to lower your right hip to the floor. Return to plank position and then twist the other way, lowering your right hip to the floor.

2-MINUTE JUMP ROPE

WEARING | leggings & sports bra c/o Reebok / tank: LF / sneakers: Nike

Oh joy. More snow.

I love living in a place that sees all four seasons, but man do snowstorms get old quickly. The first snowfall of the winter is always exciting, but with parking bans and frozen pipes and icy sidewalks, the white stuff quickly loses its charm.

If you’re snowed in today like we are in Boston, skip the hike to the gym and do this workout right in your living room. I did it yesterday and loved it—got my heart rate up, and my legs were toast by the last round of snowboarders.

20-Minute HIIT Workout

Equipment I Used:

• Gymboss Interval Timer
• Set of 8-lb hand weights
• Jump rope
• Exercise mat

Set an interval timer for 20 rounds of 45 seconds of work and 15 seconds of rest. You’ll go through the following set of exercises four times.

As a great way to challenge yourself, keep track of how many reps of each of the five exercises you do during the first round. On the fourth and final round, try to match those rep numbers. I couldn’t do it for the side-to-side plank jumps, but just having that goal number helped me push myself harder than I normally would have during the last round.

• Jump Rope
• Side-to-Side Plank Jumps: Start in a plank position. Jump both feet up towards your left hand, landing on your toes (to protect your knees). Jump back into a plank position. Jump both feet up towards your right hand. Continue back and forth as fast as possible.
• Alternating Lunges with Shoulder Press: Holding a dumbbell in each hand (I used 8-lb weights), stand up straight, feet shoulder-width apart, weights at shoulder height. Lunge forward onto your right foot, both legs bending at 90 degrees. As you step forward, press the weights up over your shoulders, bringing them together above your head. Pushing off that front foot, come back into a standing position, lowering the weights. Repeat on the other side.
• In-n-Out Full-Body Crunches: Start sitting on your tailbone, leaning back, hands on the ground lightly behind you for support. Crunch your knees in to your chest,bringing your torso forward to meet them. Extend legs back out, keeping them a few inches off the ground. When fully extended, separate them, bringing them out to the side while keeping them straight. Bring them back in together and crunch knees back in. Feet should stay off the ground the whole time.
• Snowboarders: Legs wide apart, squat down with one hand touching the ground. Jump up, turn 180 degrees in the air and land in the same deep squat on the other side, with the opposite hand touching the ground. If you turned towards your right shoulder the first time, make sure to turn towards your left shoulder on the way back.

WEARING | leggings: Ellie // tank: H&M // sneakers: Nike Free Run +3

Do you have a snowday today, too? How are you going to spend it?

I’m cursed when it comes to buying jump ropes. They either break within a week or are designed so poorly that I can barely get the rope to swing around. So before we get to today’s workout, does anyone have any jump rope suggestions? Quality brands? Brands to avoid? I’m one lemon away from stealing a jump rope from the next gym I walk into…

30-Minute Jump Rope Workout

Equipment I Used:

• Jump rop
• 25-lb kettlebell
• Two 10-lb kettlebells (hand weights work too!)
• Gymboss Interval Timer

You’ll do each of the exercises for 1 minute before moving onto the next. Don’t take a break between exercises. Once you’ve completed all 5, take a 1-minute break. You’ll go through that circuit 5 times. So that I didn’t have to look at the clock, I just set my Gymboss Interval Timer for 30 rounds of 60 seconds of work (and 0 seconds of rest).

• Weighted Plie Squats & Pulses: Stand with feet more than shoulder-width apart with toes pointed outwards (like a ballerina doing a plie). Hold weights in each hand for an added challenge (I’m using two 10-lb kettlebells). Squat down, keeping torso upright, and then return to starting position. Do this for the first 30 seconds. For the remaining 30 seconds, hold down in a squat position and pulse, small movements up and down.
• Leg Lifts to Butt Lifts: Laying on your back with hands under your bum for support, lift legs off the ground and up, perpendicular to the ground (keeping them straight the whole time). Then lift your butt off the ground, thrusting your legs upward. Lower butt to ground and then lower legs almost to ground (feet should remain off the floor the whole time).
• Kettlebell Swings: Start with kettlebell down between your legs and, using your arms as a pendulum, swing the bell to slightly above eye level by thrusting with your hips while keeping your core tight as you stand up straight. Swing back down and repeat. I use a 25-lb kettlebell, although it’s probably time to graduate to a 30-lb bell. Eek.
• Cheek-to-Cheek Planks: Start in an elbow plank position. Keeping shoulders level, twist your torso to lower your right hip to the floor. Return to plank position and then twist the other way, lowering your right hip to the floor.
• Jump Rope: You know the drill!

WEARING:

Tank: Puma // Spandex: Under Armour // Sneakers: Nike Free Run +3

I can’t figure out if it’s “kettlebell” or “kettle bell,” and as someone who is an Editor by profession, this really bothers me. For the most part, I write it as two words because the red squiggly line in Word gives me acute anxiety, but I think it’s technically one word, so that’s how I’ll write it for this post. These are the things that keep me up at night, people. Kettle bell vs. kettlebell.

But enough of this…

28-Minute Interval Workout

Equipment I Used:

• 25-lb kettlebell
• Jump rope
• Exercise mat
• Gymboss Interval Timer

Set your Gymboss Interval Timer for 28 rounds of 50 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest. You’ll go through the following sequence 7 times.

• Marching Wall Sits: With back flat against the wall, squat into seated position. Lift one knee up to meet hand, then the other, and continue to alternate in a marching rhythm. Make sure to keep your feet under your knees throughout—it’s more challenging this way. If you let your feet start to creep outward, the exercise won’t be as difficult.
• Kettlebell Swings: Stand with feet a little more than shoulder-width apart, holding kettlebell with palms facing towards body. Drive your hips back, lowering your body and bending your knees slightly, swinging the kettlebell back between your legs. Then explosively drive your hips forward while swinging the kettlebell forward and up to just above eye level. Continue the swinging motion.
• Cheek-to-Cheek Planks: Start in an elbow plank position. Keeping shoulders level, twist your torso to lower your right hip to the floor. Return to plank position and then twist the other way, lowering your right hip to the floor.
• Jump Rope 

I found the 50-second intervals of cheek-to-cheek planks especially challenging. Which move did you find the most difficult?

I really felt this one in my butt and obliques the next day, and I consider any workout that makes my butt or core sore a huge success. You’ll do decreasing rep rounds for this one, starting with 10 reps of each exercise and going down to 1 rep of each exercise in the last round. After each round, do 1 minute of jump roping.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Hindu Squats x2: A Hindu Squat can best be described as a fluid, deep squat in which you roll onto the balls of your feet as you come up. This is one squat variation where it’s okay for your knees to stick out farther than your toes, and they will when you’re at the deepest point of the squat. Keep feet shoulder-width apart and move your arms in a circular motion so that your fingertips brush the ground when you’re at your lowest. x2 = you’ll do 20 hindu squats in the first round, down to 2 in the last.
• Medicine Ball Cross-Body Chop (both sides): Start by holding a medicine ball by your left foot, in a sort of side lunge position. Your left foot will remain firmly planted, and your right foot will pivot as you stand up and bring the medicine ball across your body (keeping arms straight) and reach it up to the right. Chop it back down diagonally across your body, bending into starting position.
• Push Ups: You know the drill.
• Side Plank Lifts (both sides): Start in a side plank position. Lower your hips towards the ground, and then lift upwards, crunching into an arch passed your original straight plank position. Continue lowering and raising.

On a complete side note, do any of you ever visit ToneItUp.com? They’ve got some great workouts on the site and both girls are adorable, but WHAT THE HELL. Victoria’s Secret Angel hair during every workout tutorial? Really? Compared to them I look like some creepy substitute gym teacher doing my workouts. Time to start slowly stepping up my game here…

Happy Monday!

I love turning workouts into games, and when a trainer introduced me to the deck-of-cards concept, I was hooked. Here are the general rules:

• Each suit corresponds to a different exercise.
• Each number tells you how many reps of that exercise you’ll do.
• Face cards = 10
• Aces = 11
• Flip over the cards one at a time until you’ve gone through the entire deck.

Deck of Cards Jump Rope Workout

Equipment I used:

• Jump rope
• Exercise mat

For today’s deck of cards jump rope workout:

• Hearts = Push Ups
• Diamonds = Leg Lifts with a Reverse Crunch
• Clubs = Jump Rope x 10 (multiply the number on the card by 10)
• Spades = Split Squats x 2 (multiply the number on the card by 2)

I’m going to assume push-ups and jumping rope are self-explanatory, but here’s how to do the other moves:

• Leg Lifts with a Reverse Crunch: Laying on your back with hands under your bum for support, lift legs off the ground and up, perpendicular to the ground (keeping them straight the whole time). Then lift your butt off the ground, thrusting your legs upward. Lower butt to ground and then lower legs almost to ground (feet should remain off the floor the whole time).
• Split Squats: Start in deep squatting position with feet staggered. Back foot should be on the ball; front foot should be flat. Jump up and switch legs, landing back in deep squat with opposite leg in front.

All you need for today’s workout is a jump rope and a deck of cards. And you don’t even really need a jump rope. I’ve jumped rope with an invisible rope tons of times. Sure, you kinda look like a crazy person holding onto nonexistent rope handles and moving your wrists in tight little circles as you jump, but you still get that heart rate up and that’s all that matters!

Try this workout and let me know what you think! I also encourage you to experiment with the deck of cards structure and assign your own moves to each suit. I do these frequently so I’ll be sure to post my other variations as well.