JUN 1, 2016 WAWA: Running Late to My Next Appointment!

If you remember an earlier workout called “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere” then you’ll recognize some similarities to that one and this week’s WAWA.

This week’s WAWA is still mostly non-running focused. I’ll set up 12 stations “around the clock”, with each hour designated as a different exercise. Each designated “hour” will have one participant, ensuring we have all the stations covered. The Noon position is the designated “Runner”. At that station, the participant will run up the stairs, one lap around the indoor track, down the stairs, and back to the Noon position. Once that happens, everyone will rotate to the next clock position.

There is one catch, however. I will set the Runner’s time interval for how long it should take to complete the Noon station. For every second the Runner is “late” will be equal to one additional rep EVERYONE has to do at their respective stations before anyone can rotate! And if the runner gets done ahead of the interval….well, you just rotate to the next station as planned!

One set is equal to one ration through all 12 hours.

Our WAWA goal is to complete 3 sets. In-between sets we’ll do relay races between the basketball end lines for approximately 5 minutes each.

WORKOUT LOCATION: The Cornwell Center

WORKOUT TIME: 5:40 am start

WARMUP:

-Ballistic stretching

-3 laps around the upper track

THE WORKOUT:

Equipment: BOSU ball, medium dumbbells (2), battle ropes, kettlebells, medium medicine ball, heavy medicine ball, jump rope and weighted plates.

3 sets (12 stations each) around the clock

2 relay races (5 minutes each) in-between clock sets

Clock Stations:

1 o’clock: Kettlebells

2 o’clock: Overhead press with medium dumbbells

3 o’clock: BOSU ball, bicep curls

4 o’clock: Staggered arm pushups

5 o’clock: Battle ropes

6 o’clock: Jump Rope

7 o’clock: Plank

8 o’clock: Regular pushups

9 o’clock: Overhead plate presses

10 o’clock: Overhead circles with medium medicine ball

11 o’clock: Wall balls with heavy medicine ball

12 o’clock: Runner

COOL-DOWN and DEVOTION:

DEVOTION LEADER: Mike Lenhart

WORKOUT LEADER: Mike Lenhart

MAY 25, 2016 WAWA: Let Me Be Your Guide!

Several of you have asked “When are we going to do another obstacle course…?” Well….the answer is “this week”!

One of my principles is to never repeat a WAWA identically….instead, I will add some variances to a previous workout. That’s the case this week!

I’ll change out a few of the obstacles that you’ll see in the morning. YES….I’ll still have the rope climb! Each participant will negotiate the course 3 times.

For the first round, participants will go through the course at 3/4 speed, taking some additional time to understand the obstacles. Individuals will be timed, however, as you’ll need your time for the second and third rounds.

For the second round, I will group participants in teams of two. The team will add their two individual times from round one and determine the average by dividing by two. The average time becomes that team’s goal time for rounds two and three. In round two, one participant will be blind-folded and the partner will be responsible for helping the blind-folded teammate get through the obstacles safely and successfully.

And for the final round, the teams will swap out who wears the blind-fold and who serves as the guide, keeping in mind the same goal time from round two.

I have been fortunate to work with many disabled individuals to accomplish their fitness goals, including individuals with visual impairments. You’ll learn a lot about yourself and about what it takes to help others in this week’s WAWA!

I’ll see you in the morning at The Cornwell Center!

Be ready to go at 5:40 am!

MAY 18, 2016 WAWA: Boot Camp meets NASCAR…..sort of…!

I can’t wait until this coming Saturday night when my family and I will attend our first NASCAR race, the Sprint Cup All-Star race! You know….NASCAR…..which stands for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing…..better known as driving for 180 MPH+ for a few hours around an oval track, making nothing but left turns! And thanks to a great friend here in Charlotte who works for NASCAR, my family will get to take in the full experience!

So in honor of that excitement, I am doing a little bit of a NASCAR theme for this week’s WAWA. We’re focused on circuits this Wednesday, in a non-running (much) workout. For this week, we’ll rename our “circuits” as “races”. See details on the two races below.

Race Venue: The Cornwell Center

Race Time: 5:40 am

Track location: Downstairs basketball court

“Qualifying Race” (aka “Warm-up”):

Your qualifying for our two races begins with light stretching, exercises to get the oxygen flowing, and 5 easy laps around the basketball court.

Race #1

Our initial race will consist of 5 stations. 4 stations are set up at the corners of the basketball court; the 5th station is in the center of the court. One participant will start at the center station called the “race pit”. The remaining individuals will each start at one of the other stations. The participant in the pit will take the four “tires” off the barbells, then run upstairs making two laps around the indoor track, then come back downstairs, returning to the pit to put the four “tires” back on the barbells. While this is happening, all the other participants will execute the exercises at their respective stations. Once our initial participant returns to the pit and puts the tires back on, everyone will rotate to the next station. The second participant in the pit will repeat with the first person completed in the same sequence.

The other four stations are:

Release Push Ups
Kettle bells
Jump Rope
BOSU / Dumbbells

Everyone will complete two rounds of this race.

Race #2:

Short breather before we start Race #2.

For the second race, we’ll keep the four stations in the corners. There is no fifth station for Race #2.

Each station will be identified by the name of a current NASCAR driver with his/her car number.

Participants will execute the exercises at a station for 2 minutes then rotate clock-wise to the next station. Four stations = 8 minutes per cycle. We’ll complete 2 cycles for this race.

Jimmie Johnson #48 (Station 1): 1 set of Staggered Push-ups then run to a cone 10 meters away and back. Then do 2 sets of Staggered Push-ups, run to the cone and back. 3 Staggered Push-ups, etc.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88 (Station 2): Medicine Ball (MB) squats x 10, then Body Weight (BW) walking lunges to cone 10 meters away and back. Repeat again….and again.

Danica Patrick #10 (Station 3): Speed Skaters x 10 then Mountain Climbers x 20. Run around cone 10 meters away and back. Repeat again…and again.

Joey Logano #22 (Station 4): Wall Balls x 10 will medium Medicine Ball. Bear Crawl up to cone 10 meters away and back. Rinse and Repeat!

Final Lap (Cool Down) leader: Mike Lenhart

Checked Flag Celebration (Devotional) leader: Mike Lenhart

MAY 11, 2016 WAWA: Teamwork!

This week’s WAWA has a simple, one-word description: “Teamwork“.

Weather in the morning will be slightly balmy at 64F under overcast skies. Perfect for going outside for a run-focused workout. Our pace will be moderate as we work together to accomplish the workout.

Here’s the twist. I’m bringing my 15′ climbing rope along but we won’t be doing any climbs. Instead, we’ll drape the rope over our shoulders as we run in a file formation, being careful not to let the rope hit the ground. If that happens….well, lets just say it won’t be good news!

Here’s the workout:

Warm-up:

-Gather at 5:40 am in the downstairs basketball court of The Cornwell Center

-Light stretching

The WORKOUT:

Participants will gather outside The Cornwell Center and line up for the workout. Light jog over to the Queens University parking deck stairwell. Rope will be placed on the participants, practicing movements as we head over to Queens:

-Left side of body rope carry

-Left shoulder rope carry

-Above the head rope carry

-Right shoulder rope carry

SET Number 1:

Run up the stairwell, careful not to let the rope touch the ground. At the top of the parking deck, we’ll do 15 pushups, again being careful not to let the rope touch the ground. “Teamwork” is key! After the pushups, we’ll run down the parking deck, zig-zagging to the base, returning to our start point.

SET Number 2:

Run up the parking deck, stopping at each landing (near the stairwell entrances) to complete 25 flutter kicks. To ensure we don’t drop the rope, we’ll hold our hands up high while laying on our backs to complete the flutter kicks. 4 landings = 100 flutter kicks, total. At the top, run back down the stairwell returning to the start point.

SET Number 3:

Two laps around the soccer fields track. At the first straight-away, left side rope carry. At the next straight-away, transfer to left shoulder carry. At the next, transfer to right shoulder carry. On the final straight-away, right side rope carry. Repeat the sequence for the second lap, then return to the start point.

SET Number 4:

Run up the parking deck, stopping at each landing (near the stairwell entrances) to complete 25 modified jumping jacks. The first landing’s jacks will be while holding the rope on our right side; right arms will remain by our sides during the jumping jacks. Second landing is left side; third landing is back to right side; final landing is back to left side. 4 landings = 100 jumping jacks, total. At the top, run back down the stairwell returning to the base BUT then taking one easy lap around the track.

At the conclusion of the fourth set, we’ll jog back to The Cornwell Center for stretch, cool-down, and devotion. Note, if at any point we let the rope touch the ground, then we’ll do 10 pushups (together). The Workout Leader is the final authority on “ground-touching” penalties or not!

COOL DOWN and DEVOTION

Workout Leader: Mike Lenhart

Devotion Leader: Mike Lenhart

MAY 4, 2016 WAWA: 20 minutes of this….20 minutes of that!

This week will be a hybrid workout, of sorts. No….you can’t pick one or the other, however! After our warm up, I’ll break apart our WAWA into two 20-minutes segments. The first segment is a running focused workout; the second segment is a conditioning and interval focused workout. Truth be told, the second segment is slightly less than 20-minutes. See the details below.

Meeting location is at the Cornwell Center. We’ll meet downstairs on the basketball court for the warmup. Be ready to go at 5:40 am!

The Workout:

Segment 1: “Run Focused”

After the warmup, participants will go outside the Cornwell Center for a “run at your own pace” workout. Here’s the catch: You will need to pay attention to your pace, time and distance.

Everyone will take off running at a moderate pace to the left along Queens/Selwyn. Run for 1 minute, then turn around and backtrack towards the Cornwell Center for a minute again. The goal is to finish exactly back at the Cornwell Center at the same pace.

Next, turn around and head back down Queens/Selwyn. This time your “interval” is 2 minutes out and 2 minutes back.

Third interval is 3 minutes out and 3 minutes back.

Last interval is 4 minutes out and 4 minutes back.

Remember, the goal is to “hit” your turnaround points at the Cornwell Center on the designated minute interval.

After the run workout, we’ll gather in front of the Cornwell Center for the second half of the WAWA.

Segment 2: “Conditioning / Interval Focused”

Here’s the basics for this “benchwarmer intervals” workout. Seven stations with two exercises at each station. The first exercise at each station will be a prescribed number of reps. The second exercise will go until the end of the interval. Each station’s interval is 2-minutes. So, if you complete the reps of exercise 1 in 30 seconds then you have 90 seconds to complete exercise 2. 30 seconds rest in-between stations.

Here’s the breakdown of stations:

Station 1: Exercise 1 (Step Ups x 25 per leg); Exercise 2 (Bench Dips)

Station 2: Exercise 1 (Jump lunges x 15 per leg); Exercise 2 (Flutter Kicks)

Stations 3: Exercise 1 (Bulgarian Split Squats w Dumbbells, 15 per leg); Exercise 2 (Hand Release Push Ups)

Station 4: Exercise 1 (Step Up Squat Step Up x 15); Exercise 2 (Clocks with pushups)

Station 5: Exercise 1 (Elevated Crunches x 50); Exercise 2 (Jump Rope)

Station 6: Exercise 1 (Step Ups x 25 per leg); Exercise 2 (Scissor Kicks)

Station 7: Exercise 1 (Downhill Pushups x 15); Exercise 2 (Bicep Curls to Overhead Press w Dumbbells)

Cool Down and Devotion

Workout Leader: Mike Lenhart

Devotion Leader: Mike Lenhart

WAWA