Booty-licious Workout

Lacey, here!

In need of a quick workout to tone your butt and thighs? I use this workout as my strength training for cycling.

Here's the deal, I'll be the first to admit that the voice-over instructions are pretty bland. Feel free, after watching the video once, to put the audio on mute and blast your favorite music. If you have more than twenty minutes, do this workout again! Trust me, you'll feel the burn the next morning.

Since I've been doing this, I really can feel the strength in my legs when I'm biking. It's given me more endurance for those long rides and more power to get up those hills!

To a happy booty!

Twenty Minute Tuesday: Burpees

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While I love my planks, there's one other exercise that I'm obsessed with. It provides a full body workout and gives you a quick, intense sweat. BURPEES! Burpees require four steps:
You will start in a standing position.
1. Drop into a deep squat with your hands on the ground.
2. Kick your legs back, fulling extended and get into a plank position (like you're getting ready to do a pushup, not like our normal planks on our forearms).
3. Brings your legs back in for the deep squat.
4. Jump up and reach your hands above your head.

They are great to do in intervals throughout the day when you have 3 or 4 minutes to spare. You don't have to do the twenty minutes all at once (trust me, it'll be quite difficult.) This a great exercise for those days when you don't have a large chunk of time to do an exercise, but a few minutes here and there to do something quickly.

Yoyi, an amazing trainer on youtube has a great video comprising of interval burpees. (check out her other videos too! They're all quick, under 15 minute workouts for those with busy schedules, no equipment needed.) You'll see Enrique actually do a pushup when he hits the bottom, but that is NOT a requirement. You can extend your legs and keep your arms extended to the ground, but if you want the challenge and have the arm strength, absolutely push yourself to an actual pushup.

You'll feel the burn in your legs, triceps, biceps, back, and core. Like I said, it's a perfect full body workout! This weeks challenge, complete this interval workout every other day until next Tuesday!

To a sweat filled workout!

-Lacey

Twenty Minute Tuesday: Yoga

Yoga has done a lot of amazing things for me. It's the perfect workout in the evenings when I'm recovering from a long, stressful day, in the mornings as a calm way to wake up, and it especially helped me as a way to recover from my surgery.

A couple weeks after having my gallbladder removed last month, I should have been feeling back to normal but I was getting pangs of sharp, really unexpected pain where my gallbladder used to be. I initially freaked out and thought one of my bile duct clips came undone but after dong a little research I realized I would have been in a lot more pain than I actually was. Running wasn't going so well for me since the bouncing was really aggravating my insides.  When I went back to Pennsylvania to visit my family a couple weeks ago, my Momma invited me along to her hot yoga class, where the room is kept at steady 105 degrees and the class lasts an hour and a half (really, the temperature doesn't feel as extreme as you would think because it's not humid.  It's very dry heat which makes it totally bearable). I was really, really hesitant to go as just that morning I was feeling some sharp pain. Since my wonderful mother had already signed me up the week prior, I obliged.

Now, just a little information that MAY be TMI for some of you, (but since my readers are mostly women, you may able to relate): when visiting my mother, I was over 2 weeks late for my menstruation and there we no signs of getting it soon. Husband and I talked and we attributed it  to my surgery and my body going through so much in the past couple weeks. And that makes complete sense. My body is pretty sensitive to environmental changes like moving (physically, like, to college, a new state, etc) and emotional changes (like intense stress).

So, with that said, I took the 7:30 pm hot yoga class for an hour and a half, sweated like I haven't sweated in a long, long time, and went home relaxed, refocused, and my body felt as though it had be realigned in some way. Something just "clicked" inside.

I haven't had even the slightest of pain since. My menstruation started that next morning. Literally, 10 hours later.

It could have all been coincidental, but let me tell you, since then, I was able to get back into running with no pain, my body felt better than it did prior to having surgery, and my emotional state was really improved.  Surgery can take a lot out of you.  Now, I'm not suggesting you take a Hot Yoga class specifically. In fact, I practiced Ashtanga yoga (a very different form of yoga, not hot at all) for about 6 years and absolutely love it.

I'm not saying you need to practice yoga morning, noon, and night. But for a good body realignment after a couple days of intense workouts and a way to refocus maybe just once a week for some of you, I suggest doing something like this video. Yoga offers something a lot of other workouts don't. Try it out.

Here's your Twenty Minute Tuesday Workout. My challenge for you: Do this video by PsycheTruth every other day for the next two weeks.  Let me know how you feel!

Twenty Minute Tuesday: Ab Blaster

Sometimes, that belly fat just needs some TLC.  Here's an insane core workout that is my absolute favorite. It'll leave you nice and sore.  You can easily do this in the morning after you wake up or right before you shower for bed.

Goal for this week:
Complete this 4 times before next Tuesday. Let me know how you feel!




Remember....

It's not if you have the time,

it's whether or not you make the time.

Here's to dedication, motivation, and the urge to succeed!

-Lacey

Twenty Minute Tuesday: Steps & Planks Galore

Working out can often be one of the hardest things to do in a day. You'll find all the reasons not to, citing phrases like "I don't have time", "When I do have time I'm exhausted from the day", or the good old "I eat well, I don't need to work out".  Trust me, my favorite was "I don't have time".

Teaching high school english in a high needs district gave me every reason not to. I was out the door by 6am, I didn't get home until 7 most nights, and then when I did get home, I had another 5+ hours of lesson planning, grading, IEPs, and grad school work to get done. Getting up earlier in the morning wasn't an option because it was too dark and I didn't live in the safest of neighborhoods to run alone. But you know what I could have done? Work-outs in the house. There are so many home workout programs out there that in hind-sight, I had no excuse. I just wanted an excuse. Had I taken 20 minutes before bed to do some Yoga, aerobics, calisthenics, and on the nights I did have more time, 60 minutes for a P90x workout I would have gotten my body moving, given myself the opportunity to sleep better after tiring myself out after a good sweat and  felt better after giving my body the workout it needed after a long day of standing in front of a classroom. Instead, I chose to gain 30 pounds, kept making excuses, and pretended like skipping meals would help.

I changed that last February. I choose to make time every day, even if I can't fit in a 5 miler. I started out with small 20 minute workouts, and that motivated me even further. Now, I'm out the door every morning for about an hour, running my butt off. And on those crappy weather days, I have plenty of indoor workouts & P90X to get me going, even if it's not out the front door. Routine is very, very good.

Enjoying my morning run.

Each Tuesday, I'm going to give you a 20 minute workout routine to incorporate into the next week. By no means does that mean if you have a full hour, that you can't repeat the workout 2 or 3 more times. Use the time you have, but if you don't have much time, there's no reason not to wake up the 20 minutes earlier for a quick run, do one of our indoor routine after the kids go to bed, or fit one in during nap time.

It's not if you have the time, 

it's whether or not you make the time.

If you have time to watch a 30 minute TV show, you have the time to fit in a healthy exercise.

(And if I have blog friends who have 3 kids and can still run 2 marathons in a month and train for ironmans, I sure as hell have no reason to not workout at least 4 days a week for an hour.)


This week's workout:

Steps & Planks Galore- we're starting out simple. It's a new, fresh beginning and you can always work your way up into more difficult exercises.

1. (Inspired by G's spontaneous Facebook Plank offs:) 1 minute plank: Get in the pushup position. Put your forearms on the floor and legs shoulder width apart (or closer). Literally, put your body in a plank position, hovering just inches above the ground. Hold your stance for at least a minute and avoid the urge to lift or drop that butt. This will warm up your core muscles.

Photo from Newtrition Blog to show the correct plank position.

2. Do 10 reps on your steps. 1 rep= up & down steps.  Between each rep at the bottom of the steps, do 10 jumping jacks.

3. 1 minute plank

4. 4 reps of steps; 10 jumping jacks between reps

5. 10 pushups

6. 2 reps of steps; 10 jumping jacks between reps

7. 10 pushups

8. 1 minute plank

Depending on your skill level, steepness and height of steps, speed going up and down, and how long you break between exercises (shouldn't be more than 30 seconds to 1 minute), this should take you around 20 minutes. If it didn't, repeat. If you have a full hour, repeat. If 1 minute of planks is too easy, challenge yourself to 2 minutes. If 10 pushups is a breeze, do 30. Challenge yourself and make the most of the 20 minutes. This is meant to be an outline, but make sure you're always challenging yourself and pushing yourself further. 

Just because it's 20 minutes doesn't mean it's easy.

Try doing this workout every other day until next Tuesday. We're proud of you. Keep pushing yourself. 

Love yourself, your body, and your health. 

Here's to another year of healthy living.

-Lacey