Category: Workout

A Fairly Boring Week… And Plans [or lackthereof] For the Weekend

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Hi there! Happy Friday! What’s going on for the weekend? I, surprisingly enough, don’t have anything planned. Can you believe it?! I can’t. I was g-chatting with Athena (per usual), and told how I was stressing about having no plans and that I was worried about getting bored, but she kindly reminded me that there are plenty of things I can do to keep busy, but that I should also embrace an empty weekend! Knowing me, I will fill up my weekend with random things (ie: my “to-do” list will look like this: gym, shower, lunch, go computer shopping, go sneaker shopping, go to the Christmas Tree Shop, buy wine… etc. etc. yes, I put showering on my to-do list. I like crossing things off, so the more I add, the more I can cross off!), but what is nice is that there is nothing I HAVE to do.

Well, besides buy a new computer. For the past year or so, I have been using my work computer as my personal computer, which is probably a big no-no, right? Well, said work computer got the virus of all virus’ last week and I realized how bad it is to not have that computer since it has my iTunes and all my blog settings and everything like that. Since I am taking more pictures and downloading more music (for my blog and for teaching), I should really have my own computer. So, I am going to bite the bullet and do that. Only problem, is that I don’t want to spend a lot of money. Originally, I wanted a Mac, but I don’t NEED one right now. What I need is something super basic just to blog from and download music to. In a few years, once I am hopefully more settled down (Dear God please let that be the case!), I will spend more on something nice, but for now, something to “get by” with is all I need.

Anyway! How has your week been? Mine has been, well, rather boring! This was a week where I had to look through my phone to see if I had any pictures that would help remind me of what I did. I’ll let the pictures do the talking now!

On Tuesday, a college friend, Dan Brown, and I met up to do a photo shoot so I could get some new head shots. Our first location was on Acorn Street, the post popular photographed street in Boston!

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Unfortunately, I don’t have any sneak peeks from the shoot, but from what I saw on his camera, I am going to be very happy with the results! Dan was phenomenal and so knowledgeable. I’ll get you all his contact info when I reveal some photos… can’t wait!

Wednesday was National Running Day… did you run? I was able to sneak in a quick 3 miler before I taught UXF Burn. It was an awesome run.. I wasn’t focusing on the stats on my watch at all, which was a nice change! The weather was beautiful, the scenery was great, and there was great people watching! Win, win, win!

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I ended up doing most of the class on Wednesday, and boy were my legs burning by the end! I love this group:)

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We did lots of fun things like Surfer Burpees and Spider-Man push-ups! (Hi, Becca! Hope you don’t mind these pics on the blog! 🙂 )

After class, we came home (Danielle has been able to come to my Wednesday night classes!) and I watered my garden. Can you believe how much everything as grown already?!

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Zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, broccoli, scallions, tomatoes and green peppers. I cannot wait for fresh veggies all summer long!

While I was showering, Danielle made me this drool-worthy Pita Pizza.

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Right? I mean, how good does that look?! She bought some mini Pita Pockets (80 calories!) last week and they turned out to be the perfect base for a healthified pizza!

And, that’s about it! I have got to get a workout in at some point today, preferably this morning. I am thinking a deck of cards with cardio and abs since I think I am going to go to BodyPump again tomorrow, but we’ll see!

Hope you have a wonderful friday, even though it’s raining 😦

Questions for you: What kind of computer do you have? Did you run for National Running Day? Do you have a garden?

Wednesday Workout: Compound Exercises with CrossFit Cardio

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Hey there! How is your week unfolding so far? My photo shoot was re-scheduled for last night, which was SO fun! We shot on Acorn street and all around Beacon Hill and the Esplanade. More on it later 🙂 Before I get into the workout, I have to vent about what happened on Monday night. If you remember, I was supposed to sub a class at the Wellington BSC on Monday night at 5:30. The class was supposed to be BodyPump, but no BodyPump instructors were available to teach, so the permanent instructor got special approval for a format change so that I could teach the class. I had a great supersets workout all planned out, with only minimal cardio since the class is not used to cardio and I was so excited to finally get to sub at that gym (it’s huge, new, awesome and 5 mins from my apartment).

Well, I got there and had my bench and bar and weights all set up, and I was starting to talk to a few members about the slight format change and then all of a sudden, this lady comes running into the room, still in flip-flops and throws her sneakers on MY bench and runs to the stereo going “few I have 1 minute to spare!”. Clearly, I am very confused and I tried to explain it quietly to her, but she was a very vocal, overly expressionate (I don’t think that’s a word, but I am making it up because it fits well) person who felt the need to make the whole thing a bigger deal than necessary. To make a long story short, she was claiming that she was supposed to sub a 5:30 spin class for Nicole. News flash, lady, there is no 5:30 spin class at this gym on Monday’s and Nicole teaches at Central on Monday’s. Anyway, this lady tells the whole class that she has been teaching for “a million years” and asks then asks them if they wanted Pump or “whatever she is going to teach” (pointing at me). Obviously it made more sense for her to teach the real format of the class, but what bothered me is that she just came in and took it from me! And then kept bringing it up all class and was totally inappropriate (throwing her bar down, picking out and picking on the new people, calling light weights “baby” weights, etc.). ANYWAY. Vent over. Instructors- have you ever experienced something like this? Class goers- have you ever had an instructor like this?!

Ok. Let’s get to the workout. I want to do a recap of the discussion from last week’s post on Compound vs. Isolation Exercises, but I haven’t had a chance to spend time put something together… it will come, though! It’s almost ironic that I am posting today’s workout since I just got over telling you how I am loving isolation exercises more than compound exercises at the moment. What can I say? When I can only pick a few exercises to do in a class, I want them to include as many muscle groups as possible! This workout surely did that.

Compound Exercises and CrossFit cardio

Most of this workout is fairly self-explanatory, but if you have questions, obviously ask in the comments or shoot me an email! Ab Roll-Ups might be new to you as they were new to me… Thank you, Women’s Health 🙂 Here’s the explanation and picture for the move: Ab Roll-Up. This is a super tough move for your legs, as it’s so much harder to go from seated to standing, but only using your legs, than you’d think! Make sure you’re not rolling too far on your back so that you’re crunching the back of your neck; only roll to about your shoulder blades/meaty part of your upper back. These ended up taking much longer than I had anticipated, so for the 2nd round, they did just 12 and 6 of each and the last round was just 6 of each.

I ended the class with low and high mountain climbers (4 high knees, then drop down and do 4 mountain climbers. Again, thank you Women’s Health) for 2 minutes and more ab work.  I liked this workout because it included so many different things and my legs literally felt like jello by the end!

Questions for you: What is your biggest pet peeve about instructors (I won’t be offended!!)? Do you like it when they try to make funny jokes when they aren’t funny? What’s your most favorite “new move” as of late?

Wednesday Workout: Discussion time! Compound vs. Isolation Exercises?

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Hey everyone! I do have a workout for you today, but before I get to that, I want to take a minute to talk about something I’ve been thinking about since my SHRED class last Thursday. Compound Exercises vs. Isolation Exercises. What’s the difference, you might ask? Well, simply put (read: VERY simply), compound exercises or movements work more than one muscle or muscle group at a time and isolation exercises work only one muscle or muscle group at a time. Some of my favorite compound exercises are squats with and overhead press, lunges with biceps curls, deadlifts with a row, whereas isolation exercises would be JUST biceps curls or rows.

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(Compound vs. Isolation)

Since compound exercises generally work both upper and lower body muscles, they burn more calories, which is why I tend to teach those types of exercises in my class; “more bang for the buck,” shall I say. Since I only have an hour to teach, including warm up and cool down, I want my members to get the most out of that hour and keep their heart rates up even when we are not doing cardio.

However, last week I changed things up in my SHRED class and decided to focus on isolation exercises. You may remember this Jump Rope & Strength Circuit Workout” that I did at home about a month ago.

Jump Rope and Strength Circuit

I decided to take the basis of this workout- isolation exercises- and change up the cardio to make it doable in my group ex. class. In order to make this work, I switched the 5 minutes of jump rope to 3 minutes of cardio (3 moves at 60 seconds each), while still keeping the strength portion the same (except I replaced one of the triceps exercises to biceps curls). I encourage my members to go HEAVY on the weights for the strength portion since we were only focusing on one muscle/muscle group rather than spreading our energy throughout our whole body to work more than one muscle group.

Since I have gotten to know a bunch of the members in my classes, I know what they usually lift and it was nice to see them go heavier. As much as I love compound movements, I think that when we do them, we usually have to go a little lighter with the weights, but with isolation movements, we can go heavier since we are only focusing on doing ONE thing. This made me wonder: do we lift BETTER and STRONGER and more EFFICIENTLY when we focus on isolation exercises? What do you think?

Personally, I think I do have a better workout when I only focus on one muscle group. If I am just doing biceps curls, or shoulder presses or lunges, I only have to focus on ONE thing, rather than multiple, so I think I can push through and gain better muscle by doing this. When we are doing timed intervals for compound movements, I think one of the exercises tends to suffer; maybe you don’t squat as low in a squat and OH press, maybe you don’t lunge as deep when you are doing lunges with biceps curls, maybe you’re not lifting as heavy weights when you’re doing squats and overhead presses, etc. Now, I am not saying that compound movements are not wonderful ways to get the best “bang for your buck,” but I think we have to be extra careful to not get “messy”.

I want your opinion, though. What do you think? Do you prefer compound exercises or do you prefer to lift heavier and focus on isolation exercises? Does it differ depending on whether you’re in a class or working out on your own? What’s your favorite exercises for compound and isolation exercises? I’m really interested to see if anyone feels the same way as I do.

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I know I promised you a workout, so here is the running workout I did on Monday when I was in Maine!

run + strength training

I ended up running a 5K (3.1 miles), so I saved the 3rd set of 25 rep exercises for when I finished. And then, to make things even (I like 100 much better than 75!), I did a 4th set of the exercises. I finished with some push-ups into side planks, full burpees and stretching. Stretching with Charlie is not easy…

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So, there you go! Let me know if you try this, and let me know what you think about my recent revolation! Enjoy your day, friends 🙂

Memorial Day Weekend at the Gagnon’s

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Hey everyone! Who else is feeling a little bit of a let down after the long weekend? I was so happy the sun finally decided to come out yesterday, but where was it the rest of the weekend?! Thankfully, we had loads of fun inside and really didn’t notice the gross weather too much. Since my weekend in Maine was filled with so many fun things, let’s get right to recapping them!

Saturday

Danielle and I met mom in Springvale for lunch at the Springvale Publick House (clearly, we love that place). Dad dropped mom off and took Chuck home so he didn’t have to sit around in the crate for any longer than necessary. After lunch, we grabbed Dairy Queen and puttered around Ocean State Job lot and the Dollar Tree and decided to grab margarita’s at Fresco Mexican Grill. Holy Yum! I had the Pineapple Mango Sage infused margarita with dry ice- such a fun afternoon treat!

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After drinks, we came home and got going on our homemade pizza on the grill night! Dad made his homemade dough and we split it into 6 pieces so that we could have lots of mini pizzas. I made a caramalized onion, zucchini and fresh mozzarella cheese and I think it was the best out of all of them!

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We had such a fun night filled with lots of laughs, good food and wine (duh!).

Sunday

Since we were going to 11am mass, we had plenty of time to hang around and relax when we got up on Sunday. And, with rainy/gross weather, being lazy was totally ok. After church, we all went to Lowe’s and Wal-Mart to get plants and whatnot. By the time we got home, I was STARVING and couldn’t wait to dig into the left-over pizza! Late afternoon, before our BBQ, mom, Danielle and I went for a 1/2 hour walk which felt great!

Sunday night, we hosted a Memorial Day BBQ for our close family friends. There ended up being 15 adults and 2 babies! So fun!

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My mom obviously has lots of friends, but she has 2 best friends that she is always with: Jean and Jeanne, aka “The Jeans”. One cannot do something without the other two, so it is no surprise that when the Jean’s went shopping earlier in the weekend, they had to get mom a matching shirt!

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It was an extra special party because Matt and Courtney came and brought their new baby boy, Alexander! What’s really neat, is that they are letting people choose their own nickname for him: Alex, Xander, Al (although, I wouldn’t call him Al since that’s what my dad’s name is and that would be weird).

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And no Maine post is complete without a picture of one of our favorite babies… Emma Jean! She is getting SO big and is so much fun.

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Sara, as you remember, is so very pregnant at this time! She is due on Wednesday and could give at any moment. It was fun to see her with the babies and know that she will have her own so soon! Come on out, Zeke, we want to play!!

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As always, the food was delicious! Asian salad, broccoli-cauliflower salad, pasta salad, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, steak, pork, and so many desserts!

018It was really so fun to see everyone, and even more fun that everyone was referencing Burpees to Bubbly! I love to hear people say “let’s get a pic for Burpees to Bubbly”. Music to my ears:) This pic seemed only fitting since we were most definitely drinking bubbly!

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We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends around all the time! Never a dull moment at the Gagnon’s 😉

Memorial Day

I woke up to a bright, sunny sky and immediately decided that it would be awesome to go for a run! As I was running, I realized how quiet it was compared to the city running that I usually do. No sidewalks, no cars, no people, just my music, the pavement and a sunny sky. I really focused on being present and enjoying the moment, something I should probably do more often!

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I made my run more fun by adding in strength exercises after every mile- I’ll post it later this week!

Here are some pictures of “Shapleigh Corner”… I am from a very small town and this is the “center” of town. A whopping blinking light!

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028Yup, you’d call this Maine, small town living!

The rest of the day was filled with LOTS of planting and gardening with dad and visiting with our cousin, Karen, who is visiting from Michigan. Always nice to visit with family!

And now we are back to the grind! This week got a little busier when I agreed to sub back-to-back classes tonight (Kickboxing followed by SHRED at the South Station BSC).

Questions for you: Best part of your weekend? Did you have or go to a BBQ for Memorial Day? Are you from a big city or small town?

Friday Things! All sorts of random things…

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Hi friends! Happy Friday! and long weekend… the best kind of weekend, right?! What do you have planned this weekend?? Unfortunately, I am not going to Figawi, but now that I have seen the weekend weather, I am not as sad about that decision! I am teaching kickboxing tomorrow morning at the YMCA and then my sister, chuck (aka her cat, Charlie) and I will make the trek north. Our family always hosts the Memorial Day BBQ and our friends, the Mahoney’s, always host the 4th of July BBQ (because they have a pool and pool parties are the best!), so I am looking forward to helping my parents host a little get together!

Unfortunately, I don’t have the day off today, so let’s get right to the post so I can get back to work 😉 (I wrote this on my lunch break, so no worries!)

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On Wednesday, Danielle came to my UXF class and then we met up with Amy at Redbones for some delicious, cheap BBQ… can’t get better than that!

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I got lunch from Bee’s Knees yesterday. Bee’s Knees recently opened up a location in Fort Point directly across the street from the entrance into my building for work. I immediately fell in love with it. Literally, if I could design a store, it would be Bee’s Knees. They have all sorts of weird, quirky, “granola” type items that they sell and as a foodie and health nut, I love it! Oh, and they have a nice wine and beer selection, too- told you it was the perfect store!

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(I got this on sourdough because I learned on Sunday that if you can’t order whole wheat or Ezekiel, order sourdough since it’s much easier for our body to break down)

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I had my butt handed to me when I took a Core Fusion Cardio class at Exhale Spa. Seriously, I despise mountain climbers because I struggle so much with them (my shoulders burn!!) and we did enough for a lifetime. But still, I left that class with a smile! I even took one of the moves and brought it to UXF:

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1-legged walk out push-ups. Love!

Speaking of more moves that I have loved bringing into class this week, I learned this beauty from Celeste at the Wellness By The Water Retreat.

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Run the plank!!! so fun.

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My dad’s emails literally crack me up! What is even more funny, is that he doesn’t comment ON my blog posts, but rather, he sends me an email with his comment. So funny.

023Deep Knee Bends= the new way to refer to squats. Wadda ya think of that?! I love it.

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Speaking of Jess, she just sent out her first newsletter, featuring yours truly! As I have mentioned before, Jess and I have partnered together to create “Mommy’s Moves” which will be a series of short, but effective workouts with busy mom’s in mind. This one is just 7 minutes, including my intro, warm up and cool down, and I don’t care how busy you are, you have 7 minutes to dedicate to your health and fitness! Click on this link to check it out. If there are any new mom’s out there reading my blog that have ideas of what they would like to see in a quick workout, please shoot me an email or leave a suggestion in the comments section!

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Look what arrived on our doorstep this morning!

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My sister and I splurged and purchased Jack Rogers for the summer. I absolutely love the ones I bought, but I think they are a smidge too small:(

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This is why I don’t shop online; I like instant gratification so when I order something and it doesn’t fit, it is REALLY disappointing:(

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Try this circuit 4 times through!

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Ok, one more thing. JP sent me this from http://whatshouldwecallme.tumblr.com/post/51016946731/when-i-take-on-too-many-things-at-once. Hahaha totally me!

Phew! I think that is it? If you’re around for kickboxing tomorrow morning, please come! It will be the best way to kick off your long holiday weekend 🙂

Questions for you: What’s the best thing you’ve done or seen this week? Do you own Jack Rogers? Are you a fan of online shopping? Ever been to Bee’s Knees or Redbones?