Xu's Workout of the Week

Final push to the finish line!  We’re doing both an efficient *and* a long workout this week. The workout itself is going to be 20 minutes.  The efficiency is that you’re going to break up those 20 minutes individually so you can put your all into every one of them.

This is going to be cardio.  What cardio, I don’t care.  You can go on any cardio machine at the Y (this may be the best low-impact option).  If the weather stays pleasant, you can do an outdoor run, swim, or bike ride.  If you want to stay in place, you can try any combination of tuck jumps, burpees, jump rope, jump ups onto a bench or chair (make sure it’s immobile!), mountain climbers, stair running, or probably some other things I didn’t think of.

How to play:

• Warm up for 5 minutes.  A fast walk to the Y counts, especially if you’re already dressed.
• Cardio for 1 minute.  Give it your all.  You should be out of breath and very unhappy about the concept of continuing at the end.
• Rest for one minute.
• Repeat.  It does not have to be the same cardio unless you’re stuck on a piece of equipment.  It just has to be intense.
• Keep going until you have done 20 full minutes of intense cardio.
• Cool down and stretch.  Keep your head elevated for a good 5 minutes during the cool down, even if you want to curl up into a ball and die (if you don’t want to do that, you should have gone harder on your drills).

As you start to get tired, increase your rest time from 1 minute to 90 seconds, and keep adding 30 seconds of rest up to 3 minutes if you desire.  Aim to complete the whole exercise within an hour if you can.  If you run out of time or energy, break it up and come back to the rest of the workout later in the day.

And just for props, please email me at xufitness at gmail dot com to let me know what you did, how you felt at the end, and how long it took you total.

Good luck, guys!