New Workout Series Alert: "(Full Body) Blast from the Past!"

Brought to you by Ariana Crispin-Frei

Hi, everyone! My name’s Ariana, and I’ve been a fitness instructor with Living Well for two years and a half years now. Starting in January 2020 and going up until our in-person operations came to a halt about three weeks ago, I taught a class called “EVOLVE", which consisted of using weighted bars and completing circuits of cardio, upper-body, and lower-body exercises.

Before that, though, I taught many different types of classes: I had my dance-based “ChoreograFit” from January to April 2018, my tabata-style, high-intensity interval training “H.I.I.T. It!” from October to December 2019, and my no-equipment, bodyweight “Full Body Blast” from January 2019 to December 2019.

Since we have transitioned from hosting our regular activity classes to providing online resources in their place, I decided to start a new series here on the blog: (Full Body) Blast from the Past!

Ever since I started teaching fitness classes, I have written down each and every workout in my faithful green notebook. In this series, I will revisit the pages that contain my old Full Body Blast (FBB) workouts and post some of my favourite ones here. I hope to deliver these workout posts two or three times a week. The goal is to give all of you wonderful readers a great, effective workout that you can do from the comfort of your own home with zero gym equipment. All you need is a full bottle of water and a positive attitude!

If you are one of my older participants and have taken part in one of these classes before, I hope you smile as we reminisce about "the good ol' days" while we sweat it out together. If you've never done one of these workouts with me, I promise that you will work up a sweat (and feel very aware of your muscles the next day)!

I encourage every person reading this to give these FBBftP workouts a go. I personally created and participated in all of them, so you can rest assured that they have been tried and approved by yours truly! If you want modifications for specific moves, are uncertain of what a given move entails, or need to look up proper form for a movement, YouTube and Google are your best friends! If an exercise hurts your body - in the "definitively bad and painful" way, not the "I'm-feeling-my-muscles-burning-as-they-get-stronger" way - then don't do that movement; find a substitution that works for you and your body instead.

Last but not least: don't give up! If you get discouraged because you have to take longer breaks between the exercises, or tone the movements down a little, that is perfectly normal and okay. The beautiful thing about these workouts is that you can slow them down if you need to! Just focus on finishing the workout; that way, you will feel the sense of fabulous accomplishment (which is hopefully also accompanied by that lovely muscle fatigue!) that you get from completing the whole routine. Plus, the more you frequently you engage in higher-intensity workouts like these ones, the better your cardio, strength, endurance, and overall fitness will get. If you do these workouts each time they are published, you will start to feel them getting easier and more doable over time. I believe in you - you've got this! :)

Okay... I think we've done enough chatting for now. Without further ado, let’s get to work!

#FBBftP

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(Full Body) Blast from the Past #1

Original workout date: Friday, March 23, 2018

Workout length: ~40 minutes (including warm-up and cool-down)

Warm-Up

~30 seconds each.

• high knee march

• high knee runs

• bum kick runs

• jumping jacks

• arm circles (forward, then backward)

• right leg kicks (kick, ball-change, kick)

• left leg kicks (same)

• squats

Note: in the time between each of the following exercises, you should engage in “active rest”. This means keeping your feet moving (to keep your blood circulating properly) as you bring your heart rate down a little. You can do this by marching on the spot, stepping from side to side, or bouncing from foot to foot.

Cardio

Tabata-style: 20 seconds of work; 10 seconds of rest. 2X through. 30 sec-1 min of active rest between the two rounds.

• jumping jack squats

• mountain climbers

• runner’s skips (one side the first round; other side the second round)

• squat 180° jumps

Muscle Conditioning

50 seconds of work, followed by 10-15 seconds of rest. X2 through.

• jabs (forward punches)

• sumo squat/leg check

• standing water bottle hand pass/calf raises

• squat/knee-up core twist
  

Burnout

35 seconds of work, followed by 10-15 seconds of rest. 2X through (if you dare!).

• frog jumps

• inchworm

Cool-Down

20-30 seconds each.

• side-to-side steps, swinging out your arms

• arm circles (forward, then backward; reach through fingertips to use full range of motion)

• 2 deep breaths in (arms reaching up) and out (coming back down and bending in a squat)

• right oblique stretch (arms reaching up and over to the left)

• left oblique stretch (arms reaching up and over to the right)

• right hip flexor stretch with right shoulder stretch (right leg back in lunge; tilt hips forward; pull right arm across body with left arm)

• left hip flexor stretch with left shoulder stretch

• right quadricep stretch (grab right ankle with right arm; keep knees together; tilt pelvis forward)

• left quadricep stretch

• right hamstring stretch (kick right leg forward with foot flexed; maintain slight bend in back knee; hinge forward at your hips with a flat back)

• left hamstring stretch

• right "figure 4" stretch, standing (bring right foot across left thigh, making a “4” shape; keep right foot flexed; sink into your left leg)

• left "figure 4" stretch, standing

• shoulder blade stretch (palms together in front of body; let head relax and look down between your arms

• 3 deep breaths (inhale and reach up; exhale and release all the way down with bent legs. On the last exhale, keep your legs bent and roll up slowly to standing, going through each vertebra in your spine; head coming up last)

And that's it, my friends!

If you're reading this, I'm proud of you for finishing the workout! I hope you got sweaty, felt the burn, and are feeling energized now. Make sure to stretch out whatever else you need to stretch out, drink lots of water, get in some nutritious food, and have a lovely and productive rest of your day.

Until next time!

- Ariana