Alright guys, today I am going to give you a run down of my current workouts. It’s not anything too fancy or complicated but here you go!

Most of you probably know that for the past year I have been following Paola Marquez’s Strong & Sexy Body Method (S2BM). I met Paola (@paosfitworld) through IG and she was my resource for starting to count macros and becoming more knowledgeable about weight training. I guess you can say that I really liked the results I got because I have been counting macros and following her weight training guide ever since!

So, to answer your questions about my weekly workouts. The answer is that I pretty much follow S2BM (I’ll explain what I mean by ‘pretty much’ in a second). The guide is mostly weight training with some plyometrics. You can get a free week of workouts from her site, but the break down goes something like this:
-Monday: Biceps, Triceps, Abs
-Tuesday: Full Body
-Wednesday: Legs
-Thursday: Full Body
-Friday: Shoulders & Back
-Saturday: LISS
-Sunday: Rest

There is some variation throughout the weeks of course, but that is the gist of it. So, for about 10 months I followed her guide exactly. The only thing I would modify was my weight amount as I would move through the guide again. Aka the first time I did the guide, I may have done 10 lb dumbbells for some exercises, and the second time around I did 15 lbs.

Within the past month and a half or so, I have been switching things up a little bit! I told Paola that I really wanted to grow my legs and butt more so we increased my carb intake and added 2 heavy weighted leg days plus three 45 minute stair master sessions per week. Usually if you want to put on a significant amount of muscle you need to do a bulk (eating in a surplus), however, with my bachelorette party and wedding coming up I didn’t want to commit 3 months minimum to eating in such a surplus. I’ll wait until post wedding for that, and preferably not the summer when I’m in a swimsuit! Lol. However, in order to put on any amount of muscle that would help build up my legs and butt, extra carbs and weights were essential.

Now that you have the breakdown of my weighted workouts, lets talk about the cardio portion aka hell on the stair master. The reason I increased my cardio by a decent amount was because I am eating more! Yes, I am using those excess carbs to help build my muscle but with excess carbs usually comes a little more body fat. So, in order to kind of balance this out I started doing the stair master 3x a week (2x are after weighted leg days and the other day is just a cardio session by itself). The stair master is also my go-to form of cardio because while burning fat it simultaneously helps build up your leg and booty muscles. So while its basically pure 45 minutes of torture, I have my reasons for doing it!

The actual stair-master workout I do is pretty simple, but IMO it helps break up the monotony of it, and in turn makes the time on it go by faster. I usually do a speed of 9-10 (sometimes only 7 if it’s after weights and my legs are dying, and sometimes 12 if its just on my cardio day. I just kind of play it by ear). Okay, so here is the break down from the first 5 minutes through 45 minutes:
-5 minutes: walking forwards
-5 minutes: walking sideways
-5 minutes: walking sideways (opposite side)
-5 minutes: walking backwards
(Jump off treadmill for about a minute to rest)
-5 minutes: walking forwards, skipping 1 step + kickback w/ each leg
-5 minutes: walking sideways
-5 minutes: walking sideways (opposite side)
-5 minutes: walking backwards
-5 minutes: walking forward (decrease speed & use as cool down)

One last thing! Always do weight training before cardio. Cardio depletes your glycogen more quickly and so if you do cardio before weights, you wont be able to lift as heavy or do as many reps. Doing 5 minutes of cardio to warm up prior to weights is fine, but as far as your actual cardio session, always do it after weights if you’re doing them on the same day.

Oh, and I guess one more thing. Since I am doing an extra leg day, I usually just end up doing 1 full body session a week, and the other full body is replaced by a leg session. However,  I always make sure to leave 2 full days in between each leg sessions. When you are doing an intense workout of a particular body part you want to make sure you leave enough time for it to rest aka repair and built the muscle you tore–this is the only way for your muscles to grow!

As always, leave any questions or comments and I’ll do my best to answer them! xx