Tag Archives: rest days

Weekly Moves and Grooves XXVIII {Fitness with Friends}

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The pressure is finally on.

I was telling you all on Thursday that I wasn’t quite feeling the pressure to study for finals, but it has definitely hit me, don’t you worry. One more week—we can do this! Moving and grooving (especially outside when the sun is out) has been a wonderful way to take a study break and get the blood flowing in between long periods of sitting.

weekly moves and grooves

This week involved more workouts with friends (only two, but that’s still more than usual). I should work out with buddies more often— it’s twice as fun and motivating!

Sunday

Rest

Monday

circuit workout a la dorm

4 rounds:

  • 6 chair mountain climber complexes (10 decline mountain climbers ➔ step off to one side ➔ pushup)
  • 20 tuck jumps
  • 10 pushups to T
  • 20 jump lunges
  • 10 burpees
  • 20 modified v-ups

This took a little over 20 minutes, and I was beat from those chair mountain climber complexes.

Tuesday

Purely Twins’ 100 burpee workout

100-burpee-purelyfitlife-workout

Agh, my favorite.

Wednesday

squats with PJ + assisted pull-ups and burpees + ab tabata

This was my first time ever having a squat buddy! PJ saw that I was at the squat rack and came over to be my spotter (which I guess I should have more often?), and we ended up taking turns squatting our hearts legs out. I don’t remember how many sets I did, but I started with 115# and worked up to 135#.

PJ was squatting somewhere between 200-300# (he’s been in the 1000 pound club— the total pounds of his bench, squat, and deadlift were over 1000 lbs…actually, 1200 lbs!).

Whatever the weight, we were both waddling the next day.

I also did 10 min. EMOM (every minute on the minute):

  • 3-5 assisted pull-ups (70-80# assistance)
  • 5 burpees

Then 4 rounds of 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest:

Thursday

Rest (for SURE)

Friday

4.54 mile run

Hey, hey look at that. I ran! As usual, I was having an internal debate as to whether I wanted to run or not, but the weather was perfect, and I thought it would be a good study break/shake out for my sore legs.

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I ran in the afternoon and just took a screenshot of this at night, in case you were wondering about the time.

I wasn’t planning on running negative splits (let’s be real, I don’t usually plan on running, period), but I was chasing this random guy towards the end who was running slightly faster than my pace. Also, starting off slow and steady definitely works well.

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Saturday

ultimate frisbee with friends

Wowza, this was a WORKOUT, but it was incredibly fun! I can’t do sports that involve hand-eye coordination usually, but I can do frisbee. We were all smoked after playing, but it was just what we needed during study period.

All my workouts caught up with me by Saturday afternoon after frisbee, so I was walking slower than a snail for the rest of the day. The only thing I wanted to do was eat, foam roll, and sleep. I did one of the three. Guess which one!

{answer: eat}

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Hope you all have a lovely Sunday! It’s a steamy 72F today and 81F tomorrow here in Boston!

So tell me:

Do you like working out with friends?

Have you run outside recently?

What was your favorite workout this week? Frisbee wins for me!

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Weekly Moves and Grooves XXV {When School Gets Crazy}

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This weather has me OFF THE WALLS right now.

In a good way! I’ll gush about it more tomorrow, but today I’m coming at you with a recap of weekly moves and grooves from the past two weeks since I skipped last Sunday for Easter!

I’ve gone to the gym three times in the past two weeks just due to a hectic schedule. But I always feel better when I exercise, so I fit it in when I can!

weekly moves and grooves

Sunday

jog to the gym + leg workout

My butt and hamstrings were sore for THREE DAYS after this. Oh my word.

Monday

Rest

Tuesday

gymnastics warmup + circuit workout a la dorm

4 rounds:

  • 10 modified handstand pushups
  • 15 burpees
  • 20 modified v-ups
  • 25 plank jacks
  • 20 straight leg tricep dips
  • 15 supermans
  • 10 side crunches each side

This took about 23 minutes. I wanted to do a quick workout focused on upper body and core exercises to give my sore posterior chain some more rest. Oof.

Wednesday

sun salutations (lots of down dogs, planks, pushups) + bodyweight circuit + random burpees

4 rounds for time:

  • 10 pushup burpees
  • 16 jump lunges
  • 20 pushups
  • 30 mountain climbers
  • 40 air squats

This was another workout in the dorm. I usually go to the gym with my buddy PJ on Wednesday mornings, but I skipped it this week because I needed an extra half-hour of sleep and extra time to study.

I still enjoy working up a sweat and getting my blood flowing before sitting in class for three hours straight though, so I did another bodyweight circuit workout. The pushups are what got me on this one! I finished in 15:00 flat.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Active rest/bodyweight workouts

I really don’t remember what I did on these days because Holy Week festivities are dominating any other memories of those three days.

{Easter} Sunday

Tabata workout in the dorm

4 rounds of each // 20 seconds hard work: 10 seconds rest

It was a glorious Easter morning! I slept in didn’t have much time to spare before choir practice, so I got the blood flowing in the dorm.

Monday

gymnastics warmup + 100 burpee challenge

I PR’d again!

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Wiped.

This time I broke it up into sets of 35, 15, 20, and 30. I had to dig deep to do 30 in a row for that last set.

Tuesday

circuit workout in the dorm

3 rounds:

A great, quick workout! This took about 18 minutes.

Wednesday

jog to the gym + upper body workout + rowing thruster workout

The upper body workout consisted of assisted pull-ups, arnold presses, bent over barbell rows, decline pushups, seated rows, and lat pull downs.

The rowing thruster workout was 20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2 cals on the rower with 8 thrusters (40#) between each set.

Thursday

Rest

Friday

12 minute HIIT from Purely Twins + 8 minute ab tabata

I had approximately twenty minutes to fit in a workout [before showering] before class, so I went for it! The 8 minute ab tabata included v-ups, ankle taps, cross body mountain climbers, and spiderman planks.

20 minutes is all it takes these days!

Saturday

dynamic warmup + lower body + 8 minute ab tabata + squats and burpees

I went to the gym with my friend Christine (who has a blog too!) yesterday!

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We started off doing our own workouts first. So I did some lower body weights:

  • 4×12 lunges each leg (50#) (two sets reverse lunges, two sets front lunges) // 30 side jump lunges between each set
  • angled leg press: 1×10 (180#), 1×8 (200#), 1×6 (210#), 1×5 (220#) // 10 pushup burpees between each set

Then we met up for an 8 minute ab tabata:

  • weighted Russian twists
  • leg lift crunches
  • mountain climbers
  • spiderman planks

And Christine requested that we do squats and burpees, so we ended with 3 rounds of 15 goblet squats + 10 burpees.

We were both sweaty beasts beauties. 😉

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Off to do homework and stuff. I’ve been using the nice weather as an excuse to procrastinate all day ahh!

So tell me:

What was your favorite workout/way you moved this weekend?

Have you recently had a workout that made you sore for DAYS?

Weekly Moves and Grooves XVI {Listen To Your Body}

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 Just popping in (very late) this evening to share…

weekly moves and grooves

Studying for finals swallowed me up this weekend. We are almost home free, fellas!

Sunday

20 min. bodyweight workout from Jess + leg strength

I loved this two-part bodyweight workout from Blonde Ponytail! I did it in my dorm at 7 pm because I wasn’t about that dark and cold mile trek to the gym on Sunday night.

20-mins-body-weight-workout

For the AMRAP, I did 9 or 10 rounds, I believe. I love how it moved quickly and incorporated simple yet effective functional movements. Like my favorite—burpees!

I also did three rounds of 10 pistol squats each leg + 20 Bulgarian split squat hops each leg. Those hops burnnnn.

Monday

5 min. row warmup + 400 Heavy Rep Workout from Hilary

heavy

{via}

This was fun and tough! I used a 20# dumbbell for the single arm high pulls, a 30# bar for the thrusters, and a 35# dumbbell for everything else (the gym here does not have kettlebells). Also, instead of jumping rope after each round, I did 10 pushup burpees. It was quick (under 30 min.) but effective! Just what a college student needs!

Tuesday

30 min. arc trainer + 8 min. ab tabata

I did steady state cardio and it felt like an eternity, but it was a nice way to loosen up after Monday’s workout.

For the ab tabata, I did 4 rounds of 20 sec. work, 10 sec. rest:

Wednesday

Rest

Thursday

5 min. stairmaster warmup + leg workout

This workout was all over the place because I was kind of tired and my back was bothering me, so it was all about listening to my body.

I started with 8 weighted pistol squats each leg + 30 side jump lunges, then 10 regular pistols each leg + 30 side jump lunges, and then I stopped with the pistols there because my lower back wasn’t happy about it.

3 rounds of each set:

  • 12-15 Bulgarian split squats each leg (25#) + 20 jump lunges
  • 20 plie squats (35#) + 8 pulses in plie + 10 pulse squat jumps (pulse five times in squat position before jumping up)
  • 8-10 hamstring curls (90#) + 20 surfer jumps

And then I started this burpee/arm ladder workout with goblet squats instead of swings, but I stopped short because my body was just done. Yes, I could have pushed through, but I wanted to be kind to myself and just stretch.

Friday

arm workout

I warmed up with some pushups and shoulder mobility exercises before jumping into a “wing it” workout.

  • 4 sets: 8 lat pull downs + 12 arnold presses
  • 10 pushup burpees (random)

3 sets of each:

I finished with an 8 minute ab tabata with reverse crunch leg lifts, mountain climbers, and side plank hip raises L/R.

Saturday

Rest/Walking

I will be posting a HECK of a lot more once finals are over because then I’ll be on winter break, during which I will have zero homework. Hallelujah!

 

Weekly Moves and Grooves XIII {It’s Okay to Have a Light Week of Workouts}

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The fact that this is week 13 of sharing my workouts with you all from my time here at Boston University is mind-blowing. Also mind-blowing? Two days until I go home for Thanksgiving. *twerk twerk twerk* 

Just kidding, I can no longer twerk without my grandma booty.

So this week has, as usual, been busy and fun and full of surprises. However, this week I especially found myself having only enough time to do mostly dorm workouts, which meant a lot of them had to be kept short and sweet, using only bodyweight. In the past, I would have beaten myself up over this because I wasn’t burning as much calories as I “could” be if I had more time to go to the gym and use weights. Either that or I thought my workout wasn’t “hard enough.”

Ugh, this former mindset of mine frustrates me now because:

a) You can still get in a killer workout with just bodyweight. (Quality over quantity.)

b) Working out is no longer about how many calories I burned. It’s about health and just moving because that’s what I love to do (see blog name).

Thus, although my former thoughts of “exercise guilt” (which Taylor so wonderfully blogged about here) creeped up on me this week, I’ve thankfully been able to put things in perspective and to enjoy the extra rest. I actually realized that my body wants more sleep as soon as I slow down my workouts for a few days, which probably means the rest was just what I needed!

weekly moves and grooves

Sunday

Random stuff in my dorm room 

I don’t even remember what I did. Definitely some burpees, an ab tabtata, one round of this workout, and possibly some handstand attempts in there.

Monday

5 min. stair master + leg workout

  • Pistol squat and burpee ladder (inspired by Jen’s squat burpee ladder):
    • 10 pistol squats each leg + 10 burpees // 9 pistols + 9 burpees //…1 pistol + 1 burpee

3 rounds of each:

Tuesday

100 burpee workout

I was totally feelin’ the burpee urge on Tuesday so I came up with a workout that included 10 burpee variations to keep things interesting. This is why I love burpees! It took a little over 14 minutes to complete, but I was wiped afterwards.

  • 10 burpees to T pushup
  • 10 burpees to tuck jump
  • 10 plank jack burpees
  • 10 broad jump burpees (I just turned around each time instead of going forward after each jump)
  • 10 alternating side burpees
  • 10 single leg burpees (5 each leg)
  • 10 180 degree burpees (180 degree turn on the jump up)
  • 10 dive bomber burpees
  • 10 jump lunge burpees (do three jump lunges into a single leg burpee, then repeat on the other side)
  • 10 crossfit style burpees

A few of the burpee variation demos can be found here!

Wednesday

Bodyweight circuit

3 rounds

  • 10 single leg burpees (5 each leg)
  • 20 supermans
  • 10 chair mountain climber complexes (5 decline mountain climbers on a chair + step off to one side + pushup + step back onto chair and repeat to the other side!)
  • 20 tricep dips
  • 10 prisoner get ups
  • 20 squat jumps

I took my time going through this because it was late in the evening and I was anticipating my roommate coming into the room at any minute, so I was on guard to roll up my mat so I wouldn’t be in her way (or so I wouldn’t be mid-chair-mountain-climber when she walked in).

Thursday

bodyweight pyramid workout in the morning + 5 min. row warmup + 1000 rep workout + yoga

The bodyweight pyramid done in my dorm to get the blood flowing in the morning (my roommate had already left):

  • 100 jumping jacks
  • 90 high knees
  • 80 mountain climbers
  • 70 side plank hip lifts (35 each side)
  • 60 second plank
  • 50 alternating lunges
  • 40 single leg hip bridges (20 each leg)
  • 30 jump squats
  • 20 pushups
  • 10 burpees

I did Julie’s 1000 rep workout when I went to the gym later, and it was awesome. I hadn’t done it in such a long time, but it’s one of my favorites because you get to go through so many different exercises one after the other. The anti-boredom workout essentially!

Friday

Lee’s bodyweight strength and cardio circuit 

bodyweight-circuit-workout-tabata-cardio-GOOD

{via}

I love this workout!! The exercises are so fun, and I really like the tabata after each round.

Saturday

Rest/Walking

Lots of walking to/from/at work!

I am thankful for the able and healthy body God gave me, but there’s no good in making a god out of it. There is more to life than a “crushed” workout. 🙂

Happy Sunday, folks!

So tell me:

Are you familiar with exercise guilt?

Do you like bodyweight workouts?

Resting: I Don’t Think I’m Doing It Right

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Hello!

Thank you all for your warm congratulations on my acceptance into UVA yesterday! I’m definitely very excited that it is an option now. I also loved chatting with you over breakfast through the comments 😉

Today I want to talk about something that’s been on my mind for the past month or so now. Some of you may remember my post about how I intended to slow down my workouts and let my body try to sort itself out (aka get my period). I said I would still be exercising, but the intensity would be cranked down significantly.

Like I’ve said before, honesty is my best policy, and I’m going to be downright honest with you today. I have not been resting quite like I said I would. 

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[source]

I know, I know. I’m disappointed in myself too, but let me explain things a little bit more.

I have decreased the intensity of my workouts significantly. I have done only a handful of burpees, I have not picked up a weight heavier than 30 lbs., and the only tabatas I’ve done have been ab-focused. I also don’t push myself as much as I used to— if I’m tired, I slow down or stop. When I first wrote this post, I started off fairly well by only doing bodyweight workouts and light cardio that didn’t push my heart rate very much. Incline walking, yoga, and Blogilates were my best friends (and I still love them!). 

More recently though, I’ve been doing circuits and pacer tests in phys ed, more intense elliptical workouts, lots of dancing, and some more weighted exercises at the gym (with light weights). I’ve noticed that I’m still working up a decent sweat and heart rate during my workouts, and I’ve slowly, unintentionally amped up my workouts in the past few weeks. Like yesterday— I did a 20 minute elliptical workout followed by some lower body sets that made me drip sweat before I knew it. That would signal a good amount of intensity… I also wasn’t expecting to do well for the pacer test at school since I didn’t think my cardio abilities would be up to par, but I was surprised when I was able to keep up with some of the better runners in the class. This is when I realized: Maybe I’m not really doing this whole “rest” thing correctly…

My emotions keep wavering in regards to this situation. On one hand, I’m disappointed that I haven’t been sticking to truly low-intensity exercise. On the other hand, I actually feel great. Keeping up some strength training helps a ton in dance, and I enjoy exercising more than ever before. In fact, I think I feel stronger now more than ever. I think this is because I’m taking more rest days and I’m not pushing myself to the limit during every single workout like I used to. I leave the gym feeling refreshed, not depleted. I’m also becoming even less uptight about what I eat. If I want a whole plate of pasta, a bowl of ice cream, or some chips, I’ll have it. If I want a salad, eggs, or fruit, I’ll have it.

Then it dawned upon me: I’ve only taken a small step in this mission to get my body functioning properly, but I still need to take bigger steps.

What I’ve been doing: Resting more, eating more.

What I should probably be doing: Resting EVEN MORE, eating EVEN MORE.

*Sigh* Why is this so much easier said than done?!

As of right now, I’m going to try my best to keep things low and slow, and I want you all to make sure that I am! But I know that with dance and everything, I’ll still be exercising quite a bit, so here are some changes that I’ll be making that might help make a difference:

  • no more than a 5 minute warm up on cardio machines
  • ONLY bodyweight exercises (don’t pick up those weights, Alison, don’t do it!)
  • eat more energy dense foods such as nuts, avocados…and ice cream 😉 (since eating more in volume can be difficult)

To be honest, part of me is wondering if any of this will even work. What if there’s no way to fix this but to completely cut out all exercise? I don’t know. We’ll see what happens with this for now. Once dance is over, if no progress is made, I will take more severe action. 

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So yes, you could say that I’m sort of “postponing” my efforts. However, I think I just haven’t been trying hard enough, and now I’m checking in with myself and realizing that I need to do just that. With God’s help and with my family’s/friends’/your support, I’ll make this work.

I hope this all makes sense. Thanks for reading if you’ve gotten this far 🙂

No questions today, but any thoughts?