Unplugged

This morning as I got ready for my run, I discovered that my phone wasn't charged which meant I would either have to wait for it to charge in order to have my GPS and music with me while I ran, or I could just go without it, something which is completely out of the norm for me.  I decided to step out of my comfort zone and run phone-free, and stroller-free (GASP!) and it was such a relaxing, pleasant experience.  Don't get me wrong, I love having music music to power me through my workouts, and the nerd in my loves to know precisely when I have completed each mile and at what pace I completed it, but it was incredibly freeing to JUST RUN.  I had a heart-to-heart with God, something I've been working on more often, I let my mind wander and dream, I paid attention to my surroundings and enjoyed the colors in the sky as well as the sounds of the birds.  I had no idea how fast I was going, although I knew I wasn't dragging and I wasn't sprinting.  I maintained a comfortable pace, which is very good for any training plan.  I could have run forever but decided to stop at 5 miles, satisfied with a decent workout which wasn't too challenging or too easy.  What I thought would be a torchurous run, turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant start to my day and I plan on incorporating more electronic-free runs into my fitness plan.  If you're like me and the thought of running without all of your gear makes you a little nervous, I challenge you to give running without all your gadgets a try and see what you think.  You just might like it.  Let me know how it goes.  Happy trails!

Dropsets - Lower Body Style

Yesterday, my workout included dropsets for the upper body so today it seemed like a given to continue the dropset trend with the lower half of my body.  Like I said yesterday, to do dropsets, I pick a weight that is challenging, one that would fatigue me in 10-12 reps.  When I feel like I can't do any more reps at that weight, I quickly lower the weights and crank out as many as I can at the lower weight.  I then lower the weight again and keep pumping til I can't complete any more with good form, which means it's time to lighten the load again.  I usually continue this process until I have churned out 40-50 reps. Today I was going for higher reps with a moderately heavy challenge so I cranked out 50 reps on each machine.  The machines I used included:

• leg press
• leg extension
• leg curl
• leg adduction
• leg abduction 

I finished up with 20 minutes on the elliptical, at a steep incline at a challenging level, stopping every 5 minutes to do the following circuit, holding 15 pound dumbbells:

• 30 squats
• 30 deadlifts
• 30 lunges (15 on each leg)

My legs felt like they got a great work and I left the gym energized for the day.  Hope you got your day off to a great start with a workout as well, or you're planning to squeeze it in as your schedule allows today.  Happy working out!

Dropsets - Upper Body Style

Dropsets are  one of my favorite go-to workout mehods when I want an intense workout that doesn't take a lot of time.   I especially like using dropsets when working out on machines.  To do them, I pick a weight that is challenging, one that would fatigue me in 10-12 reps.  When I feel like I can't do any more reps at that weight, I quickly lower the weights and crank out as many as I can at the lower weight.  I then lower the weight again and keep pumping til I can't complete any more with good form, which means it's time to lighten the load again.  I usually continue this process until I have churned out 40-50 reps.  Today I tried to keep the weights as heavy as possible to really challenge myself so I did 40 reps on each machine.  I did an upper body routine and completed dropsets on the following machines:

• Chest press
• Overhead press
• Seated row
• Lat pulldown
• Incline press
• Chest flyes on cable machine
• Triceps pressdown
• Assisted dip
• Assisted pull-up
• Narrow-grip lat pulldown

I finished up my gym time with 5 minutes of various planks and rounded out my fitness today with a 4 mile run a bit later in the morning with my boys in the jogging stroller.   It was a great workout that really fueled my appetite today.  After a bit of splurging over the weekend, my clean-eating was back on track today.   

What's your favorite go-to workout?  Do you like relax your healthy habits on the weekends? Let me know how you get things back into gear on Mondays.  Hope you had a good one. 

Pyramid Workout - FULL BODY

Today's workout was a quick, tough one.  I used a pyramid approach which works like this: 

Perform each set of exercises as a superset (back to back without rest).  Start with 10 reps of each exercise and do 1 less rep in each successive superset. I paired up the following exercises using this approach:

• Dumbbell Straight Leg Deadlifts and Dumbbell Rows
• Dumbbell Squats and Rotating Biceps Curls
• Push Ups and Squat Jumps
• Lunges (Right leg forward) and Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extensions
• Lunges ( Left leg forward) and Overhead Shoulder Presses

I finished up the workout with 100 jumping jacks, 100 high knees, 100 butt kicks, 100 Heismans, and 100 jump ropes all done as quickly as possible with 30 seconds of rest in between each exercise.  

It was a great start to my Saturday.  Try it out and let me know what you think.  Hope you have a great weekend!

Full Body Weights and Plyometrics Supersets

This morning I combined a couple of workouts and must say I was pretty impressed with the outcome.  I super-setted each weightlifting exercise with a plyometric exercise.  I did 4 rounds of each superset .  For the weightlifting exercises, I completed 15 reps for the first two rounds and 10 reps for the last two round. Plyometric moves were done for 20 seconds the first two rounds and 30 seconds the last two rounds.  Here's how I paired up my exercises:

• jump ropes and sumo squats with dumbbell
• high knees and flat bench chest presses
• mountain climbers and dumbbell bent over rows
• jumping jacks and overhead shoulder presses
• plank jacks and zottoman curls
• burpees and dumbbell deadlifts
• jump squats and dumbbell pullovers
• butt kicks and triceps kickbacks

I finished up the workout with 10 minutes on the elliptical and 100 squats with 15 pounds dumbbells.  SUCCESS!

The Last 3 Days...

After a weekend with my sister in Naples, relaxing at the pool, enjoying happy hours, trying out new restaurants, my body was ready to get back to business this week. 

Monday was legs day.  I popped in a favorite DVD--Jackie Warner's Power Circuit Training.  I did the 15 minute lower body segment and am still sore from it today, 2 days later.  Guess I had gotten a little lax with my lower body workouts.  I love her approach--3 exercises for each muscle group: hamstrings, quads, and buttocks.  Do each exercise for a minute nonstop and then do a power burn for the fourth minute, which means you do all 3 exercises one more time for 20 seconds each.  You hit your muscles hard and are finished with your workout in no time which is just what this momma needs.  I also squeezed in a 4 mile run and the usual MuTu core exercises.  I really hope to feel confident enough to wear a bikini again this summer.  We'll see.  There's still a lot of work to be done there but time is on my side. 

Yesterday was my upper body workout day.  I started off the workout with a chest and back supersets routine.  I did 10 reps of each exercise for the first round, 12 reps for the second round and 15 for the 3rd round.  There was no rest until each superset was done, when I rested for about 30 seconds.  The supersets included the following exercises:

• Flat bench dumbbell chest press and bent over dumbbell row
• Incline bench dumbbell chest press and incline bench dumbbell row
• Dumbbell pullovers and bent over straight arm kickbacks

I then did 3 minutes of nonstop bicep exercises including narrow hammer curls, zottoman curls, wide curls, rotating curls, SLOW curls, etc. followed by 3 minutes of nonstop shoulder exercises including overhead presses, reverse flyes, lateral raises, front raises, upright rows, etc.   Finally, I finished up with 3 rounds of a triceps giant set as I still try to get my triceps in line with the strength of my biceps.  The giant set included 12 reps of each of the following exercises, completed one right after the other without stopping, with 30 seconds of rest between the giant sets:

• Flat bench triceps dips
• Narrow grip bench presses with a barbell
• Lying dumbbell triceps extension with dumbbells
• Triceps rope extensions on the cable machine
• Triceps kickbacks with dumbbells

I rounded out the workout with 20 minutes on the elliptical and 5 minutes of plank exercises.  It was  a GREAT upper body workout!

After 2 days of muscle-building workouts, I made today a cardio day.  I did 30 minutes on the elliptical at a challenging intensity with some 30 second sprints and some good "hill climbs."  It made me a sweaty mess.  I'm off to do my 5 minutes of plank exercises and calling it a day. 

Make yours a great day!

Triceps Targeting Workout

I have noticed that my triceps are not nearly as strong as my biceps, so in an attempt to try to even things out, I have added more triceps exercises into my upper body workouts and backed off a bit on the biceps moves.  Today I did a "triceps-targeted" workout which I really loved.  It incorporated all the other major muscle groups of the upper body-- biceps, shoulders, chest, and back as well as some plyometrics.  I will definitely be doing this workout again.  I loved it!

I alternated each set from the "triceps exercises" list with a set from the "other" list.  You'll notice that every other exercise is a triceps exercise.  After you do the workout, your arms will remind you that every other set was a triceps set.  They will be ON FIRE.  I never rested more than to get a drink of water or get the next exercise ready since I wanted to keep my heart rate up. It was GREAT!

Triceps Exercises:

• Lying barbell triceps extension --  4 sets of 12
• Standing dumbbell triceps extension --  4 sets of 12
• Close-grip bench press (elbows in) -- 4 sets of 12
• Triceps kickbacks -- 4 sets of 12
• Triceps pressdown -- 4 sets of 12

Other Exercises:

• Bent-over barbell row -- 2 sets of 15
• Flat bench dumbbell press -- 2 sets of 15
• Barbell upright row -- 2 sets of 15
• Barbell biceps curl -- 2 sets of 15
• Various plank exercises --  2 sets of 1 minute
• Burpees --  1 set of 15, 1 set of 12 (these are hard :-) )
• Mountain climbers -- 2 sets of 30 seconds
• Jumping jacks -- 2 sets of 50
• Squat jumps -- 2 sets of 15
• Push ups -- 2 sets of 15

I finished up with a 10 minute cool down on the elliptical.  The whole workout took about 40 minutes.  Try it out and let me know what you think.

Hit 'Em Heavy and Hit 'Em Hard Legs Workout

It seems like the less time I have to work out, the more focused and efficient I am.  I guess it's kind of like how I felt when I was in high school and college where it seemed like the busier I was, the more focused I was.  I actually seemed to do bes in school when I was busiest with extracurriculars.  There wasn't time to slack off.  I see the same thing happening at times in my adulthood, at least in terms of my exercise.  Even though I had a limited amount of time in the gym this morning, I still got in a VERY good workout.  I knew what I needed to do, knew how much time I had to do it in, and was focused to get it done.  It was legs day and I decided to hit 'em hard and heavy.  It gave me that sweet pain which I know will lead to results.  Here's what it looked like...

Move	Weight	Repetitions	Sets
Split squats with bosu ball	15 lb dumbbells	15 (each leg)	3
Sumo squats on smith machine	70 pounds	15	3
Deadlifts – with barbell	70 pounds	15	3
Hamstring ball curls	Body weight	15	3
Glute bridges with weight plate	25 pounds	20	3
Squats on smith machine	40 pounds	25	4
Plank variations	Bodyweight	1 minute	4

*****Colors indicate exercises that were super-setted. 

It was an adaptation of a workout, shown below, which I found at pbfingers.   I get tons of inspiration from her workouts.  She has a similar workout style to mine but her legs are stronger than mine.  I'm getting there and I hate to rest so I tend to fatigue faster.  I know, I know...excuses, excuses....  What can I say, I'm a supersets kind of gal. 

I finished up my workout with 12 minutes on the elliptical.  For the first 10 minutes, I did 30 second sprints with 30 second recoveries.  I finished with a 2 minute cool down.  Like I said, I hit 'em hard.  I got in, I got it done, and I got out in less than 30 minutes.  Now that's what I call a stellar workout. 

A GREAT Workout Day

Yesterday's "day of rest and relaxation" left me itching for some fitness today, so today's sunshine and crisp temperatures were just begging me to put the boys in the stroller and run my little heart out.  After a quick doctor's appointment and story hour at the library, we hit the road for a 7 mile run out to the beach and back.  I love that I can walk to the library with the boys and we had a great time at story hour.  The boys are little social butterflys and it's SO fun to watch.  They got their exercise crawling all over and playing with the toys after the organized class and then it was time for me to get my exercise while they napped.  It was GLORIOUS!  I'm not gonna lie, the bridges are always a challenge, especially with the stroller, but the sense of accomplishment I get when I hit the top is so fulfilling, I forget how hard the ascent was.  I hope this cool weather sticks around for a while.  It definitely makes for a more enjoyable workout. 

Upon returning home, it was time for an upper body workout.  I did some light weights on Saturday but it felt like it had been a while since I had really challenged my upper body so I decided to hit it heavy and fast.  I did the following workout from Peanut Butter Fingers with a couple adjustments to suit my training goals. 

My biceps are my strong suit and my triceps need some attention, so I substituted tricep kickbacks for the barbell bicep curls at the end.  I also finished out the workout with 2 minutes of various dumbbell triceps exercises to really hit my target zone. 

As usual, I also completed 5 minutes of plank variations.  I'm still trying to tighten up and tone my midsection as I fix my diastasis recti.  One day at a time... 

I'm really looking forward to a leg workout and some speedwork tomorrow.  What are your fitnes plans for the week?  Make em great!



A Pleasant Surprise

Gloomy days always seem to have a way of helping me to come up with a million excuses for skipping my workout.  Today was one of those days when I needed an extra push to get me out the door and on the road to my scheduled workout.  I'm so glad I found the motivation to get out on the road because I had an AMAZING run.  Let me tell you why...

Lately, all of my runs have included pushing the 90+ pound jogging stroller and I've been clocking 9 1/2 to 10 minute miles.  I have been feeling like I'm not regaining any of my pre-pregnancy speed and it's been pretty discouraging.  I know I'm physically fit and getting in my exercise remains a priority, and I'm proud of that, but I've been hesitant to sign up for any races because I feel like I would just end up seriously disappointed and embarrased by my time.  If I do race, I do so with the stroller, hiding behind it in a sense.  Since I haven't been doing any runs without the stroller, I didn't really have an idea of how fast or strong I was in terms of running solo.  Today's run gave me a pleasant surprise and some insight into the improvements I've made in regards to my fitness.  I ran a 10K without the stroller, including bridges, in 48 minutes and 48 seconds.  That's faster than my fastest race time for that distance.  I was BLOWN AWAY!  Turns out running with that jogging stroller is making me faster and stronger.  Those 10 minute miles with added resistance are giving me some serious results.  Looks like I'll be sticking with my running buddy, the jogging stroller.  It's a pretty good training partner after all.  Having my boys with me every step of the way is a nice bonus too. 

 
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Keeping Things Interesting

Like many people when it comes to fitness, I need to keep things interesting with my workouts or I get bored with them and stop seeing results.  I am always on the lookout for new, challenging workouts.  I get many of my ideas from Oxygen magazine and can always count on them for good workouts but lately I have been getting my workout inspiration from some of the blogs I read. Today's workout was inspired by Tina at Best Body Fitness.  I tried out her "Life's a Bench" workout and found it to be a nice change of pace.  I did the circuit through once and then decided to switch back into my comfort zone and do my own full body weights routine and 20 minutes on the elliptical to finish things up.  It was a good workout!

There are literally thousands of blogs out there with a wealth of great fitness ideas and I've found that most of my favorite blogs have a section where they list some of their favorite blogs on a blog roll which, 9 times out of 10, I find that I like as well.  So, by coming across just one blog that you like, there's a good chance that blog will connect you with some other excellent blogs as well.  I read blogs about fitness, family, food, mothering, etc.  I often get carried away and inspired by others.  If you don't already, I highly recommend checking out the blogging scene.  It's a happening place.   Happy reading!

Simple and Effective Upper Body Workout

The gloomy weather this morning put me in the mood for a lazy morning so I skipped going to the gym and instead listened to a hunch that told me I'd be stuck inside most of the day with the boys and an at-home workout might be just the thing to break up the monotony of the day.  Turns out, my hunch was right.  I got in a great upper-body workout while the boys watched and played beside me.  I kept it simple, something I don't do often, and enjoyed the workout.

My workout consisted of supersets.  I performed 4 sets of 10-12 reps of each exercise back to back only resting for 1 minute between supersets.  The supersets included the following:

• Dumbbell Chest Press on ball and Bent-Over Rows
• Chest Flyes on ball and Lat Pulldowns using a resistance band over the door
• Overhead Press, Hammer Curls, and Overhead Triceps Extension

I rounded out the workout with 10 minutes of plyometrics doing each of the following exercises for a minute, and repeating the circuit twice.

• Jumping jacks
• Jump squats
• High knees
• Butt kicks
• Burpees

I also did 5 minutes of various plank exercises, stopping to rest for minimal lengths of time as needed. 

And finally when the sun came out for a bit, I squeezed in a quick 3 mile run for good measure.  After sitting around for a couple of days, my body was ready to move.  Take that, gloomy day.  Make it a great one!

The Better Than Nothing Wokout

I wasn't feeling super-motivated this morning, but I know a busy weekend might get in the way of my workout plans, so I drug myself to the gym this morning for a "better than nothing" workout.  I do this workout from time to time when I've had some tougher workouts earlier in the week or when my motivation is lacking.  Usually once I get going, I find my groove and end up getting a good workout after all. 

When I walked into the gym, I grabbed a set of 15 pound dumbbells and headed to the elliptical.  I alternated 5 minutes on the elliptical, increasing the resistance every 30 seconds, with a leg circuit using the dumbbells which included 50 squats, 25 deadlifts, 15 lunges each leg, and 20 sumo squats.  I always tell myself I'll just go through it twice and see how I feel.  I almost always end up doing more.  Today, I repeated this cycle 4 times to give me 20 minutes of cardio and a "better than nothing" leg workout. 

I had found a bit more spunk in myself by the end of the elliptical circuit so I headed over to do 5 minutes of various plank exercises, resting as needed.  I rounded out the workout with dropsets on the following machines:

• leg adduction
• leg abduction
• leg curl
• leg extension
• leg press

What began as a ho hum trip to the gym ended up being a great workout, and it only took me 40 minutes.  I came home feeling more energized and ready to start my day after a delicious breakfast of scrambled egg whites with onions and garlic, a piece of Ezekiel toast, a veggie burger patty and a side of mixed berries.  YUM!

Make it a great day!

Upper Body Burner

Today my time was limited in the gym so I knew I needed to maximize my time and get a good workout at the same time.  For me, that either means circuits or supersets, both with minimal rest.  It ends up giving me a bit of a cardio workout as well since my heart rate really gets up there.  My weights workout took about 25 minutes and left my arms completely exhausted.  Success! 

The workout looked like this:

• 3 minutes of various Bicep Curls (idea borrowed from pbfingers)
• 3 minutes of various Shoulder Exercises
• Push-ups and Dumbbell Upright Rows superset (3 sets of 15 of each exercise)
• Tricep pressdowns and Seated Row superset on cable machine (3 sets of 15 of each exercise)
• Assisted Pull-ups and Tricep Dips superset on Pull-Up Machine (3 sets of 12 of each exercise)
• Overhead Tricep Extension and Straight-Arm Pressdowns superset on cable machine (3 sets of 12)

Being the cardio queen that I am, I rounded out the workout with 15 minutes on the elliptical and headed home.  Not a shabby way to start the day.  Hope you make yours great too!

Kick Butt Leg Workout

Today's leg day kicked my butt in a good way.  It was a challenging workout that left my legs shaking--exactly what I was going for!  I will be repeating this workout again as I work to strengthen my lower half and try to give some semblance of a butt to my backside.  My workout looked like this:

100 squats in dropset form (I started with 60 pounds and worked my way down to 35 pounds)

Dumbbell Circuit--Repeated 3 times:

• Bench Step Ups    (15 each leg with 15 lb dumbbells)
• Stiff legged deadlifts (25 with 20 lb dumbbells)
• Lunges (15 each leg with 15 lb dumbbells)

Dropsets on the following machines--40 reps each machine:

• Leg Press (started at 180 and worked down to 130)
• Leg curl (started at 70 and worked down to 35)
• Leg extension (started at 60 and worked down to 20)
• Leg adductor (40 reps at 50 pounds)
• Leg abductor (40 reps at 40 lbs)

I finished up with 5 minutes of plank variations, stopping to rest for short periods as needed and 22 minutes on the elliptical. GREAT workout!

I'm hoping finishing up on the ellipical worked out some of the soreness the workout might cause for tomorrow.  We'll see....

On the food front, I got pretty lazy with my clean eating with a vacation over the weekend and other various excuses, none of which really count, because they are just EXCUSES but I'm refocusing starting today.  February 1 is a good start date, right?  I want to cut back on mindless snacking and be more mindful of what I'm eating, to take my time in planning and enjoying what I choose to put in my mouth.  Every bite is a CHOICE and I want to make ones I don't regret.  That doesn't mean I don't have any wiggle room, but if I want to meet my goals, I have to focus and at least keep a 80% good/20% splurge minimum balance.  Here's to fresh starts and every day being a new day!