Tag: workout

Snowed In? 3 Workout Ideas for the House Bound

Winter is coming.

Okay okay, it’s HERE. At least in the North East. A lot of people can’t get to the gym. Now you KNOW my first suggestion would be kettlebells, but I know that sadly, not everyone owns kettlebells. BUT YOU SHOULD. (And if you DO, you should do THIS workout if you’re snowed in.)

Dance Like Nobody’s Watching

10f062613dc23aa413ea51e66173ba20They’re not. Don’t worry about it. Maybe close your curtains. Or not. Don’t worry about it. Crank up the tunes that get you pumped and moving and choreograph your own dance routine! Get the blood pumping, your heart beating, your arms moving and your feet stomping! (Unless your downstairs neighbors are sleeping, they may not appreciate that.)

Body Weight Exercises

thor-workout-bodyweight
From neilarey.com

You don’t need a gym to do strength training! All you really need to build strength at home is your floor, and maybe a sturdy chair. There are TONS of resources on the web for these sorts of workouts (here is just one), but if you don’t want to follow anything specific, just work on pushups, planks, dips and squats. I promise if you do enough squats in correct form you’ll feel like you spent all day at the gym.

Yoga

fitness-challenge-tree-pose-juicebar

I tried yoga last spring by doing a 30-day challenge at Yoga with Adriene. Before I tried it, I had a pre-conceived notion that yoga was easy. It is NOT. But it is pretty easy to start. There are great videos out there for beginners, and yoga is a huge help in relieving stress and anxiety. There are even lists of anxiety-relieving poses! Great for staving off that cabin fever.

The point is, get up and get moving. Don’t sit on your butt all day and binge on Netflix. Binge on Netflix and jog in place or do yoga or even pushups! Haha!

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Kettlebell Workouts: Widowmaker Update

grab lifeIn the beginning of November I decided to “splurge” and buy myself a 40-lb kettlebell which I have lovingly named “Widowmaker”. Over the last few weeks, I’ve slowly been adapting my old workouts to phase out my 20-lb kettlebell and use only my 30- and 40-lb bells. This has been slightly more difficult than expected! Below you’ll find a rundown of my workout week:

Monday

Mondays are part of my weekend, so I do The Ladder workout with a few adjustments, which takes about 45 minutes total. Here’s my adjusted workout:

  1. 40-lb Goblet Squats
  2. 40-lb Sumo Deadlifts
  3. 30-lb Clean and Press
  4. 30-lb High Pulls
  5. 30-lb Windmills
  6. 30-lb Halos (Formerly Squat Presses)
  7. 40-lb Around the Worlds
  8. 40-lb Two-Handed Swings
  9. 40-lb Bent Over Row
  10. 40-lb Figure 8’s
  11. 40-lb Around the Body Stalls
  12. 30-lb One-Handed Swings

Tuesday

Abs Day!

Fitness Blender’s Six Pack Burnout

Wednesday

Wednesday I work out with my gym buddy Sharon! We do the AML’s Beginner Kettlebell Workout. Here are the weights I use for each move:

  1.  40-lb Around the Worlds
  2. 30-lb Halos
  3. 40-lb Two-Handed Swings
  4. 30-lb Windmills
  5. 40-lb Goblet Squats
  6. 40-lb Sumo Deadlifts
  7. 40-lb Bent Over Rows
  8. 30-lb Russian Twists
http://thefitnessexercise.com/kettlebell-workouts/
Two-Handed Swings.

Thursday

Abs Day!

Fitness Blender’s Six Pack Burnout

Friday

Friday I’m shorter on time, so I do the very first custom kettlebell workout I ever did, The Circuit, with the adjustments shown here:

  1. 40-lb Two-Handed Swing
  2. 30-lb One-Handed Swings
  3. 30-lb High Elbows
  4. 30-lb Windmills
  5. 30-lb Halos (formerly Squat Presses)
  6. 40-lb Sumo Deadlifts
  7. 30-lb Clean and Press
  8. 40-lb Figure 8’s

As of right now I can only get through 2 out of the 3 rounds while only using the 30- and 40-lb bells, but I’ll build back up to 3 rounds by January I think.

Saturday

Abs Day!

Fitness Blender’s Six Pack Burnout

Streaking

I’m currently working on week 6 of a 6-day-a-week workout habit, and I’m feeling great! Nothing better than a sense of accomplishment that comes with achieving goals, right?

What are you up to work your workouts?

grab life

 

C25K Week 8, Take 2!

Image Courtesy of http://weight.sdghealth.com/couch_to_5k_weight_loss_success_stories.html
Image Courtesy of http://weight.sdghealth.com/couch_to_5k_weight_loss_success_stories.html

I struggled last week. The heat, the lack of air conditioning, my new Intermediate Kettlebell workout and starting sprints and stair runs all added up to a bit of exhaustion, which in turn lead to bad runs! I felt vastly better by midweek last week, and my anxiety has been super low as of late thanks to a sort of internal epiphany, so by Friday night I was ready to join Josh in sprints and stairs at the high school where he works. Josh decided he was going to show off and do pull ups on the monkey bars. You know, the same monkey bars that I cut my hand open on last week.

IMG_20150626_172216768We did six 100-yard sprints between the goalposts of the football field, then did six circuits around the bleachers, seen here:

IMG_20150626_175337558We were still smiling by the end!

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My legs were way less sore this time, and the next morning I did… wait for it…

W8D1 – 28 solid minutes. No issues at all this time around! In fact, I can’t remember much about it other than my average pace was 11:21/min, which was my own personal record!

W8D2 – 28 solid minutes. I hit the ground running. Pun intended. I felt good. Strong. My first mile was mostly downhill. I felt like I was going fast, it was cool, and my breathing felt good. My legs felt good. My earbuds, however, half crapped out about 1/2 a mile in. Only one ear had sound! Boo, but they were dollar store earbuds, so no biggie. The Map My Run app came into my ears and told me I’d run the first mile in 10:32. TEN THIRTY TWO. That’s 49 seconds faster than my previous run’s average. I was actually surprised when C25K told me I’d hit the halfway point. Surprised and happy. The two-mile notification told me that despite feeling like I’d run slower, I’d actually done the second mile in 10:09!!! I don’t know what sort of magic was happening, but I’ll take it. Unfortunately the final leg of my run was entirely uphill on concrete sidewalk, and I had expended so much energy in my speed that I’d gassed myself. Boo. I made it another 3/10 of a mile for a total of 23:59 at an average pace of 10:23, nearly a full minute faster than my previous run. I’m counting this one as done.

W8D3 – 30 solid minutes. It was very cool on this morning but the humidity was 80%, so I was a bit concerned. I wasn’t worried about speed this day, I just wanted to finish the 30 minute run without walking AT ALL. Turns out I shouldn’t have been worried! My pace was a sluggish 11:50/mi, but when the C25K app told me I could start my cooldown, I just shook my head and kept going! I made it 3.02 miles and could have run an entire 5K if I hadn’t quite literally been at my front door!

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I dun gradjeeated!

So what’s next?!

Working on speed. I’m going to continue to do sprints and stairs with Josh for conditioning. I’m going to try to run a sub-11 minute mile over a 5k distance. I’m also going to do a *gasp* mud run, so I guess I need to train some obstacles! (And get myself some old clothes together to wear, and save up for a new pair of running shoes.)

But first, it’s running a 5K on my own, without the stress of other people and the pressure of placing. I almost did it today, so if I can do it consistently over the next month or so, I’ll count that as a success.

Do you have any goals you’re proud of? Let me know!