Hi Friends!
We’re going to do something a little different around here today. Hope you like it. I know at least one friend is looking forward to it (Hi Britta!!) Over the past few months I’ve been posting some inspirational workout mantras, usually over the weekend to help encourage you to exercise…but I’ve never really talked about exercise on my blog. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and since I’m studying to become an RD, I strongly believe in finding a healthy balance between eating well and exercising.
Growing up I was always an athlete. I played volleyball, soccer, softball, basketball, swam on a swim team, ran track….you name it, I did it. As I got to high school, I narrowed it down to volleyball and played pretty seriously year-round. In college, I did crew (rowing) for the first couple years. Then, somewhere around my junior year I kinda fell off the wagon. I wasn’t eating right and was having a lot of fun, so even though I would head to the gym occasionally, it wasn’t really doing much.
After I graduated, I got serious about eating right AND I started exercising. Then, over the next few years I went through exercise cycles. I’ve kept my eating pretty much on track but when it came to exercise, I’d go through a few months where I was really into it, and then I’d get sick, or busy, or just stop caring and I’d do nothing for a while. Between the hubby and I, we wasted a lot of money on unused gym memberships…
But over the last year or so I’ve slowly gotten my act together. Especially since late spring. My gym membership expired, so I started running outside and I’ve been running pretty consistently since March. And that was all well and good for the cardio side of things. But I knew something was still missing- weights.
I’ve lifted weights before. I took a class in high school, I had lift for volleyball, I’ve been to personal trainers…I know how to do it correctly. In fact, I used to be pretty freakin’ strong. And being a nutrition major, I know how important it is. But quite frankly, I just haven’t felt like doing it for ohhh, the past 6 years or so.
Good news is, I’ve fallen in love with weights again. You may have noticed that as soon as Thanksgiving hit this year, all sorts of exercise posts started popping up about avoiding holiday weight gain. A lot of bloggers, like Samantha & Kristin, are hosting awesome exercise challenges. I don’t know what it was about this year…I read these same kinds of posts last year…but this year I got the spark! Two weeks ago I decided I was going to make exercise a habit again. And not just cardio…weights too.
I’ve challenged myself to break a sweat every day until the new year and so far I’m on a roll. I also started doing something I haven’t done in a long time….I’ve been writing (well, typing) down my workouts. Mostly for myself, but also so I can share them with you! I’ve had about 1.8 million workouts bookmarked from other bloggers and I thought this challenge would be the perfect excuse to start going through and actually doing them!
So here you go…my first two weeks of workouts. I’m literally just copying and pasting what I sat down and wrote after each workout so it’s kinda like an exercise journal. There are links to the original workouts, plus how I modified them, how far I went and how long it took me. I’ve been trying to do two more intense strength training workouts a week, plus a few full body and some running. I’ve found that circuits and intervals work much better for me than just getting on the treadmill and running 5 miles. It helps keep my attention span and passes the time quickly. I’ve also been using Saturday as an active rest day, typically to walk the dogs. But don’t let that fool you- they provide quite the workout!
Nov 28th– http://www.healthywithheather.com/2011/11/100-workout-strength/
Took about 45 minutes. Used 15 lb dbs for the 100 squats and 8lb dbs for the rest of the workout. Exhausted by the end!
Nov 29th– http://www.eatingbirdfood.com/2011/05/protein-overnight-oats-and-incline-walking-hiit/
Changes- after incline 15 at minute 17, I went back down to 12, 8 & 4 and then walked two extra minutes at incline 2 to get to 1.5 miles.
took 22 minutes
Nov 30th– http://www.sweettoothsweetlife.com/workout-log/30-minute-speedy-interval-run/
Changes- had to modify this one since 8.0mph was as fast as I’d gone on a treadmill and didn’t want to push myself too much. Mine looked like this:
2.62 miles, 30 minutes. If I did it again, I would cut the warmup and cooldown to 4 minutes and add and on two extra running intervals, plus cut the two 2 min walking breaks down to one minute each. Could easily reach 3 miles next time. Still super sore from Monday’s workout so taking it a little easy.
December 1st– made up my own supersets workout!
Took about 35 minutes, sweaty by the end. Tried to think of two supersets where you could do the exercises simultaneously and three where you alternated
December 2nd– http://www.sweettoothsweetlife.com/2011/11/19/20-minute-give-it-your-all-hiit-workout/
Modified: Again, I didn’t want to run at anything about 8 so after confirming that by running the first interval at 8.5, I dropped all of the 8.5s down to 8.0. I also added an incline for the warmup and added a couple walking breaks.
Mine looked like this:
*incline 8.0
Although I wasn’t nearly as sore as I thought I’d be when I got up this morning, as soon as I got on the treadmill and started running I could tell how tired my legs were. I wanted to bring the 6.5 down to 6.0 so many times but I compromised by giving myself two walking breaks instead. Near the end I could tell I wouldn’t get to 2 miles if I walked the last 3 minutes so I walked one and ran two.
2.00 miles in 20 minutes
Considering I walked 5 of them, I’m pretty happy with that! Next time I do this I’ll try to eliminate the two walking breaks or increase them from 4.0 to 6.0
Dec 3rd– Active rest day. Walked the dogs 2.35 miles in 32 minutes.
Dec 4th– http://insweetnessandinhealth.com/2011/12/04/incline-pyramid-interval-workout/
Modified this to make it a bit harder. I knew walking at 3.5 would be too slow for me so I bumped them all up to 4. I decided to challenge myself and run them all at 6 instead of decreasing speed. Mine looked like this:
Pyramid Interval Treadmill Workout
2.0 miles in 25 minutes. This wasn’t the hardest workout ever but it definitely got me sweating. I could really feel my legs using different muscles than when I run at no incline. The 4 minutes at the 10 incline were tough!
Dec 5th– http://www.healthywithheather.com/2011/11/100-workout-strength/
Loved this one so much last week I did it again this Monday. Took me 36 minutes. 10 minutes faster than last week. Used 10 lb dumbells the whole time. My arms were feeling it! My right quad was a little tight. Hurt on some of the lunges but pushed through! On the chest flies and back flies I did arms and legs separately.
Dec 6th– intended to do this workout: http://www.faithfitnessfun.com/14123/a-blessing-in-disguise/
Could tell as soon as I started that my body is too tired. Adjusting to all this working out it catching up to me so I adapted. Wanted to get my muscles moving. I was sore today but not nearly as sore as I was after last Monday’s workout. My upper body was more sore and I could definitely tell I used 10 lb dbs instead of 8. Today’s run was long intervals and it was BORING. They seemed to last forever and it made the run go slowly. I could tell I was tired because running at 6.0 mph was hard for me and that’s usually my slow slow pace. I wanted to stop so many times during the last 6.7 interval but I knew it was mental so I pushed through it.
Total 3 miles, 33 minutes. It wasn’t anything crazy but it got me sweating and covered the distance I wanted it to.
Dec7th– http://pinterest.com/pin/612408822/
Modified the crunch and leg lift part of each set
Mine looked like this:
99 workout
This took me 1 hour and 5 minutes. I covered a mile in my very slow run/walk at the end. This workout was a bit long to do all the time. I’d say it’d be good to do once a month or so to change things up but not every week. I was sweating by the end.
Dec 8th- In honor of this post, I took a total rest day 🙂 It was MUCH needed.
So whaddya think? More fitness on The Bean? Or should I just stick to food? Please note that future fitness posts would not be this long!!!
Happy Friday 🙂
–Lindsay–
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Whew! You kicked workout booty with all of those. That last one looks like such a challenge. Thanks for sharing it. 🙂
thank YOU! you inspire me daily 🙂
I never was too exercised focused until I started my RD program – but now I see the importance of both side of the calorie balance equation too – including strength training. I think it’s an excellent time of year to get started!
i agree…definitely a good time for this inspiration to strike 🙂
Wow! You got some killer workouts in there – way to rock it! 🙂
thank you trainer court 🙂
Wow, you kicked a** with all of those workouts! Love that you tried one of mine :D. I always modify treadmill workouts that other people post…what works for one person doesn’t work for everyone else right?! Happy Friday!
thanks girl! i definitely love modifying other ppl’s workouts. i wish everyone understood you could do that to make it work for you!
wow lindsay! good work on keeping up the exercise! i got in streaks too – i really need to stay consistent.
thanks!!! i’m working hard!
Way to go! Keep up the good work. 🙂 I love lifting! haha
wow, thanks for this inspiration! I have gotten back to running and weight lifting too but am always looking for new workouts and ways to change it up!
Great job on the workout front!!! I love lifting, it makes me feel strong 😀
This is awesome ~ good for you! I always feel like I’m the only one who falls off the exercise wagon in a huge way. I totally love the gym, so I’m never quite sure what it is that keeps me away at times… I’ve been easing back into it this month though!
So awesome that you’re back on the fitness bandwagon! I really like lifting weights, especially when I don’t have a partner to really push me at cardio.
Wow!!! Nice job with the workouts! I firmly believe that if my hair still looks decent after the gym, I didn’t work out hard enough 😉 haha I’ve been doing a LOT of circuit type stuff this week and it’s kept me worn out and sore!
I so want a sweatshirt that says “shut up and squat” haha
That is an awesome schedule! I am bookmarking a few of these to try. And I need to bite the bullet and do the 100 workout.
Great workouts 🙂
thank you!!! 🙂
WOW girl! You did work up some pretty good sweats with those workouts 😉
you know it!!!
Love it Lindsay! I need some ideas, especially for strength training!
I loved the fitness! And there are a lotta kick butt workouts in there, bookmarking to try soon! Thanks for sharing mine too 🙂
you’re welcome! thanks for posting them 🙂