In the last Tabata in the Joss Whedon tribute series, I want to celebrate my own personal favorite Joss Whedon creation. Yes, yes, I adore Buffy for being a lead kick-ass female character in a time female kick-ass characters were few and far between. And the story of a smuggler ship crew in a Sci-Fi Western is just about the most creative idea I’ve ever heard. But it just isn’t my favorite.
I love stories where you can sympathize with the bad guy. And I’ve never been more empathetic with a character than Neil Patrick Harris playing Dr. Horrible. Talking to his camera in a vlog format, this movie(?)/YouTube sensation (?) gave us a story to fall in love with, and songs to move us.
I may have watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog close to 15-20 times over the years. Every time a friend would say “I’ve never heard of it”, I’d stop whatever we were doing and we’d spend 45 minutes watching “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog”. Yeah, it’s only about 45 minutes. Forty-five minutes of PURE JOY!
I can still sing along with every song from that treasure to the interwebs. If you haven’t seen it, I implore you to stop whatever you are doing and go on YouTube to watch it. NOW.
After you watch it, come back and try this last Joss Whedon Tabata. In case you are just joining us and haven’t done tabata style workouts before, this is an interval workout where you do 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest for 8 rounds of one exercise. After you finish one set, rest for a minute, set up for the next one and continue with 8 rounds of each exercise (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off). The completed workout is under 20 minutes.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Tabata
- Freeze Ray Plank Hold: Do this on your elbows or hands (high plank), on your knees or full body plank. Whatever works for you, just hold still for 20 seconds during your set.
- Captain Hammer (Corporate Tool) Hammer Curls (These are not the Hammer): You will need some sort of weight for these. You can use dumbbells if you have them, or any two objects you have that are roughly the same weight. Hold a weight in each hand at your sides, palms facing your hips. Keep your elbows at your side, so that only your forearms move. Curl the weights up until your thumbs are near your shoulders, then lower.
Modification- if you only have one weight, perform the exercise on one side for each round, so you will do 4 rounds on your left side and 4 on your right. You can alternate between rounds.
- Bad Horse Donkey/Zebra Kicks: Position yourself on all fours. Brace your core and keep your balance while lifting your right leg out behind you and up toward the sky. Bring knee toward chest and repeat the cycle with your right leg the number of repetitions. Once finished, then repeat the process with your left leg. For advanced modification, place a weight on the inside of your knee and hold it with your leg muscles while kicking leg up.
- Moist Kick-Throughs: Once again, I tried to play with the motion rather than just what goes with the name. Kick-throughs are no joke. After a few rounds of these puppies, you’ll be sweaty and well, moist… To do them, begin in a high plank position. Your hands should be placed about shoulder-width apart. In one sweeping motion, rotate your body to the left, lifting your left arm off the ground and kick your right leg through. Bring your hand and foot back to high plank position, and repeat on the opposite side.
I hope you enjoyed my small Tabata tribute to Joss Whedon. I do have one more Whedon Workout next week, but just in case you are done with tabatas, this one is a little different. Get ready for Avengers Assemble.