Well hello from a rather chilly #SanFrancisco! 🥶🙋🏻♀️ In keeping with the wave of football related posts (congrats #argentina!), here’s a #fitness related piece for #teachers who are wondering how to unleash their inner #messi in the fast-approaching new year. 💪🏆
#Truestory: When I first moved to the UAE in 2013, I couldn’t run for 20 seconds without losing my breath. Everything hurt and it felt awful each time I tried. After I learned of this tiny 12 minute running workout, I began to include it in my training schedule every day for about a month in the run up to the first race I ever ran in Dubai.
And guess what?
I won first place. #gobsmacked!
After that, this workout was forever cemented in my toolkit of simple ways to maintain fitness.
So, for anyone else wishing to get going with fitness in the new year, here I share the 12 minute workout that I do when I am strapped for time, or as a base part of a longer workout.
Here are the steps:
1️⃣ Walk or lightly jog for 4 minutes (warm up)
2️⃣ Run like there’s a lion chasing you 🏃🏽♀️🦁 (AKA sprint) for 20 seconds
3️⃣ Rest (do an easy jog/walk) for 10 seconds
4️⃣ Repeat 2 & 3 x8 times over
5️⃣ Walk it off or lightly jog for 4 minutes
For a modification, swap #2 with a power walk. To make it harder, ask another couple of lions to chase you so that you up your pace. 🏃🏽♀️🦁🦁🦁
This is my all time favourite running workout. 🤩Don’t be fooled by how simple it looks - it will have your heart rate up and panting like crazy by the 8th minute, no matter what level of fitness you are at.
The best part about it is that it’s you against yourself - you just need to run or walk as fast as you can.
If you try it, let me know. And if you have something similar in terms of nifty workouts, let me know!
🧰 Tools:
I use this free Interval Timer app to keep track of the sprints on my iPhone:
❗️P.S. When entrusted with my #uyghur sister’s children this morning, they became a part of my workout too. I asked them to keep kicking the ball forward but to keep it in lane and not let it touch the sides - with a penalty of a pushup or jumping jacks if they let it slip! ⚽️ They took the bait. 😄 This was such a fun way to continue my run while keeping little ones interested. 😉
‼️ P.P.S. Plucked from my archives, the black and white photos are from the first race I ever entered and won in 2015, which I mentioned in this post. #truth. I have never ever won a trophy of that size since that race, and I have only ever placed first in one other race since, but have run countless ones. I am not sure if everyone had left for the summer the day of this race, so maybe there was less competition 😬, but all the same - I showed up, just for me, just to show myself I could do it, and I won this great big thing. So just try! You never know what will happen when you do. ✨💫
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