Lower body love

Hey!!  We just got back from a long Spring Break!  I always love the time off from school and having the kids home, but I love schedules and order too.  We went to St George.  It was colder than normal and very crowded (: We still got in some beautiful hikes, a little time by the pool, a few great workouts, and we ate at an amazing new restaurant!

The restaurant we went to was called Viva Chicken.  Their specialty is Peruvian rotisserie chicken.  Best chicken ever!  I got a salad with kale, romaine, quinoa, mango, edamame…etc.  I need this place by me!!

Best salad ever!

At my gym in SG

Next up!  Lower body workout coming your way!  I love working legs and butt.  It’s harder than anything, but if you want to see results you MUST train lower body.  You will burn more calories, up your metabolism, and strengthen your knees and core!  Win, win, win!  I combined two workouts I found.  Over the next few days ever angle of my legs and butt were sore!  I’ll be doing this again this week!!  Here ya go!  I added a few pictures to help (:

Lower body barbell circuit #1  I’m using dumbbells in the pictures since I was at home.  At the gym I use a 50 lb. bar.

1-Sumo Deadlift

2-Back Squat

3-Curtsy Squat

Complete each exercise for 5 reps (each side).  Set a timer for 8 minutes and see how many times you can go through it.  Do this for 3 rounds.

Lower body circuit #2

SUPERSET: 5 SETS (Yes, 5!!)  I use a 40 lb. bar.

Dumbbell or barbell step ups-10 each leg

3 Jump Squats and 3 Push ups

One leg dumbell or barbell squat-10 each leg

P.S.  I added an ABS exercise at the end of each round in both circuits.  I did in and outs on the bench and bicycles.  Killer!  Make sure you stretch after!

O.K. That’s all for today!  Time to sit with my little girl who’s home with strep today ):  Keep working hard.  Set goals.  Exercise. Eat for fuel.

 

Tips to stay motivated through the holidays!

November 10th and winter has arrived at our house!  Today I was thinking about what motivates me to exercise.  I know the way I think is not the norm so I was trying to think about the average person and what would help motivate them.  Two things came to mind.

The first was feeling good about your body.  You don’t have to be in the perfectly fittest shape to love your body right here and now.  When I feel good about myself I want to workout more.  Get rid of the negative thoughts about ANY body part.  Focus on what improvements you are working on and forget the rest.  For example, I thought the dumbest thing the other day.  Someone gave me a compliment on my arms and I instantly thought, “Well, what about my legs?”  They must not look good since they didn’t mention them.  OH!  Never do that!  I LOVE Demi Lovato’s new song, Confident!  Check it out:

Second motivator and almost more important than the first is to have a good support group or just ONE friend!  Today my friend and I taught our HIGH FITNESS class and we had our best turn out yet.  I looked around the room and almost every person had a friend there.  When it’s cold and 6 am, you need that!!

Crazy Fitness Friends!

This one is from 3 years ago!  My besties on a cold winter run.  Why oh why would I want to run in the dark and cold if I didn’t have my friends pushing me along.

Here are a few other ideas to keep you from gaining the dreaded holiday weight!

• Keep up with your workouts!  No matter how busy you get, don’t miss your workout.  When you stop exercising you start eating more and more of all the tempting food that’s everywhere this time of year.
• Eat healthy food often!  Don’t let yourself get too hungry and whatever you do, never go to a holiday party on an empty stomach.  Drink a big glass of water and eat something small before you go.  A little bit of protein and veggies is your best option.

Lastly, I have an amazing lower body/glute and ab workout for you to try brought to you by my favorite fitness gals, Amber Dodzweit and Jamie Eason.  I’ll be doing this tomorrow with my friends!

Have a wonderful day and stay warm.  I’m off to make lunch for my son and his friend now (:  Work Hard Forever!

1/2 marathon training and whole 30

All things fitness today!  I didn’t mention in my last post that I got a flu bug on the last day of our Lake Powell trip and I’m still not 100%.  It’s a great diet plan since almost nothing sounds good to me and when I do eat, my stomach freaks out.  Anyway, I was hoping to pig out today since tomorrow is AUGUST 1ST and I’m starting an almost WHOLE 30 diet!

I also need to get RUNNING!!  I have 8 weeks until my half marathon.  I’d like to run it in 1:40!!  That’s about a 7:45 minute pace.  I might need to get some new running shoes?  That always makes me feel faster (:  I came up with my own training program for the next 8 weeks.  This is not scientific or doctor approved.  I read that 25-35 miles a week is a good total for an intermediate runner training for a half.  My first few weeks are under that due to my lack of running and sickness.  I love plans and I’ll follow this to a T.  I haven’t decided about my weight training yet.  I’ll for sure train 3 times a week.  I’ll give a full review of this training plan in 8 weeks!

   Yesterday we had a great workout I’d like to post as well.  It’s one of my favorite style workouts.  Two exercises.  Start the first one at 50 reps and the second at 10 and then switch to 40-20, 30-30, etc…until you reach 10-50.  Make sense?  We were going to run bleachers after each set but they were wet so we did a few sprints.  We ran out of time and only completed one round of the last part.  That’s cuz we talk too much.

All my friends texted me about their soreness.  Mission accomplished!

O.K. Back to WHOLE 30.  This is pretty much paleo.  I have a problem with that because I don’t love meat but the more I think about it, I can handle it.  I’ll only have meat at two meals and load up on the veggies for the other meal.  My meat of choice is chicken, seafood, and turkey.  That’ll be all.  Tomorrow I’ll post all things FOOD.  Day 1…again (:  Lots of stuff on the internet to help with this diet.  One thing I did like is that you can’t weigh or measure yourself throughout the 30 days.  That will be an interesting challenge for me!  Gotta go!  Think Yummminess!!

Upper Body HIIT and I heart LEGS workout!

Hello!!  It’s a beautiful MAY day!!  I have a great workout that I just put together for tomorrow’s early morning class.  This week we killed the legs on Tuesday and tomorrow is kill the arms day!  OH!!  And by the way, today is DAY 19!  I’ve lost 8 lbs.  Yay me!

This time of year is all about the kid’s lives and wrapping up the school year.  Normally, I’m not much of a mushy so sad my kids are growing up Mom, but this week was my youngest child’s last preschool class.  My eyes got a little teary as I watched his little class skip down the driveway holding hands with their teacher.  Geez…I didn’t think the end of my preschool years would get to me.  I’ve loved his teacher and he has loved preschool.  Today he graduated.  He’s been saying all day how proud he is of himself (:

I found another picture I wanted to throw in here from 2007.  My daughter’s birthday is coming up and I was looking for pictures of her.  This is from my first marathon!  I honestly thought I’d only run a marathon once!!  My friends are trying to talk me into running a Fall marathon and then running Boston again.  As much “FUN” as that sounds, I’m stickin’ to halfs for now.  I have a FALL half I want to do and I’m going to work on speed this go around.

Well, it’s almost time for the onslaught of children.  I think we’ll go to Orange Leaf to celebrate my cutie boy’s graduation!  Have a wonderful sunny day!  Get outside!

 

 

 

The “I’ve never been more sore in my LIFE” workout!!

Today is usually not a post a workout day, but all I can think about is what my LEGS workout did to me because I can barely walk!  I thought I’d post it while it’s fresh on my mind and BODY!!!  I’ve been following Jamie’s workouts for several months now.  She has an amazing 12 week program!  It’s divided in 3 phases, progressively getting harder.  The workout I did was DAY 57 (Day 1 of Phase 3).

I’ve done this lower body workout many times.  I hadn’t done it for several weeks though and I went heavier.  I did it on Tuesday evening.  Wednesday I was a little sore and when I woke up Thursday morning it was KILLER worse!  I still LOVE being sore and I’m sure every gym rat feels the same way.  So, I’m happy to SHARE!  I suggest doing this workout at the gym unless you have a pretty sweet set up at home.  I only rest 30 seconds-1 minute between sets.  When it says active rest, I don’t rest at all.  Here it is with a few alterations (in red) and side notes on what I did exactly:

Superset:

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  Leg Press (shoulder stance) I put two 45 lb. weight plates on each side.

  3 sets of 15 reps

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  Freehand Jump Squat Make sure you squat LOW!

  3 sets of 15 reps

Working Set + Active Rest:

•  
  

  Smith Single-Leg Split Squat I put 30 lbs. on each side.

  3 sets of 15 reps, per side

•  
  

  Rope Jumping It’s easier for me to count to 100.  It’s about the same.

  3 sets of 1 min

Superset:

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  Walking Barbell Lunge I used a 50 lb. bar.

  3 sets of 20 reps, 10 steps down, 10 back

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  Long Jump  Killer, squat low and jump far.

  3 sets of 20 reps, 10 steps down, 10 back

Superset:

•  
  

  Leg Extensions I set the weight at 80 lbs.

  3 sets of 20 reps

•  
  

  Lateral Bound (side-to-side single leg hops) I do 40 side curtsy jump lunges instead of this.

  3 sets of 20 reps

End of superset; resume normal sets

•  
  

  Smith Machine Squat I don’t put weight under my heels and I used 25 lb. plates on each side.

  3 sets of 30 reps, place a plate under the heels to emphasize quads

Working Set + Active Rest:

•  
  

  Standing Calf Raises I use a sitting calf press and I set it at 80 lbs.

  3 sets of 20 reps

•  
  

  Rope Jumping Same as above.  100 jumps.

  3 sets of 1 min

Working Set + Active Rest:

•  
  

  Calf Press On The Leg Press Machine  I did not do this last set.  I really don’t like working calves.  One set was enough (: 

  3 sets of 20 reps

•  

           Rope Jumping

3 sets of 1 min

I’m supposed to work legs again on Friday and at this point I don’t know how that will happen!!  In a couple days I’ll post my results from my body fat test and weight.  I don’t know if I’ll make 129 by the 20th.  I might need to run 20 miles tomorrow!  We’ll see.

I do have ONE Thursday thought!  I saw a quote the other day at a restaurant that reminded me of my political and life values.  I am not a political guru but of course my mind and everyone else’s is on the presidential election right now.  I wish Abraham Lincoln was running for office or Galt and Rearden.  If you don’t know who they are you are missing out!  Read ATLAS SHRUGGED.  Good quotes to remember:

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.  

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence.

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

 

~~~Abraham Lincoln

 

Who do you think I’m VOTING for?  ONE candidate believes this same way!