Tag: YMCA

This Week: Workouts & Things I’m Looking Forward To {Birthday Week pt 1}

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Hi there! How are you doing? I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was good- Friday night my upstairs neighbor, Lisa, and I had a glass of wine at my apartment, which was a great end to the week. Saturday was busy, but all fun stuff! I taught kickboxing in the morning and then went to lunch with my sister and my date, and while the company was good, the food wasn’t so good. We went to 5 Napkin Burger, which I had heard great things about, but it didn’t really “wow” me. That night, my date and I went to his brother and sister-in-law’s in the South End and had a BBQ- so fun! I’m definitely ready for the summer!! I went to the Red Sox game on Sunday with a bunch of friends and was so thankful the weather cooperated!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I taught my 6am strength class (which I’m really starting to love!!) and then after work I went to a 50 minute “Pilates ReMixx” class at Boston Body. The instructor ended up being the same instructor who taught the Flywheel class that I wasn’t a fan of, but she was better as a pilates instructor! I was pleasantly sore the next day from the countless glute exercises we did.

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  • Tuesday- I went to a Pilates Tower class at Studio J in Government Center. I was SO lucky and ended up having a private class. The instructor was amazing and asked about my fitness level and how I felt and when I told her I was an instructor and wanted to be challenged, she went for it and ran! We did all sorts of advanced things that absolutely challenged me. Wow. It was wonderful. I want to go back soon!

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  • Wednesday- I ran 3 miles on the treadmill before teaching a pretty tough UXF Burn class. I did warn my members before class started that we’d be working off the Crumbs Cupcakes I ate during the day 😉
  • Thursday- I taught a fun partner SHRED workout (similar to this workout) and then kickboxing.

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  • Friday- Nothing. Total rest day 🙂
  • Saturday- I taught my cardio kickboxing class at the Oak Square YMCA. I know I’ve said it a million times before, but I just love that class. It is always packed (60+ people!) and the members are of all shapes and sizes, all ages and all fitness levels. The common denominator is that they ALL always come ready to work hard, sweat and hopefully laugh a little 🙂 It really does make my day to see so many people get up on a Saturday morning to come to my class, and that people aren’t afraid to come because we jump a lot or do a lot of burpees. I always tell people you can modify anything, but sometimes people don’t feel comfortable doing it. The fact that everyone in my Saturday class practices this is amazing.
  • Sunday- I went for a 5K run around Eastie. It wasn’t as nice as I thought it was going to be (so windy!), but it was still a beautiful, sunny day and it felt good to run outside again. My miles are so much faster than when I run on a treadmill. Anyone else feel this way?

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- My plan today is to get to the gym during my lunch break for a strength workout so that I can go home after work and catch up on some major blogging. This is the start of my birthday week, so I’ve got a lot going on and could use a night where I’m home before 8 pm!
  • Tuesday- Since I plan on doing strength on Monday, I’ll probably stick to cardio on Tuesday. Maybe a long run outside?
  • Wednesday- I am subbing Melissa Shaw’s 5:30pm Sports Conditioning class and then teaching my UXF Burn class. Come to one or both 😉
  • Thursday- I am teaching my SHRED and kickboxing classes.
  • Friday- Not sure! It may be a rest day, maybe some at-home yoga, who knows.
  • Saturday- I am going to my friend Lindsay’s class at Recycle. Saturday is my big day of birthday celebrations and since I’m not teaching in the morning, the next best way for me to kick off the day is Lindsay’s class.
  • Sunday- My guess is this will be a rest day since I’ll likely be out late on Saturday celebrating my birthday.

Things I am looking forward to

Well, as I’ve said, this is the start of my birthday week. Yes, my birthday isn’t until NEXT Monday, but this week I’m doing fun things that lead up to my celebration on Saturday (I realize I am completely obnoxious during my birthday month). I’m going to treat myself to a mani and pedi and I think I’m going to get a spray tan (nervous about this!). I would love to try and get a new dress, but I’m not sure that will end up happening. My parents are coming down on Saturday and I can’t explain how excited that makes me! I feel like I haven’t seen them in a long time, so it’s nice that they are coming down for the day on Saturday to take me to lunch and bring my birthday bunny cake! Lastly, I’m looking forward to getting dressed up and going out on Saturday night with some of my favorite people!

Questions for you: Have you been to Boston Body or Studio J? Do you like pilates? What was the best part of your week last week? What are you looking forward to this week?

This Week: Workouts (lighter week!), Things I’m looking forward to and Giveaway winner!

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Good morning, friends! Who else had a little trouble getting up today? Don’t get me wrong, I love the “spring ahead” time change when it’s 6pm and still light out, but it’s hard the first few days when it comes to sleep!

How were your workouts last week? Mine were good, but there were too many. Teaching 7 classes in 5 days is really just too much for me. Luckily, it was just a one-off week where I happened to have a few subbing opportunities and it was my “on” week for both of my non-weekly classes, so it’s not something I will have to do again. I’m only teaching 3 classes this week which is a nice thought!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Big day! I taught my first 6am Muscle Work class, which went SO well. I was so nervous, but I ended up really liking the morning class and everyone thought I was tough, but loved it- win, win! After work, I subbed a kickboxing class at the Watertown BSC.
  • Tuesday- I went to the Class Pass launch party at Flywheel, which was amazing. The first class I went to was ok, but this one was SO good. I left there as sweaty as I do when I leave hot yoga… loved it! More on Class Pass later… it’s my newest obsession 😉

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  • Wednesday- I ran 3 miles on the treadmill before I taught UXF Burn.

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Rocking my new swag!

  • Thursday- I taught SHRED and Kickboxing.
  • Friday- Rest 🙂 Much needed, might I add! I had to go to the office, so I did walk a bit, but that’s all.
  • Saturday- Double number 3 of the week… whoops. I taught kickboxing (great class!!) and then I went to Exhale Spa with my sister (using my Class Pass!!) for a Core Fusion Cardio class. It was just as good as I remember it being. We were both beat by the end 🙂

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  • Sunday- I taught UXF Burn at the Allston BSC. I didn’t want to do the class, but there were only 3 people so I didn’t really have a choice.

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m not sure. I’m thinking probably a light cardio workout. I wanted to use my ClassPass somewhere, but I’m not sure that will work out.
  • Tuesday- I’d like to go to the Muscle Work class during the day at work so I can go home after work.
  • Wednesday- I’m thinking cardio and then teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- Teaching SHRED and then Kickboxing
  • Friday- Not sure. I might try to get to a class somewhere with my Class Pass membership, otherwise it will be a rest day.
  • Saturday- I’m thinking Flywheel or Recycle 🙂
  • Sunday- Not sure, again. Maybe Barry’s? Maybe a barre class? We will see.  It’s nice that my workouts are so flexible this week!

Things I’m Looking Forward To

FREE TIME!!! Last week was great, but it was literally go-go-go the whole week and weekend and you know what? I’m just tired. I’m ready for a day where I can make up my schedule as I want and not have to be so strict with a plan. I think I’m getting together with my college girlfriends on Saturday, which is long over due. Also, it’s St. Patty’s day weekend, so I may head to Southie for the parade on Sunday? We’ll see!

Giveaway Winner!!!

I know most of you probably skipped through all of the other stuff just to get to this. I can’t say I blame you- the bag is absolutely gorgeous and I totally wish I could’ve won it. Thank you so much to everyone for entering and “liking” PJ’s and Burpees to Bubbly on Facebook 🙂

The winner is Jessica, aka “Gluten Free Boston Girl!

gfbostongirl said:

I can’t wait for the warm weather and to run outside again!! (I like you on FB!)

Congrats, girl! Send me your mailing address so I can ship you your bag! burpeestobubbly {at}gmail {dot} com.

And, that’s it! I hope you all have a great start to the week 🙂

Questions for you: How many workouts do you like to fit in in a week? What was your favorite workout last week? Did any leave you sore?

This Week: Workouts (lots of teaching!) & Things I’m Looking Forward To

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Happy Monday! I’m hoping that we didn’t actually get as much snow as the weather was predicting all weekend… I’m also hoping that by the time this post goes up, I’ve successfully taught my first 6am class at my new gym 🙂

Last week was a really great week of quality workouts (not necessarily the quantity of workouts), mostly because it felt amazing to be back in the gym and teaching, partly because they actually were good workouts. Even though I stayed active last week, it wasn’t at my normal intensity and didn’t involve weights, so being back at the gym last week with normal intensity AND weights left me tired and sore. And, I kind of loved it! Even though I like to have a consistent workout plan and schedule each week, being forced to take a step back, slow down and change things up is a nice break 🙂

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I got up before my work trip to Dallas (like 5am style. yuck) to squeeze in a quick 30 minute workout: 10 minutes cardio, 10 minutes strength, 10 minutes core. I’m going to post it for you this week.
  • Tuesday- Nothing. My trip to Dallas was quick and I knew I wouldn’t be getting up to workout before the sessions, so I didn’t even bring my workout clothes!
  • Wednesday- I ran 3 miles on the treadmill before teaching UXF Burn. I did most of the workout with the class (except the cardio) so I was beat by the end.
  • Thursday- I taught SHRED and Kickboxing. I randomly used body bars in SHRED and loved it!! I ended up making up most of the workout as we went so we could use the bars and it was a nice change up. Kickboxing was super high cardio and super sweaty. I hadn’t taught that class in 2 weeks so it was great to be back!
  • Friday- I walked about a mile… so mostly a rest day
  • Saturday- Taught kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA. There were 62 people… it.was.sweaty.

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  • Sunday- I filmed a standing ab routine (I’ll be posting it this week!) and did some at-home yoga. It was just what I needed!!

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I was seriously SO sore from kickboxing on Saturday, so stretching out my muscles was wonderful. At least I wasn’t the only one sore… these girls were suffering in my pain, too!

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m teaching my first 6am Muscle Work class in the morning (pending the snow doesn’t ruin that plan!!) and then teaching cardio kickboxing at the Watertown BSC after work. Nothing like a Monday double to start off the week!
  • Tuesday- I was invited to participate in a new program that’s being brought to Boston (more on that later!), so I’m going to Flywheel for the opening event. SO excited to get back in the saddle there!
  • Wednesday- Probably some cardio before teaching UXF Burn. I’m thinking it will be a lower-impact cardio based on my Monday and Tuesday workouts.
  • Thursday- My second double of the week! SHRED followed by Kickboxing.
  • Friday- REST 🙂
  • Saturday- Amy and I switched Saturday’s at the Y so I’ll be teaching kickboxing there again this weekend!
  • Sunday- I’m subbing a 9AM UXF Burn class at the Allston BSC- looking forward to being back at that gym- BSCers… come hang with me 🙂

I’m glad that last week ended up being a lighter workout week than normal (3 mostly “rest” days, which I never do in one week) because this week is a bit intense with teaching 7 classes. I’m going to make sure to listen to my body and instruct/coach rather than actually DO the workouts with the class when I feel like I’ve done too much.

Things I’m Looking Forward To

So much!! I’m excited to have a week where I am mostly back to my normal schedule, although, now that I think about it, it’s not really “normal” since I have a lot of things going on after work… hmmm…. I’m also looking forward to the blog event on Tuesday night- it’s always fun to meet fellow Boston bloggers. I’m looking to expand my blog reading list, so I know I’ll get to add a few to my list after Tuesday night 😉 I’m going to another blog event on Saturday afternoon- a wine tasting event. Umm, perfect!! Wine and blogging… after teaching… sounds like the perfect Saturday, right?

Giveaway coming up-

Be on the lookout for an awesome giveaway going up on the blog tomorrow. I think you ladies are going to LOVE it!

Questions for you: What was the best workout you had last week? What are you looking forward to this week? If you had to pick one blog to tell me to read, what would it be?

This Week: Workouts, Snow Frustration & Things I’m Looking Forward To

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Thank you all so much for your kind words and great suggestions on my 1 year anniversary post. You have no idea how much it means to me… seriously! You guys are the best!! There’s still more time to enter the giveaway, so head on over and enter to win it!

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Good morning! How was your weekend? Mine was ok. Friday night I had a blast getting drinks and apps with my sister and my upstairs neighbor, Lisa. It ended up being an eventful night, but very fun! Saturday was full of fitness and baking since my evening plans got cancelled because of the snow and Sunday was quiet and low key because I was super uncomfortable from a weird skin breakout on top of my Chilblains. Yeah. Wasn’t fun at all.

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I’ve got to say, though, the snow has really been cramping my style and my plans. I love the snow and I love winter, but I hate the stress that it adds: worrying about whether or not classes will be cancelled, worrying about parking, getting disappointed because plans end up being cancelled because of the weather… it’s just getting old! Anyone else feel this way? What’s the thing about winter/snow storms that stresses you out the most or makes you the most upset?

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I subbed a kickboxing class at the Watertown BSC. It was a big group AND no one left… that’s a personal record for me at that gym 😉 Before teaching I did 15 minutes on the elliptical and 10 minutes of abs.
  • Tuesday- I went to the Muscle Mix class at the gym in my building. We used the Reebok core boards which was a fun treat! It was the same sub as last week (who was awkward) and she was still crazy this week. She also kept telling us to “suck in our guts” and to not let them hang over out pants. I found that offensive and just not really appropriate. I understand the point she’s trying to make, but I think she could approach it differently. Thoughts?
  • Wednesday- I ran a quick 3 miles on the treadmill (and changed the incline from 1-5%, which upped the intensity) and then taught UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- The BSC cancelled ALL classes, which has never happened in the time I’ve worked there. Literally. Even in the blizzard last year they didn’t cancel classes. It was such a shocker!! On the one hand, I was happy that I didn’t have to deal with getting there and getting home, but on the other hand I was sad to miss out on my double 😦 I ended up doing 30 minutes of kickboxing and 30 minutes of strength in my apartment. Perfect.
  • Friday- Rest! I did 10 minutes of yoga to stretch out and wished I had 60 minutes to stretch. It felt so good!
  • Saturday- Big day of fitness. I taught kickboxing in the morning (sorry to the front row if my sweat smelled like wine… whoops!), which ended up being a pretty intense cardio class. Later in the day, I went to a blogger event at Flywheel. Boy were my legs beat by the end of that!!
  • Sunday- Rest. I wasn’t planning on resting, but my Chilblains came out in full force from Friday night to Sunday. It’s terrible and I need to go back to the dermatologist. My fingers were so painful it hurt to bend them… and it spread to my toes. I know I could have it much worse, but I was pretty miserable yesterday, to say the least. I cleaned, grocery shopped, food prepped and caught up on blogging instead. Sometimes rest like that is just necessary.

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m not sure what I’ll do today… I might have even gotten my workout in by the time this blog post goes up!
  • Tuesday- If I don’t go to the Muscle Mix class (I have a call right before it so I may not be able to make it), I’ll lift after work probably.
  • Wednesday- Treadmill run and then teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- Teaching SHRED and Kickboxing. At least my workouts are already made 😉
  • Friday- I’d love to get in 30 minutes of at home yoga!
  • Saturday- I have no idea! I’m not teaching and don’t have any other plans. Maybe I’ll go to Recycle studio or BodyPump or Core Fusion. I love open weekend days 🙂
  • Sunday- Again, no idea. Apparently my week is very open in terms of workouts…. I like that!

Things I’m Looking Forward To

Hmmm… I’m looking forward to getting a chance to have flexibility with my workouts this week. Hopefully I’ll be able to try out new classes or workouts. My Valentine’s plans last weekend ended up being cancelled because of the weather, so hopefully they’ll get rescheduled this week. Other than that, I’m feeling really blah. I’m trying not to let this whole Chilblains stuff bother me, but it is. It’s just painful and frustrating and it makes me nervous. I know I could be facing things much worse than I am, but it just seems like I can’t win lately. Literally, I feel like it’s been one thing after another in the past 2 weeks and it’s really starting to get to me. I need to get back to the doctors ASAP, because on top of the Chilblains, I also have some weird bumps all over my body… almost like bug bites. I don’t think I have bed bugs (I looked) and I changed my sheets, but they’re getting worse. My skin hates me and I’m looking forward to the day when it’s back to normal.

So, sorry about my womp womp attitude, but I just don’t like when my body isn’t working correctly. It makes me nervous, but hopefully after seeing the doctor I’ll feel better.

Questions for you: Has the snow interrupted your workout plans? Have you ever been offended by something an instructor has said? What are you looking forward to this week?

 

This Week: Workouts & Things I’m Looking Forward To

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Happy Monday! I’m happy to say that I am feeling much better after having gone home to Maine for the weekend. After my finger issue (more on that in a minute), I went into the weekend saying that if I didn’t get any formal exercise in that would be totally fine (fitting, after my rest post on Friday, right? Did you check it out? I’d love to get some more people to chime in on what you think about rest days!). Turns out that since my mom and sister had gym plans on Saturday morning before our hair appointment and lunch, it made more sense for me to go with them, so I did. But it’s ok. I felt rested and, honestly, everything that had been bothering me last week just seemed to go away once I got home. I know that probably sounds weird, but it’s the truth. It’s like all I really needed was to get out of dodge and be home. Amazing how that happens.

So, back to that finger issue. To make a really long story short, I have had a few issues with my right ring finger since probably early December. It’s had various things go wrong with it, most recently, lots of swelling, immobility and a nasty open wound. I finally decided to go to the doctors last Monday. Two doctors looked at it and couldn’t figure out what was going on, so they gave me an ointment and told me to come back on Thursday. Thursday came, and I hadn’t seen any improvements to my finger. The doctor asked a dermatologist about it and she determined that she thought it was Chilblains, which is a form of frost bite. Yeah. Not impressed. They gave me a stronger steroid ointment, instructed me to keep my finger elevated to reduce swelling, told me to keep it away from soap and to wear mittens. Great. As of today, it’s still not really better, so I foresee myself going BACK to the dermatologist this week 😦 It’s just annoying because I really can’t move it and therefore it makes working out with weights and teaching kickboxing quite difficult. Ugh. Rant over- thanks for listening reading!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I wasn’t as sore as I thought I was going to be from Barry’s Bootcamp, so I headed to the gym in my office building for a low-impact cardio and core workout. I rarely say this, but my workout SUCKED.  Yup. It wasn’t good and I left there frustrated that I wasted almost an hour of my day. I just did the elliptical and then a short circuit, but felt like I didn’t really exert myself. Oh well. We can’t always have rock star workouts, right?!
  • Tuesday- I went to the Muscle Mix class during the day at my office gym. It was a sub and I wasn’t that impressed with her. First off, she worked out in a sports bra (not appropriate, in my mind, unless you’re teaching Zumba), her form was terrible for planks, and she just said weird stuff. She was pretty jacked, but she was just too out there for me.
  • Wednesday- I ended up getting a sub (thanks Kate!) for UXF Burn because of the weather. I could have figured out a way to trek it there, but I realized it wasn’t really worth the super long commute for an hour class. I ended up doing this workout from Fitnessista with a few additions and some extra core and cardio at the end. I loved the tabata cardio’s!
  • Thursday- Taught my double! I taught a fun format in SHRED that I kind of took from Emily’s class at Barry’s. I created supersets and gave the class 4 minutes per superset to work down from 10 reps of each to as low as they could go in 4 minutes. Then we did 60 seconds of abs and a tabata cardio. I’ll post it for you this week because I loved it!
  • Friday- Rest day at home in Maine 🙂
  • Saturday- Went to a class with my sister, but didn’t love it (wow, my workouts weren’t that great last week, apparently!). The instructor is usually crazy intense, but her class today wasn’t anything special and I didn’t feel like I was working that hard. Oh well.
  • Sunday- I went snow shoeing with my mom in our yard for over 45 minutes!! Well, I snow shoed and she cross country skied behind me. I haven’t snow shoed since last winter and it felt great. It was a beautiful day and I got a much-needed dose of Vitamin D!

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I am subbing kickboxing at the Watertown BSC at 6:30pm- Please come, BSCers!
  • Tuesday- Muscle Mix! I really enjoy getting out of the office and getting my strength workout done during the day (rather than getting up early or doing it after work). Especially in a half hour 😉
  • Wednesday- Probably running before teaching UXF Burn. I missed these guys last week… I may make it harder for them to show them that 😉
  • Thursday- Teaching SHRED and Kickboxing!
  • Friday- Rest
  • Saturday- Big day of fitness for me- teaching kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA and then going to a blogger’s class at Flywheel in the Back Bay. I am REALLY excited!
  • Sunday- Probably another rest day, or maybe yoga.

Things I’m Looking Forward To

Well, I’m really looking forward to all of my apartment problems to go away. I was so relaxed coming back to Boston last night, but as soon as I walked into my apartment and saw how it looked and realized my heat was broken… my stress came right back! I’m also looking forward to making the choice to spend Valentine’s Day with my sister 🙂 I love the holiday, but can do the date-thing on Saturday night… spending Friday with my sister and anyone else who wants to hang with us is exactly what I’m looking forward to! I’m also looking forward to going to a cycling class at Flyweel. After my Recycle experience, I fell in love with indoor cycling, so I can’t wait to experience another studio!

Questions for you: When’s the last time you did something snow-related for a workout? Did you make it to the gym during the snow storm or did you opt for an at-home workout? Have you had an injury that makes it difficult for you to workout?