I planned on doing a Pilates class at noon today, but baby girl and I were having too much fun and she didn’t go down for her nap until 1:30. At that point I proceeded to get an email that got me a little stressed. So here I was needing to exercise, frustration to burn off and on a time constraint not knowing when nap time would be over. Eureka! The sweat box.

I had read about a similar workout a while back and thought it sounded interesting. As some of you know, I’ve been forced into these short burst interval workouts at home lately due to my schedule, and it seemed to fit the bill. I wanted some fresh air so I decided to put my mat outside in the shade. At 1:30 in the afternoon. In August. In Hawaii. See where I’m going with this?

This is your sweat box workout:

1 burpee
20 squat pulses
2 burpees

10 bicep curls
3 burpees
20 walking lunges
4 burpees
10 shoulder presses etc…

You will build up to 15 burpees, then do 15 again and work your way back down to 1! In between each set you will do one set of either 20 squat pulses, 20 plie squat pulses, 10 shoulder presses, 10 bicep curls, 20 sit ups, 20 walking lunges or just plain rest for 30 seconds :). You can switch these up however you like, as long as you are varying the muscle groups used.

What is a burpee you may ask? Start in a long plank position. Jump your feet towards your hands and stand straight up and jump in the air. As soon as you land place your hands on the ground and jump back to a plank. That was one burpee.

This workout is not for people with injuries or any current medical conditions! This sucker is hardcore. If it’s too much for you to start, do whatever activity you can in intervals. If you can’t do a burpee, jog or walk in place or do step ups for 20 seconds. The next time do 30 seconds, then 40 and so on and build it up to 2 minutes then back down. I used 10 lb handweights for the interval arm and leg options, but you can do it without any weight at all!

Oh my gosh is all I can say. I was completely exhausted at the end and drenched in sweat. My stress was also completely gone! I was so busy counting and getting fatigued I had no time to think about it. (I am not usually a counter but, believe me, you will count these because you want to get back down to 1 so badly!)

Give yourself about 35-40 minutes to finish the whole thing.

Enjoy!