Workout of the Week at Anytime Fitness

Have you ever looked over a workout, whether it was something posted online or at your gym, and thought to yourself that looks a little too easy, I may need to modify it to get a good workout in?

That was me just a few days ago. I was in my local Anytime Fitness and noticed that a simple three exercise workout routine was posted on the chalk board in one of the exercise rooms. The routine included 10 Reps of Wall Balls, 20 Reps of Step-Ups, and a 30 Second Sprint of Battle Ropes. The circuit would be repeated three times. When it was all over, you were supposed to take your overall time and share it on the Anytime Fitness Facebook Page.

I underestimated this workout in a bad way. None of the exercises are particularly difficult by themselves but when you chain them together and begin pushing your boundaries to post a respectable time, that is when things get ugly.

Because I’m a manly man, I picked up the heaviest medicine ball (25 pounds) and got started with the routine. The Wall Balls weren’t too bad. I was a little sore from my squat session earlier in the week but it felt good to be using the muscles. Things got a little harder on the Step-Ups. My legs were a bit fatigued from the Wall Balls. By the time I got into a half-squat and whipped around the Battle Ropes, my legs were fried.

I took a quick breather, got some water, then rolled into round two. I made it through Wall Balls but I was sucking air and sweat was rolling off of me. I couldn’t make it through Step-Ups and had to pause for a couple of seconds before making my final push. Battle Ropes were horrible. Exhausted, breathing heavy, heart hammering in my chest, legs feeling like jelly, and arms burning – horrible is the only way to describe it.

I needed another breather and more water before starting in on round three. This time I needed to pause during all three exercises. In a very short period of time I had expended a ton of energy and was wiped out.

When it was all over, I switched off the timer on my Fitbit Charge HR and was surprised by the numbers. It took me 11 Minutes and 58 Seconds to complete the three round circuit. Before I started, I felt like anything over 6 minutes would be atrocious. After seeing how difficult it was, I’m now thinking that my almost-twelve-minute time was respectable.

The more interesting figure was the caloric burn. In that short time I managed to burn an estimated 176 calories. That comes out to 15 calories per minute – which I think is impressive. My heart rate in that time peaked at 172 beats per minute with an average of 140.

I’m not usually into this type of exercise. I tend to stick to steady state cardio and weights but this little experiment has opened my eyes. I think I’m going to give next weeks Workout of the Week a try.