Category: Workout

This Week: Workouts, Snow Frustration & Things I’m Looking Forward To

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Thank you all so much for your kind words and great suggestions on my 1 year anniversary post. You have no idea how much it means to me… seriously! You guys are the best!! There’s still more time to enter the giveaway, so head on over and enter to win it!

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Good morning! How was your weekend? Mine was ok. Friday night I had a blast getting drinks and apps with my sister and my upstairs neighbor, Lisa. It ended up being an eventful night, but very fun! Saturday was full of fitness and baking since my evening plans got cancelled because of the snow and Sunday was quiet and low key because I was super uncomfortable from a weird skin breakout on top of my Chilblains. Yeah. Wasn’t fun at all.

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I’ve got to say, though, the snow has really been cramping my style and my plans. I love the snow and I love winter, but I hate the stress that it adds: worrying about whether or not classes will be cancelled, worrying about parking, getting disappointed because plans end up being cancelled because of the weather… it’s just getting old! Anyone else feel this way? What’s the thing about winter/snow storms that stresses you out the most or makes you the most upset?

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I subbed a kickboxing class at the Watertown BSC. It was a big group AND no one left… that’s a personal record for me at that gym 😉 Before teaching I did 15 minutes on the elliptical and 10 minutes of abs.
  • Tuesday- I went to the Muscle Mix class at the gym in my building. We used the Reebok core boards which was a fun treat! It was the same sub as last week (who was awkward) and she was still crazy this week. She also kept telling us to “suck in our guts” and to not let them hang over out pants. I found that offensive and just not really appropriate. I understand the point she’s trying to make, but I think she could approach it differently. Thoughts?
  • Wednesday- I ran a quick 3 miles on the treadmill (and changed the incline from 1-5%, which upped the intensity) and then taught UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- The BSC cancelled ALL classes, which has never happened in the time I’ve worked there. Literally. Even in the blizzard last year they didn’t cancel classes. It was such a shocker!! On the one hand, I was happy that I didn’t have to deal with getting there and getting home, but on the other hand I was sad to miss out on my double 😦 I ended up doing 30 minutes of kickboxing and 30 minutes of strength in my apartment. Perfect.
  • Friday- Rest! I did 10 minutes of yoga to stretch out and wished I had 60 minutes to stretch. It felt so good!
  • Saturday- Big day of fitness. I taught kickboxing in the morning (sorry to the front row if my sweat smelled like wine… whoops!), which ended up being a pretty intense cardio class. Later in the day, I went to a blogger event at Flywheel. Boy were my legs beat by the end of that!!
  • Sunday- Rest. I wasn’t planning on resting, but my Chilblains came out in full force from Friday night to Sunday. It’s terrible and I need to go back to the dermatologist. My fingers were so painful it hurt to bend them… and it spread to my toes. I know I could have it much worse, but I was pretty miserable yesterday, to say the least. I cleaned, grocery shopped, food prepped and caught up on blogging instead. Sometimes rest like that is just necessary.

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m not sure what I’ll do today… I might have even gotten my workout in by the time this blog post goes up!
  • Tuesday- If I don’t go to the Muscle Mix class (I have a call right before it so I may not be able to make it), I’ll lift after work probably.
  • Wednesday- Treadmill run and then teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- Teaching SHRED and Kickboxing. At least my workouts are already made 😉
  • Friday- I’d love to get in 30 minutes of at home yoga!
  • Saturday- I have no idea! I’m not teaching and don’t have any other plans. Maybe I’ll go to Recycle studio or BodyPump or Core Fusion. I love open weekend days 🙂
  • Sunday- Again, no idea. Apparently my week is very open in terms of workouts…. I like that!

Things I’m Looking Forward To

Hmmm… I’m looking forward to getting a chance to have flexibility with my workouts this week. Hopefully I’ll be able to try out new classes or workouts. My Valentine’s plans last weekend ended up being cancelled because of the weather, so hopefully they’ll get rescheduled this week. Other than that, I’m feeling really blah. I’m trying not to let this whole Chilblains stuff bother me, but it is. It’s just painful and frustrating and it makes me nervous. I know I could be facing things much worse than I am, but it just seems like I can’t win lately. Literally, I feel like it’s been one thing after another in the past 2 weeks and it’s really starting to get to me. I need to get back to the doctors ASAP, because on top of the Chilblains, I also have some weird bumps all over my body… almost like bug bites. I don’t think I have bed bugs (I looked) and I changed my sheets, but they’re getting worse. My skin hates me and I’m looking forward to the day when it’s back to normal.

So, sorry about my womp womp attitude, but I just don’t like when my body isn’t working correctly. It makes me nervous, but hopefully after seeing the doctor I’ll feel better.

Questions for you: Has the snow interrupted your workout plans? Have you ever been offended by something an instructor has said? What are you looking forward to this week?

 

I <3 This Workout! {Timed Count Down Super Sets)

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You guys. This workout was SO fun. Seriously. I don’t know what it was, but I had a blast teaching this and doing this (well, jumping in and out of sets in between assisting members) and a bunch of members came up to me after to say how much they enjoyed it, which is why I’ve called this the “I ❤ This Workout” workout- perfect for Valentine’s Day, right?!

I’ve come to the realization that my classes like to kind of be on their own, so to speak. Meaning, they like to work at their own pace, but not with 60 second timed intervals; they like to have a set number of reps to workout through of various moves… and they like to be timed while doing it (AMRAPS are always a hit!). I aim to please, and this workout certainly covers the bases 😉

Count down workouts are all over the blog and fitness world (Athena and Jen are two who often post count down workouts), and while I know they are effective, it gets boring (for me) to teach that format: “Ok, 10 lunges. Quick break, 9 lunges. Shake it out. 8 lunges. You got it. 7 lunges….” … you get the point. Well, when I went to Barry’s Bootcamp, the instructor, Emily, had us do count downs, but she gave us a set number of minutes to get from 10 to wherever we could in that set amount of time, so we had the ability to work at our own pace. On top of that, we did super sets, which kept me even more entertained. I knew I had to copy the format in class because my members would love it. So, I did!

I changed up some of the super set exercises and added in 60 seconds of core and a tabata cardio set (2 exercises). We didn’t quite finish all 4 rounds (I skipped 1 tabata round and shortened the last 2 sets to 3 minutes instead of 4), but it was still a great workout.

I heart this workout

Here are some notes/descriptions/links as necessary:

1. Alternating lunges on step: Rather than alternating forward lunges on the ground, step up to the step when you lunge. This creates a deeper lunge. Feel free to use weights here, but if you want to just focus on your lunges without weight, that is fine, too.

For the push-ups, try decline ones if you can (feet on the bench). If that’s too hard, you can do incline push-ups instead!

With the side lunge & center jump, just lunge to the right, push off of that foot and jump in the center with both feet. Do the other side on the next 20 second tabata burst.

2. I think everything is pretty self explanatory!

3. Step up, knee up, bicep curl- step up onto the bench with one foot, bring the other knee up while you perform a bicep curl. Step down and repeat on the other side.

Sit up w/ shoulder press- this was a move I got from Barry’s! Lay on the bench, knees bent with feet on the ground and hold the weights in your hands against your chest. Perform a sit up and when you get to the top, do a shoulder press. Lay back and repeat. I LOVE this move!

4. Side squat & step over bench: stand on the bench, step one leg down and do a squat, step back up onto the bench and step the other leg down into a squat. That’s 1 rep.

Leg lifts & chest fly- I think you’ve seen these on my blog before (got them from Athena!)- lay on your back on the bench and extend feet and arms/weights so that your legs are over your hips and your arms/weights are over your shoulders/chest. As you lower your legs, open your arms and perform a chest fly… then bring everything back up to the top!

Phew! I think that’s it, but if you have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me! I hope you like this 🙂

Questions for you: Do you get bored with count down workouts or do you like them? What’s a workout that always keeps you interested?

Weekending: Recharging the Batteries

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Ahh, it really is amazing how much better I feel after a weekend in Maine. I think it’s a mix of the slower-paced lifestyle and lots of family/friend time that is exactly what I need to recharge my batteries. Here’s a recap!

Friday

After working from home on Friday, my sister and I headed into town to meet up with some friends for cocktail hour at The BackStreet, which is a Friday tradition for my mom and her friends. You really can’t beat the $3 wines during happy hour (unreal)! And I can never get enough Emma snuggles.

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I also got to meet up with Meredith (and later, Tiffany!), which was long over-due and such a nice treat!

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We got home and made pizza with dad- my favorite Friday night activity! Mom poured me wine in a “surprise” glass… really couldn’t have been more fitting for me on Friday!

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Saturday

After a morning workout, my sister and I got our hair cut, ran errands and then met up with the rest of the Shapleigh girls (and Zeke) for lunch at the Springvale Publick House. Their food is amazing, but the company was even better. Zeke is getting so big and his personality is hilarious. It’s so fun to watch little babies grow.

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Saturday night, I volunteered at a fundraising event with my mom. I’ll post more on it later, because I think it’s a great cause, but here’s a sneak peak of what I did… felt so weird to be scooping Shaw’s Ridge Farm ice cream again. That was the best summer job!

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Sunday

We all got up and went to church then grocery shopping, then mom and I headed outside for some winter exercise fun. It felt so nice to be in the sun!

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I left relatively early because I knew I wanted to stop at the Lulu outlet in Kittery. I had no idea there was one until my friend, Meaghan, told me. It.was.amazing!!! The deals were seriously crazy good and it was well worth the trip if you’re looking to replenish your lulu wardrobe. Here’s my loot:

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Super soft fleece hoodie ($54!), new, fun, bright pants ($29), black top ($19) and slim-fitting pullover (this wasn’t crazy cheap, but I loved it and had a gift card!). What do you think?

Unfortunately, my Sunday went downhill once I got home and realized that my apartment was in shambles (had a leak and the plumber was coming back on Monday to finish fixing it) and I was without heat (Nstar had to replace the meters and therefore cut power to my apartment, which somehow killed the thermostat… ). Then I broke my favorite wine glass from a winery in Napa. Womp, womp. Luckly, my new Jack Rogers came in and I had chilled white wine (not because it was in the fridge… because it was refrigerator temp in my apartment)… that made my night better!

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Lastly, this meal really made me feel better.

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I took my dad’s homemade sauce, added a bunch of chopped veggies and ground chicken and topped that over baked kale and veggie pasta. So healthy, so tasty, so comforting. I could eat the sauce as a soup, I think. There’s really nothing better than homemade sauce!

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And, that about sums it up! All in all, it was a great weekend and I am starting this week off much better than I ended it. My mom and I talked about how we are trying to focus on how blessed we are compared to others and how we are both trying to focus on that this year. The fact that we were able to go out the back door and snow shoe/cross country ski was amazing… many people can’t do that because of physical limitations, location limitations, or health issues. It’s so easy to focus and dwell on the negative, but it’s so important to try and turn that around and focus on the positives.

Questions for you: When’s the last time you needed to “recharge” your batteries? What was the best part of your weekend? Have you been to the Lulu outlet? What do you do to cheer yourself up?

This Week: Workouts & Things I’m Looking Forward To

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Happy Monday! I’m happy to say that I am feeling much better after having gone home to Maine for the weekend. After my finger issue (more on that in a minute), I went into the weekend saying that if I didn’t get any formal exercise in that would be totally fine (fitting, after my rest post on Friday, right? Did you check it out? I’d love to get some more people to chime in on what you think about rest days!). Turns out that since my mom and sister had gym plans on Saturday morning before our hair appointment and lunch, it made more sense for me to go with them, so I did. But it’s ok. I felt rested and, honestly, everything that had been bothering me last week just seemed to go away once I got home. I know that probably sounds weird, but it’s the truth. It’s like all I really needed was to get out of dodge and be home. Amazing how that happens.

So, back to that finger issue. To make a really long story short, I have had a few issues with my right ring finger since probably early December. It’s had various things go wrong with it, most recently, lots of swelling, immobility and a nasty open wound. I finally decided to go to the doctors last Monday. Two doctors looked at it and couldn’t figure out what was going on, so they gave me an ointment and told me to come back on Thursday. Thursday came, and I hadn’t seen any improvements to my finger. The doctor asked a dermatologist about it and she determined that she thought it was Chilblains, which is a form of frost bite. Yeah. Not impressed. They gave me a stronger steroid ointment, instructed me to keep my finger elevated to reduce swelling, told me to keep it away from soap and to wear mittens. Great. As of today, it’s still not really better, so I foresee myself going BACK to the dermatologist this week 😦 It’s just annoying because I really can’t move it and therefore it makes working out with weights and teaching kickboxing quite difficult. Ugh. Rant over- thanks for listening reading!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I wasn’t as sore as I thought I was going to be from Barry’s Bootcamp, so I headed to the gym in my office building for a low-impact cardio and core workout. I rarely say this, but my workout SUCKED.  Yup. It wasn’t good and I left there frustrated that I wasted almost an hour of my day. I just did the elliptical and then a short circuit, but felt like I didn’t really exert myself. Oh well. We can’t always have rock star workouts, right?!
  • Tuesday- I went to the Muscle Mix class during the day at my office gym. It was a sub and I wasn’t that impressed with her. First off, she worked out in a sports bra (not appropriate, in my mind, unless you’re teaching Zumba), her form was terrible for planks, and she just said weird stuff. She was pretty jacked, but she was just too out there for me.
  • Wednesday- I ended up getting a sub (thanks Kate!) for UXF Burn because of the weather. I could have figured out a way to trek it there, but I realized it wasn’t really worth the super long commute for an hour class. I ended up doing this workout from Fitnessista with a few additions and some extra core and cardio at the end. I loved the tabata cardio’s!
  • Thursday- Taught my double! I taught a fun format in SHRED that I kind of took from Emily’s class at Barry’s. I created supersets and gave the class 4 minutes per superset to work down from 10 reps of each to as low as they could go in 4 minutes. Then we did 60 seconds of abs and a tabata cardio. I’ll post it for you this week because I loved it!
  • Friday- Rest day at home in Maine 🙂
  • Saturday- Went to a class with my sister, but didn’t love it (wow, my workouts weren’t that great last week, apparently!). The instructor is usually crazy intense, but her class today wasn’t anything special and I didn’t feel like I was working that hard. Oh well.
  • Sunday- I went snow shoeing with my mom in our yard for over 45 minutes!! Well, I snow shoed and she cross country skied behind me. I haven’t snow shoed since last winter and it felt great. It was a beautiful day and I got a much-needed dose of Vitamin D!

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I am subbing kickboxing at the Watertown BSC at 6:30pm- Please come, BSCers!
  • Tuesday- Muscle Mix! I really enjoy getting out of the office and getting my strength workout done during the day (rather than getting up early or doing it after work). Especially in a half hour 😉
  • Wednesday- Probably running before teaching UXF Burn. I missed these guys last week… I may make it harder for them to show them that 😉
  • Thursday- Teaching SHRED and Kickboxing!
  • Friday- Rest
  • Saturday- Big day of fitness for me- teaching kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA and then going to a blogger’s class at Flywheel in the Back Bay. I am REALLY excited!
  • Sunday- Probably another rest day, or maybe yoga.

Things I’m Looking Forward To

Well, I’m really looking forward to all of my apartment problems to go away. I was so relaxed coming back to Boston last night, but as soon as I walked into my apartment and saw how it looked and realized my heat was broken… my stress came right back! I’m also looking forward to making the choice to spend Valentine’s Day with my sister 🙂 I love the holiday, but can do the date-thing on Saturday night… spending Friday with my sister and anyone else who wants to hang with us is exactly what I’m looking forward to! I’m also looking forward to going to a cycling class at Flyweel. After my Recycle experience, I fell in love with indoor cycling, so I can’t wait to experience another studio!

Questions for you: When’s the last time you did something snow-related for a workout? Did you make it to the gym during the snow storm or did you opt for an at-home workout? Have you had an injury that makes it difficult for you to workout?

So… what about those rest days?

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Rest days. Hmm. What a concept, right? If you’ve been reading B2B for a while, I’m sure it’s no shocker that I’m not always very good at rest days. Since I teach so much, on my off days I like to try new workouts and gyms and classes, and sometimes those get in the way of my rest days. And, bottom line, I like to workout! I like to sweat once a day. I like that time where it’s just me and my music or my classes. I like being disconnected from my phone or my computer. It’s just such a big part of my life and daily routine that it feels more weird to NOT plan for a workout than it does to plan for one. BUT! Rest is SO important and since I can often use a reminder to rest, I decided to write this post in case any of you can relate.

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However, since I’ve started teaching, I do honor my body more and rest at least once a week, as well as vary my workout types and intensities throughout the other days of the week. Our bodies can only go at full speed/intensity for so long before we hit a wall. Realizing this and abiding by this is so important for me now because if I get injured or suffer from overuse, then I potentially won’t be able to teach or be as good and as involved in my classes if I can still teach. So, at this time, here’s a general overview of my workouts each week

  • Mondays- Low impact cardio (spinning, cardio machine, etc.) and core
  • Tuesdays- Only strength training (no cardio)
  • Wednesdays- Cardio (usually running) and then teaching UXF Burn where I do about 75-85% of the workout (or less, depending on what I do beforehand and/or how sore I am from the day before)
  • Thursdays- SHRED and then kickboxing, which is a lot!
  • Fridays- Rest because I’m usually beat after my double from Thursday
  • Saturdays- Either cardio (kickboxing) or strength (BodyPump)
  • Sundays- Lately my Sunday’s have been “fun” workouts: yoga, Barre, Core Fusion, etc. which is great because not only is it something new for me, it’s generally lower impact which is always a welcome change for my joints.

So, although it’s a lot (I like to move!), I really try to vary what I’m doing from day to day. There’s absolutely room for improvement, though, because sometimes I feel like I just need a break. Last week, as I mentioned, was one of those weeks. I lost my workout “mojo”, and I can only attribute that to being burned out. Unfortunately, even though I can notice this and understand this about myself, I’m still not very good at CHANGING things. Sure, I can take a rest day after I feel like this and then say I’m going to take it easy, but I just have a really hard time doing that. Once I get going at the gym, I get excited and forget that I should be taking it easy and resting.

…. maybe I should just avoid the gym during those times where I tell myself that I’m going to take it easy… what a thought!

I tried thinking about why I am like this. Why I don’t like going too long without a workout. Why I plan my day around a workout more often than not. Why I have a hard time listening to my body and giving it adequate rest when it needs it.

While I haven’t figure this out entirely, I have come to the conclusion that I’m not afraid missing a workout will make me gain 5lbs. It won’t. I’m not afraid that I will lose all my strength and muscle definition. I won’t. I’m not afraid that my cardio endurance levels will decrease. They won’t. Muscle memory (your heart is a muscle, too!) lasts for much longer than we think it does.

So, what could it be? That’s what I am trying to find out… and it’s not easy! The benefits of rest are so important for us, that it seems like no-brainer to take a rest day or a few rest days, right?

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As the image above so clearly states, rest allows our muscles have a chance to repair themselves from the previous day’s workout, it’s a chance for your muscles to get stronger, it helps eliminate burn-out and over-use and is time for you to have an over all “recharged” battery. One of my favorite bloggers, Gina wrote a “Focus On” post on the importance of rest days and I often go back to that post whenever I need a little reminder about WHY I need to rest.

Someday I’ll get better at it and I’ll be able to rest as much as this little bugger.

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But, I also need help from you and want to hear from you! Does anyone else suffer with giving their body enough rest like I do? How often do you rest? Do you plan it out? Any tips to help me get better at resting? Any ideas for things to do on a rest day during my normal workout time?