Setting Fitness Benchmarks

Goal-setting for the New Year

As the end of the year approaches, we often reflect on the events of the past year personally, professionally, and physically! This is a great time to celebrate the wins and identify opportunities for improvement.

One way to set fitness goals is through “Benchmark” workouts. These are workouts that set a specific physical task within a specific time domain and a score is calculated. After the workout, you may have noted strengths and relative weaknesses that can be celebrated and lead to opportunities for improvement. 3-6 months later, you can revisit the same workout and strive to improve your score.

CrossFit was inspired by military-style training to improve general physical preparedness. You will often find workouts that are named after fallen men and women in service and are called “Hero workouts”. These workouts are great for use as “Benchmarks” to test your fitness now and re-test later.

This week’s workout is a modification of a Hero workout called “Jack”. This workout targets upper and lower body strength and power, hip extension, and cardiovascular endurance.

Why midlife women should do this workout:

• Build upper and lower body muscle strength, power, and muscle mass for better metabolic health, longevity, and body composition.

• Cardiovascular stimulation for a healthy heart

• Plyometrics for bone density and cardiovascular health

Warm Up

AMRAP 7 (As many rounds as possible in 7 minutes)

• 10 up-downs

• 10 air squats

• 10 easy push-ups (knees, toes or elevated on a stable box, bench or chair)

Movement Practice

Take 5-10 minutes to review the workout movement videos and options below and select your weights and movements for the workout.

The prescribed workout weight “RX” is noted below the workout for reference. These weights are for more advanced athletes. If you are a beginner or intermediate athlete, select movement options and weights that you can perform confidently where each set of 10 repetitions can be performed in no more than 2 sets with a brief rest in between. Once you have selected your weights/options, practice 3-5 repetitions of each movement in the order written in the workout to be sure you are comfortable with the flow between movements.

Movement options

• Push Press (Alternative: dumbbell push press)

• Kettlebell Swing (American) (Alternative: Swing to eye level; If no kettlebell, - Double dumbbell swing

• Box Jump - (Alternative: Weighted box step-ups or dumbbell thrusters).

Workout

AMRAP 20 (As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes)

• 10 Push presses

• 10 Kettlebell Swings

• 10 Box jumps

Score: Number of completed rounds and repetitions.

(RX for women 75# barbell, 35# kettlebell, 20-inch box jump)

TIP! Manage fatigue by slowing down your repetitions. This allows you to achieve some “rest” while continuing to accumulate repetitions.

*Be sure to document your movement options and weight choices so that you can replicate the workout for your “re-test”.

Cool Down

As an expert in the hormonal physiology of the stress response system, I cannot overstate the importance of a thorough cool-down after an intense fitness benchmark workout. Yoga is my go-to because it promotes whole-body flexibility and mobility care as well as calming the mind and increasing the vagal tone needed for our stress response system to return to baseline.

Indulge yourself in this 15-minute full-body stretch yoga sequence to jumpstart your recovery! #dontskiptheyoga

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NOW BOOKING APPOINTMENTS!

If you are an active woman or competitive midlife athlete who feels abandoned by mainstream medicine, I’m here for you!

It is with great excitement that after more than 2 years of preparation, I have FINALLY launched my Telehealth Consultation Medical practice focusing on the Reproductive Endocrine needs and Menopausal Care for active, athletic, and high-performing women.

Active and athletic midlife women have needs and risk profiles that are different from the general population. These needs often go unmet by the mainstream medical community due to a lack of understanding of fitness and sport and their impact on mid-life hormonal physiology or even a lack of acknowledgment that this dynamic exists. We put your health, fitness, and performance at the center of the equation so that you can achieve your healthiest, highest-performing self!

You will find all my service offerings on my website including a link to my calendar so that you can reserve your place in my schedule!

To celebrate the official launch, I’m offering $75 OFF my Health and Wellness Concierge service! Simply provide the code CONCIERGE75 in a message to us to redeem the discount once you request your appointment. The discount will be applied at the time the appointment request is processed.