As a brand new mom in the middle of a pandemic I didn’t have the time or energy to design my own workout plan or even workout consistently. I chose not to push myself to do something that didn’t feel right yet. I was healing, bonding with my son and grappling with some postpartum anxiety that was holding me back from taking any time for myself. This was a far cry from the four day a week CrossFit habit I had during my pregnancy and I soon began to miss feeling strong and accomplished after a good workout.
It took a few months but once the fog of new motherhood lifted and I got back into weightlifting, I finally felt like myself again. I was doing what I loved and what felt good for my body. That is not to say that my workout routine looks the same as it did before becoming a mom because it definitely doesn’t and that is on purpose! I encourage you to take your time and wait until working out is something that is going to feel good, rather than something you feel like you have to do. Exercise should be an act of self care, not self control. Once you’re there, keep reading!
Your workout plan
I want to share with you a strategy that I have used as a GGS pre- and postnatal coach, with clients that are short on time but still want to do a progressive strength training program. If lifting weights and strengthening your muscles is something that you enjoy and feels good for your body, this plan is for you. I’m gonna show you how to design your own workout plan by combining strength and cardio exercises into supersets for a super efficient, sweaty workout that will get those feel-good endorphins flowing!
How often will you be working out?
This ultimately comes down to what feels right for you, but I would like to give a quick note about the type of program this is so you can make an informed decision. The supersets I’m going to teach you are a form of high intensity interval training (HIIT). This type of exercise is not supposed to be done everyday. For my clients, I recommend doing it 3 days a week or less in order to fully recover before their next workout. If you are new to this type of workout, you could start with 1-2 days a week and incorporate less intense exercise on other days of the week like walking, hiking or yoga.
Building your supersets
Now the fun part! We are going to build 5 different supersets of one strength exercise and one cardio exercise. The strength exercises you pick should follow major functional movement patterns.
Functional movement patterns are movements that we use in our daily lives and include the squat, lunge, hinge/bend, push, pull, rotation/anti-rotation and carry/gait. You will want to use all 7 movement patterns over the week but not necessarily all in one day. Bonus points if you combine two, like when you do a thruster (squat and overhead press).
Examples for each movement pattern:
- Squat: Back squat, front squat, goblet squat, air squats (no weight)
- Lunge: Front lunge, reverse lunge, split squats
- Hinge/bend: Deadlift, Romanian deadlift, glute bridges
- Push: Push ups, chest press, overhead press
- Pull: Pull ups, bent over rows, dumbbell pullovers
- Rotation: Russian twists, woodchoppers, pallof press (anti-rotation)
- Carry/gait: Farmer carry, liberty carry, bell up carry
Pick 5 of the above exercises, only one from each category. Then you will pair each one with a cardio exercise from the following list:
- Kettlebell swings
- Box Jumps
- High Knees
- Jump Rope
- Plank Jacks
- Jumping Jacks
- Squat Jacks
- Burpees
- Squat jumps
- Sprints
- Rowing machine
- Treadmill sprints
- Bike sprints
How to Design Your Workout Plan
Now that you have your supersets, let’s design your workout plan using a four week cycle. For the first week you will do 3 sets of 12 reps of the strength exercise followed immediately with 30-60s of the cardio exercise. Rest 1-2 minutes before starting your next set. So for example, you will do 12 dumbbell front squats followed immediately by 30-60s of high knees. Rest 1 minute then repeat two more times.
For week 2 you will increase the weight you use for the strength exercise and decrease the reps to 10. Week 3 do the same thing again, increase weight and decrease reps to 8. Week 4 you will keep the reps at 8 but decrease the weight to what you used in week 1. This gives your body a chance to recover before starting another cycle.
To start the next four week cycle you will do 3 sets of 12 reps starting with the weight you used in week 2 of the first cycle. And so on and so on. This is how you continue to progress.
Example of Day One
Week 1 Monday Workout
3×12 Dumbbell Front Squats & 30-60s Jump Rope
3×12 Kettlebell Romanian Deadlifts & 30-60s Burpees
3×12 Dumbbell Chest Press & 30-60s Squat Jumps
3×12 Dumbbell Bent Over Rows & 30-60s High Knees
3×12 Kettlebell Russian Twists & 30-60s Plank Jacks
There you have it! A quick, challenging workout that will get your heart pumping and help you build muscle in half the time. Spend 20 minutes creating your program upfront and you don’t have to think about what you are going to do for the next 4 to 8 weeks.
Once you get more comfortable with how to put these workouts together you can try changing up the sets and reps, increase the time you do the cardio, decrease the amount of rest you take between sets and increase the number of supersets you do.
I hope this has been helpful and you now have the confidence to design your own workout plan! Let me know how it goes in the comments below!