Weekly Moves and Grooves XXIV {First Run of the Spring}

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

Friends!

It is truly therapeutic to be blogging right now. Thank you for being here to listen to me. I hope to be back with a post tomorrow, but just for now, here are the usual…

…!!

Sunday

jog to gym + dynamic warmup + 8 minute ab tabata + leg workout

The tabata was 10 seconds of rest/20 seconds of work:

weighted Russian twists
reverse leg lift crunches
mountain climbers
spider man planks

Leg workout:

angled leg press: 1×20 (90#), 2×7 (180#), 2×7 (200#), 2×5 (210#) // 5 plank jack burpees between each set
reverse lunges: 3×12 each leg (50#) // 12 split jack lunges between each set
pistol squats: 1×5 each leg bodyweight, 4×5 each leg (10#) // 5 burpee box jumps between each set

Ended with lots o’ stretching!

Monday

Active rest // walking and jumping around outside to keep warm during intramural softball

Tuesday

gymnastics warmup + 1000 Rep Workout from Peanut Butter Runner

Jen’s 1000 rep home workout might just be my favorite bodyweight workout ever. It’s fast-paced, has some of my favorite exercises (*ahem* burpees), and it leaves you feeling accomplished! I finished in around 35 minutes.

Wednesday

jog to the gym + dynamic warmup + upper body + stretching

For the upper body portion, I started with a 10 minute EMOM (every minute on the minute) workout:

Minutes 0-3: 5 assisted pull-ups + 10 squat jumps
Minutes 4-10: 3 assisted pull-ups + 20 jump lunges

For the pull-ups, I alternated between regular pull-up grip (palms facing away from you) and neutral grip (palms facing towards each other). I used 70# assistance to help me get up there. I don’t work on pull-ups as much as I did when I was at home, but slowly and surely I will get an unassisted pull-up again!

(My lats were so sore the next day!)

Then I did:

3×12 alternating side and front shoulder raises // 15 tricep dips between each set

After trying a few more random exercises to see what else my body was feelin’, I decided that I just needed to stretch, so that’s what I did for the rest of my time at the gym. Flexibility has been on the back burner recently, but I need to change that! Not only do I want to maintain a little bit of the dancer flexibility in me, but I also want to make sure I can prevent injury through mobility and flexibility.

Thursday

4.31 mile run

WHAT. I ran again!? First run of the spring, folks! It was a “hot” 43F here in Boston in the morning, so I took advantage of the beautiful temperature to go for a run by the Charles River.

I must admit, I loved the run. I turned on the RunKeeper app, but didn’t check it at all during my run, and I think that’s why I loved it so much—I didn’t feel any pressure to keep a certain pace. I just ran for about 40 minutes and enjoyed the peaceful morning and fresh air. I ended up running 4.31 miles with an average 9:10 pace. I’ll take it!

Friday

Active rest

I did 4 sets of 20 air squats, 20 pushups, 20 sit-ups, and 10 burpees throughout the day.

Saturday

12 minute burpee workout + random exercises throughout the day

Yesterday was a long day of homework for me (and it was also blizzarding outside— yay spring), so I did a quick and intense workout in the morning and then took study breaks to do some more plyometrics, pushups, and burpees.

___________________________________________

Cheers to another week ahead! And happy Palm Sunday/Holy Week to those celebrating!

Trying to count the blessings rather than the paragraphs of my essay I still need to write. BANE OF EXISTENCE x100000.

So tell me:

Do you ever run without a Garmin or app telling you your pace?

Did you have active rest days this week?

Weekly Moves and Grooves V

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

Hi!

Man, has it been a LONG week or what? Thankfully, it has also been a very fast-moving week filled with both work and play. I have a recap of the weekend coming tomorrow because, like I’ve been saying, I feel like I never talk to you all anymore! Expected in college though, right? We’ll all float on alright.

Anyway, here are the workouts that I squeezed into this past week’s busy schedule!

Sunday

Rest

Monday

5 min. stair master warmup + leg workout

3 supersets of each:

10 pistol squats each leg + 30 side jump lunges
12 Bulgarian split squats each leg (25#) + 12 split jack lunges
12 deadlifts (80#) + 16 jump lunges
12/10 hamstring curls (70#/80#) + 20 surfer jumps

My butt was not as utterly sore on the days following this workout, so maybe that means I’m getting stronger?!…

Tuesday

5 min. adaptive motion trainer warmup + 5 rounds of Jess’ 1000 rep workout

…But I was still pretty sore, so 500 reps instead of 1000 was PLENTY. Jess is a badass partially due to her intense workouts (partially because she’s a supermom), so I was quite smoked with this one.

Wednesday

Rest

Thursday

Row-burpee workout from Lindsay + 8 minute ab tabata

https://www.instagram.com/p/kIWZnmmbH2

Ab tabata:

4 rounds of 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest

That burpee and rowing workout wiped me out. ‘Twas awesome.

Friday

Some random jump roping and pushups/burpees at the park

I wasn’t feelin’ a real workout on Friday, so I just headed to the outdoor fitness park to just play around. I practiced double unders, did some pushup variations, and some burpee variations!

Burpee “box” jump-overs (trying not to slip on the slightly damp bench and getting another hole in my body)

Saturday

5 min. stair master warmup + leg workout

3 sets of each:

10-12 pistols each leg + 20 180-degree squat jumps
10 leg press (90#) + 10 split jack lunges + 20 side jump lunges
15 sumo deadlift high pulls (30#) + 25 sumo squat pulses
10-12 hamstring curls (80#/70#) + 20 jump lunges

I’m typing this on Saturday, and I have a feeling my inner thighs are going to be sore tomorrow/today (Sunday) from those sumo squats. I haven’t danced ballet in forever, so that second position plié has not been visited in a while.

I hope you all have a beautiful Sunday! It has been gloomy alllll darn week here, but I think the weather should be sunny and bright today! Perfect for the Lord’s Day 🙂

So tell me:

What was your favorite workout this week?

Burpees or rowing?

How’s the weather?

Intimidated

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

Good evenin’!

Hope you all had an awesome Friday! Mine was pretty productive yet relaxing. I was going to go to the city with some of my best friends, but I ended up being a baby and staying home because I was tired. I’m lame. But as much as I wanted to hang out with them, I think my body appreciated the rest (even if it was only a 45 minute nap).

Lunch

Mom made some fabulous seafood paella in the rice cooker!

Sriracha added, of course

It was a tasty combo of shrimp and fish balls. As in fish “meat”balls. Not…something else. I’m sure you’re just enticed right about now. They’re good though! Even if it is pretty much the mystery meat of the sea. Ignorance is bliss!

My day consisted of finishing up some summer work, working on college applications, blog reading (duh), and a nice workout!

Moves

20 minutes on the elliptical followed by my favorite leg workout from Julie at Peanut Butter Fingers! This always makes my legs feel like they’re going to fall off, but today it felt slightly easier. I think I can increase the weight for my squats, but I’m facing a small dilemma. See, I use the small barbells from the curl rack to do my squats since I’ve never been brave enough to go to the squat rack (partially because I don’t want to see guys from my school there–walkawaywalkawaywalkaway). However, it’s getting harder for me to clean and press the heavier barbells over my head just for squats, which is why I want to try using the squat rack so I can increase the weight without worrying about getting the weight over my head.

I’m not usually one to care what anyone thinks of me when I go to the gym (ya know, since I look like I’m 12 years old), but when it comes to using machines, I like to know what I’m doing for safety and for the sake of not embarrassing myself. I’m intimidated by the squat machine for the following reasons/uncertainties: