Full Body Interval Elliptical (or any cardio machine) Workout

My apartment complex has a mini gym. It consists of an elliptical, stair stepper, treadmill, bike, and a whole body station. This week I decided to start doing more of a real work out rather than just zoning out for 30 min on the elliptical. I've learned a lot about interval training and different moves from BodyRock so I decided to make up my own work out. 

For this you can either use equipment if you have it or you can do it all without equipment. The key is to have a plan before you start. What I did was plan to do 3 sets of 4 exercises with cardio inbetween each. 2 minutes for cardio and 1 minute for the exercise. Using the first 10 seconds of the 1 minute workout to get into position then doing a solid 50 seconds. I decided it would go like this:

• Cardio
• Arms/Upper body
• Cardio
• Core
• Cardio
• Arms/Upper body
• Cardio 
• Legs
• Repeat 2 more times

So if you want to do it without equipment you an either pick 4 exercises and just repeat them or you can choose to do different exercises each round. 

The first day I did: push ups, crunches, tricep dips, and squats x 3

Yesterday I decided to incorporate equipment for some of the moves and did:

1. Push ups, abs on the incline bench (don't know the technical name), bench press, squats
2. Shoulder press, russian twists, dips, sumo squats
3. Up-down planks, V-abs, bent over row, donkey kicks

So in terms of timing your intervals it's up to you how long of a work out you want to do. I also downloaded an interval timer app on my phone and was able to maneuver on and off the equipment with my headphones since someone else was in the work out room. Timers are nice because they will beep/ding whenever your interval is up and you know it's time to get back to the bike/elliptical/treadmill. Make sure to include a couple minutes of warm up and cool down. This my timing and warm up/cool down this is a 40 minute workout that goes really fast!

If you are doing this without equipment you can just hope off the elliptical and do the work out right behind it. You may want to use a mat or towel depending on the floor situation. You can do this at the gym but if you go to the gym where people are like hawks waiting for an elliptical machine it might be a little more stressful. I was nervous because the second day I did it I had someone else in the room. At first I thought she was going to think I was weird for getting on an off the elliptical but then I felt like a badass because she was just sitting there pedaling along on the bike reading her magazine while I was doing a real work out like a boss haha.

If you don't want to use workout stations because you're in a gym (vs your house or small apartment gym) but want to increase the intensity you can use free weights and/or resistant bands to mix up your exercises. 

If you are doing this on the elliptical use the Quick Start button and increase your resistance. I did all rounds at an 8 but you can go up/down depending on how you're feeling but don't make it too easy. If you need to catch your breath for 20 seconds here or there decrease the  resistance and take a sip of water then get back at it!

If you need new FREE workout music check out my post of Non-Sketchy Free Music Downloads