Up and At Em

Even though it's a holiday, I decided to tackle my workout as early as possible this morning to get it out of the way, leaving the rest of the day free for family time and more activities like these...

My husband is a great photographer by the way.  These photos are his handiwork.  They had so much for drinking water from the hose and splashing each other.  Don't worry, it's a hose designed for drinking out of when camping.  It's safe.  (I asked!)

We raised the basketball goal a couple of days ago and they are loving it even more now that it's more difficult.  In fact, I think it's time to raise it even more so they can give the ball even more air. Check out these ballers.  

My workout today was another cross training one.  I love running but I also love mixing things up a bit and today, I succeeded at keeping myself interested and helping the time fly by.  It was the butt-kicking workout I was looking for...short and sweet too!

I began with one easy mile on the elliptical, followed by another mile where alternated 20 second sprints with 10 second recoveries.  I finished up with a moderately challenging mile before tackling one round of each of the following routines:

Found here.

I liked the concept of both of these routines, and liked the exercises, but did find myself frustrating with having to keep looking to see what was next.  I like simply organized circuits that are easy to remember so you can maintain your rhythm instead of stopping to check and see what to do next.  Something more like this...

 Which kind of workouts do you prefer?  

The rest of today is dedicated to family time.  We're hoping to squeeze in a bike ride, some pool time, and some yummy food.  I'm thinking about trying these out...

I found the idea here.  

Like my favorite front desk guy told me at the gym this morning, "Enjoy the day now.  You've earned it!"  Here's to enjoying this Labor Day holiday.

Let the Fun Begin!

I'm so pumped.  Today starts my 10 week training plan for the half marathon.  Yippee!  Mondays are set aside for cross training on my plan.  I've noticed in the past that my running speed and ease improves when I am intentional about including plyometrics and weight lifting in my training plan.  Todays workout started like this...

I also made sure to include some upper body strength training in the form of lots of chest and back exercises.  I know it's a stretch, but I'm also going to include cleaning the bathrooms and vacuuming the floor as part of my training today.  You all know cleaning the shower involves some elbow grease, right?

Make it a great Monday!

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!

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!

Arms and Core and Plyometrics, Oh My!

Yesterday was one of those days where there wasn't really all that much going on, but the day got away from me nonetheless.  I found myself at 3:00 realizing I hadn't accomplished much that day other than taking the boys to the doctor, eating, and playing around in the kitchen so it was time to get motivated.  I turned to my workout binder for a little inspiration and stumbled upon a jump rope circuit I had printed off of another blog I love reading and decided to give it a try.  I changed it a bit from her directions in that I didn't take the 30 second breaks in between each exercise so instead of it taking me 30 minutes, I was able to finish in 20.  It was a good sweat session.   Here is the workout I took from pbfingers blog:

Upon completion of that part of my workout, I was ready to fire up my arms and core.   I did a heavy chest/back workout earlier in the week so I decided to take this workout a little eaiser and completed the whole routine with 8 pound dumbbells.  I did arms, core, and plyometric moves circuit-training style, doingeach exercise for a minute each with no rest in between.  I loved how just when my arms felt like they couldn't take any more, it was time to move on to my core, and when it started screaming, I could switch to some plyometrics before hitting up each targeted area again.  Time flew and the workout felt great.  It looked like this:

• hammer curls
• up-down plank
• jump squats
• tricep kickbacks
• plank with in and out knees
• bear crawl
• overhead press
• heel drops on back
• skaters 
• chest renegades on mat
• knee fallouts
• upright mountain climbers / army march with dumbbells
• bent over renegades
• plank with leg raises
• box jumps
• cross-body bicep curls
• plank rows
• overhead tricep extensions
• ball roll out on forearms
• cross jabs with dumbbells
• arnold press
• pushups
• dumbbell chest flyes with leg drops
• wide rows

My day went from ho-hum, lazy dazy to very productive thanks to getting my body moving which helped me to feel more energized.  Give it a try the next time you're feeling a little lazy and see if it doesn't put a pep in your step for the rest of the day.  You won't be disappointed.  Today I'm getting my workout in earlier to hopefully feel the effects the rest of the day. 

Today's plan:

• 10 minutes of various squats and lunges to hopefully give my mommy butt some lift
• 10 minutes of core exercises to keep working on my mommy gut
• EASY 4 mile run to get my heart pumping and my lungs chugging some gorgeous fresh air

I saw this on pinterest yesterday and HAD to share.  I love it!  I printed it and hung it in my kitchen.

Fitness is a CONSTANT work in progress. You never "arrive."  You always have room to improve and grow.  Keep progressing!  Make it a great day!
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