Sorry for the lack in posts lately, I have been CRAZY SWAMPED with finals week.
BUT I am proud to announce that I successfully made it through my first quarter of graduate school and I am happily sitting at my gate at the airport waiting to board my plane HOME to see my family for the first time since I left. I have MAJOR butterflies and cannot wait to see everyone!

I have been really excited about posting lately because I have so many awesome topics, tips, and new workouts that I want to share.

First and foremost, I want to share a fun new take on training that I have been trying. I have a friend back home that recently started doing full body workouts rather than focus on specific muscle groups each time he lifts. He will perform a number of super-set lifts that work opposing muscle groups each time, which makes for a quicker workout since not as much rest is required between each set. I was excited to come home and try one of his circuits, but about a week ago I stumbled across a workout philosophy called “BuiltLean” that has pretty similar concepts and I decided to give it a whirl.

I LOVE IT! Although I switch up my reps/sets/and which lifts I perform, I have been doing the same “muscle group split” for quite some time now and I had fallen into quite the rut. It takes A LOT for me to get sore, I don’t see the results/progress I want, and I get really bored with my lifts. But after trying out this new full body philosophy I am sore, I am seeing results, and I am totally breaking through my workout rut!

One of the best things about this is that you are maximizing your “after burn” by engaging more muscles and you can decide whether you want to super-set opposing muscle groups, or work through supersets of the same muscle to fatigue it even more. I have also done days where I work out “full body” but focus specifically on a certain muscle I want to build (for example, I am currently working on size in my shoulders, so I will perform 4 or 6 lifts from total body muscles, and 2 or 4 lifts that focus on shoulders specifically. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!

I wouldn’t recommend doing this sort of training plan FOREVER, but it is always good to switch it up, shock your muscles, and have fun while you are at it.

Here’s four full-body workouts that I have done over the past week, try one and let me know what you think!!
I have been carrying around my “chicken scratch” post-it notes for the past week, just WAITING to share these workouts with you! Write me with any questions or comments about specific lifts/weights/etc. HAPPY TRAINING!

xoxo Mac