Upper Body & Abs Circuit Workout + Weekend Plans and Productivity Probs

Well, it's Friday and once again this week flew by. I've been having trouble leaving myself some time to be unproductive as of late. I literally fill every last second of the day with mostly essential things, but the problem is I never know when to stop the productivity. For example, when 9pm rolls around I sometimes find myself whipping out ten pounds of vegetables for a big juicing session. About half way through I typically want to throw myself onto the floor in a fit of hysteria, but I find satisfaction in pushing myself through until I have finished enough servings to get us through the next day or two. Or in the morning, I think I need to cook 25 meals before I can leave for work - even if I only have 15 minutes to spare. Next week my goal is to schedule down time...because I am feeling worn out I tell ya.

Moving on, I had a great gym session today that I'm excited to share!



 

 I told you...my gym is EMPTY in the mornings. But that's fine. Makes me feel like a celebrity having the whole place to myself.

Even though there's not much of a view, I love getting to workout by these windows. Above are all of my tools for todays Abs Circuit.

 

I felt awesome after this workout! My arms were tired, core felt tight, and I was super sweaty. I'll definitely be doing this one again on my non-cardio days. It took about 40 minutes to complete and I added ten minutes of stretching on each end. I always try to leave ample time for stretching because it's really so important. It helps the muscle recovery process and to prevent injuries. I've been focusing a lot on stretching out my hip flexors and hamstrings lately since they both seem to be a bit tight.

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Visuals & Tips:

Upright Row , Barbell Curl , Pull-ins , Stability Ball V-up (V-Up – I count each “up”, as 1 rep.)

Plank Walkouts – I couldn’t find a good video of this, but when I took a crossfit class one time this was an exercise we had to do. Start in push-up position. Keeping legs straight, slowly walk them up as far as you can towards your hands. Weight should be in your shoulders, you should feel a stretch in your hamstrings, and your core should be tight. When you have gone as far as possible, walk your hands out to the starting pushup position. That’s one rep.

Weighted Sit-up – I started out with a plate but switched to a barbell because it’s a little easier to handle as you increase weight.

*Don't break between sets or circuits to get your heart rate up!

 If you have questions on any of the exercises, you can usually find a good visual and description on bodybuilding.com, through a google search, or you can message me and I'll do my best to point you in the right direction.

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After my workout I raced home to see Louis before he left for work and made myself breakfast. I thought I was having a sweet craving, so I made a berry green smoothie (it doesn't look green but I swear it has greens!) and some dark chocolate granola with banana and almond milk. I say "thought" because halfway through the granola I was sick of it. Way too sweet for breakfast and from now on I'll resort to this for desserts only.

 

Then I stood out in the yard for a bit...because it's so gorgeous out today. I just wanted to lie in that hammock and never get up!

Louis works late again tonight, which is okay since I have to clean and do a few other boring chores around the house. I have a couple of exciting things on my agenda for tomorrow - running the Williamsburg Bridge (hopefully if it's not raining) and Jane is coming to visit! Our first official guest in the new apartment. I'm super excited to see her. Not really sure what we'll be up to other than brunch and probably lots and lots of talking. And laughing. I can't wait!

  

What fun things are you up to this weekend?!

How do you balance your productivity and relaxation without feeling like you're wasting time?

Runner Chat: Taking Breaks

Hi, Hi! Good morning! I am in the best mood because after a few not so fun running days, I was able to get back in the groove today. A few weeks ago I decided that maybe I'd start training for a half marathon...maybe...the plan was to follow a running routine that I found online and find a race. I found one, but it happened to be 8 weeks out so the running schedule was a bit crazy in order to fit in plenty of miles before race day. Since I really wasn't 100% sold on whether or not this was the right time to try to train for something like this, considering most schedules are 10-12 weeks, and I already feel pretty busy in my personal life, I decided I'd give it a shot and if I got sick of it or burnt out I'd take a break and re-think the half marathon. Guess what - made it through 1 week! I actually did over the number of suggested miles because I thought I was superwoman apparently, and completed two 4 mile runs, two 3 mile runs, and a 5 mile run. 

Well. 

By Sunday, my hips and ankles were throbbing so bad I pretty much hobbled my way through the last mile. Too much. Not sure if I'm just not ready for it, if it was the adjustment period from upping my mileage by approximately 6 miles that week, if I wasn't eating enough of the right energy foods...honestly I don't know anything other than I needed a break. I wasn't quite convinced that I should rest until after my 3 mile run Monday. Things didn't feel right. So Tuesday I went to the gym and stayed off the treadmill. Wednesday I used as an off day and slept a little extra. Today I decided to give it another go.

I woke up, had some iced coffee with hazelnut almond milk, stretched, and off I went. The first couple minutes my hips and ankles still felt a little stiff, but it wasn't long before everything loosened up and I started feeling good. I was planning to do my three mile loop, but when I started nearing the 3 mile mark, I decided to keep going. That and I may have gotten a bit off course due to my excitement which ended up taking me a good 2.5 miles out of the way. Oopsie! I didn't mind because I was feeling great.

As I reached the house I was feeling super grateful that my body was feeling good. The rest, foam rolling, and stretching seemed to work. 

Thanks to these guys today for holding out. 

Foam Roll!

I'm still not sure if I'll attempt that half marathon just yet. I'm going to see how I feel a month out from the race date and then decide. I do know, listening to your body is so important. Over the past couple years I've been pretty good at paying attention to how I feel and really listening what my body is telling me. Once you get into a workout routine, you know when something just feels wrong and you need to rest...so don't overdue it because you'll end up getting burnt out, or worse, injured. When it stops making you feel energized, it's probably time for a break. Now, if you're not yet in a routine, then I say push it out to an extent. It takes at least a month but maybe a couple before things start feeling good.

After stretching and foam rolling my hip flexors, I had this delicious breakfast. I've been trying to eat a little more post workout so today I had a whole wheat english muffin topped with peanut butter and honey, earth balance butter and jelly along with a green berry smoothie. Filling and delicious.

I hope everyone has the best day! I'm off to work!

Summer so far..

The last couple days have been less hot and I am so terribly afraid that summer is already on it's way out!! I'm trying to think positive and bring back the heat wave we had a few days ago....because I'm definitely not ready for the lovely seasons to start changing just yet. 

We've been jamming in tons of favorite things lately which has left me with very little down time. I think it finally caught up to me this weekend! Yesterday for the first time in as long as I can remember, I had nothing to do. Not one thing! I woke up, made Louis breakfast, attempted to buy Pearl Jam tickets, then went back to sleep for 4 hours. Yep, you read that right, 4 hours!! I woke up around the time that Louis was done with work and got ready for a little date night just at the end of our street. We had delicious thai food, then came home and watched Coffee Town - a movie. Have you seen it? It was pretty cute. I'm dying to see Spring Breakers but Louis is convinced it's too weird and we'll feel awful after watching it. So, I settled for Coffee Town. 

Anyway...here's what I've been up to...

Beachin @ the Rockaways

 

 

 DeFab found this awesome taco stand and frozen ice shop. We got the most amazing fish tacos and plantains. I've been craving it since. I made my own version of chicken tacos this week but I definitely want to attempt these fish tacos soon.

To. Die. For.

 

Pineapple and coconut italian ice. So light and tropical!!

BBQ hangouts at home... (chicken, corn, quinoa pasta shells topped with grilled baby broccoli. If you haven't grilled broccoli yet....do it!)

With cousin Dahni. 

I ran my first race...alone! Now the Spartan was a race but like I said, there wasn't much running so I was ready for an actual run -  Boomers Run to Breath. I planned to do it with a friend who had to go home last second, so I stuck it out and went solo. Of course it took place during the heat wave, so everyone was freaking out, and they changed it from a 10k to a 4 mile. I complained about that the night before but I was grateful on the day of. 

 Can you imagine a prettier place for a race?

Beautiful Central Park. I loved the pre/post race time when everyone was hanging out, stretching, warming up, and cooling down. Probably because I love to people watch....and since I'm new to the running world I liked scoping out everyone's shoes and outfits. It was a really cool experience to run with a big group of people and I will definitely be signing up for another soon. 

A big cheesy smile....I was pretty glad it was over. I was SO HOT and I was SO thirsty. I asked a stranger to take this picture of me and was quite shocked at just how gigantic my smile was looking. 

I calmed down a bit after some gatorade and a banana and asked someone else for a retake. Next time I'll try another pose. The left hand on the hip is starting to seem redundant. I was pretty proud of myself for doing this alone and I was happy that I ended up loving it. 

 

Afterward I went on a walk and stopped at this market in brooklyn. Yum!

Also, one of our fave kids had a birthday recently...so we hopped over to PA for a celebration. We went to this big bounce house place...with slides and all kinds of fun things for kids. Isn't this pic of Towns the cutest? He loved the slide!!

Godpapa and Godson...hanging out and talkin Spiderman.

 Sweetest. 

 Can't believe this girl turned five!!! So glad they live close by and that we get to be there for days like this. I really love them!!

 Favorite thing I made all week? These brussels. Shave or slice super thin, and toss into the wok. I'll put an actual recipe up soon because they are amazing..and I'm super obsessed with brussel sprouts!

Louis FINALLY got a new computer. I'm writing from it today!! So nice to have a normal, functioning computer. Our's were from 2006 and were barely running. Constant beach ball if you will. 

This week was pretty crazy. My boss was out...for the first time since I started. I loved the challenge and busy-ness (NOT business, busy-ness) of it all, however I'm quite glad he'll be returning this week. Here I am trying to not have coffee...and hype myself up with some delicious WATER. 

And ended the work week with a super fun hangout with these girls. We all used to work together and now we don't so I look forward to any chance I get to see their pretty faces. Aileen got tickets for Cirque Du Soleil, and took all of us to see it with her at the Barclays Center. We had a suite, which was a first for me and so fancy and fun!

Bevs!

 And I didn't stop myself from devouring the fabulous Barclays food....sliders and mac n cheese? Yes, please!

 Love this girl!

The show was awesome and surprisingly, even funny! I love anything like this...with dance, acrobats, contortionists.....it was a beautiful performance!!

And now we are off to the market to get a few items for the week. This weekend has been so peaceful and relaxing. Our home is so quiet...I just love sitting in here and doing nothing. I hope the day passes slowly....not quite ready for it to be Monday just yet. 

So you wanna do a pullup?

Cause I do. Lately I've been really into "goal centric" training...whether it's to attempt a race, beat my speed running, or up my number of burpees, it helps me stay motivated to have specific goals when working out. I have a few things that I'm working on now, one being, the Pull Up. I've researched, watched videos, and put together a plan to help develop and strengthen my lats and back muscles so that I can get this body ready to pull itself up!

I also added triceps today because most likely I'll want to do a muscle up after a pull up. ;) Really, I wanted to work another part of my upper body, and back and triceps pair together quite nicely.




For Smith Machine Pullups, lay on your back and set the bar high enough to where you have to lift up  a few inches in order to reach it. Using a strong grip (careful not to just use your fingers/thumbs but the entire hand to strengthen your grip) lift body up while keeping feet on the floor. Body should stay in a straight line from head to toe. Then bend arms, squeeze shoulder blades together and pull up towards the bar. Watch a video here . His bar is higher, but it'll work either way. As far as number of reps, start with 12-15 if you can.

For lat pull downs, seated cable rows, one arm dumbell rows, and tricep pull downs, focus on using heavier weights and completing less reps. I started at 8 reps and was down to six by the last circuit.

When using the assisted pull up machine, use the least amount of weight as possible until you can eventually (one day) work your way up to using no weight. This basically helps you feel what it would be like to do an actual pull up, before you are able to pull up your entire weight. Focus on keeping shoulders down and engaging back muscles while you are hanging, then pull up. I started with 12 reps, but again, was down to less reps by the last circuit.

When I was finished, I had about 10 minutes left to end with a good stretch session which I really needed after an intense leg workout yesterday. If you are super strong and fast and have more time than that left, add in extra cardio or stretching to the end of your workout.

*What are some of your current fitness goals?
*How do you stay motivated when it comes to working out?

Spartan Sprint!

This weekend I completed my first race ever, The Spartan Sprint! Now I did a few 5Ks in college but those really don't count because my guess is that I was forced into those for community service points for something or other. Plus I know for a fact I was not running. Anyway, my first race. I was looking forward to it for weeks and as I told you in my last post, I felt pretty well prepared for it. I continued preparation on Saturday, by taking a nap during the day, having a delicious bowl of whole wheat pasta and veggies for dinner, and heading to bed at 8:30pm. I didn't stock up on my sleep THAT much, since my wake up time on Sunday was at 4:40am.

I woke up with an adrenaline rush, feeling wide awake. I toasted a gluten free english muffin and topped with PB and banana before heading out the door at 5am.

Fuel!

Ready to go. 

Louis, who is seriously the best, accompanied me on this early morning extravaganza, and drove me to Pennsylvania while I relaxed. We met up with our friends/the team, then arrived to Blue Mountain around 8am, registered, and chatted as our start time approached. We stretched, looked at some of the obstacles and I personally loaded up on gels and sipped water until it was 9:30am.

Here I am doing a quick practice...climbing over the wall, however, for this one you're actually supposed to use those blocks to climb sideways from one side to the other. 

Me and my race partner!

The team getting pumped up.

Strategizing, most likely. 

I didn't really feel too nervous the days before the race, or the morning of, but nerves definitely kicked in as we lined up to begin. I felt slightly ill, but really excited.It was finally our time to go and we began the sprint up the most gigantic mountain ever. A few minutes in, everyone's sprint turned into more of a walk as the slope became more and more impossible to run. We trudged up and up and up, and then soon reached a breaking point where we had to grab sand bags to carry up the rest of the way. I am not really sure how heavy the bags were, but they felt heavy! The guys got bags that were even heavier. During this time Louis, who was a spectator was being taken up the mountain on a ski lift along with one of our friends and I heard him shout down to us...which was fun knowing that he could see us! The entire mountain climb, I tried my best to not look up to see how much further we had left - for one I felt like I'd topple down backwards if I did, and two - I really didn't want to know. I felt like this was the main time where all my running really paid off even though we weren't running. My legs felt strong and though I could tell I was pushing myself to the max, I felt like I could do it. It was amazing once we got to the top, we got quick sips of water, but then had to head down partially with the sandbag. With shaky legs, the downpart wasn't too much easier. Soon we threw out the sand bags and the obstacles began.

We did several different ones, some I could do, some I failed and had to do the 30 burpees. Failed 4 to be exact. We climbed tall nets, went up and down muddy hills using a rope, went over walls (with the help of some guys who didn't mind giving a quick boost to get us started), threw a spear into a stack of hay (obv failed that one), dragged a concrete block by a chain, flipped big tires, did the monkey bars, jumped from log to log, pulled a rope to raise some heavy thing high up then lowered it back down, went up and down muddy hills and pits, went down a slip n slide and swam through the most amazing, magnificantly, cold mud pool (naomi and I were in HEAVEN during that part it felt amazing), crawled through rocky mud underneath barbed wire, climbed sideways across a wood wall, attempted a rope climb - only got up 2 knots but I tried...it was so muddy and slippery, and jumped over fire. I am sure I missed a few things but that gives you an idea! During the obstacles Louis got to meet up and watch which was perfect because it ended up being super fun for him. Plus, what a treat to see him along the way!!

The trudge. 

Ran into Louis during this part - note the half smile while I pulled my way up (even though it doesn't look like it's on a slope..it was!).

Feeling good.

Finishing up the concrete block pull. I thought this would hurt my hands but somehow it didn't. 

Tossing that bad boy back in the pit. It's not really a pit.

I forget where I was heading off to...maybe the tire flip.

Hello Louis.

 
Hello water. So happy here cause I was successful at the monkey bars. Those always were my favorite.

This is around when it started getting really fun.

Boys leaving us in the dust.

Got this thing up no problem, but then the sun was blinding me and this lady had to yell to me that I'd reached the top and it was time to lower. 

A bunch happened between these two pics...this was at the very end right before the rope climb. There's barbed wire over my head and it was pretty low. This is where the planks came in handy since I had to lift myself up a bit to avoid scraping my legs completely while staying low. 

Failed the rope climb. Welp! What's a few more burpees. If you could even call them burpees by this point in the race. 

For this I had to pull myself up one side using a rope and then crawl down the rest of the way. 

 And last....the fire jump!! All my years in ballet paid off...so full of grace I am. 

A closeup because I think this is my most magnificent life moment. 

I was so excited to see him and show him my fab medal!

Who knows what I was possibly jabbering about here. 

Our team!

So proud of us. :)

I passed on the post race yogurt cereal snack and went straight for the beer. 

I might have downed it in three minutes.

So, my thoughts? It was the most amazing experience. It was so exhilarating!!! Everyone who participated was so supportive and encouraging. Everyone was willing to help and cheer people on. There was little running, which I kind of wish there was more running, but it was really fun to enjoy the obstacles after making it up that mountain. I could have run through the trails on the way down but I was sure I'd slip and ruin myself for the rest of the race so I pretty much did little skips and hops all the way down. The entire coursed ended up being 4 miles.The last couple things we had to do were crawl under barbed wire in the mud and the rope climb. Then...the fire jump. I can't explain how awesome it felt to jump over that fire pit!! I think I had a smile on my face for the next three hours. I was so happy to have finished and that I loved it!!! It was really, really fun doing it with a team, and especially to have Naomi right there with me the whole time! Also, we finished in 2 hours, which we were happy about since we'd been praying it didn't take us 8. I think the fastest time people completed it was in 40 minutes...but those guys are clearly not human.

I couldn't wait to see Louis at the end and give him a big, muddy hug!!! While he was so super supportive, he was pretty proud and relieved when he saw my face at the end. As you know, I have a million and one fears, and this year one of my goals was to stop being afraid. While this wasn't a terrifying experience by any means, it was definitely something out of the norm for me and the type of thing I never would have imagined myself doing. I'm definitely hooked - all day I've been replaying yesterday through my head...and texting Naomi about when we can do another one of these races. It feels like such an accomplishment and I am so proud that I tried it, and finished, while having so much fun.

Even though we had a big group lunch after, we decided to grill when we got home since we are addicted! Louis whipped up this amazing dinner.

And today? All cleaned up (with the exception of some scrapes and bruises on my knees and arms) and back to being a lady.

Hope your weekends were as fun and exciting as mine....or exactly what you were hoping they'd be.