Fitness Friday #2

It’s Friday!

To celebrate, we’re going to kick this post off with a little confession. Are you ready?

I’ve been, for the most part, wearing the same sports bras since high school. I know, I know, please don’t judge me. They’ve literally been through thousands of volleyball practices, gym sessions and loads of laundry. They’re faded and let’s face it…old.

SO when Champion offered to send me a few new ones to try, you’d better believe I was all over that offer! They arrived earlier this week and if you follow me on twitter, you may have seen my tweet about my exercise motivation arriving via mail!

Since I pretty much live in workout clothes all day, every day, even though I usually don’t exercise until late at night, I immediately put this one on. And lemme just say, it’s awesome. And after my terribly sweaty running workout…you know what? It was still awesome.

I love love love that they’re moisture wicking! And they’re tagless…which is awesome because almost every tag annoys me so much that I cut it out, and then it still itches, or I can’t remember how to wash whatever I’m wearing….anyways, tag free is the way to be. And finally, I love the thin straps. I’m kind of obsessed with this style…fashionable AND effective.

Fact: Sepia photos make your muscles look better!

The next day I tried out this one which was also great. Mine is plain black, but this style is super fun because it’s reversible and they have several different ones with two colors. I’ve yet to try the third one, but i’m sure i will love it equally as much 🙂

Bottom line is, buy yourself new workout clothes….don’t wait 10 years like I did. But you know what, those 10 year old sports bras? Champion. They’re built to last. I’m just sayin….Now if i could just find some workout pants that I liked this much!

And now for a look at this week’s workouts!

Dec 9^th– http://iowagirleats.com/2009/12/16/a-quad-burning-gasp-inducing-morning/

Only had to make a few minor changes. Mine looked like this:

26 min interval run
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Total: 2.5 miles in 26 minutes

Even though the total rest day did me a world of good, I was still a little tired so on the way back down the pyramid, I split the recovery runs into one minute walk, one minute jog…instead of 2 minutes of jogging. Then I amped it up at the end with 2 minutes of running at 6.5 and walked an extra minute to get to 2.5 miles. I really liked this one because it changed up the speed and intervals but it was easy to follow and remember when to change speeds and heights. Next time I do this one I will eliminate at least 2 of the walking minutes.

Dec 10^th– I used this workout generator (which is AWESOME by the way- Amy is a genius) for inspiration & put together a bunch of moves to make my own workout.

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This took me about 30 minutes. The stability ball stuff was the hardest because I hadn’t used it in a long time.

Dec 11^th– http://www.yourinnerskinny.ca/25-minute-bodyweight-workout/

I found this workout thanks to Lindsay who tweeted about how awesome it was. Without an interval timer, I decided it would be too much of a hassle to switch between my timer and the list of things I was supposed to be doing so I did reps instead of time, and knocked off the last set to make it still take 25 minutes.

Mine looked like this:

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This took me exactly 25 minutes. I didn’t rest between any of the moves within each set and rested no more than 30 seconds between sets. It definitely worked up a sweat and it was just bodyweight so there were no weights to worry about. I’ll be doing this one again. I want to do it the original way with timed intervals and see which way I like better.

Dec 12^th– http://www.healthywithheather.com/2011/11/100-workout-strength/

Did my favorite Monday workout again. Shaved another 4 minutes off my time so took 32 minutes. I used 10 lb dbs for everything except the deadlifts where I used a 15lb. Took it a little easy on the weights because my back has been a little sore. I used to have major problems with my back when I played volleyball and rowed so I try to pay attention when it hurts now. As much as I like this workout, there are a few moves I’m not crazy about so I think I may switch it up just a bit next week.  No quad pain this time but I noticed my knees were sore walking around the rest of the night.

Dec 13^th– much needed rest day!

Dec 14^th– Made up my own treadmill workout. I wanted to force myself to run for an extended period of time and recover to at 6.0 instead of walking like I have been…but still needed intervals to pass the time more quickly.

My workout looked like this:

 

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Treadmill:
2 min @ 4.0
1 min @ 6.0
1 min @ 6.5
1 min @ 7.0
Repeat running cycle 5 more times to get to 20 min

Abs:
25 stability ball tucks
25 crunches
25 reverse crunches
Repeat once

Treadmill:
2 min @ 6.5
2 min @ 6.5

Repeat running cycle 3 more times
2 more minutes at 6.5 to get to 10 min

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Treadmill Total: 3.12 miles, 30 minutes

I really liked this workout. Changing the speed every minute helped pass the time quickly and I pushed myself to use the 6.0 to recover instead of go down to 4.0. This was the longest amount of steady running I’d done in a long time. Truthfully, I was ready to be done after the first 20 min run and the abs….but I pushed myself to get back on and do another mile.

And then I tweeted this:

And I truly believe it. I’m making it a goal to push myself just a little bit further when I feel like I’m done with each workout. Doesn’t always have to be as big as a mile…could just be 25 extra crunches. Every little bit counts!

Dec 15^th– Made up a weights workout of my own. Combined a lot of moves that are used on various days in the Jillian Michael’s Slimdown App which I have a free trial of.

Here’s how it looked:

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This one was fun because I did some moves I’d never done before like split squats and sumo squats. I also really pushed myself on the arm weights and I could definitely feel it by the end. It took me about 50 minutes.

So there ya have it! A week’s worth of workouts in Lindsay’s world.

One thing I’m finally getting the hang of this time around with exercise is the difference between tired and lazy.

When you’re sitting on the couch telling yourself you’re too tired to work out & you just wanna sit there and watch one more show, or read one more blog, you’re not tired, you’re being lazy. GO WORKOUT!

When you’re sitting on the couch and the mere though of trying to get up and go to the basement/gym/treadmill literally makes you want to cry out in pain or collapse from exhaustion, you’re not being lazy, you’re tired. Your muscles are screaming for time to rest and recover. LISTEN TO THEM.

There’s nothing wrong with a rest day when you really need it.

So tell me, what’s the best workout you did this week? Got any good ones for me to bookmark?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Today’s Workout:

25 Min Incline Run/Walk

I went 2.06 miles.

Running on an incline is hard for me even when I’m not tired so 6 mph was plenty fast enough to challenge me. I tried bumping it up to 6.5 for one minute and quickly realized I wouldn’t make it through the workout at that speed so I went back down. 3 minutes is a long time for me to run continuously at an incline so the running intervals were definitely challenging. I was dripping sweat when this was over!