Category: Workout

I Went To A Class! That I Wasn’t Teaching! (And, a UXF Inspired Workout)

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Happy Wednesday! Two posts in one day… how do you feel about that?!

So, last night, I did something I haven’t done in a long, long, LONG time. I went to the gym. For a class. That I wasn’t teaching! Can you believe it? Back before I started teaching, I would go to the Wellington BSC 6 or 7 times a week for classes and for my own workouts. On Tuesday’s, I would go to Mary Beth’s Kickboxing IT class at 6:30. For those of you who have been reading for a while, you know that Tuesdays used to be my go-to rest days since I was teaching Mondays and then Wednesday-Saturday. Now that I don’t teach on Friday’s anymore and am only teaching every other Saturday, it gives me the option to workout on Tuesdays if I want, which is kind of fun… and also why I went to the gym last night. It was SO good to see all of my instructor friends at that gym… boy have I missed it!

006Although Mary Beth’s class is quite different than how I teach, it was really nice being able to workout for ME. I didn’t have to worry about sounding like I was sucking air as I was giving cues and pointers in my mic, I didn’t have to worry about watching everyone and checking form, I didn’t have to worry about remembering the next move. As much as I LOVE teaching, last night was a reminder that I need to get back into the gym to TAKE classes, because I really love that, too.

Post workout, I went home, watered my flowers and made a quick and easy dinner, using leftovers from Sunday’s Cinco de Mayo meal.

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(from Instagram. Are you following me yet?)

All I did was take the leftover “chili” mixture (it thickened up in the fridge) and put it in a honey wheat tortilla (Fiber One- love them!), added some cheese and grilled it up. Quick, easy, delicious.

Workout

Ok, let’s get to that workout that I promised you, ok? As most of you probably know, I teach a UXF Burn class for the Boston Sports Club once a week. As much as I love the workouts, I get bored quickly and need to change-up the format sometimes. While the basis of the workout is consistent with the “Keep It Moving” format, I changed it up in that we kept the 60 second time intervals for the strength portions throughout the whole workout (instead of dropping them down to 45 seconds, 30 seconds, and then 2 tabata rounds).

In the Keep It Moving, the workout is set up in the following format:

1. Lower body

2. Upper body- pull

3. Core

4. Compound Movement- RIGHT

5. Compound Movement- LEFT

6. Upper- push

7. Compound Movement- both right and left together

8. Core

90 Seconds of Cardio

Although, I kept the moves somewhat consistent with how the format is laid out above, I did change it a bit in that I used moves that were not on “the list”… tisk, tisk, I know!

UXF Inspired workout

I had a really hard time trying to explain moves for #’s 3 and 4, so refer to THIS post for a better description, but it sort of looks like this:

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If you have any other questions, please let me know! A couple of members told me that they really liked the exercises I chose for this workout, so try it out and let me know what you think!

Questions for you: Instructor friends- think it’s easier or harder to take a class vs. teach it? Do you like leftovers? Ever taken a UXF Burn class?

Also! Check in tomorrow for a special recap of the April Arms Challenge I participated in last month:)

Cardio, Strength & Core Circuits… Wednesday Workout Time!

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Happy hump day, Burpees to Bubbly readers! How is your week going so far? Mine started off a bit rocky, and for no real reason, either. Monday just kind of sucked! Traffic, bad drivers, low class numbers, post-weekend depression. Anyone else ever feel like that on a Monday?

Anyway, I thought you might be in the need for a new workout today to spice up your weekely workouts. Yes? No? Maybe you can at least take a couple of moves or the general theme of the workout and put your own moves in to make the workout more fit for your level. Regardless, I’m going to share it with you:)

Cardio, strength & core circuitsI did this workout in a couple of different classes over the past couple of weeks and it was killer! In class, for circuit 2, we used the bench for cardio, so I changed up the moves in the above workout to be doable without a bench.

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Squat & OH Press

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Dokey Kicks- they love to hate me when I make them do these:)

As the notes say, you can do just circuit 1, just circuit 2, circuit 1 followed by circuit 2, OR do 2 rounds of each. Whatever you do, make sure you don’t forget the “meat” part of the circuit sandwich: burpees and push-ups!! My favorite;)

If you have any other questions on the moves/exercises and how to modify (whether that would be making it more challenging or less challenging), please let me know… I am more than happy to help!

Questions for you: What is the move you love to hate the most?! (burpees, for me… but I really don’t hate them at all!) What is your all time favorite exercise? All time LEAST favorite exercise?

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Weekly Workouts

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Is it really Monday already?! Sometimes I feel like I am more ready for Monday to come around than others, but today is definitely not one of those times. Between hosting Sara’s shower all day on Saturday, going out a little on Saturday night and going to my friend Christy’s surprise bridal shower yesterday, my weekend was a whirlwind and I feel like I didn’t get any down time (not that I am good with that anyway, but still). Don’t get me wrong, I had an absolute blast at all the events that I went to and I am definitely not complaining, but I could certainly use another day in my weekend, that’s all!

Let’s get to the workouts, shall we?

Last Week’s Workouts:

  • Monday- Hotel workout in NY and taught Dynamax
  • Tuesday- I took this as a total rest day, aren’t you proud?! I didn’t even do a lot of walking since I drove to work and I skipped out on the Triceps Tuesday April Arms Challenge workout. Since I was gone all weekend, I felt like I had too much other stuff to catch up on (laundry, picking up, organizing, cooking, blogging), so my workout took a back seat, and that’s totally fine!
  • Wednesday– Since I skipped my AAC workout on Tuesday and couldn’t figure out a good way to incorporate Wednesday’s workout into my class, I decided to do both of them before I taught. It.Was.Awesome. I ran 1.5 miles on the treadmill and then got busy with tri’s and bi’s and abs.

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  • Thursday- Ran through Cambridge like a crazy bag lady, taught TBC (Supersets) and Kickboxing

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  • Friday- Got up and did the burpee tabata from Thursday’s AAC workout and the Friday workout from AAC before work. It felt so good to be done my workout for the day by 8am!
  • Saturday- Got up and ran 1.5 miles and then did 2 circuits of the Sunday AAC workout (wanted to rest on Sunday and not Saturday) and did some extra core work.
  • Sunday- Walked 2 miles with Danielle and then gardened for about a half hour.

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- My own cardio & teaching Dynamax. It’s the first day of the new session and I am so excited!!
  • Tuesday- This might be a rest day, but if I can wake up and do something before work, I’ll do that.
  • Wednesday- Cardio and/or biceps blast before teaching UXF
  • Thursday- TBC (which, I recently learned is now called Shred or something. Not sure how I feel about that!) & Cardio Kickboxing
  • Friday- I might do a Deck of Cards workout before work, run during my lunch break, or go play in the UXF area at the Wellington BSC after work is over.
  • Saturday- Teaching Kickboxing at the YMCA. It’s been a few weeks and I’ve missed it! Can’t wait to remind them about what they’ve missed 😉 [insert evil laugh here]
  • Sunday- Rest! and gardening. I really want to get everything planted this weekend.

Your turn! What was your favorite workout last week? Any new moves or exercises to share?

Friday Catch-Up: Lots of different pictures!

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TGIF! This week flew by for me, but I think that is because I had Monday off. Whatever the case, I’ll take it! While I was looking through my pictures on the train ride home from the gym (no service=try to do whatever I can to keep myself busy, aka looking through my pictures), I realized that I took pictures of all sorts of things this week! So, grab a cup of coffee (or glass of wine), relax and bear with me as this post is long could go all sorts of different ways!

Eats

I planned ahead on Tuesday night and packed myself a nice, little, deconstructed taco lunch for Wednesday. I was able to eat outside, which made lunch even more enjoyable!

042Spanish rice, beans, corn, chicken, yellow peppers, onions, salsa and cheese. Perfection.

I put this together while I was making a Spaghetti Squash Casserole (recipe to come- SO good). It’s always the best time for me to get a healthy lunch together when I am already cooking in the kitchen. Since it was really cold on Tuesday, I was happy to have these babies to keep my toes warm:

039I got these for my birthday and totally made fun of them, but I’ll be honest, I kinda love them now!

Here’s a little teaser for the recipe I will post soon

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Exercises

I caught up on my April Arms Challenge workouts that I missed from Tuesday and needed to do on Wednesday.

005Wednesday’s workout was preacher curls and plank holds and I decided to do the plank holds on the stability ball. Wow! It’s amazing what a simple change up to an ordinary “staple” move can do… my core has been SO tight ever since. Love that:)

Taught a great double on Thursday, even though it was quite the whirlwind in trying to get there.

010I look somewhat put together here, but let me tell you, I was the definition of a hott mess when I first entered the gym. Let me break it down for you…

  1. I left work at my normal time on Thursdays (4:30) to have enough time to walk to the T (about 5 minutes), get on a T, go the 5 stops to Central Square and get there by 5ish (usually).
  2. I was all excited when I walked down the stairs and saw a T waiting for me- awesome! It’s the best when that happens.
  3. My first thoughts: Why the heck is it so freaking hot on this train? Don’t they have air conditioning? Why aren’t we moving yet?
  4. Turns out, there was a medical emergency and we had to stand by. I thought of walking to another T stop, but I realized that if my train wasn’t moving, no other ones were moving. Great. It’s was now 5pm.
  5. I decided to try and get a cab. The traffic in the city was miserably bad and there were no cabs. Even better.
  6. I finally got a cab and said “please take me to central square as FAST as you can”. Luckily, I had an awesome cab driver who drove so crazy, but there was still the problem of incredible masses of traffic.
  7. I realized that if I made it on time, I wouldn’t have enough time to change AND be on time… that left me with no other choice but to change into my gym clothes IN the cab. Let me tell you, putting on tight Lulu in a small space and sweating while you’re doing it is not easy. Just sayin’.
  8. I called the gym and said I was going to be late, but it didn’t look like I’d be that late- awesome!
  9. We got onto Mass. Ave and the traffic was back and there were flashing lights ahead. I realized that I was close enough where I could run and still make it on time. Mind you, I had 3 bags on me- they call me the Bag Lady at work.
  10. I paid the $24 for the cab, got out and SPRINTED (well, as fast as I could with multiple, heavy bags on me) to the gym and made it only 1 minute late. How’s THAT for a crazy race to the gym?!

012I can’t tell you how happy I was when I walked through the door of my apartment tonight. I have a serious love/hate relationship with PT, that’s for darn sure.

Other random pictures from my phone

Snuggles with Charlie

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Coffee in my favorite mug

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Spring is definitely in the air

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I won a giveaway!

My good friend, Rachel, hosted a giveaway last week and I was so, SO hoping I’d win since I LOVE jojo jewelry. Check out Rachel’s blog post for all the details, but let me show you what I picked!

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015Rachel got us beautiful diamond blings for her wedding and I wear them ALL the time. All of the Shapleigh girls were also in Sara’s wedding, and she got us a pair of bling earrings from jojo, too. I chose to get gold metal since the other 2 pair I have are silver. I’m absolutely in love with the pair that I chose! Definitely go on over to her site and check out all the bling she has to offer. You won’t regret it:)

Oh, and when I was perusing the Bling, I stumbled upon the jojo Kitsch hair ties and decided to get a package, too. Whoops!

016Well, I think that about sums it up! Thanks for sticking with me if you made it this far:)

Your turn: What’s the best part of your week so far? Any crazy things happen to you? Do you have any jojo earrings or jewelry?

Jump Rope & Strength Circuit Workout

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Hey everyone! Remember that workout that I mentioned a few times? I did it last Tuesday morning before my parents came for more birthday celebrations and it left me pleasantly sweaty and even a little shaky- I call that a win-win (side note, when I went to type “win” I accidentally typed “wine”. Not really a surprise, but glad I caught it!) in my book.

Anyway! What I loved about this workout was that it can be done pretty much anywhere and with or without weights. I used weights because I had them and wanted to intensify the workout, but it’s not necessary! Also, if you don’t have a jump rope, don’t feel comfortable using one, or don’t want to jump, you can swap out the 5 minute jump rope intervals for cardio intervals of your choice.

Jump Rope and Strength CircuitThe workout sandwiches strength training in between bursts of cardio, so it’s similar to a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout since your heart rate goes up when you’re doing the cardio and then comes down a bit (but really, not that much. I was still working hard during the strength portions!) during the strength. As always, make sure you do a proper warm up and cool down before and after you attempt this workout!

Ideas for the cardio intervals:

  • Tabata style- 20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest
  • Interval style- 30 or 45 seconds on, 10-15 seconds rest. Or, maybe 60 seconds on, 10 seconds rest.
  • Switch up the direction- for one interval you could do jump roping in the forward direction and for the next you could do it in the backwards direction (this was so hard for me!)
  • Change up your tempo or speed
  • Try doing it hopping only on one foot and then the other

Ways to modify the strength moves if you don’t have weights:

  • Lower body strength moves: Don’t use weights. Simple as that:)
  • Upper body strength moves: Replace the triceps OH extensions and kickbacks with triceps dips and/or triceps push-ups and/or triceps plank hold. For the wide grip rows, simply clench your fists tight and go through the same motions as if you had weights. You’ll be surprised at how well this still works the muscles!
  • Core- Perform the side dips without weights.
  • Jump Rope- as I stated earlier, you can do this without the jump rope, you can march in place, you can jump on a cardio machine, do jumping jacks, etc. Pick something that is challenging for YOU, but is also something that will not hurt you.

I think that about covers it! Let me know if you try it- I’d love to hear about what types of intervals you chose for the cardio sections.

Questions for you:What’s your favorite cardio workout these days? I’m currently obsessed with jump roping!