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