Quick and Effective Workouts

I'm a fortunate person in that I work from home most of the time. This gives me pockets of flexibility that I absolutely do not take for granted. I have an extra hour in the morning where the rest of the world is getting themselves presentable, packing lunches, and briefcases and scurrying to rush out the door.

Not me. I play with my kids, cuddle them, and gently coax them through their morning routine. Once I scootch them out the door with their dad, I do my taxing commute of descending a dozen stairs and sitting at my desk.

Lunch hour? I can go for a run, a bike ride, or both! No shower needed afterwards. There's no one here but the cats to impress. And lets face it, there's nothing I can do that will impress them.

This month, however, the trifecta of work emergencies/disasters has struck. I am finding myself working before the sun rises, through lunch, and the second my husband gets home from work, I descend the stairs and am at my desk for at least 3-4 more hours. There is no free hour to spare for training.

Which is adding to my anxiety! I have a race in 7 weeks . . . Now is not the time to be anchored to a desk. Fortunately, I have an arsenal of quickie workouts I do when I have 5, 10, or even just 15 minutes. I use those to get through a couple of days until I can get in an hour spin.

Here is my super-quickie workouts:

5-min: 50 kettlebell swings

10-min: 50 kettlebell swings, Turkish Get-Ups (6 ea. side), 50 Jumping Jacks

15-min: 50 kettlebell swings, Turkish Get-Ups, 50 Juming Jacks, Bulgarian Squats, 10 push-ups

20-min: 15 min of intervals on the exercise bike, Kettlebell swings, pushups

Getting involved in a project on the computer is great, but spending hours at my desk reaks havoc on my back. My other tip is to set the timer on my oven for 75 minutes. Every 1:15 minutes I have to get up, run up the stairs and reset the alarm. I usually do a couple of quick stretches before I sit back down at my desk. When I'm in the office, I do something similar. I keep a small cup of water to sip on while I work. As soon as its empty its time to get up, stretch, walk around and refill my cup.

And, if all else fails and I get to the end of the day realizing I didn't do a darn thing, I challenge the husband to a "Plank-off" before bed. We assume the Plank position and see who can hold the pose the longest. I always lose.

These mini-workouts mentally keep me moving forward. So I missed my 9-mile run this week, it's okay. And I missed my 90 minute trainer workout. That's going to happen. But I have not completely fallen off the wagon, I have successfully continued my losing streak in the Plank-Off last night.