Hello there! Happy Monday 🙂 How was your weekend? Mine was great- quiet Friday night in, fun class Saturday morning, lunch with some of the Shapleigh Girls, sausage making, an OUTDOOR run, and some Sunday night couch time. Can’t really complain about that, right?

As Mondays have always been my fitness-focused blog post day, I thought I’d check in with you today with an update of my workouts lately. I like talking fitness with you guys on Mondays because not only does it help motivate me to get on track for the week, but also because I hope it serves as motivation for YOU and your workouts for the week. With busy schedules, it can be all too easy to replace your workouts with a cocktail hour outing, but I honestly believe if you take the time to schedule your workouts into your busy days, you’re far less likely to skip them… amiright?? So, with that said, let’s talk about what I’ve been doing lately!

As I mentioned before, at the start of 2015 I decided to change up my workouts. I am not teaching as many classes as I have in the past, which means I have more time to play around with my weekly workout schedule and types of workouts. Let me tell you this: I’m LOVING it. I have been having SO MUCH FUN working out this year and have really been enjoying all the variety I’ve added into my workout “program”. Although the month of February did have a lot of shoveling replacing my normal workouts (don’t get me wrong- shoveling is an incredible workout, but it got old week after week!) and at-home workouts replaced gym workouts, I still did my best to stay as active as I could and keep my workouts as interesting as I could.

Workouts I’m Loving Lately

I feel like I go through phases with my favorite workout formats, pieces of equipment, etc. What’s fun about this is it keeps things interesting and it challenges me to come up with different variations of an exercise, format or way to use different pieces of equipment. Here are some things I’m loving lately:

• Kettlebells! I can’t get enough of these lately. I use them for total body workouts, upper body workouts, lower body workouts, cardio blasts… they are such a versatile piece of equipment and I love finding new ways to use them.
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• TRX Suspension Training- This is another piece of equipment that can be used in so many workouts! I often combine TRX and KB’s and love how I can work my entire body just using those two things. I love using the TRX for pull and push exercises, squat jumps, pistol squats & planks.
• Jump Rope- My sister got me an awesome Reebok jump rope for Christmas and it’s been fun working on getting better at it. I have a LONG way to go, but it’s such an awesome cardio blast to add to my workouts and do what I can at this point; practice makes perfect?http://youtu.be/vXuff3p_CNY

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• Pull-ups/Chin-ups- As these were part of my goals for this year, I’ve been trying to do more of them. I’m happy to say that at this point, I can successfully do 3-4 chin-ups and 2-3 pull-ups at any given time. It’s seriously the best feeling to FEEL strong enough to accomplish part of my goal. And, what’s even more amazing is that doing pull-ups/chin-ups feels easier and easier- a true sign that I’m getting stronger. YAY!!!

• Push-ups- Another goal for this year and as I did push-ups after my run yesterday, I could really feel a difference in my strength as I did them. I looked at myself in the mirror doing them the other day and I even looked stronger. Love it!
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• AMRAP and Circuit workouts- If I’m running short on time, I will often do an AMRAP workout because they always challenge me so much! If I have more exercises that I want to include in the workout, I’ll generally do mini circuits, consisting of 3-4 exercises, 10 reps each and repeating each mini circuit 3-4 times. Long gone are my days of just going into the gym and doing 3 sets of bicep curls & tricep extensions. While those are still good exercises, I’ve really moved away from doing them lately. I like the feeling of working my whole body with more functional type of exercises: pull-ups, rows, push-ups, squats, farmers walks, etc.
• Spinning- I’ve made up my mind that I want to get certified to teach spin, which means I need to get better at it. With that said, I’ve been trying to get to more classes!

Workouts I’ve Done

I have so many workouts to post for you still, but here are some workouts I’ve done over the past few months.

Wednesday Workout: Full Body Medicine Ball Workout {warning: it’s a douzy!}
Wednesday Workout: Total Body Step 360 & Resistance Band Workout
Wednesday Workout: 20-10 Triple Threat Workout
Wednesday Workout: The Kitchen Chair Workout {Because I was snowed in…}
Wednesday Workout {Valentine’s Day Edition}: The Love Your Body Workout
Wednesday Workout: 20 Minute Kettlebell AMRAP Workout
Wednesday Workout: KB & TRX Total Body Workout
Total Body Kettlebell Circuit Workout from Athena

Workout Schedule Lately

Guess what? I’m still loving my shorter, more intense workouts! I very rarely go to the gym after work unless I’m teaching and it has been SO NICE to have extra time during the day to come home and cook or blog or run errands after work on my way home. Mondays have been a bit of a wild card lately (I’m subbing tonight, for instance), but Tuesdays and Thursdays I’ve really been good at getting to the gym during my lunch break. While it’s not easy to leave the warm office, get into a cold car, rush through a workout and back to work, I’m always so happy once I’ve done it! Remember: sometimes it may sound so daunting to get to the gym, but I can guarantee you’ll be so much happier when you do!

Things I’m Proud Of

I think the biggest thing I’m proud of with myself over the past couple of months is my mindset towards working out. I no longer feel like I need to go to the gym every day or 6 days a week or to “work off” an indulgent weekend or night or trip. I don’t feel like I need to be at the gym for hours. I don’t feel like I HAVE to get in a good workout day after day.

Sometimes workouts get skipped. Sometimes my workouts suck. Sometimes I don’t want to be at the gym.

But you know what? Most of the time I genuinely WANT to be active and move and see what my body is capable of. Whether that’s through shoveling, skiing, running, lifting, teaching, yoga’ing, etc., the fact that I have the passion to move and be active and the ability to fulfill that passion is such a blessing and I’m so happy that I have a much more loving relationship with my body these days. I very rarely have negative thoughts towards it and it’s such a welcomed change in my mindset, let me tell you!

So, that’s where I’ll leave you today. I hope that if you’re not happy with your workouts or your mindset or find yourself beating yourself up over a missed workout or a bad workout, that you’ll take a step back and figure out a way to change it so that working out is a happy thing for you; a happy part of your day. Because, at the end of it all, what’s the point in doing something that doesn’t make you happy, right? If something you’re doing isn’t working for you, don’t keep at it just because it’s the latest greatest fitness trend out there that “everyone loves”. If you don’t love it, don’t do it! Find something you do love- there are endless possibilities out there 🙂

Questions for you: How have your workouts been lately? What are you loving these days? Have you ever worked out for negative reasons? Have you ever followed a workout trend because it was trending?