Category: Workout

Wednesday Workout: My favorite fitness blogs

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I have a super fun “Wednesday Workout” post for you in the makes, but I ran out of time over the weekend, got home much later than planned on Monday and left for North Carolina on Tuesday, so, in other words, I didn’t have a chance to finish it. Womp, womp.

Now that I have time to go to the gym on my own, I’ve noticed that tend to use workouts that fellow bloggers post, or take pieces of their workouts and make a bit of a mash-up workout to do. Since I find these blogs helpful for providing motivation to get to the gym (and workouts to do when you get to the gym), I thought I’d share them with you in case you’re in a workout “rut” and need inspiration.

Fitness and Feta
It should be no surprise that Athena’s blog should be at the top for my favorite fitness blogs. Members always say how the two of us teach very similar classes, and since I have gone to a number of Athena’s classes (back when I lived in Brighton, I went to her 6am Thursday class at the Y religiously) and have done a number of the workouts she’s posted on Fitness and Feta (most recently, her 10-12-15 workout), I can agree that we do have a very similar teaching style! Her workouts are tough, full body and she always keeps the format changing, which helps me when it’s time for me to make my workouts since I tend to get into “fitness ruts” and need reminders for ways to change up a workout. On top of this, Athena has created a number of online fitness “challenges” that helps bring her readers together and push us out of our comfort zone. If you haven’t tried one, I highly suggest it!

Nutcase In Point
Right behind Athena, is Jen’s blog. Jen was also an Oak Square class groupie like I was; we were always in the same classes, always in the front, and usually sweating more than everyone else (sorry, Jen… I take pride in my sweat production! Haha). Anyway, she subbed for some of Athena’s classes and was always a sub that I didn’t mind, because she taught very similarly to Athena. Now that she lives in Canada, we don’t get to workout together (wish we did, though!!), but I do love reading her blog because she always throws in moves that are either completely new to me, or, are moves I haven’t done in forever and completely forgot about. Oh, and did I mention she bakes amazing looking treats and that she used to do a Winesday Wednesday series that I think she should bring back… hint, hint 😉

Fitnessista
Fitnessista was one of the first healthy living blogs I started reading, and I’ve been and avid follower ever since. Gina’s posts range in topics from workouts to her job as a fitness instructor to cute stories about her little daughter and to delicious looking recipes, to name a few. One of my favorite post series are her “Focus On” posts where she picks a trending workout (her latest was Focus On: Buti Fitness which looks incredibly… interesting, to say the least) and gives background about the workout in addition to pros and cons of it. If she isn’t familiar with a particular trending workout, she will have a reader or friend write a guest post on the topic. Another thing I enjoy about her blog is the fact that she reminds us all about the things we should all remember and follow, but rarely (in my case, at least) do, such as resting, changing up the intensity of the workouts, listening to your body, etc.

PB Fingers
Julie’s blog was another blog that I started reading a number of years ago (before she became a full time blogger) and have enjoyed thoroughly throughout those years. Recently, Julie became a fitness instructor and I’ve enjoyed reading about the various classes she has started to teach, as well as all of the functional workouts that she posts. Julie’s workouts tend to be shorter and simpler in format, but sometimes seeing those workouts are just what I need to remember that every workout doesn’t have to have some crazy format or advanced moves to be effective; as long as you’re getting your heart rate up, working hard and sweating, that counts as a workout in my book!

Day With KT
Kim has been a reader and follower of Burpees to Bubbly for a while now (thank you, thank you, thank you!) and when I went over to her site, I realized she’s as big of a fitness nut as I am! She’s also doing the Daily 44 this year in honor of her being 44. The “Daily 44” is something she created to stay healthy and active (which started with her Daily 43 after her 43rd birthday), so each day she picks an exercise and does 44 reps of it. The exercises and format of how she gets to 44 vary from day to day, but I had a blast reading through all of the different exercises she has chosen thus far and can absolutely see myself doing something like this for a milestone birthday (maybe my 30th, which is much closer than I’d like to admit!).

I could go on and on, but these are my top 5 favorite fitness blogs where I get most of my inspiration for workouts.
Questions for you: What’s your favorite fitness blog? Any new ones that I should add to my list?

Wednesday Workout: 30 Minute Total Body Strength Workout

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Hey there! As I mentioned on Monday, I accidentally had a really intense strength workout after work on Tuesday. I went into the day not sure if I would get a chance to workout, or if I had the chance, not sure if I would WANT to workout, but once I got to the gym, I realized I was totally focused and feeling a good workout.

I warmed up with 5 minutes on the rower (I hate rowing, but it’s a really great way to fully warm up your body) before doing the following workout. I was literally in and out of the gym in 30 minutes, including the warm up, so if you have access to weights & a stability ball (not necessary, but it was a big part of what made this workout great) there’s really no excuse not to do this 🙂

30 minute total body strength

I don’t have access to a stability ball often, but every time I do, I remember how much I love using one. Make sure you have the ball against a wall when you do tricep dips, though, I almost had a party foul there 😉 Also, thanks to Athena’s Fall into Fitness challenge, I was reminded of how great lunge/knee lift/hops are for burning out the glute and getting your heart rate up.

Here are some links to the moves in case you’re not familiar with them:

Stability Ball Preacher Curl
Stability Ball Tricep Dips
Stability Ball V-Sit

I’m not sure if it’s because I increased my weights, worked out mindfully and totally focused on each exercise or something else, but this workout left me beat and quite sore the next day.

Questions for you: What’s your favorite gym “tool”? If you could only pick one piece of equipment to workout with, what would it be?

Weekly Workouts: Tough workouts, being sore & putting myself first

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Hi, friends! I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was very relaxing compared to last weekend, but I’ll catch you up on that later. For now, let’s talk workouts, like we do every Monday morning. I use this as a way to reflect on my workouts from the previous week, look ahead to what I want to accomplish this week and hopefully motivate all of you to think about your workouts and to make a plan.

Last week, I had some awesome workouts. I was supposed to rest more than I did, but since the weather was back to summer-like temps, I had to take advantage of the warm evenings and the fact that there was still daylight after work, so I went on some runs. I also had some intense lifting workouts, which left me veryyyy sore (nothing like rolling over on a Sunday morning being completely sore from BodyPump!).

On top of that, I did something I never do: I said “no”. And, you know what? It felt pretty good. It was just one of those days where I really needed MY OWN workout. Teaching is amazing and I love it, and when I first started, I thought teaching would still be MY workout, but I quickly realized that it’s not my workout at all; I am there for my members and ensuring that THEY have a great workout. So, when I was teaching a crazy amount of classes, I noticed how much my own workouts started to slack and it really bothered me. Now that I don’t teach as much, I focus on making my “off” days from teaching for me and it’s done wonders for my fitness levels!

And, rant over… let’s get to the workouts!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I said last week that I was going to rest on Monday, but the weather was great and I found out I was going to dinner with coworkers on Tuesday after work so I wanted to make sure to get my planned Tuesday workout in on Monday since I had more time. I ran 4 miles and it was awesome! But, on the way back I felt like I was racing the sunset.

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  • Tuesday- I ended up having a lot of time after work until dinner, so I headed up to the gym in my building and had a surprisingly good and strong strength session. I think I’ll post the workout for you soon because it left me pleasantly sore! I also did my Fall Into Fitness challenge; I had forgotten how much I love lunge & knee lift jumps!

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  • Wednesday- After saying no to subbing the class before mine, I went for a 3 mile run along the Charles. The views never get old and there’s really no better way to clear your head! Since I was so sore from my Tuesday strength session, I didn’t do much of the class with my members when I taught UXF Burn. It was a great class, though. That class loves to work hard

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  • Thursday- I felt back to my normal self on Thursday so I did all of SHRED and Kickboxing with my classes. I taught a timed circuit, Tabata cardio and Tabata abs class, thanks to a suggestion from Athena. My members loved this format, so I am definitely doing it again!
  • Friday- I did the glute press and hydrant for the Fall into Fitness challenge and walked .75 miles to the bar and back, but besides that, I rested.
  • Saturday- I warmed up with 20 minutes on the elliptical before going to BodyPump. My glutes were still sore from Thursday, so I went lighter on the leg tracks, but pushed myself with the upper body tracks. I’ve gotten stronger lately and I love it.
  • Sunday- Rest, besides walking around the mall. I was sore and since my workouts had been strong and intense all week, I thought rest was best!

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I will probably run after work and then do some ab work.
  • Tuesday- Less cardio and more strength focus.
  • Wednesday- Cardio before teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- Teaching SHRED and Kickboxing, probably using the same format in SHRED this week as I did last week.
  • Friday- Rest, besides my Fall into Fitness move of the day.
  • Saturday- Teaching Kickboxing at the YMCA.
  • Sunday- I think I am going to Maine this weekend so I will try to do something there, maybe even with my mom!

Questions for you: Are you participating in Athena’s Fall into Fitness challenge? What’s a new fitness goal you have? Instructor friends, do you feel you need to work out in addition to teaching since when you teach you’re more focused on your members’ workouts?

I said “no”

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Yup. I said “no”. As someone who always says yes (or tries to always say yes), this was a big accomplishment. Let me explain:

On Wednesday, I got an email from the instructor who teaches the 5:30 Cardio Conditioning saying she was really sick and asking if I could sub. Normally, I am more than willing to help and am really lucky that my job has the flexibility that allows me to leave early when I need/want to, but for some reason on Wednesday, it was the LAST thing I wanted to do. I was having a rough couple of days and was really looking forward to going for a run before teaching so I could clear my head. Plus, I was REALLY sore from my workout on Tuesday and didn’t want to do any lifting, which I would have done had I subbed.

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I literally hemmed and hawed for a  long time before finally saying “no”. And even after I said no, I was second guessing my response and feeling awful that I said no because technically I could have subbed.  I just didn’t want to teach a double on Wednesday and a double on Thursday. I didn’t want to.

And you know what? It all worked out OK. I’m not doomed with automatic bad karma or getting a bad name at the gym because I said no. I doubt anyone is even thinking about it anymore. Big thanks to Athena for confirming that I did the right thing and even saying she was proud of me for saying no 🙂

So the point of this post is: it’s ok to say no, it’s ok to put yourself and your needs/wants in front of others, it’s ok to not do things because you feel like you have to, it’s ok to not do everything and to try to make everyone happy. It’s ok. (if I keep telling myself this, I’m hoping it will be easier to do these things!)

Questions for you: When’s the last time you said “no”? Are you someone who always tries to make everyone happy and put others’ needs in front of yours?

On a side note… I said no 2 times on Wednesday; apparently I was on a roll! It was 7:10 and my class was 20 minutes from being over and a girl walks in, puts her stuff down and starts to get her weights, without so much of blinking an eye to the fact everyone was sweaty and looking like they were quite far into the workout. Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: “oh, I’m sorry, Zumba starts at 7:30.”

Her: “I know, it’s ok I’ll just join this class”.

Me: “Well the workout is more than half done and you’re not warmed up so it would not be very safe for you to join now”.

Her: “I ran here. I’m 9 minutes late, I can’t believe you won’t let me join.”

Me (as nicely as I could): “Actually the class started at 6:30 so you’re almost 40 minutes late and we are on the last bit of class, so it’s really not safe for you to join. I’m sorry.”

Girl storms out.  Fitness instructors, what would you have done? I just wouldn’t feel comfortable having her join the class 40 minutes late! Not to mention it was an incredibly distracting 3 minutes for the class and for me.

Wednesday Workout: Upper Body Tabata Workout

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As I’ve mentioned in a few posts lately, on days that I don’t have to teach, I’ve been focusing on upper body strength training- and really enjoying it! Up until the past 6 months or so (or, I guess once I started getting into teaching strength classes), I definitely categorized myself as a cardio junkie. Cardio, cardio, cardio. Machine cardio, running, kickboxing, Zumba- I literally couldn’t get enough of it. Now that I am focusing more on incorporating strength workouts into my schedule, I’m realizing how important it is to train evenly- meaning incorporate strength days, cardio days, HIIT days, lighter days, etc. throughout the week to avoid overuse and injury. I like the way my body looks so much more now that I have been lifting fairly regularly- strong is the new sexy, right?!

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Anyway! I threw together this upper body Tabata workout to do at the gym after work one day a few weeks ago and it literally left me sore for a few days. I think it’s because I really focused on lifting heavy for the 20 second “work” periods, which is the whole point of Tabata training, right? Balls to the wall for 20 seconds (for a lack of better words), because you know you have 10 seconds of rest coming up. I really urged people in my classes to go heavy and kept giving them hints and reminders like “if you’re not feeling tired yet, you should increase your weight.” and “If your muscles aren’t feeling the burn at this point- go heavier! Make this worth your time.” to ensure that they were getting the most out of the workout. When I taught this in class, I added in lower body Tabata sets and cardio and abs, but I thought for the purposes of the blog, I thought I’d share just the upper body part in case anyone else is like me and craving upper body training.

Quick note about Tabata training: the “real” or traditional Tabata workout is doing just 1 exercise for the entire 8 sets (or 4 minutes), but there are many different variations of Tabata workouts, which is what this is. I chose 2 exercises per Tabata set, but I kept them within the same muscle group for the most part to make it a little more like a traditional Tabata set, while still keeping it more interesting for my members.

Upper Body Tabata Workout

My members always cringe at crab walks, but I swear they are one of the best tricep workouts you can do!

If you have any questions about any of these moves, just shoot me a comment or email and I can link you to helpful videos. Remember- go heavy (while still being safe and lifting with proper form- never sacrifice form to lift a heavier weight. Work your way up to it!) and challenge your muscles here- make them tired!

Questions for you: Do you prefer to train your upper or lower body? Are you a cardio junkie or do you prefer strength training?

Ps for all of you who are participating in Athena’s Fall into Fitness Challenge, don’t forget to do your “move of the day”! I think this is such a fun challenge because for me, I like being reminded of exercises that I may have forgotten 😉