Tag: Rest days

Five on Friday {3.27.16}

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Good morning! TGIF, right?! I’ve felt like this week has DRAGGED on, which I can only attribute to teaching late on Tuesday, which isn’t something I tend to do. Oh, and just feeling really off this week. I feel like I’ve been fighting something for a few weeks now, and finally this week I took a day to just rest… which brings me to my first Five on Friday topic…

  • Taking time to rest- If you know me, you know I’m not good at resting. Whether it’s resting from the gym or resting from work or anything else, I’m not good at it. I have one speed: fast- I’m always going-going-going, and while I can sustain that for a while, there always comes a time where I’ve just had enough. All the signs were there, too: I wasn’t recover as quickly from my workouts, I felt achy, irritable, tired, yet not able to sleep well, diet was off, throat started to hurt. Basically, my body is telling me to SLOW THE EFFFF DOWN! So, yesterday I took a day for me. I felt so crappy as Wednesday wore on and pushed it too much in the class I taught so by the time I got home I was pretty miserable. I NEVER call in sick, but I did that yesterday morning and ended up sleeping soundly until after 9am, which also NEVER happens. I spent the day resting, hydrating, reading and blogging and it was glorious. Being go-go-go isn’t a bad thing, but it’s also so important to pump the breaks every once and a while and just do nothing. I needed that!

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  • Lent– For my fellow Catholics out there, today is Good Friday, meaning Lent is coming to an end. In years past I would give something up, but over the past few years I’ve started adding something instead. I added 10 minutes of meditation a few years ago and last year I did a daily gratitude journal, which was a nice way to appreciate all of the positive things in my life. This year, I planned to do the same but lost steam about halfway through. For a second I felt like I failed, but then I remembered that it isn’t about passing or failing. It was just something that wasn’t working for me right now- and that’s ok! I have been good about not eating meat on Fridays, so I’ll focus on that instead 😉
  • New glasses- I finally got a pair of glasses that I really like! I ordered a pair originally that I thought I liked, but when I got them home, I decided they were just not what I wanted. Luckily LensCrafters has a 30 day satisfaction guarantee so I went back and got these bad boys. While they are similar to my Ray Bans in the fact that they are plastic, they have a different shape and color so it makes them still seem new and fun.

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  • Wedding registry gifts– My bridal shower invites went out last week and it’s been so fun checking our registry to see things get checked off the list! AND, we received our first gift the other morning, which was a super fun surprise. Thanks to my SMC girls, we now have a wine fridge and I’m SO excited about it!
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  • Meal Delivery Services- I mentioned earlier this week how I am a brand ambassador for Just Add Cooking and although I plan on recapping everything for you next week, I have to share with you now that I am SO impressed with the company and the meals we’ve received and cooked so far. It has made cooking and dinner FUN by spicing up our normal meals. Stay tuned for some discounts I’m sharing next week.

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And that does it for me! I’m hoping that by the time I wake up today I feel much better and more like myself. As for weekend plans, I’m teaching tomorrow morning and then we are heading to my sister’s apartment for an early Easter celebration with my family. We will head to RM’s mother’s house for Easter dinner with them on Sunday.

What are you guys up to this weekend? Are you celebrating Easter? Do you give anything up for Lent? How has your week been? Do you ever just take time to rest or take a mental health day?

Thoughts on my “unplanned” rest day

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Good morning! I mentioned yesterday that I took an “unplanned” rest day last week, so I thought I’d share a little more about that with you today. I’ve talked about rest days in the past, and even though I feel as though I’ve made leaps and bounds towards improvement in this area, it can still be something I struggle with. These days, it’s not the actual REST that troubles me- trust me, I love and fully embrace my “rest days” now- but rather, it’s the need to take an unplanned rest day that really tests my progress in this area.

When I plan out my week of workouts (I don’t share this with you guys anymore because I wasn’t sure if it was boring you- if you’re interested in seeing what my weekly workouts look like, please let me know!), I also plan out my rest days. I look at what I have going on and when I think  I want to workout and rest and it usually works out quite well. Normally Fridays and Sundays are my rest days, but sometimes it’s Saturday and Sunday or maybe Friday and Saturday or sometimes just one day depending on what events I have going on for that particular week. Last week, though, I ended up taking a rest day on Thursday, totally unplanned.

Let’s back up a little, though. I started the week of strong with my workouts- on Monday, I got up and ran 4 miles (8:10/mile pace) and then did the first day of the #20x20challenge workout (forgot about it!) and then did a photo-shoot, which required lots of moving and holding and re-takes for various moves. I felt good throughout the day, but by the time I finally got home to eat (8:30pm), I felt unreasonably tired, but I chalked it up to a big, long day with lots of physical activity. Tuesday I woke up feeling good, again, and had another strong lunch break workout and ended up having to cancel bootcamp, meaning my day was cut short- awesome! Wednesday I went for a fast 3.5 mile run before class (8/mile pace) before teaching my UXF Burn class, which is a standard Wednesday for me, however I really had to work hard to keep my energy up throughout class, so I knew something was up.

That night, I could tell something was going on because I just didn’t feel right. I didn’t sleep well that night so by the time I woke up on Thursday, I was tired and sore and overall really lethargic feeling.

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This Week: Workouts, Making the Mental Shift & Things I’m Looking Forward To

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Good morning! How are you doing today? I hope you had a great weekend. Some of you may have seen my Instagram post at the end of last week:

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I have never experienced what I experienced last week, but I can tell you it wasn’t very fun. Looking back, it’s likely from pushing myself too hard and too far, but I struggle because if I feel ok and want to work out, how do I know that I’ve pushed it too far until something happens? In the past, I’ve struggled with rest days… more than I’d like to admit. But, over the past few months, I’ve been much better at not only TAKING 2 every week, but also ENJOYING it. I look forward to my rest days now, actually.

But last week, 4 unplanned rest days really threw me for a loop. I didn’t want to rest on Thursday. I wanted to go to a class and I wanted to rest on Friday. I wanted to race on Saturday and rest on Sunday. Unfortunately, my body had other plans for me, and even though I knew I needed to listen to my body, it was hard to not have negative thoughts about the extra rest and not being able to do anything. I hate that I still think that way when things don’t go as planned. It’s definitely my Type A personality showing throw- I hate not being in control and going off plan. But the thing is, plans don’t always work out and sometimes our bodies just have a different plan for us.

I know that I won’t lose any physical gains I’ve made by taking extra rest days, but making the mental shift to get rid of negative thoughts during unplanned rest days is hard! I’ve mastered it for the rest days I plan (I feel zero regret and I don’t miss my workouts at all), but when something throws a kink in that plan, that’s when I struggle.

I received some great feedback from some followers and every single message made me feel so much better. There’s just something so nice and comforting to hear advice from fellow friends who workout and can likely relate to how I was feeling. So, thank you, friends- your words meant so much to me!! And you know what? I really ended up enjoying the extra rest and had way fewer negative thoughts about it than I thought I would. Rather, I tried to soak it up and appreciate the slower paced life for a few days.

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Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I taught my 6am Muscle Work class and then did 10 minutes on the stair stepper.
  • Tuesday- I went home after work and did something I haven’t done in a LONG time: I did an at-home workout! When I was at MANIA, I won a Step 360 so I decided to go home and test it out. The verdict? I LOVE it! It’s probably one of my new favorite workout tools. I’ll post the workout I did because it can be adapted to using a step (like I did in UXF Burn last week) or a BOSU even if you don’t have a Step 360.

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  • Wednesday- I ran a 5K before teaching UXF Burn.

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  • Thursday & Friday-  Rest  days, as mentioned above.
  • Saturday- I got up and felt much better, so I did some stretching and light core work to start my day.
  • Sunday- I went for a 30 minute walk around East Boston. I had been inside for too long and realized I really needed to get some fresh air so I laced up and headed out. It was chilly, but it felt great.

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m not sure my plan today. I may head to the YMCA for a workout after work.
  • Tuesday- I may try to go to Cara’s Tabata Treadmill class at Beantown Bootcamp, but if I don’t, I’ll maybe go to my favorite bootcamp at the Wellington BSC. I’ll see how I’m feeling, I guess!
  • Wednesday- I will probably do some light cardio before teaching UXF Burn. It’s our last class before the holiday so I need to make it good 😉
  • Thursday- Hopefully I’ll be able to go to the cardio kickboxing class I wasn’t able to go to last week.
  • Friday- Rest day
  • Saturday- I’m teaching cardio kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA
  • Sunday- Rest

Things I’m Looking Forward To

I think what I’m looking forward to the most is going home to Maine this weekend with RM. We are going to head up after I teach on Saturday and will stop in Kennebunkport for lunch and some shopping before going to my parents for the night. I can’t wait to cook and drink wine and just hang out. I’ll be back home next week for Thanksgiving, but I’m never mad about extra time up there!

Questions for you: How do you feel about weeks with more rest days in them than you’re used to? What was the best workout you had last week? What are you looking forward to this week?

This Week: Workouts, loving my rest days & things I’m looking forward to

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Good morning and happy Monday! How about the weather this weekend?! It was a very welcomed change after a super rainy week last week, that’s for sure.

My gym friends and I got together on Friday night (more on that later!) and we were all talking about our crazy schedules and our workouts and teaching and all those things that we all have in common. I mentioned that I’ve been better about resting for at least 2 days each week and someone said she noticed that and was proud of me. I’m starting to get to the point where I’m LOVING my rest days and I really look forward to them. At first, I’ll admit- it was hard. I wanted to be working out and I felt guilty when I had a day where I didn’t do it. Looking back, I hate that about myself… but- I love that I’ve been able to get through that and have learned to really cherish my time off from the gym or any type of workout. Last Thursday, for instance, I planned to have a rest day from the gym. The fact that I didn’t need to pack up for the gym was an awesome feeling. And, during my normal after work gym time, I was able to run a bunch of errands and start prepping for the party I had on Saturday. With crazy busy weeks, it’s nice to let my workout time fall off my plate so that I can do other things.

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I went for a 3.5 mile run after work on Monday. I also did some weights and core work when I got back to my apartment. I’m trying to take advantage of the weather while it lasts and take my workouts outside.
  • Tuesday- I subbed a double at the South Station BSC. It was cardio kickboxing and then UXF Burn. I know I’ve said this before, but when I sub a double, I’m quickly reminded at how great my decision was to drop my double over the summer. They’re so tiring!

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  • Wednesday- I did the cross trainer for 25 minutes before teaching UXF Burn.

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  • Thursday- Rest day
  • Friday- I went to the gym during lunch and ran for 10 minutes before completing a shortened version of the workout I taught on Wednesday- it was killer.

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  • Saturday- I taught my cardio kickboxing class at the Oak Square YMCA. The fall crowds are back and I love it!! We worked super hard and I was crazy sore on Sunday. What do you think of my new shirt? Super deal at Lulu.

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  • Sunday- Rest day #2

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I will have taught my 6am Muscle Mix class by the time this post goes up.
  • Tuesday- I’m not sure. I might go to the bootcamp class at the Wellington BSC that I went to a few weeks ago.
  • Wednesday- I will probably run before UXF Burn. It’s supposed to be like 70 something degrees out so hopefully I can run outside!
  • Thursday & Friday- One of these days will be a rest day. I’ll likely decide based on how I feel from my workouts earlier in the week.
  • Saturday- I’m subbing for Missy, so I’ll be back at the Oak Square YMCA for cardio kickboxing.
  • Sunday- Rest day. My parents will be here and I have book club so it will be a busy day.

Things I’m Looking Forward To

I’m looking forward to a quieter week- last week was insane and there just weren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. I’m only teaching 3 classes this week, so that helps a lot. I’m also looking forward to my parents coming on Saturday. They are meeting RM’s family for the first time and I can’t wait!

Questions for you: What was your best workout last week? How do you take advantage of rest days? What are you looking to this week?

Wednesday Workout: Quality versus Quantity {and a 20 min workout blast!}

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Hello! I hope you’re all doing well. I’m reallllly enjoying having some time off- it’s amazing to be able to go to the gym during the day and have it be empty, as well as run errands without traffic or masses of people. I could get used to this 😉

Remember how I briefly talked about how I got hung up with focusing on the quantity of workouts over the quality of them? Well, today I wanted to expand upon that a little. I remember Athena talking about going for the quality of a workout over the quantity of a workout in a post she wrote a while ago, and while I agreed with what she said about preferring to have 4 really solid and strong workouts versus 6 “meh” workouts, I found myself ignoring that last week.

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I hate to admit it, but sometimes I get too wrapped up and focused on getting in “X” amount of workouts per week rather than looking at how hard/intense/strong each particular workout is and minding my body if I get up and it feels too sore to workout. With the amount I workout (often 1-2 hours per day), taking 2 rest days a week should be a priority, right? Or, at least having one of those “rest” days be something low-impact like yoga or pilates or something along those lines.

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Stupidly, though, when I know there are days where I likely won’t have time to workout (or, rather, want to MAKE the time to workout), I often force a workout into a day where I usually rest. Since I teach a double on Thursdays and often have a long workout on Wednesdays, by the time Friday morning rolls around, I’m generally very physically tired and sored so it’s a perfect day to rest. Last Friday, though, I tried to force a workout. Sometimes if I workout in the afternoon, I can swing it and be fine since I can rest in the morning and see how I feel, but last Friday had to be a 7am workout, which was just too early. I woke up sore and should have pressed snooze or gotten up and foam rolled instead of trying to force a half-assed workout.

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However, even though I got frustrated with myself for having chosen the quantity of workouts over the quality of workouts (my workouts last week were killer besides Friday!), it was a good lesson and a great reminder for me to take my own advice and focus on listening to my body and knowing when enough is enough and too much is too much. Rest days really are so important and the body gains so much more from a solid rest day than it does from a forced workout on a day that your body is giving you blatant signs that it is tired, sore and over-worked.

So, with that said, I hope that the next time I wake up for a workout and feel tired, I flash back to this post and my workout last Friday and choose sleep, foam rolling or regular ol’ rest instead of pushing my body to a limit it doesn’t want to reach.

Questions for you: Do you choose quality over quantity of workouts or do you focus on getting in “X” amount of workouts in per week regardless of how you feel?

And, for fun (and since I promised)- if you’re looking for a quickie workout today, try this! Remember to warm up and cool down as necessary. While the focus is on completing as many rounds as possible (AMRAP), please remember that good form takes precedence over speed!

20 minute workout blast