Workout of the Week: Let your muscles grow!
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Major holidays have the potential to throw our everyday life off balance, but its also very possible to maintain certain essential rituals while observing them.
For those of us who follow both the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars, we got two leap years! Hence, Passover came a bit later this year.
Being that Passover is a holiday about (among other things) endurance and perseverance of mind, body and spirit, I’ve designed a workout routine that will put all those facets to the test!
The exercises in this “Workout of the Week” are inspired by themes from the story of Passover and the book of Exodus in the Tanakh. For example, the frog hold represents the plague of frogs that G-d inflicted on ancient Egypt. The wide mountain climbers to overhead dumbbell press is influenced by the iconic image of Moses ascending Mount Sinai and holding two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments above his head. In addition to giving these movements literal names, I had fun coming up with some metaphorical titles for each exercise.
Set one:
Ten second frog hold to press (aka Let my people go)
Holding the frog press for ten seconds is an ample amount of time to completely engage and burnout your core. The timeframe also signifies the total number of plagues G-d inflicted upon ancient Egypt in the book of Exodus.
Rest and repeat six times.
Set two:
Three lateral thrusters to one one-pump dumbbell burpee (aka Parting the Yam Suph burpees)
In my mind’s eye, this exercise is a poetic, choreographed interpretation of the crossing of the Yam Suph (also known as the Reed Sea). The thrusters represent Moses slamming his staff, and the side to side motion indicates the subsequent parting of the sea. The burpee is the sea swallowing up the ancient Egyptian army.
I’d say that this move is the epitome of exercising artfully.
Rest and repeat five times.
Set three:
Four step dumbbell forward lunge walk (aka Exodus from Egypt lunges)
Dumbbell forward lunges might not be as strenuous as walking through the desert for forty years, but it’s definitely not a (flourless) cakewalk either.
Take four steps forward, then turn around. Rest and repeat five times.
Set four:
Ten wide mountain climbers to press (aka Ascending Mount Sinai presses)
Take an allegorical trek up Mount Sinai to receive the covenant with this variation of a dumbbell burpee that features two push ups, two wide mountain climbers and a dumbbell snatch. The only commandment you need to obey is maintaining good form.
Rest and repeat three times.
This concludes another “Workout of the Week” for your exercise enjoyment!
If you choose to do this routine, please let me know about your experience. And if you have any specific questions about this workout or general fitness inquiries, please reach out to me. I am always eager to hear from you!
Additionally, I am offering a personalized fitness consultancy to my paid subscribers! If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your subscription to Artfully Exercising, now’s a great time to do it!