NerdStrong Gym - 4 Minute Workout, 1 Minute Rest

It's Saturday so that means CON class at NerdStrong Gym and this workout was grueling.

It was your typical warm up, run and crazy stretches.

Andrew D was teaching this class so he went through each of the items that we'd be doing. First was Squat and Plank. Second Lunge and Overhead Hold with a Dumbbell. Third was KettleBell and KettleBell Squeeze. Fourth was V-Up and Bottom of Squat Hold. And finally Tricep Dips and Wall Sits.

We were doing a four minute workout of each set, broken down into a two :60 second round, then two :40 seconds and then two :20 seconds. So for example with the Squat/Plank... we did :60 seconds of Squats and then right into :60 seconds of Planking, then right into :40 seconds of Squats and then right into :40 seconds of Planking and then right into :20 seconds of Squats and finally :20 seconds of Planking.. there was no stopping in between.

When done we would get a one minute rest (which always felt like 10 seconds) and then we'd continue with the next set of workouts for four minutes and then get a one minute rest and so on. And though it was a total of 20 minutes of actually workout it felt like hours, especially towards the end when your arms and legs are numb but you continue to push yourself to finish.

What was great about this workout is there were not rep limits. You had :60, :40 or :20 seconds to do as many of the things as you could. If that meant you just did 5 squats in the :60 seconds then that's all your did. There is never any pressure from the coaches to push you over your limit. They definitely try and encourage you to continue but you never feel pressure... that is of course unless it's self induced pressure, which I tend to do. I want to get everything I can out of the workouts so I will push myself to my limit and just a step beyond.

I have pushed myself a bit to much, especially on these "CON" days and I have been effected by low blood sugar and fell ill for a bit. But this time around I took the advice of coach Andrew who suggested that I eat a good bowl of oatmeal before the workout and that that should sustain me through the constant workout and I'm happy to say it did. I was exhausted and tired but I never felt dizzy or sick.

I'm also realizing that these workouts look daunting on the board but when you finish them you feel great, you've accomplished something that looked impossible before you started and now you just finished it... it's a great feeling.

Thanks to Andrew D and all the coaches at NerdStrong Gym