Tag: strength training

This Week: Workouts, Things I’m Looking Forward To & January Challenge Check-In

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Happy Monday! How was your weekend? I hope you were able to get out of the house and do something fun!

Last week, I started to come down with a  cold. It started with an itchy/scratchy throat and then moved to sinus pressure/congestion, etc. I’ve been loading up on Emergen-C, Mucinex and Sudafed and while they are working, it’s getting old taking so many meds! I blame the wacky weather for my cold. I tried to take it easy with my workouts once I started feeling sick, but I’ll be honest, unless I’m SUPER sick and physically cannot move, it’s really hard for me to tone it down. Which, is ultimately why I get super sick- I don’t rest when I should and end up getting more worn out and sick. You’d think since I understand this I’d be better at doing the right thing (resting) to make sure I don’t get full blown sick, but, I’m not. Oh well. With a that said, let’s look at my workouts last week!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I was really in the mood to get to a spin class and was stressed when I called the gym and they said you can’t pre-register. There’s nothing worse than getting to the gym for a class and then not getting to take it because it’s full, right? Luckily, I got the golden ticket and was able to take the class! I’m still not crazy about the instructor, but at this point, it’s just good for me to keep getting more experience.

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  • Tuesday- I had dinner/drink plans after work so I got up in the morning and did the strength part of a workout I taught in SHRED a few weeks ago. It was based off of a workout in Men’s Health and it was great!
  • Wednesday- I started to feel sick on Tuesday so Wednesday it was my goal to take it easy at the gym. Instead of running, I did 15 minutes on the elliptical and then taught my first UXF Burn class of the year. There were some new faces in the class which is always fun. I did about 75% of the workout (I just can’t not do any of the workout when I teach- I love it too much!).
  • Thursday- I still wasn’t feeling great, but I was able to get through my SHRED and Kickboxing classes. The numbers are up, but they aren’t up so much that it makes being in class miserable. It’s a good balance! I taught a new format in SHRED and since everyone seemed to like it, I’ll post it for you on Wednesday 🙂
  • Friday- Rest!
  • Saturday- I did my January Burpee & Push-Up Challenge before going to a class at Pure Barre with my sister.

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  • Sunday- I woke up pretty darn sore from the Pure Barre class on Saturday, so I took my time in the morning around my apartment before deciding what I wanted to do for a workout. Since it was nice out, I decided to go for a run to loosen up my tight legs. Little did I know I’d be running into an incredibly strong head wind the entire first half of my run. Woof. I stopped at the “gym” in the park to do some ab work before heading back. Solid workout!

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’ll head to a spin class at the East Boston YMCA again.
  • Tuesday- I’m getting together with some other tenants in my building for some wine after work, so I’ll get up and do my usual Tuesday morning strength session (which I’ve been loving lately!).
  • Wednesday- Cardio and then teaching UXF Burn
  • Thursday- SHRED and then Kickboxing
  • Friday- Probably a rest day. I’d like to maybe do 30 minutes of at-home yoga since I haven’t done as much of that in 2014 as I’ve wanted to, but we will see.
  • Saturday- It’s my turn to teach kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA- yay! Hope to see all my favorite familiar faces in the crowd!
  • Sunday- Not sure. I might try to get some strength training in (maybe BodyPump?), maybe something else, maybe a real yoga class? I’ll see how I feel!

Things I’m Looking Forward To

Well, I’m looking forward to feeling better. Even though I never got really sick, it’s not fun feeling off and “kinda” sick. It’s actually just annoying. Other than that, I’m looking forward to having wine with some of the other girls in my building and hopefully getting together with some of my college girlfriends this weekend.

January Burpee & Push-Up Challenge Check-In

Alright, it’s time to check-in with my challenge! Who’s participating? I’ve seen a few tweets and Facebook status’ saying you’re participating, so I want to know what you thought of the first week of the challenge! What was harder than you thought it would be? What was easier? How did you break up the 100 reps of each exercise? What was your time? Before tackling the challenge, I had no idea what to even have as a goal for the completion time. 5 minutes? 10 minutes? More/less? I ended up completing it in 6 minutes and 21 seconds (took a few seconds to hit the stop button) and I still have no idea where that stands in comparison to some of your times! I feel like I can definitely do it a little faster next week, but my ultimate goal by the end of the challenge is to do it in under 6 minutes, which I think is doable. Few things to note about how I completed it (how you complete it will influence how long it will take you to complete it, so remember that!):

  • 4 sets of 25: I did 25 burpees then 25 push-ups, times 4 rounds
  • I didn’t do CrossFit burees- I just jumped back into a high plank, back in and hopped at the top
  • I did my push-ups on my knees. Over 20 reps of push-ups on my feet leads to bad form for me, so to make sure I was keeping good form throughout, I dropped to my knees.

Things I was thinking during the challenge:

  • “Ok, that first set of 25 burpees wasn’t bad. Here come the push-ups.”
  • “Breathe, Monique… the push-ups are when you get your breathing back!”
  • “Gosh, these burpees aren’t as bad as I thought they’d be.”
  • “I hate push-ups. I need a break. No, keep going.”
  • “Almost done the burpees! Just keep thinking about the Spartan race when you had to do 30 at a time!”
  • “Ok, you can have a 2 second break this push-up round. Make it count.”

As you can see, the burpees weren’t bad for me, but the push-ups sucked! I wish I had more upper body strength, and you’d think that with the amount of push-ups I do (pretty much every workout), I’d get better at them, but I’m not! All in all, though, I was happy with my first attempt. It was fun to give it my all and get me a starting point for the challenge so I can try and improve next time!

Questions for you: How were your workouts last week? Did you try anything new? What are you looking forward to this week? How about the challenge? Did you rock it? What was hardest/easiest? Please share!

This Week: Workouts, Schedule, Things I’m Looking Forward To

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I hope all of you had a nice and relaxing week last week. I know I sure did! As I’ve said before, there’s just something about being home in Maine that always relaxes me. I still have some catching up to do with you, which I hope will happen over the next few days. I am trying to relax a bit more, stress less and be less regimented, which might mean my posts aren’t as “timely” as they usually are.

But, with that said, let’s get to the workouts! Last week’s ended up being awesome, which is always a nice surprise during a holiday week when I am home in Maine for most of it.

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I had dinner plans after work, which meant I needed to get up and workout before work. I got up and did this workout and was happy with my choice! I tend to forget about workouts after I post them on here or teach them in class, so it’s always a nice surprise when I decide to go back and dig up an old workout to do.
  • Tuesday- I thought it might be a rest day since I didn’t get up to workout before heading north, but after lunch, I was able to sneak in a quick 25 minute workout at my parents house. I did this workout, 6 times through and some other stuff at the end. It was perfect!
  • Wednesday- Does playing Santa’s Elf, drinking champagne and napping constitute as a workout? Nah, I didn’t think so! Rest day 🙂
  • Thursday- My sister, mom and I all went to the local YMCA for a strength class, which was awesome!! I ran 1.25 miles before the class and was so happy with how great the class was. We did all sorts of fun things using toys that I don’t get to use at the BSC- and, it left me quiteeee sore for a few days. Success! But the best part? Having my mom and sister in class with me 🙂
  • Friday- I went to another class at the local YMCA because I love the instructor (old family friend). It was an Athletic Cardio and Core class and we did tabata cardio, 9 mins of abs (3 exercises, 60 seconds each, 3 rounds) and repeated that 3 times. It was great!
  • Saturday- I wanted to go to the Circuit class at the Y before heading back to MA, but I woke up VERY sore so I decided to rest. Well, that was before I got home and realized it was 50 degrees and still light out at 4pm after I finished unpacking, so I decided to go for a quick jog (5K). I needed to clear my head of a few things and a run always helps that. It was pretty speedy, too, which is always nice.
  • Sunday- I still felt sore from Thursday/Friday so rather than going to a muscle class, I went to a spin class. Remember how I said I didn’t feel like I worked that hard in the other spin class I went to? I realized why… the instructor wasn’t that great! Sunday morning’s instructor was awesome! She gave us ranges for our levels and RPM’s and we did all sorts of fun things. I worked really hard and left there feeling amazing! I followed up my ride with upper body strength and some core work. Solid start to my day!

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I am subbing the 6:30 kickboxing class at the Watertown BSC again. I hope it’s a good crowd and I hope people don’t leave 😦
  • Tuesday- I don’t have NYE plans at the moment, but I will probably still get up and workout before work so that I’ll have that out of the way in case something comes up!
  • Wednesday- Not sure! Could be a rest day, could be a workout…
  • Thursday- FINALLY back to my “regular” teaching schedule with my two a day Thursday. Can’t wait!
  • Friday- Again, not sure. Might be a rest day since I like Friday’s as rest days.
  • Saturday- Teaching kickboxing at the YMCA- come burn off your holiday calories 😉
  • Sunday- Per usual, my Sunday workout will be determined based on how my other workouts for the week went. I’d love to get a strength workout in, but we will see.

Schedule

It’s funny. In years past, I have stressed about my NYE plans with my friends, trying to figure out if we should go to a bar (and what bar we should go to) or if we should go to a house party, but this year I am just letting things happen. Tuesday night could be spent with friends or by myself, and to be honest, as long as I’m not out at a bar (really not interested in that this year), I don’t care what I do:) Other than that, I have work and teaching. It will be nice to ease back into a somewhat normal schedule this week.

Things I Am Looking Forward To

Hmmm. To be honest, I am a little “blah” going into this week. Part post holiday blues, post I-don’t-know, but I am hoping that once I get back into the swing of things today I’ll be back to my normal self! I’m looking forward to teaching this week- big time! And I am looking forward to the start of a new year. I am not one for “resolutions” (all that stuff makes me totally turned off. It’s like whenever I make a resolution, I immediately want to break it, so I just don’t make them!), but for 2014, I do have some things I want to change/incorporate. I’ll share them with you soon!

Questions for you: Did you get any good workouts in over the holidays? When’s the last time you went to a class that left you super sore? Do you have NYE plans? What are you looking forward to this week?

This Week: Workouts, Schedule, Things I’m Looking Forward To

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Do you realize there is only a week and a half until Christmas?! Crazy! This week, things start to get pretty busy for me, but it’s all good stuff, so I can’t really complain, right?! It’s always a little hard planning out my workouts during weeks where I have a lot going on, but I like doing it because when I have it planned out, I’m way less likely to skip it.

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I went to a spin class again! My butt still hurt, so everyone who told me the pain goes away the second time was lying. The class was good and I pushed myself more (covered 15.5 miles in about 45 minutes… is that in the normal range??), but I still didn’t leave feeling like “omg I am beat!”. I want that. I finished my workout with additional core work.
  • Tuesday- I went to the gym after work and I ran a mile before completing an upper body and core stability ball-focused workout. I’ll post it for you soon because it was fun!
  • Wednesday- I forgot that I was subbing Melissa’s Sports Conditioning when I planned out my workouts last week, but it all worked out! I taught a fun, but different, circuit/stations boot camp type of class (taken from what I learned from the Best of Boot Camp session I attended at the MANIA event) first, then my normal UXF Burn class.
  • Thursday- I went to the gym for round 2 of teaching a double. By the end of kickboxing, I am literally beat, in a good way! I taught another stations class in SHRED, which I think I have posted on here at some point, and then a high cardio kickboxing class after. It was a fun day!
  • Friday- Nothing! Well, more than usual since I walked to the T and to the office and home (about 2.5 miles total), but nothing in the sense of a “real” workout.
  • Saturday- Taught kickboxing at the Y. It was another big group and I loved that they allowed me (and were really excited about it!) to play my Christmas mix. It was so fun!!
  • Sunday- I wasn’t in the mood to get up and trek through the ice and snow to get to the 10:30 Y Pump class, so I did my own 35 minutes strength workout in my apartment. I did 2 rounds of this (15 reps instead of 60 second intervals and skipped the cardio) and then followed up with some heavier isolated lifting for biceps, triceps, chest, shoulders, back and abs. It was a good workout!

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I am subbing kickboxing at the Watertown BSC at 6:30pm- If you’re in the area, please come 🙂
  • Tuesday- I have plans after work, but not until later, so I think I’ll have time to get to the gym for a quick strength session after work. We are in our new office, located in International Place, so I am not sure what the gym situation is there. I think you have to pay for a membership, which I won’t do since I have memberships through the BSC and the YMCA. I have so many BSC gyms close to my new office so I’m excited to hop around to those.
  • Wednesday- I will do a cardio and core workout in the morning at my apartment before work since I have my company dinner and my SMC girls dinner after work. BSCers- I know I told you I’d be there next week (this week), but I lied. Melissa Shaw is subbing so you’re in good hands!
  • Thursday- Teaching my double: SHRED and Kickboxing. It’s the last class before the holidays and I heard there is NO CLASS on the 26th, so enjoy your time off!
  • Friday- Rest day!
  • Saturday- For the first time in a month, I am not scheduled to teach. My instructor friend, Kate, teaches spinning at 9 and 10 at the Central Square BSC so I may go to that, or I may try to get to BodyPump. We will see!
  • Sunday- I am subbing the 9AM UXF Burn at the Allston BSC- definitely try to come if you’re around! It will be good to be back to my old stomping grounds! The Jingle Bell 5K was rescheduled for Sunday, so I will also be running that at 11.

Schedule

As I said, it’s a bit of a busy week. Between subbing on Monday, plans on Tuesday, 2 parties on Wednesday, subbing on Sunday and running a 5K… it’s a little cray-cray! I am happy that I decided to get a sub for Wednesday because trying to fit in 2 parties AND teaching was just too much to think about.

Things I’m looking forward to

So much this week! For one, we are finally in our new office which is SO SO SO much nicer than our other one. I love the location and the fact I can run errands so easily during my lunch break. Next, I am excited for the dinner/yankee swap at Jessi’s with all of my SMC girls. Lastly, I am excited to run the Jingle Bell 5K on Sunday (they postponed it from yesterday to next week because of the weather). I don’t know if my parents will come down or if my sister will run it, which makes me sad, but I just love running races, especially festive ones!

Questions for you: Do you know of any good spinning classes I should try to get to? Do you have holiday parties this week? What are you most looking forward to?

PS- I decorated my tree last week… how cute is it? It’s so little, but so perfect for my little apartment!

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Weekly Workouts: A lighter/less intense week of workouts

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Happy Monday, friends. I feel like I was ripped off this past weekend since I lost half of my Sunday due to work travel. I’m currently in Ohio until late on Tuesday night. In all honesty, though, I’d rather lose half a Sunday instead of missing classes this week. I hated missing my classes last week… I haven’t taught since October 12th!!!

Since I was home in Maine for a workout as well as North Carolina for one and didn’t teach my Thursday double, I felt like my workouts weren’t as intense as they generally are. But, you know what? That’s ok! It’s good for you to give your body a rest from intense workout, after intense workout, after intense workout… and even though I know this, I am the first to admit that I don’t always do that. It’s almost nice when I have a schedule that forces me to slow down and not be able to follow my usual workout schedule.

With that said, let’s talk about the workouts!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I was home in Maine and I did Athena’s 10-12-15 Workout, which was a great way to start the day! I finally got some weights, so I was excited to use them! I did combos of high knees, butt kicks, jumping jacks and jump squats for the 2 minute cardio bursts. I did each circuit 3 times through!
  • Tuesday- I had a 2:30 flight, meaning I worked from home in the morning. Before I started work, I went for a 3.5 mile run and then did some abs and my Fall Into Fitness moves for Tuesday and Wednesday since I wasn’t sure I’d have access to weights at the hotel on Wednesday.

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  • Wednesday- I did a 30 minute hotel room, no weights workout before heading to our client site. It consisted of 5 minutes of cardio, 5 minutes of core and 5 minutes of strength and I repeated that 2 times. I’ll post it for you later… promise! 🙂

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  • Thursday- My work trip got cut short, so I could have taught my double on Thursday, but since I had already gotten a sub for both classes and had planned on going to my favorite instructor’s kickboxing class in Wellington, I decided to keep the subs and go with my original plan. During the day, I did some strength training since I usually do on Thursdays and then I went to kickboxing. It was… good… but not as good as I remembered and I left the gym really wishing I would’ve just taught my double instead 😦 I did get some new combo ideas, which was the point of me going, I just didn’t get the intense workout I was hoping for. Oh well!
  • Friday- I usually rest on Friday’s, but since my workouts hadn’t been overly intense and I felt physically ready to do something, I went for a 3 mile jog. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and I ran fast for some odd reason.
  • Saturday- I went to the gym with the intention of going to BodyPump, but the class was absolutely packed and there were not enough bars and plates for everyone so, as an instructor, I felt like I should give up my equipment since I could do my own strength workout much more easily than someone who needs a class in order to work out. I did a full body strength workout and finished with my favorite: TRX abs! I also talked to a personal trainer about potentially doing some training sessions. We get a discount as an instructor and I feel like in order to take my lifting to the next level, I need someone instructing and pushing me to ensure I’m safe and lifting to my potential.

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New Lulu is always a sure motivator to get to the gym, right?! Or, any new workout clothes for that matter.

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  • Sunday- I wanted to go for a jog or walk because it was beautiful, but I slept until 9am (!!!!) and had to leave at 2 for the airport and had a million other things to do that took precedence over a workout. That’s ok, though. A rest day was probably a good idea! (I did do my seated rows for the Fall Into Fitness challenge!)

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Pending on what the hotel gym looks like and/or what time we need to be at the client site, I may go to the gym, or I may do kickboxing in my room or something else in my room.
  • Tuesday- Same thing as Monday 🙂
  • Wednesday- Cardio and then TEACHING!!! I’ve missed it so much, so members, just a heads up: I might be crazier than usual 😉
  • Thursday- Finally back to my Thursday double! I have a new format I want to teach in SHRED and then I’ll bring in some new combos to kickboxing, too.
  • Friday- I am not sure! If I feel like I need rest, I will, otherwise I’ll try to squeeze something in.
  • Saturday- Teaching kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA.
  • Sunday- rest? maybe? again, it will depend on how I feel.

Questions for you: Do you feel like you have a hard time finding or making time for a workout? Do you have home gym equipment?

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?