Category: Workout

#BosFIT Review/Recap & Other Weekending Things

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As I mentioned yesterday, the #BosFIT event I attended over the weekend was amazing!!! I kind of knew it would be, because anytime you combine fitness, friends and free stuff, I’m a pretty happy girl, but I have to say that it exceeded my expectations.

Since I knew I had to be up and out relatively early for a Saturday, my Friday night was spent much like this:

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Saturday morning, my sister and I headed to The Club by George Foreman III for the #BosFIT event.

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My gym friend (and most loyal class-goer everrr) Dana won my tickets since Julie ended up buying her own. Another BSC member, Caroline, also bought tickets, so it was fun to workout WITH some members rather than teaching them. My YMCA gym-friend, Steph, was also at the event, so it was a blast!

The event offered 4 classes to everyone and you could pick from Bags and Beats, Boxing Bootcamp, BollyX, Suspension Training, Core Fusion Barre, Barry’s Bootcamp, and Turnstyle Cycle. I think the hardest part of the day was deciding what class to take at what point in the day… ok, that’s a lie. Barry’s for the last session was the hardest part of my day!

My first class was Bags and Beats. George introduced himself and gave us a high level overview of the punches. What I liked about this class was that you were punching to the beat of the music, very similar to how I teach, except it wasn’t cardio like I do. Anyway- we had our hands wrapped and wore boxing gloves and got to it for a bunch of songs. The combos were easy to pick up and I liked that we altered our tempo and added in squats, lunges, push-ups and planks throughout.

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Steph and I tried to do Barry’s next, but it was already full. From there, we tried to do a suspension class, but that was also full (I think if they do it again they should have people sign up for classes before the event rather than on a “first come first serve” basis). We ended up taking a BollyX class, which is similar to Zumba in that it’s a dancing workout, but different in that you’re supposed to “strike a pose” at the end of each song. It was a little weird, but my heart rate was up the whole time and it was fun to dance.

There was a break after this where you could “ask the experts” questions on nutrition and training and things like that. Caroline did a fantastic job moderating the panel- proud of you, girl!

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My sister and I headed to a Turnstyle Cycle class after the speaking session and it.was.awesome!! We were both drenched by the time we left. I really need to get there for a class.

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Steph signed us up for Barry’s as our last workout of the day. Holy moly. I don’t know how I survived! Running at a 12% incline and running backwards and sprinting after 3 other classes was rough, BUT we did it and felt amazing after!!

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Check out this calorie burn for the day- solid start to my Saturday 😉

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All in all, it was such a fantastic event! I loved working out with so many friends and getting to see Caroline in her element.

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Thanks to some pretty sweet swag bags, I get to go BACK to many of the studios who participated in the event.

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Post #BosFIT, I headed to Charlestown to have a late lunch and drinks with Jessi and Amy at Pier 6. Man, it was HOT, but the view was worth it!

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Jessi and I continued to drink throughout the afternoon and evening (her place, Tia’s and then dinner and a glass of wine at Sterling’s) and between that, the sun and being dehydrated from the morning’s workout, I woke up with a wee bit of a headache on Sunday. Whoops! Such a fun night, though.

Sunday was spent cleaning, running errands, grabbing a quick lunch with my sister and then heading to Jessi’s for our first book club meeting.

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Check out that spread! I made 2 Stromboli’s and they came out SO GOOD! Seriously, look at these beauties:

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Anything with ooey, gooey, cheesy goodness cannot be bad in my book! The next book we are reading is Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn- anyone want to participate? If you do, leave a note in the comments. We are meeting on November 2nd and after that date I can put together the questions and discussion topics we went over if you’re interested? Let me know 🙂

I hope you all had a great weekend, too! I hope this one goes by slower than last weekend- I feel like I blinked and it was over.

Questions for you: For those of you who went to #BosFIT, what did you think?? What was your favorite part? Has anyone else been to The Club for a boxing class? What was the best part of your weekend? Did you do fall or summer things? Have you been in a book club before?

 

 

This Week: Workouts, toning it down & things I’m looking forward to

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Good morning and happy Monday! I think I’m still recovering from the weekend… Saturday and night ended up being a little too fun 😉 Before I get into the workouts, I wanted to say THANK YOU for all your kind words after my post last week where I talked about my workout addiction. It’s never easy being honest about that kind of stuff, but I really feel like I’m on a better track now. I noticed last week that I didn’t have the feeling like I normally do about working out as much and as hard as I can. It was a weird feeling to be more relaxed about my workouts and to understand that taking it down a notch won’t make me lose all of the hard work I’ve done, but in fact, it will likely aid in making those gains better. Giving my body rest will allow me to feel rested and energized during my workouts on non-rest days. I know it will take some time to get used to it, but my goal is to give myself TWO rest days a week. Sure, I can go for a walk or do some light yoga, but I want to be able to let my body relax and rest and hopefully have fewer injuries.

So, with that said, let’s talk about the workouts I did do!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- My knee was feeling better, but I still wanted to take it easy. I went to the gym and did 40 minutes of cardio followed by some upper body and core work. I also did push-ups and stability ball crunches throughout the day.

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  • Tuesday- Tuesday was the first intense workout I did in almost a week! I taught my bootcamp and holy moly I was sore for 3 days. To say we did a lot of lunges is an understatement 😉
  • Wednesday- I did 15 minutes on the elliptical before teaching UXF Burn. I didn’t do much of the workout because I was so sore from Tuesday.
  • Thursday- I decided to give running a try. I ended up doing 4 miles at a moderate pace. I went out with the mentality that I would just see how it felt and only go as far as I could while still feeling ok. The 4 miles flew by and I felt great. No pain during or after! And, look at these little 5 week old snuggle bugs that I met… I died a little.

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  • Friday- Rest, besides a 30 minute walk during lunch
  • Saturday- I had a pretty intense day of workouts thanks to the #BosFIT event. I’ll share more on that later, but I did 30 minutes of “Bags and Beats”, 30 minutes of BollyX, 30 minutes of spinning and 30 minutes of Barry’s Bootcamp. Yikes! It was awesome!

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  • Sunday- Another rest day! I wasn’t sore from Saturday, which was kind of surprising, but I knew I had worked my body pretty hard so I gave myself rest.

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I taught my 6am Muscle Work class and did some light cardio after.
  • Tuesday- Teaching my bootcamp
  • Wednesday- Maybe a run or some other cardio before teaching UXF Burn
  • Thursday- Not sure. I’d like to get to a class maybe?
  • Friday- I would love to get in a workout during lunch. RM and I are getting massages after work so I feel like working out before that is a good idea because they can massage my tight muscles.
  • Saturday & Sunday- These may be my rest days this week. RM and I are celebrating our 1 year first date anniversary (can’t believe it’s been that long!) and are supposed to go to the Cape early on Saturday so I think I’ll rest.

Things I’m Looking Forward To

I’m SO looking forward to spending the weekend with RM. Because of our schedules, we haven’t spent a weekend together since my dad’s birthday in mid-August. I miss our weekends together and this one is even more special since we are celebrating our anniversary.

Questions for you: How many rest days do you take a week? What was the best workout you had last week? What are you looking forward to this week?

Dealing With Injuries & Modifying My Workouts

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Good morning and happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend and feel rested and ready for the week.

So, last week I had to deal with something I HATE dealing with: injuries. I know most people probably don’t like them, but I have a really hard time dealing with and accepting them; I often keep pushing myself and ultimately making things worse… when will I ever learn?!

You may remember me mentioning last week that I tweaked my knee while at the driving range, but that after some ibuprofen and taking it “easy” at the gym and in my class, I felt totally fine. Fine enough to move heavy things up and down 2 flights of stairs all weekend, run 3.5 miles and teach kickboxing. On top of that, Monday morning started off early with my Muscle  Mix class, Tuesday night my bootcamp and Wednesday a 30 minute outdoor run before teaching UXF Burn.

I know, I know. You’re probably shaking your heads at me going “you dummy. Of course you got injured. That’s a recipe for disaster and you haven’t taken a rest day in going on 2 weeks!”. And, you’re totally right for thinking that. All of those workouts and moving finally caught up with me and I woke up on Thursday morning with so much pain in the same knee I tweaked the week before.

Luckily, Thursday was a planned rest day for me anyway, and with some ibuprofen and ice, I woke up on Friday feeling better than I did on Thursday. However, I made a pact with myself that I would take it easy all weekend.

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Again, I know what you’re probably thinking: “Wow, Monique. You gave yourself a 4 day break. Whoop-dee-freaking-do”. But guys, taking it down a BIG notch for 4 days is so hard for me. My body is used to moving (actively) every day, so telling it to slow down for 4 consecutive days is a huge challenge for me.

But, I gave myself {multiple} pep talks and worked hard to convince myself that taking a little break wasn’t the end of the world, and certainly didn’t mean I was going to lose all of my strength, cardiovascular health and gain 5lbs (I know, I’m so dramatic).

The craziest part about all this is I’m SO GOOD at giving this advice to others. I’m so good at telling people to rest and listen to their bodies and that we all have muscle memory and we’ll bounce back faster than we think. Why can’t I be SO GOOD at giving-and taking- this advice for myself? Will I ever learn, or will I forget all about this until the next time I am faced with another injury (remember the post I wrote about rest days? I haven’t listened to that much lately…) ? It’s so frustrating that I am so bad at listening to myself and my body and that I am so addicted to the feeling during and after a good workout. Don’t get me wrong- it’s great to have a passion and a healthy passion, but when does it get to the point of being unhealthy. An injury? A different set back? When will I get to the point where I see the signs BEFORE things get too far. Before a healthy thing turns into an unhealthy, injury prone obsession?

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So, although all of that is hard to admit, it’s true, and injuries are an eye opener for me. I’m happy to say that I did rest for 4 days (with the exception of short walks) and plan on taking it easy with my workouts this week. I don’t need to be beating my body into the ground every day like I generally do. If I want to have a lifetime of physical activity, I need to take care of my body now and not wear it down.

Phew. how’s that for a heavy Monday post. Thanks for listening, though. It always feels good to get this stuff out- I hope some of you can give me good advice and if you’re dealing with the same thing as me, I’m hoping you can find relief in the fact you’re not alone.

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m not teaching today so my plan after work is to go to the gym and do some light, steady state cardio (I just want to sweat!!) and some upper body and core work. I’m going to take it easy with squats and lunges this week.
  • Tuesday- It’s the first week of my second bootcamp session and I’m SO excited. A bunch of people from my office have expressed interest, so it could be a decent size crowd!
  • Wednesday- Teaching UXF Burn at 6:30 in Central Square. Before class I may do some steady state cardio or lifting. I’ll see how I feel.
  • Thursday- Not sure! Maybe my own workout, maybe a class, maybe a walk. I’m going to see how I feel.
  • Friday- Probably a rest day.
  • Saturday- I’m supposed to be teaching my cardio kickboxing class at the Oak Square YMCA, but I was invited to attend #BosFIT, an AWESOME fitness event hosted by Bostinno, so I’m trying to get a sub for my class. Check back here on Wednesday for a chance to attend the event for free!
  • Sunday- After the classes I’m planning to take on Saturday, Sunday will be my second rest day of the week

Questions for you: What was the best workout you had last week? What’s the last injury you’ve had? How do you deal with injuries? Any good advice to share?

Weekending: Moving, moving & more moving

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Yup. Moving was the jist of my weekend starting on Thursday night. I keep telling everyone that moving to a new floor in the same building is just as hard, if not harder, than moving to an entirely new building! Instead of packing things up and doing a few big trips, I ended up not packing and just making a million trips up and down the stairs every time I needed something. It was a bad way to go about the move, let me tell you that!

After a few hours of strenuous moving on Thursday night, I had a glass of wine then treated my helpers to pizza and wine from Santarpio’s.

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#prioritiespeople Clearly wine is the first thing that should be in a fridge. Booze helps moving suck less 😉

I hadn’t been to Santarpio’s since my birthday weekend, and boy was I craving it! Per usual, Santarpio’s did not disappoint. Look at these bad boys!

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My parents came down on Friday to help my sister with her stuff (she’s moving in with me for a few months), so I rushed home after work to join the party. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked in and saw this beautiful bouquet of flowers from RM. For those of you who don’t know, he’s actually my landlord and that’s how we met 🙂 Last year, when I was just his tenant, he knew I was nervous about moving and surprised me with a bottle of wine and little note in my fridge. This year, as my boyfriend, he left flowers… I’m a lucky girl!

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I took a quick break for dinner (we ordered from Jeveli’s) and continued working until 8:30.. yuck! It was fun having my parents around, though. Dad broke in my new deck, I toasted to the new apartment and we all indulged on delicious food!

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I didn’t sleep a wink on Friday night, so I was up and making trips up and down the stairs at 7am on Saturday. This wasn’t a good idea before teaching cardio kickboxing! I was such a space cadet in class 😦 and tired- physically really tired!

Once I got back, it was nice to do some more organizing and a few additional trips. My downstairs neighbor, Lauren, came up for wine and snacks later that evening- it was such a fun night! It felt weird to sleep at home by myself on a Saturday night, though… and even more weird to wake up on a Sunday and have a quiet place to myself… I took advantage of it and watched tv and blogged. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve done that! I was even able to eat lunch out on my deck- such a beautiful day.

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The rest of Sunday was spent moving the final pieces of stuff from my old place, cleaning it and doing the last bit of organizing in my new place. I went to Target and picked up some new curtains and a lamp- what do you think of the place so far?

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I finally decided it was time to put together some dinner. Salads have been making me gag lately, so I knew I needed to prep enough food to bring for lunch and eat throughout the week. Since my dad brought me all these veggies, I tried to put them to good use.

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I made a big ol’ batch of roasted veggies, including carrots, parsnips and onions from my dads garden and sweet potato and butternut squash (side note: I originally typed SQUAT instead of squash… i have issues) from the store. I just put coconut oil, salt, pepper and garlic salt on them and roasted them at 400* for about an hour.

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On the side, I made some stuffed peppers with the peppers that my dad gave me. I put onions, summer squash, zucchini, broccoli, black beans and ground chicken in them. SO good!

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I made some ground chicken burgers with the leftover ground chicken. Thank goodness I had wine to keep me going through all that food prep!

So, there’s my weekend. I have to say- it was really nice being around on Sunday without a million plans. My sister was gone all day, so even though I got lonely by 7ish, it was a super relaxing day where I was able to do what I wanted when I wanted. I need more days like that 🙂

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Did you make any good meals? Do you food prep for the week? What’s a way to spice up a salad?

Wednesday Workout: 20 Minute Bootcamp HIIT Workout

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Good morning! Did you guys enjoy my second round of Cardio Kickboxing Combinations that I shared with you last week? It was fun to do! If you have any other suggestions for posts, don’t hesitate to let me know because I like knowing I’m writing about something people want to read.

Today I’m sharing a piece of the bootcamp workout I taught last week which successfully kicked all of our butts! HIIT workouts will do that to you, though. In case you’re new to the term, HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training and HIIT workouts are generally a bout of cardio or “work” period (lasting anywhere from 15-60 seconds, usually) followed by a short bout of rest (10-30 seconds). The point is that you work hard for a set amount of time, knowing you will have a set of time to rest after your work period. You get to catch your breath, bring your heart rate down then bring it right back up- a sure way for max calorie burn!

In this workout, you’ll work for 45 seconds and rest for 15 seconds. I have 20 exercises, ranging from cardio to core to legs to upper body, so you’ll feel like you’re getting a full body workout. If you’re feeling up to it, repeat the circuit once more!

Bootcamp HIIT Workout

Here’s an explanation for some of the exercises:

-Trunk Swing (from Shape April 2014)- Sit with feet extended in front of you, hands by your hips with your finger tips pointing towards your toes. Lift your hips up, bringing yourself into a reverse table top position (press those hips up!), then lower your hips and bring yourself back to the starting position, but don’t let your butt touch the ground! You’ll be holding yourself a few inches from the ground by pressing your palms into the ground. Holy tricep burn!

-Line Jump (from Shape April 2014)- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, bend knees and jump forward (pretending to jump over a line), landing on just 1 foot. Bend forward from the hips and touch a hand to the ground. Hop back to starting position and repeat landing on the other foot.

-Plank Jumps- In a high plank position, jump both feet up to your right hand, jump them back to a high plank, jump them up to your left hand. Repeat for entire 45 seconds. Too difficult? Step them up to your hands instead of jumping them.

-Plank with Knee Drops- In a low plank, alternate dropping your knees to the ground. More advanced? Do both at the same time.

-Walking Planks Right and Left- In a high plank position, move 3 steps to the right and 3 to the left.

-Squat Jump with Heel Clicks- Instead of doing just a regular squat jump, click your heels together when you jump up.

If you have any other questions about the exercises listed above, please don’t hesitate to contact me! This workout left me huffing and puffing- I hope it does the same for you!

Questions for you: Do you like HIIT workouts? If so, what’s your favorite one? Do you like 30 second, 45 second or 60 second intervals?