Why do most people quit things? Either one: it gets too hard, or two (and most likely): they get bored. I was talking to my cousin tonight about how she hates the time she puts in on her elliptical machine at home and it got me thinking...I rarely go down to the gym, get on the elliptical or treadmill, and slave my time away. Why? Because I think that's boring. It might not be to some people, but it sure is to me. That's why I rarely do it. One thing I learned early on in this journey is that if something was boring or seemed like drudgery, the less I liked it, the less I would push myself, and the more I would dread it. Dread something often enough and you'll stop doing it, that's why it became pretty clear to me that I was going to have to get creative with my workouts and also constantly switch them up.
One easy way to do that is by taking classes. This week we started Monday off with a challenging Sculpt class that left every major muscle group shaking with exhaustion. Wednesday was our usual Step class that has been getting increasingly harder as the class's experience grows. Marisa, our teacher, is throwing more complicated choreography at us and at one point I was convinced she was preparing us to become a touring dance troupe. It was challenging but, because 99% of us have been doing that class for quite some time, we're ready to step it up. Sure we were shaking our heads, going in the wrong direction at some point, and even running into each other, but by the time Marisa had said, "Let's take it from the top in one, two, three.." for what seemed like the fiftieth time, we had gotten the routine and everyone's faces, though red and sweaty, had the expression kids get when they finally get Algebra for the first time.
Tuesday found us in the group exercise room looking around at each other with blank faces and no plan of what we wanted to do. Luckily, Amy had "Insanity" in her bag and thus became my first experience with that hard series of workouts. It made me think back to when I first started working out and would observe the girls, who would eventually become my friends and workout buddies, head into the room to do "Insanity". I would shake my head, convinced that I'd never be capable of doing it. My how times have changed!
Today I had something new for my girls...a plan that later became known as Workout Poker. What it consists of is this: you utilize a pack of playing cards and each suit represents a different body weight exercise and the number on the card reflects how many times you have to do it. Then, each face card represents a different cardio exercise that you do for thirty seconds at a time. To the jokers you assign a really hard exercise that engages the whole body and you do it for five repetitions. Once you have the exercises assigned (and you want to make sure to hit the arms, legs and core) you simply deal the cards one at a time and work your way through the entire deck as fast as you can, taking as few breaks as possible. It ends up being close to six hundred reps not counting the cardio portions. All in all, one heck of a workout that feels like a game. Even if you don't change the exercises each time you do it, you never have the same workout.
It's all about keeping things varied, fun (my girls all shudder when I say something is "fun" these days), and challenging. You can use google and your creativity to make this happen for yourself or attend a class and let the pros do the thinking for you. Or, like us, you can do a little bit of both. Keeping things different every day ensures that you have fun, get seriously cross-trained, and achieve muscle confusion so that your body doesn't get used to what you're doing. Save the same boring treadmill workout for hamsters on their wheels and think outside the box!
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
No More Salty Treats!
A couple of weeks ago my friend and workout buddy Millie was regretting eating some veggie chips and made a resolution to cut back on her carbs. She looked at me and said, "No more salty treats!" I agreed. We are both guilty of loving salty treats way too much. We can pass over any amount of tempting desserts, but wave a basket of chips from our favorite Mexican place in front of us and we are in trouble.
Well they say you are what you eat and little did we know, we were about to become the salty treat today. Looking out the window at the sunny day and sparkling water going on six floors below me, I quickly emailed the girls right before our workout time, telling them to bring their shades and water bottles with them to the gym.
Heading out into the sunshine the weather felt amazing and the six of us left the emails, phone calls and meetings behind us as we headed for the river walk just two blocks down from the office and started in on one of our workouts that utilizes the benches and pilings of the boardwalk that runs along the Cape Fear River.
We were into the second of a three circuit workout when the sun, that had become increasingly hotter and hotter with every rep, became only a secondary annoyance. I was probably sixty in to the 100 bench dip circuit when I heard Becca beside me start to swat at something. She'd do a few dips then have to stop every so often to shoo something away.
Wondering what was up with that, I continued on with my dips only to be shortly overtaken by what felt like a zillion tiny bites. Looking down at my arms, they seemed to be suddenly covered with tiny gray specks of biting annoyance. Yep, as soon as we had broken a sweat we had attracted the attention of the barely visible flying terror known around here as the "no-see-em". We had become the salty treats!
Now, we're no wimps. We're out to get our workouts done every day and genuinely push ourselves to our limits, but those bugs combined with the heat pushed us to the brink. We scurried back to the climate controlled loveliness of the gym and finished out with some weights and abs.
So it seems that Millie's advice of "no more salty treats" is practical in two ways: both eating them and becoming them. It's awesome to work up a good sweat, but when no-see-ems are around, a change of location is definitely in order.
Well they say you are what you eat and little did we know, we were about to become the salty treat today. Looking out the window at the sunny day and sparkling water going on six floors below me, I quickly emailed the girls right before our workout time, telling them to bring their shades and water bottles with them to the gym.
Heading out into the sunshine the weather felt amazing and the six of us left the emails, phone calls and meetings behind us as we headed for the river walk just two blocks down from the office and started in on one of our workouts that utilizes the benches and pilings of the boardwalk that runs along the Cape Fear River.
We were into the second of a three circuit workout when the sun, that had become increasingly hotter and hotter with every rep, became only a secondary annoyance. I was probably sixty in to the 100 bench dip circuit when I heard Becca beside me start to swat at something. She'd do a few dips then have to stop every so often to shoo something away.
Wondering what was up with that, I continued on with my dips only to be shortly overtaken by what felt like a zillion tiny bites. Looking down at my arms, they seemed to be suddenly covered with tiny gray specks of biting annoyance. Yep, as soon as we had broken a sweat we had attracted the attention of the barely visible flying terror known around here as the "no-see-em". We had become the salty treats!
Now, we're no wimps. We're out to get our workouts done every day and genuinely push ourselves to our limits, but those bugs combined with the heat pushed us to the brink. We scurried back to the climate controlled loveliness of the gym and finished out with some weights and abs.
So it seems that Millie's advice of "no more salty treats" is practical in two ways: both eating them and becoming them. It's awesome to work up a good sweat, but when no-see-ems are around, a change of location is definitely in order.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Channelling My Inner Daniel-San
When I was around eight years old I got my butt kicked by a boy we'll call Billy Stark. Billy Stark was a scary kid who was extremely tall and muscular, had been held back a grade at least twice, and had a five o'clock shadow in the third grade. For all intents and purposes, one scary kid compared to me, a short little blonde girl, trembling in her karate gi in the first sparring match of her life while about thirty kids surrounded us in a circle waiting eagerly to see someone, anyone go down. I remember seeing Billy Stark advancing on me like some sort of predatory animal and thinking to myself that my desire to experience my favorite movie, The Karate Kid, was about to be way more Daniel-gets-creamed-on-Halloween-by-the-Cobra-Kais and way less Daniel-cranes-his-way-to-victory-in-the-all-valley-karate-tournament. No Mr. Miagi came to my rescue and needless to say I went home with my tail between my legs and never returned to karate again.
Being unhappy in my body and feeling overwhelmed as to what to do about it was a lot like the feeling I had when I got worked over by Billy Stark. 100 pounds ago I felt embarrassed, hampered, held back, unsuccessful and beaten down by the worst opponent I could face: myself. But, as I started to lose weight I started to feel the inner fighter, the one who motivated that eight year old to try karate in the first place, start to emerge. I spent hours punching the heavy bag in the gym, taking kick boxing classes, and doing P90X Kenpo DVDs. I'll do just about any exercise and I like to keep things varied, but combat-related workouts always give me the most reward and get my blood flowing just a little bit more. My sister loves to run, my friend Lakshmi loves Zumba the most, but fighting is evidently my thing.
One night last week I was leaving the grocery store and out of the corner of my eye I saw that a new dojo had moved into the shopping center closest to my house. Being too chicken to actually go inside, I called them from my car and talked to a very friendly girl who welcomed me to come try out a free class.
Nervously a few days later I stepped into class, looking around at all the other students for potential Billy Starks and finding none. I didn't know anyone there and, like the first day I started this journey in the gym, I felt out of place and self conscious, but that inner fighter wouldn't let me hang back. And I must say, it was awesome and I made some discoveries:
Being unhappy in my body and feeling overwhelmed as to what to do about it was a lot like the feeling I had when I got worked over by Billy Stark. 100 pounds ago I felt embarrassed, hampered, held back, unsuccessful and beaten down by the worst opponent I could face: myself. But, as I started to lose weight I started to feel the inner fighter, the one who motivated that eight year old to try karate in the first place, start to emerge. I spent hours punching the heavy bag in the gym, taking kick boxing classes, and doing P90X Kenpo DVDs. I'll do just about any exercise and I like to keep things varied, but combat-related workouts always give me the most reward and get my blood flowing just a little bit more. My sister loves to run, my friend Lakshmi loves Zumba the most, but fighting is evidently my thing.
One night last week I was leaving the grocery store and out of the corner of my eye I saw that a new dojo had moved into the shopping center closest to my house. Being too chicken to actually go inside, I called them from my car and talked to a very friendly girl who welcomed me to come try out a free class.
Nervously a few days later I stepped into class, looking around at all the other students for potential Billy Starks and finding none. I didn't know anyone there and, like the first day I started this journey in the gym, I felt out of place and self conscious, but that inner fighter wouldn't let me hang back. And I must say, it was awesome and I made some discoveries:
- A year and a half of strength, cardio and cross training has given me strong muscles, endurance, flexibility and balance. I could hang in karate!
- All those hateful squats have created powerful legs that can kick.
- Working on the heavy bag and lifting weights have created strong arms that don't hit like a girl.
- Zumba and Step have given me coordination and more mobility in my waist and hips; better to land those out and in kicks.
- I should listen to my inner fighter more often.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Crows, Ants, and One Mother of a Hill
I swore I wasn't running that hill again this week. I vowed that I would plow through it again next week but I wanted to put some distance between me and it for a bit. Bring on anything else, anything at all, and I was prepared to do it, but the thought of that hill again this week wigged me out. Well, watch out for what you ask for because when I asked my trainer for a workout for me and the group, where do you think he sent us? That's right, back out to that mother of a hill.
Here's the insanity that the girls and I did:
The first round of hill runs down and it was time to tackle the daunting next set of exercises. Gone were our cushy mats from the gym; I must commend all of us girls for toughing it out with push-ups on the pavement. Intelligent person that I am, I decided after the first twenty push-ups to put my hands in the grass and was quickly rewarded with being bit by fire ants. I shot up from the ground, said some choice words about this workout feeling like a turn in the arena of the Hunger Games as the venom burned (like um fire) through my hand, then sucked it up and finished my set any way.
Then it was time to face that blankety blank hill again. At this point we were all struggling to one degree or another and like an omen, a group of crows decided to gather on the power lines overlooking the hill and commenced to honk loudly at us as we ran by. "Shut up crows!" we yelled but they cawed even louder. Our muscles were screaming, the sun beat down, and the cacaphony of crow music was non-stop but somehow we managed to finish and stagger back to the gym.
Later, when asked by my trainer how I liked the workout I said, "I hated it. But because I hated it that must mean I need to do it." That being said, the hill and I are done for this week.
Here's the insanity that the girls and I did:
- Five times up and five times down the steep, long, mother of a hill.
- 50 jump squat rotations
- 100 push ups
- 150 mountain climbers
- 200 high knee sprints
- 25 burpees
- Five more times up and five times down the steep, long, mother of a hill.
The first round of hill runs down and it was time to tackle the daunting next set of exercises. Gone were our cushy mats from the gym; I must commend all of us girls for toughing it out with push-ups on the pavement. Intelligent person that I am, I decided after the first twenty push-ups to put my hands in the grass and was quickly rewarded with being bit by fire ants. I shot up from the ground, said some choice words about this workout feeling like a turn in the arena of the Hunger Games as the venom burned (like um fire) through my hand, then sucked it up and finished my set any way.
Then it was time to face that blankety blank hill again. At this point we were all struggling to one degree or another and like an omen, a group of crows decided to gather on the power lines overlooking the hill and commenced to honk loudly at us as we ran by. "Shut up crows!" we yelled but they cawed even louder. Our muscles were screaming, the sun beat down, and the cacaphony of crow music was non-stop but somehow we managed to finish and stagger back to the gym.
Later, when asked by my trainer how I liked the workout I said, "I hated it. But because I hated it that must mean I need to do it." That being said, the hill and I are done for this week.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Modify, Keep Moving, And Just Don't Stop
I've gotten to a point in my journey where I love to challenge myself. I don't ever want to take it easy in the gym and I'm not satisfied unless I'm drenched in sweat, sore and utterly exhausted. A year ago, I looked at people who had this outlook on fitness and literally called them crazy...but that was before I drank the Kool Aid.
That being said, when my friends said they wanted to do the Hill workout again today, I was not looking forward to it. The Hill just about broke me the last time we did it (The Hill), and it was hot, and a busy holiday weekend did not lend itself to exercise, but I'm up for whatever the majority wants to do and I've made it my mantra not to back down, so out to the hill we went.
Standing at the bottom of the hill and looking up at the steep incline, I began to feel defeated already. The last time I'd done the workout, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into but this time I was in full awareness of how hard things were about to get. The sun was beating down on the asphalt of the street that afforded very little shade, the breeze that had made me optimistic on the walk over was nowhere in sight, and my weirdo sore toes gave an involuntary cramp. My inner doubter (that has lately been beaten back into submission) was already telling me that I couldn't do it. And so we began...
Usually our group is made up of ladies of all fitness levels and body types, but today it was just me and three of my friends who are in awesome shape. Like gazelles they shot up the hill ahead of me and I chugged up behind in their wake. These days I can do pretty much any workout that I attempt without modification and keep up with just about anyone, but suddenly on this hill I was back in that old place where I was the one who had to stop frequently and modify. The sun beat down, my breathe was ragged, my legs were on fire and the only relief was the easy run back down the hill which was fleeting with the knowledge that I was going to just have to turn right around and deal with that hateful incline. My mind told me over and over to stop, that I was going to hurt myself, that I simply couldn't do this.
But the cheers and high fives from my awesome friends drowned out the inner doubter and suddenly I took the old mindset from a year ago that was dragging me down and twisted it to my advantage. What was my old philosophy back then, I asked myself, and answered: modify, keep moving, and just don't stop.
The lessons I learned today were:
So the hill may have kicked my butt today, but it didn't beat me down and it didn't break me. And one of these days I will master it.
That being said, when my friends said they wanted to do the Hill workout again today, I was not looking forward to it. The Hill just about broke me the last time we did it (The Hill), and it was hot, and a busy holiday weekend did not lend itself to exercise, but I'm up for whatever the majority wants to do and I've made it my mantra not to back down, so out to the hill we went.
Standing at the bottom of the hill and looking up at the steep incline, I began to feel defeated already. The last time I'd done the workout, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into but this time I was in full awareness of how hard things were about to get. The sun was beating down on the asphalt of the street that afforded very little shade, the breeze that had made me optimistic on the walk over was nowhere in sight, and my weirdo sore toes gave an involuntary cramp. My inner doubter (that has lately been beaten back into submission) was already telling me that I couldn't do it. And so we began...
Usually our group is made up of ladies of all fitness levels and body types, but today it was just me and three of my friends who are in awesome shape. Like gazelles they shot up the hill ahead of me and I chugged up behind in their wake. These days I can do pretty much any workout that I attempt without modification and keep up with just about anyone, but suddenly on this hill I was back in that old place where I was the one who had to stop frequently and modify. The sun beat down, my breathe was ragged, my legs were on fire and the only relief was the easy run back down the hill which was fleeting with the knowledge that I was going to just have to turn right around and deal with that hateful incline. My mind told me over and over to stop, that I was going to hurt myself, that I simply couldn't do this.
But the cheers and high fives from my awesome friends drowned out the inner doubter and suddenly I took the old mindset from a year ago that was dragging me down and twisted it to my advantage. What was my old philosophy back then, I asked myself, and answered: modify, keep moving, and just don't stop.
The lessons I learned today were:
- There will be times when I'm faced with things that are hard, but that doesn't mean that I'm back in my old state of un-fitness.
- The only way to get better is to keep challenging myself. Growth doesn't happen from taking the easy way out.
- It's good to workout with people who can do more at this state than I can because they inspire me to move forward and give me a glimpse of my future.
- No matter what: modify, keep moving, and just don't stop.
So the hill may have kicked my butt today, but it didn't beat me down and it didn't break me. And one of these days I will master it.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
"I'm gonna cuss you tomorrow!"
Exercise makes you feel good...you get your body going, your blood flowing, your endorphins kick in, you feel the good burn, you push yourself past your limits and you end up leaving the gym feeling like you rule the world. I myself get rather giddy and even more giggly than usual and I'm more often than not laughing like a hyena as I return to the locker room. That being said, sometimes (no matter how much you like to work out) exercise can make even the cleanest of mouths involuntarily spit out a four letter word or two. Maybe its because you're in the middle of a hateful set of squats and you feel like your quads are on fire, or maybe its because you moved your magazine to look at the time, thinking the timer on the elliptical was going to say fifteen minutes and only five have passed. One of my best friends (who shall remain anonymous) has even been known to get so frustrated with the way time seems to crawl the moment you step up on an elliptical machine, that she threw her water bottle across the room. Thank goodness she works out at home or it wouldn't have been pretty.
We've been pushing it hard all week and today was no exception. Our workout, courtesy of Pinterest, was as follows:
Leaving work, one of my favorite workout buddies and I were predicting the shape we're going to be in tomorrow thanks to the workout above that was my suggestion today. As we parted ways in the parking lot, she grinned and said, "I'm gonna cuss you tomorrow!" I just chuckled and realized, that makes two of us!
We've been pushing it hard all week and today was no exception. Our workout, courtesy of Pinterest, was as follows:
- 100 jumping jacks
- 90 crunches
- 80 squats
- 70 leg lifts
- 60 jumping jacks
- 50 crunches
- 40 squats
- 30 leg lifts
- 20 jumping jacks
- 10 bicep curls with weights
Leaving work, one of my favorite workout buddies and I were predicting the shape we're going to be in tomorrow thanks to the workout above that was my suggestion today. As we parted ways in the parking lot, she grinned and said, "I'm gonna cuss you tomorrow!" I just chuckled and realized, that makes two of us!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
The Hill
In the ongoing effort of stepping it up (or going slowly insane, whichever definition you prefer) today we tackled my trainer Jeff's hill workout. It looked pretty simple: do some squats, run down the hill; do some jumping jacks, run up the hill (5 reps of this); then do some high knees, run down the hill; do some pushup rotations and run up the hill (5 reps of this) and then simply to finish up with two times up and down the hill. No problem right? We'll be done in no time right?
Ha ha. The hill I thought Jeff meant was a nice, shady slope next to the gym and a rather short length. Oh no. He was quick to correct me; the hill I thought we were heading for was a baby compared to the mother of a hill we were headed to one block down from work. It was so steep that running down was a challenge in not tripping head over heels.
I love my workout girls because we're all different shapes, fitness levels, and ages, but everyone roots everyone else on and has fun sweating it out together. There were a lot of high fives given through the ordeal that was that hill.
Not to sound braggish, but remarkably pretty much any exercise I set out to do these days I can do. My strength and my stamina have really surprised me lately. Well the Hill broke me today. I don't know if it was the incline or the heat, but I didn't have it in me to go the last round. No worries though. I sat down in the shade, chugged my water and cheered my girls on. Then we all walked back to the gym, relishing the breeze, and collapsed inside together. And psychos that we are, we made plans to do it again.
Ha ha. The hill I thought Jeff meant was a nice, shady slope next to the gym and a rather short length. Oh no. He was quick to correct me; the hill I thought we were heading for was a baby compared to the mother of a hill we were headed to one block down from work. It was so steep that running down was a challenge in not tripping head over heels.
 | ||||
| Here's us before the "Hill"; look how happy we look. No pic of after but I am happy to report that we all survived. |
Not to sound braggish, but remarkably pretty much any exercise I set out to do these days I can do. My strength and my stamina have really surprised me lately. Well the Hill broke me today. I don't know if it was the incline or the heat, but I didn't have it in me to go the last round. No worries though. I sat down in the shade, chugged my water and cheered my girls on. Then we all walked back to the gym, relishing the breeze, and collapsed inside together. And psychos that we are, we made plans to do it again.
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