Workout Wednesday: Twisted Fifty

I love a good filthy fifty workout as much as the next guy (or gal).  I love taking my favorite exercises and pairing them all together for a grueling, sweaty, satisfying workout.  But honestly, sometimes doing 50 of one exercise in a row gets pretty freaking boring.  And sometimes, it's just downright impossible for me to do 50 in a row (I'm looking at you, regular pushups.  I hate having to drop down to my knees after about 15 or so).  

So I figured why not break up each set of 50, and set them with another exercise.  This way, I'm getting 50 reps of two exercises out of the way without taking a break, and don't want to rip my fingernails off after the 27th burpee in a row. 

So, for example, for the first set, do 20 squat thrusters, followed immediately by 20 burpees, then 15 squat thrusters, 15 burpees, 10 squat thrusters, 10 burpees, 5 squat thrusters, and 5 burpees. Boom.  50 squat thrusters and 50 burpees done in probably a little over 5 minutes.  Then, I grab a drink and quick rest before moving on to set 2.  All-in, this workout should probably take less than 40 minutes, tops. Feel free to add some weights to the jumping jacks and Russian twists or pick a different variation of pushups.

This idea (as simple as it may seem) was actually inspired by a class that I took the other day at Epic Hybrid Training in the city.  It was lower body day, and the warmup for class was 50 squat thrusters and 50 burpees, in the 20-15-10-5 rep scheme, in 5 minutes.  I tried really hard to get them all done, but missed the last 5 burpees.  That was just the warmup, and my legs were smoked and shaky.  At the end of class, we came back to burpees and squat thrusters for the cool down - 30 of each in 3 minutes. Needless to say, I was much slower at these, and only got 20 of each done.  But hey, the warmup and cool down was a really great workout in itself, and made me want to come up with my own version to use at home. 

Enjoy!