Category: Weekly Workouts

Weekly Workouts!

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Hey everyone! Happy Memorial Day! Anyone going to any parades? We usually do, but not this year… bummer! I LOVE parades. Anyway, let’s get to the workouts.

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Besides walking to and from work from the T and walking home from the T (in all, about 2.5 miles), I rested. I was really sore from workouts over the weekend and wanted to make dinner, so I opted to take the time I gained from not working out and be productive around the apartment!
  • Tuesday- I went to the Wellington BSC and had an awesome workout! I went on the elliptical for 30 minutes, ran for 10 minutes on the treadmill, did lots of ab stuff on the TRX bands and did this:

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I ran these stairs- they were killer.

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  • Thursday- I taught SHRED and Kickboxing. In SHRED, rather than compound movements (like I usually like to do- more bang for the buck), I focused on lifting heavier and only focusing on one exercise (squats, biceps curls, etc.). Fun to switch things up!
  • Friday- I played around for about 30 minutes practicing new kickboxing combinations for Saturday, trying out some new moves I learned from Women’s Health and used my band for upper body work.
  • Saturday- Taught a VERY sweaty kickboxing class. I’d show you a picture of my sports bra (signs of a good workout=sports bra soaked), but that would be gross. Athena came, which is always fun!
  • Sunday- Mostly a rest day, although I spent some time in the morning doing glute and ab work!

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I am still home in Maine and will definitely be doing something, just not sure what that is yet. Maybe a jog, maybe Deck of Cards, maybe a strength workout with mom and my sister??
  • Tuesday- I’ll head to the gym after work and probably do something similar to last week: cardio and strength training!
  • Wednesday- Cardio before class and then teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- SHRED and Kickboxing
  • Friday- something low-impact, as I have realized that I need that after teaching (and doing) a double and knowing that I have to teach Kickboxing the next day. I like to use Friday’s to focus on strength training!
  • Saturday- 3rd week in a row of teaching Kickboxing at the YMCA! Woohoo! Such a high energy crowd- I love it.
  • Sunday- Rest 🙂

Questions for you: What was your favorite workout last week? Try anything new? Anything make you really sore? Looking forward to anything this week? Do share!

Weekly Workouts

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Holy Moly! Monday, already?! I had an incredibly busy weekend, but let me tell you was it fun! Before I get to recapping, let’s focus on workouts and getting back on track (even though I am almost positive that today will be a rest day since yesterday was an intense day of workouts!).

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I ran 4.63 miles after I finished work and then spent about 30 minutes doing all sorts of different strength and core work using a band. So fun!

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  • Tuesday- Went to a boot camp class with my favorite instructor. If you think I am tough, you should go to one of her classes. Killer. I love it.

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  • Wednesday- I was pretty sore, so I just did 10 minutes on the elliptical and then taught UXF and did most of the workout with them.

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  • Thursday- Double time! I taught a stations workout in SHRED and then kickboxing.
  • Friday- Rest, besides a 30 minute walk around Somerville, ending at the liquor store to get some wine. Definitely not a coincidence, but it sure was great motivation!

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  • Saturday- Taught Kickboxing at the Y, which included lots of burpees 😉

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  • Sunday- Wellness by the Water Retreat, which included 30 minutes of Boot Camp, Tai Chi, Barre (OMG hardest Barre class I’ve been to) and Pilates and then also a CrossFit WOD (workout of the day) and yoga. Needless to say, it was a tiring, but FUN, day!

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Likely a rest day besides my normal walking commute.
  • Tuesday- Maybe another rest day since I have a photo shoot after work!
  • Wednesday- I was invited to go to a Women’s Health event at Exhale, so I am doing a Core Fusion Cardio class in the morning and then teaching UXF after work.
  • Thursday- Double time! SHRED & Kickboxing
  • Friday- Maybe a Deck of Cards workout? Running? Circuits?
  • Saturday- Teaching Kicboxing at the YMCA
  • Sunday- I’ll be in Maine for Memorial Day weekend so I will probably get my mom to do something with me 🙂

You tell me! What was your hardest workout this past week? Most fun? Anything you’re proud of?

Weekly Workouts

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Good morning, Burpees to Bubbly readers! I had the most wonderful weekend at home up in Maine with my mom and dad (Danielle was on vacation in Atlanta, Savanna and Charleston, so we definitely missed her!) and cannot believe it’s the start of a new week already! I will recap all of the fun things I did in Maine later, but for now, let’s talk about workouts, as that is always my favorite way to get “back on track” after a long weekend away from home.

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I did 35 minutes on the elliptical and about 15 minutes of abs/upper body strength before teaching my last Dynamax class (tears. I loved that class so much, but it didn’t hit the minimum number of participants so they had to cancel it this session).

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  • Wednesday- I ran a 5K on the treadmill before teaching a pretty intense UXF class.

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  • Thursday- I had to get a sub for my SHRED class, but was able to make it to kickboxing. All the extra energy I had from not teaching a class beforehand caused me to teach a really hard class. I loved it!
  • Friday- This was my first COMPLETE (read: no abs, no arms, no yoga, no walking) rest day in far, far too long. I’ll admit, sometimes I forget to take rest days, especially when I don’t teach as much, so this is something I need to be mindful of in the next coming weeks as I will be teaching less classes.
  • Saturday- Two a day Saturday! I went to the Sanford/Springvale YMCA for their 9AM Cardio Cross Training class and 10:15AM Zumba class. Mom joined me for zumba and we had a blast! It was really fun being at a “new” (even though this was my gym for so long) gym for the morning. So many fun toys!

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  • Sunday- I picked an April Arms Challenge Sunday circuit to do and did a couple of Ab Challenge workouts, too. No cardio, though- Saturday was LOTS of cardio!

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- First Monday since September that I am NOT teaching Dynamax (more tears). I’m not sure what I will do tonight, but I am guessing I will probably go running and do some abs/arms.
  • Tuesday- I might go to kickboxing again, might go to another class, might do my own thing using the UXF “play ground” at the Wellington BSC.
  • Wednesday- Cardio and teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- teaching my two-a-day Thursday at the Central Square BSC! SHRED followed by Kickboxing. Can’t wait!
  • Friday- Likely a rest day, with the exception of some abs and arms (bathing suit season is coming!).
  • Saturday- Teaching Kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA- woohoo!! get ready… I may do what I taught last Thursday and you probably won’t like it 😉
  • Sunday- I will be spending the day at the Wellness by the Water Retreat with Athena and Ashley and I cannot wait! A full day of health, fitness and nutrition information and networking and blogging? yeah, pretty perfect day in my eyes!

Questions for you: What was your favorite workout last week? What are you looking forward to this week?

April Arms Challenge Recap

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Hi, hi, hi! How is everyone doing? Now that the April Arms Challenge that my friend Athena lead is over, I thought I would take some time to reflect on how the challenge went! Now, as I mentioned in my birthday post, I am not big on setting goals and doing challenges; in fact, when presented with a challenge, I usually lose interest in what is at hand. I am so internally motivated, that I prefer to do things on my own time, on my own account and when I feel like doing them (selfish, much?), not just because someone is challenging me or because there is a prize at the end (although, don’t get me wrong, I am the biggest sucker for free things). And, I have a fear of not succeeding, or better yet, failing (there, I said it. After Friday’s post, I feel like I can/should share that stuff with you guys). Needless to say, when Athena hosted her January Abs Challenge, my response was “I wish I had time, but with all the teaching I am doing, I don’t want to add another thing to my plate.” Okay, this is partially true- taking on any sort of “challenge” certainly would add more to my already busy schedule, but I could’ve fit that in. No doubt about it.

to do listsource.

This time around, I went for it. Now that I have been teaching for almost a year and have been strength training more consistently throughout that time, I’ve noticed an all around difference in my body, but I knew there could be more. I’ve always wanted those arms. You know what ones I’m talking about: toned, defined, not too stick thin and you can tell they workout. I thought that maybe if I took a month and put extra focus on working out my upper body, I could be closer to having those arms. And, you know what? It did! So much so, that I have decided to not only repeat the April Arms Challenge this month, but I have also started the January Ab Challenge. Bathing suit season is just around the corner so I know I’d love to tone up a bit and my class members probably feel the same way!

Here are some before and afters (not bragging here, just showing that there was a difference and that doing something like this WORKED and was really easy to fit into my normal routine).

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Before & After

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Before & After

And, not just by pictures, but in class when I am teaching, I notice more of a definition in my arms and I LOVE it. Now, I will never have those arms because I think that is really more genetics than working out a lot (some people are naturally graced with better arms or legs or stomach or back, etc. and no matter how much working out you do, if you were not naturally graced with those good features/body parts, they will only look so good. I could be all wrong here, but I really believe this.), but I feel like I have made great progress with the type of definition my body is capable of producing.

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I cannot do justice by trying to explain how organized Athena was throughout this entire challenge, but I will say that I was totally impressed. She created workouts that were short and manageable for even people like me with a crazy teaching schedule, she incorporated a variety of moves that worked our muscles in all sorts of different ways (and, gave me loads of inspiration for my classes!), she showed wonderful modifications so that the workouts could be tailored to fit everyone’s levels and she kept it fun with prizes at the end!

The workouts were designed in the following format:

  • Sunday Circuit- This workout incorporated cardio, upper body and core (usually), so it was easy to make this into a fully body workout if you repeated it 2 or 3 times.
  • Monday- Pushup Pyramids, increasing the number of reps each week (or, she had us to a 1 minute pushup challenge to see how many we could do).
  • Tuesday- Triceps Tuesday! My all-time favorite day.
  • Wednesday- Biceps Blast- A close second for my favorite day.
  • Thursday- Tabata Thursday- I loved to hate this day, as did my classes!
  • Friday- Friday “Fives”- the workouts varied greatly on this day, but they always incorporated 5 different exercises. These were a bit longer and I usually incorporated some cardio intervals between doing rounds of the Friday Five workout to complete my entire workout for the day.
  • Saturday- REST:)

005So, there you have it! I can’t believe how much more I enjoyed the April Arm Challenge than I thought I would. It’s fun to have a plan and it makes it easier some days because you don’t have to think or plan out what you want to do for a workout. If/WHEN ( 😉 ) Athena does another challenge, I highly suggest that you sign up! Athena, thank you for taking the time, energy and knowledge to plan such a fun month of upper body-focused exercises.

Questions for you:Have you ever participated in an online workout challenge? Are you externally motivated (ie: more apt to follow through with something if there is someone pushing you along)? What is your current favorite workout move?

Weekly Workouts

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Hey, friends. Happy Monday! Unlike other weeks, I am actually OK with it being Monday today. For the first time in a really long time I had a weekend with virtually NO plans besides teaching kickboxing on Saturday morning… and boy let me tell you, that couldn’t have come at a more perfect time!

In case you missed my weekend posts (I still have Sunday to post about, but that will be later this week), here they are:

Scenes from Saturday
Run Through Cambridge, Lunch w/Mom & Dad, Gardening, Chicken Parm Burgers

Perfect mix of being productive, but also relaxing and enjoying having no “set” plans. By Sunday night, I was already getting bored, which is a sign that in the grand scheme of things, I’d rather be more busy than less busy, but weekends like this past weekend are great to “re-charge” the batteries.

Anyway, let’s get to the workouts, shall we?

  • Monday- Due to ridiculous amounts of traffic and some errands to run, I only had time for a 2.5 mile run before teaching Dynamax

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  • Tuesday- Tuesday’s are normally my rest days, but since the weather was beautiful, I was in the mood to workout (and, I wanted to have a glass of wine with dinner, so I bribed myself and said if I worked out, I could have a glass of wine!). I did a quickie 30 minute workout and felt great after! I am trying to cut back on cardio with the hopes of curing some pending injuries, so I combined some of Athena’s arm workouts and ab workouts, as well as my own lower body strength exercises to create a nice, sweaty 30 minute workout.
  • Wednesday- I ran 3 miles prior to teaching UXF Burn. Everyone loved the workout, so I’ll be sure to post it!

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  • Thursday- Taught my 3-2-1 Strength, Cardio, Core Workout and Cardio Kickboxing
  • Friday- I woke up and got in a quick 30 minute workout in before work, focusing on upper body and abs
  • Saturday- Taught Cardio Kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA!! 37 people, great music, high energy… awesome start to my day

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  • Sunday- Walked around the SOWA market and then did 30 mins of Athena’s January Ab challenge

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Something on my own and then teaching Dynamax
  • Tuesday- Not sure- might be a rest day, but might do an arms and abs workout similar to last week.
  • Wednesday- Cardio on my own and then teaching UXF Burn
  • Thursday-  I had to get a sub for my SHRED class since I have a conference call that I can’t miss:( I’ll be there to teach Cardio Kickboxing, though!
  • Friday- I’ll be home in Maine!!! I’ll probably do some type of workout at my parent’s house, but, if I take it as a rest day, it might be a good thing! I’ll work my biceps by getting drinks with my mom and her friends after work 😉
  • Saturday- Pending on how I am feeling, I might try to get to the Sanford/Springvale YMCA for a class, otherwise I’ll take it as a rest day
  • Sunday- Probably a nice, long walk with my mom for Mother’s Day

As you can see, this week’s workouts are potentially really light, but that’s OK. My body could surely use a break and since I don’t have to teach from Friday- Sunday, it would be a good time to rest. But, I really do love working out and being active, as does my mom, so I won’t be surprised if I do some light workouts!

Questions for you: What was your favorite workout last week? Do you find yourself needing a break sometimes?