Tag: workout

Celebrating my 30th with my first SoulCycle experience

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You guys. To say I was spoiled for my 30th is an understatement. I’ll do a full recap later, but today I want to share my first SoulCyle experience with you. I have been invited to a few blogger events there, but for one reason or another was never able to make it. For my birthday, my sister suggested taking 1/2 days and going to a class somewhere of my choice followed by lunch (our favorite sister date activities!). I looked around at some of my favorite indoor cycling studios (for more reviews of studios I’ve been to, check here: Reviews: Boston Fitness Studios) but none seemed to have classes around lunch time. Then it hit me: I hadn’t tried SoulCycle yet! And when I looked at their class times, they had a 12:30 which was perfect!

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While they offer a discounted first class (and free shoe rental for your first time), when I spoke with them and they learned it was my birthday and that I was a fitness blogger, they provided the class free of charge for my sister and me. How sweet was that?! I was so thankful for that gesture. I think it says a lot about a company when they do things like this! Anyway…. we went to Charolette’s 12:30pm class and it was amazing. Her energy, the vibe she created in the room, the music, her words of motivation. If it sounds like a I have a girl crush on her, I think it’s because I kinda do 😉 As an instructor, I can be overly critical of other instructors, but I literally only have good things to say about Charolette’s class.

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On top of that, the welcome desk staff were so good at bike set-ups for my sister and me. Not only did they spend more than 30 seconds making sure all of the adjustments were correct, they explained WHY they were putting the handlebars/seat at certain numbers. It was very helpful!

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So… the ride! It was a 45 minute class which felt like 20 minutes, and also like a party. I couldn’t believe how fast it went by! We did a lot of songs in 3rd position which I enjoy since the seat hurts my butt (and, I sit all day anyway I don’t like to sit more in class!). We varied from slower paced with more resistance to lighter resistance and faster pace. Charolette didn’t instruct us on changing our intensity very often, but my sister and I think it’s because she was encouraging us to find our own ride- whether that was to be challenging or more laid back. I kind of liked that approach, which is surprising for a Type A, play by the rules, want to know everything type of person. I don’t often go by “feel”, so it was a nice change of pace. It wasn’t the hardest class I’ve ever taken, but it was perfect for what I wanted that day, especially because spinning is not my forte and I prefer classes where I can keep up 😉

We did do 1 arm song,which I didn’t think was terribly challenging, I think because it was a lot of bicep/tricep work which isn’t as hard as shoulder work (for me, anyway). Other than that, we did the usual booty taps and pushups and crunches on the bike- all things I love! And, the icing on the cake (literally)? A surprise from the team with a cupcake from Sweet Cupcake!

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I mean, how sweet (pun intended) was that?! I nearly cried! They made me feel so special 🙂

And riding next to my sister and birthday buddy, Jess, was the absolute best!

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On top of offering a fantastic class, SoulCycle has two fully stocked shower rooms- including towels, shampoo/conditioner/shower gel, razors and all the post shower hair products you could need.

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I love when studios offer this little bit of luxury. Since the classes are often pricy, it’s nice to make a full experience out of it- workout, shower, post workout meal/drinks… or, at least that’s what my sister and I do!

Thank you so much to SoulCycle for making my birthday SO special- I can’t wait to come back, and luckily for me, our friends Brad and Amanda gave me a gift card for my birthday so I’ll be back sooner than later 🙂

Questions for you: Have you been to SoulCycle? Where’s your favorite indoor cycling studio? What’s your ideal day?

 

5 Reasons Why I Workout {and love doing it!}

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My friend Athena and I have joked in the past about how we are those crazy people who actually love to workout. Very, very rarely do I ever dread going to the gym. In fact, 99.9% of the time I’m actually excited about it and look forward to it. I know- I sound like a crazy person, but before you get all eye-rolly on me, hear me out:

Working out shouldn’t be something you dread. It just shouldn’t. There are SO MANY different ways for you to “workout” that there’s bound to be something you don’t dread. I’m not saying you should love it like I do, but you shouldn’t dread it because that’s just bound to end up inhibiting your workouts and putting a big ol’ black cloud over anything that you categorize as a “workout”.

A workout also shouldn’t be a punishment. You shouldn’t go into the gym with the mentality of “Ugh. I drunk ate too many slices of pizza last night so I need to run an extra mile today” or “I need to take 2 classes tonight to burn off the birthday cake left in the office kitchen” or “I’m feeling really fat today so I’m going to go to the gym for 2 hours to sweat it out”. Why, you ask? Because that’s not fun. And more importantly, it’s not healthy. It’s viewing your body in a negative way and using exercise as a punishment, and who likes punishment? Not me. I’d rather look at the gym or a workout as something I’m lucky to be able to do. Something that is helping to make me healthier. Something that is making me stronger. Sounds more fun, right?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve had the negative/workout as punishment mentality in the past many, many times. I would feel guilty if I didn’t go. I would feel gross and sluggish if I didn’t go. I would beat myself up mentally if I didn’t go. That sucked. Making my workouts and going to the gym as something I feel liked I NEEDED to do was really just not fun. And what’s worse is there was rarely a time when I’d finish a workout and be proud of myself and what I accomplished… it was always “I need to do more next time”.

Luckily, over the past 3 or so years- really since I started teaching and learning more about fitness and incorporating more strength training into my program- my mentality has been constantly changing and I can now say I workout because I love my body, not because I hate it. I love the feeling of creating a workout and going to the gym to do it. I love the feeling when I’m able to increase my weights or my speed on the treadmill. I love that I can kick my butt in just a half hour, vs. hours.

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So today, I’m sharing 5 (of the many!) reasons why I workout and why I love to do it. I hope that if you’re finding yourself in a rut or feeling discouraged about your workouts, this might make you take a step back and think about why you’re working out and to try and find the things you like about it.
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Wednesday Workout: Lower Body & Cardio Blast Super Sets

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Good morning! As I mentioned on Monday, not only do I still workout, but I have so many of my recent workouts to share with you. I love that I’ve been able to try out the workout for myself so I can: a. see if they’re hard enough, b. see if they work/flow/etc, c. give you tips/suggestions and d. let you know how long they take me. These days, unless I’m posting something I’ve taught, you can rest assured knowing that you can be done (including warm up and cool down) in about 30-45 minutes. This workout is no exception to that as I did it the other day during my lunch break. I did a quick 5 minute warm up and then busted this out and left super sweaty and super tired.

Lower body & cardio blast super sets
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San Francisco: Part 1 Recap

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Can I please go back to San Francisco? If you could plan out a perfect weekend getaway, it would be exactly the weekend I had with a few of my girlfriends while in San Francisco a few weekends ago. Everything from the travel itself to the weather to the company to the city was so awesome. Since I’ve got lots of pictures and things to recap, I’ll break them up so that the post isn’t ridiculously long- enjoy!

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I had an 8:30 flight and since I live a mile from the airport, I had time to get up and do a little workout before calling a cab. I did 20 minutes of random cardio moves and ended with a fun combo: 10 burpees, 1 hand release push-up… 9 burpees, 2 hand release push-ups… 8 burpees, 3 hand release push-ups… and so on until I did 1 burpee and 10 hand release push-ups. It was way more challenging than I thought and my arms were spent by the end!

I packed up my healthy snacks and got to the airport with ease.

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Wednesday Workout: San Francisco Total Body Stair Workout

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Good morning! I’m popping in quickly today with a fun workout my friend Amanda and I did when we were vacationing in San Francisco last weekend. I have so much to recap for you from my trip, but this week has turned into a crazy week between having a flat tire to deal with, laundry/unpacking and so much work at work, so those recaps will have to wait until things slow down a bit.

I’ve shared before how I stay healthy while on the road, so it shouldn’t be surprised that I worked out while on vacation. I think it’s such a great way to see a city, give you energy for the day and help you stay a little bit on track. I never workout to my normal intensity and if something comes up and I don’t get to my workout, I don’t stress about it, but for me, getting in a little sweat sesh while on vacation just helps set the tone for my day because it’s something I love to do.

Luckily, my friend Amanda enjoys being active, too, so she was totally game for a workout. Because of the insane hills and a little jetlag, I opted for something other than a traditional run. We ended up at a park and when I saw the most insane set of stairs, I knew exactly what we would do: run them! We ran up, did some core/upper body/lower body exercises, then went back down. We did this 10 times and our legs were shaking by the end. And the next day? I felt like I had been walking on the highest of high heels for 4 days straight- our calves were SO incredibly sore. I’ve never felt anything like it, but can only attribute it to running up the stairs on the balls of my feet and then walking around, up and down all the hills, etc.

San Francisco Total Body Stair Workout

To change it up, Amanda and I alternated from running every step to running every other step. By the end, though, we definitely were moving a lot slower up the stairs. I mean, look at these things:

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But, the view at the top is totally worth it, right?

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I felt so thankful for the beautiful weather, a friend who was interested in working out and soaking it up with me, and for sweating out my hangover 😉

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Of course, this workout can be done even if you aren’t in San Francisco with crazy good views, it’s just more fun when you are 🙂

Questions for you: Do you workout while on vacation? Do you like to workout outside? Do you run stairs?