Efficient Cardio Circuit

Tonight I made up a pretty decent cardio circuit that got my heart pumpin' and the sweat pourin' - LOL. I was pretty peeved in general, which really fueled my workout.

The time went by pretty quickly, and the constant variation with cardio equipment broke the mononity. I enjoyed it! I'm having some problems with my right elbow and left knee. I'm not sure what's wrong with them exactly, but hopefully they'll heal with stretching, acupuncture, and gentle strength work.

Here's what I did, for 2 rounds:

10 mins elliptical

5 mins rower

10 mins kettlebells (snatches, swings, cleans, etc. The 2nd time through the circuit, I did a pure swing ladder with 24kg, 20kg, 16kg, 12kg which I went through twice.)

2 mins Broomstick twists

10 mins bike

Cool-Down: stability ball ab work & stretching

Say Hello to My Little Friend...

Since the weather is getting nice, I decided to take my beautiful Black Magic off of the wall in the garage and get her tuned up at the bike shop. She came back to me smooth as silk, so I just had to take her out on the road yesterday. Boy, it felt great! I was a little nervous at first, since I haven't been on my road bike since last September/October. I didn't dare try to use my cycling shoes! However, I took a 30 minute ride around the neighborhood and managed not to fall, got my heart rate going pretty good, and overall felt pretty comfortable on my bike again after I got used to switching gears again. I then came home and did a short STS weight workout. I was pretty tired, but I've been falling behind on my strength training routines. I've just been exhausted lately. However, yesterday I felt pretty good, and I was carrying around alot of stress, so getting outside and soaking up the sun was a welcome stress reliever.

I'm looking forward to warm days here and to riding Black Magic more often. I love that bike. It was a worthwhile investment last year! (BTW - am also LOVING the Vitamix :-) ).

Let's see what the rest of this week brings. I plan to get a few more KB workouts in, as I've been doing a little bit every other day, depending on my energy levels.

DOMS

Gosh, my shoulders, obliques, and hammies are a tad bit sore today. It makes sense, though. On Saturday, I did several swing rounds with my clients with the 16kg. Then, on Sunday for the KB workshop, I was demonstrating several exercises. I got a nice workout (unintentionally) and used a variety of 12kg-24kg for all of the fundamental exercises. On Monday, I was working with my client, and demo'd several movements for her. I also did a clean ladder, press ladder, and windmills using the 12kg and 16kg..my shoulders were sore on tuesday. I tried to do the first 8 rounds of Providence before teaching spin class yesterday. I was felt myself getting really fatigued after 3 rounds, and decided to call it quits since I had to reserve some energy for spin class. Since it was St.Patrick's day yesterday, I figured I wouldn't have a full class and I'd have to spin some. That was a good call on my part, but class was actually full, but I didn't have to give up my bike.

I'm not sure what I'll do today. I want to do "The Pit" workout, but my body is feeling pretty tired. I'll probably see how I feel this afternoon and just do some simple cardio and maybe some swings & snatches.

Have a great Wednesday!!!

VitaMix is on the way...

I am so excited that my Vitamix is on the way (okay - this is a blender that I'm getting amped about). I have gone through 5 blenders in the past 3 years - burning motors, completely destroying parts, etc. In the amount that I've spent on cheap blenders, I decided to suck it up and finally get a Vitamix. I'm so excited about it!!!

I went to a health institute in late December, where I was introduced to the concept of eating a diet more rich in raw foods. I absolutely loved the results - increased energy, better body function, etc. I was able to maintain this new way of eating for about 1.5 months. February introduced its own set of personal challenges, and my diet was the least of my worries. Well, now I'm ready to get back on the regimen of incorporating more raw foods into my daily eating lifestyle. I don't think that I want to become a 100% raw foodist, but I do want raw food to ultimately make up 60-75% of my diet. I found a lovely raw foods restaurant here in Austin that I frequent often. I feel so much better when I'm eating raw, getting in my wheatgrass shots, etc. When I eat processed foods or fall into the convenience trap, I feel my entire body just become sluggish and shut down.

Okay, I'm off my soap box now, but suffice it to say that I can't wait for Thursday to get here! Green smoothies here I come!

Weekend fun...

This past weekend was alot of fun! We had our usual conditioning circuit class on Saturday. It was a cold, dreary day, but inside the Underground, it was full of energy! We had the music pumpin and our clients were sweating up a storm (I think that I was too - LOL)! Time just flew by, energy levels were high, and we wound up workingout for about an hour and a half. Melissa brought her boyfriend along, and he joined us for the festivities :-)

On Sunday we held a Level 1 Kettlebell workshop. In 2 hours we covered deadlift variations, swing variations, cleans, presses/push presses, squat variations (wave squat, single KB squat, front squat), windmills, and the Turkish Getup. We will have a Level 2 workshop with the same group in 2 weeks. We want to give our clients some time to practice what they've learned in their individual sessions. It was alot of fun, and I felt so great to have taught those who were completely unfamiliar with kettlebell training and given them a solid foundation in a short period of time.

After our workshop, we proceeded to pretty up our kettlebell collection. We repainted all of them, and they look like shiny, pretty colors of the rainbow. I'll be applying the final coat of gloss today and then they will be ready for their photo shoot :-).

It was a great weekend, and today the sun is brightly shining and the weather is warming up! Spring here we come!!! :-)