Do you want to feel sexy? Try the 3S workout.

Step 1) be Smart. Work out doing moves that are targeted for your goals. You’re a roller derby skater (or official!), so you want strong legs, a strong core, and great cardio.

Step 2) be Strong. Don’t just chug along doing low-intensity cardio (jogging or biking flat terrain, at a consistent pace),  spend some time building your muscles up too! Don’t get me wrong, that steady-state cardio work can be great to build up your aerobic base and endurance, but working out at a higher intensity for short periods, using weight-bearing exercise as a mechanism to raise your heart rate will catapult your cardio AND make your muscles look super toned and fierce.

Step 3) do it in the Sun. Nothing like a hit of Vitamin D (especially up here in the northern latitudes) to make you feel like a million bucks.

Here’s this week’s workout:

Equipment: a mat (optional). A timer (optional).

Routine:  Do 3 rounds of the following:

20 Squat Jumps

10 Spiderman Pushups

20 Sumo Squat Jumps

20 Flying Planks

20 Bicycles

If you time yourself, don’t rush the movements, especially flying planks and bicycles – form is WAY more important than speed here.

A note about my own attempt at this workout… As you’ll hear in the video, despite being a beautiful day and everything being pretty much fantastic in life, I had a pretty crappy workout. I felt exhausted, everything felt way harder than it should, my legs felt like jell-o, and I basically couldn’t WAIT for it to be over. I have been off skates for a bit with a hamstring injury, and on this day, reality (that cruel bitch) paid me a visit and told me just how far my fitness has dropped in a few short weeks.

There were several moments when I came close to throwing in the towel. I thought, “you know, I don’t need to go through this whole thing – I can just do parts of each set and edit them together, and no one out there will know that I cheated my way through this workout.” (Because, in case you were wondering, I DO always do the entire workout that I put together for you when I film it!). I was working very hard at mentally defeating myself, telling myself I wasn’t going to be able to finish!

Each time those thoughts came to mind, however, I found some tiny shred of resolve that kept me going, even if I had to take a quick break and put all my energy into squashing those self-defeating voices. I told myself that if I quit early today, that would only prolong the journey back to my normal fitness level. If I keep pushing today, through the muck and the self-defeating voices, then I’ll be just that much stronger for my next workout, and a little bit stronger after that…

When I finally finished, a bit dejected but glad at least that I hadn’t given up, I went over to stop the camera and… well, it had given up a long time ago. Dead battery. Oh, the irony!

When a workout, or a practice, or life in general seems to be getting the best of you, what’s your secret trick to pull yourself up by your own skate laces and turn it around? How do you get back up when life seems to be smacking you down? Leave a comment below and let me know your tips to crush that self-defeat.

In the meantime – be Smart, Strong AND Sexy… in the Sun. Okay, that’s four S’s.