Category: Workouts

Getting out of a Slump

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Week 24 is kicking my butt. My energy has dropped, I have a slight cold and my son isn’t sleeping well. These all add up to me not working out. I know I have told my clients time and time again you really have no excuse to not workout and yet hear I am almost a week out with no workouts. I have played in the snow twice so I can’t say I wasn’t active at all but in terms of a true workout – nothing!

Getting out of slump can be tricky. You can tell yourself you will “do it tomorrow”, but a majority of the time the same thing is said the next day. My advice…start out slow, but as Nike says “Just do it”! So that is just what I did.  It took all my efforts to get myself down in the basement for my workout, but when all was said and done it felt good.

Today’s workout was…

200 Jump Ropes
10 Mountain Climbers with Fitball
20 Prisioner Lunges
Stair Calf Raises (start on the bottom step and do 10 calf raises, then step up to the next step and do 9, 8, 7…)
10 RDLs with KB
10 Inverted Push-Ups

Repeat 3 times

Is it a Boy or a Girl?

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The next weightlifting Chavez will be….

its a girl

Happy Friday!

Workout of the Day…

400 meter row
10 Squats
10 RDLs
10 Overhead Press
Repeat 4 times

Foggy Brain

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Have any of you ever experienced the complete and utter feeling of what I would call “foggy brain”.  Lately I found myself zoning out at times and doing silly little things such as turning my blinker on long before I ever need to. I am talking at least 1 mile before I came up to the turn, apparently I was thinking about needing to turn and began to signal. I remember this same feeling with my son. Every once and a while I would feel like my brain has no idea how to function, it may have been most noticed when attempting to talk and the inability to form proper sentences. My cure-all for this situation is food! I believe my little one is growing like a weed and as I am hungry more frequently.

Good news on the workout side of things – my OB says I am good to continue working out and to monitor my contractions when they occur. Problem would only come if I am unable to stop them, which has never been a problem. My goal now is to increase my water intake throughout the day to ensure I am adequately hydrated to help minimize contractions. The most interesting comment made by OB was that due to recent research, regardless of increase in contractions they would not minimize my activity level. Through my own research I discovered that recent studies show that placing women on bed rest does not prove to change the overall outcome of early premature delivery. Therefore, workouts have resumed and I am a happy lady!

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Today’s workout…

Kettlebell swings – 10
Renegade rows with push-up – 10
Kettlebell Single Leg RDLs – 10 each side
Russian Twists – 10 each side
Repeat 3 times

Butt Kicking

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Since I am taking it easier this weekend, I had the bright idea to hop on a stationary bike and get a few extra miles in. Problem being, 24 hours later, my butt has official been “kicked”. Well at least it feels like someone decided to kick me several times in the rear end. This is not a muscle sore, this is a saddle sore. The sad part is that I know that bikes do this to you – I trained for a triathalon! But no, why use my common sense now when I am pregnant and my butt already hurts for unusual reasons?

Lesson learned! But on a positive note I was able to add ten miles to my distance for January and keep the contractions at bay. Sometimes it is good to mix things up in your workout. Bike riding isn’t my favorite form of exercise, especially when it is inside and I am not going anywhere, but many times we stick to our normal workouts and our body gets used to these. Changing up your routine, even slightly, can make those muscles work harder and in ways they aren’t used to. Bruised rear end and all it felt good to get a new workout in!

 

January Distance Challenge – 26.25 miles down and 23.75 miles to go!

Home workout

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Today’s workout…

Warm Up: Jump rope – 6 minutes

Walking lunges – 20 each leg
Push-Ups – 20
Step-Ups – 20 each leg
Tricep dips – 20
Mountain Climbers – 40 each side
Jump Rope – 2 minutes
Repeat 3 times

Winter wonderland!

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It is sad how life seems to take over the truly fun things! Every once and a while you need to remind yourself what you love to do and how much it’s worth to you. My husband and I used to visit the gorgeous Colorado mountains at least 3 times a month, but with work, a house and now kids things seem to change. Sometimes we forget to make time for the things that truly matter to us.  With a blossoming business (strengthtrain4life.com) keeping us busy nearly every weekend, we were very surprised to not see anything on the calendar for this upcoming weekend.  Always having something to do at home, I know that we would have found something to keep us busy.  However, we decided to take a trip to our family cabin to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.  I’m typing this with my feet are propped up in front of the fire as I lay back in a comfy recliner.  It sure feels good to relax.

Before you relax you of course need to move a little!  The family and I decided to take a hike/walk around the property with the dogs.  It was cold and blowing so we didn’t last long, but we’re glad we decided to make the trip. We won’t let a little wind and snow get in our way of a fun romp around the property. As seen above our little one was bundled to the maxes and stuffed into our pack to make the hike with us. He LOVED every moment of it, giggling and talking the whole 1.10 miles we walked. I am grateful for my beautiful and adventurous family – more mountain trips will be penciled into our schedule this summer!!

 

January Distance Challenge – 15 miles down, 35 miles to go!

Make Shift Work-Out-Fit

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Ever had one of those days where you think you’ll be slammed and everything falls apart? Today was one of those days, but it turned out to be a positive. I had two clients cancel leaving me with a two hours of time to kill, but no shirt to workout in! Lucky for me one of my male co-workers kindly offered a clean shirt, while it (and I quote) “might make you look puffy”. I could not help but laugh because the last worry on my mind was looking “puffy” at 21 weeks pregnant while workout.

Today’s workout consisted of…

7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Reps

Power Cleans
Front Squats

Followed by…

Tricep Press
Incline bench
Cable Chest Flys
Decline Cable Chest Press

Energy boost!

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Earlier than usual wake up today, and boy did it make for a tiresome morning! I did manage to get a good workout in and it truly helped increase my energy. Energy can be affected by many things – pregnancy number one, amount of sleep, quality of sleep, food and exercise. To maximize your energy levels its important to balance each of these things.

Today’s workout –

Warm-Up: Half mile (800 meters) on the rower

Workout – 15 minutes as many rounds as possible

500 meter row
5 Deadlifts
10 Box Jumps
Repeat

I was able to complete 4 rounds in 15 minutes 48 seconds (I wasn’t going to quit half way through a round)

Cool down – 400 meters on the rower

 

January Distance Challenge – 13 miles down, 37 miles to go!

Catching Up on Miles

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Today I tested the length of my bladder control. My goal on the treadmill today was to get in two miles.  I am not one who likes to stop mid-way through my workout to go to the bathroom, so I’ll push through till the end potty dance if needed!  My first mile today was a slow jog. By the end of this mile my bladder could not handle another full mile of jogging so I mixed it up. Second mile was intervals of jogging for 0.10 mile and walking 0.10 miles until I hit two miles. At two miles I realized I had energy to go a little further! Final results 2.5 miles on the good old hamster wheel.

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I then finished up my workout with a 1 mile (1600 meter) row on the Rower to get me to a total distance of 3.5 miles for the day!

January Distance Challenge – 10 miles down, 30 miles to go!

Chair Workout

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Today’s workout was inspired by one of my kitchen chairs. Yes, you heard right! What better way to get fit than with using the tools that surround you in your home. We’ve all said it – “I can’t workout at home, I don’t have equipment”. But that can be the furthest thing from the truth. Yes, you have to be creative and yes, it still takes time, but it CAN be done.

If you have equipment such as dumbbells or kettlebells it can make your workout more intense, but you can also do so by increasing the number of repetitions. With my workout today I used two 15 pound dumbbells and a mini band!

Today’s workout…

Chair Step-Ups –  10 each side
Decline Chair Push-Ups – 10
Lateral Step-Ups – 10 each side
Tricep Dips – 10
Single Leg RDLs – 10 each side
Squat Jacks – 20