Day Twenty Eight: YMCA Workout

I went back to the YMCA today and just did a 35-ish-minute workout. I ran for about 20 minutes on the treadmill to warm up and get some cardio in (I’m still working on increasing cardio workouts – I’m not a huge fan of doing more than 20 minutes or so, unless it’s Sproing or a sport for fun…). Then I did some lat pulldowns and rows with 60 pounds, and then I did 30-second plank intervals (30 seconds plank, 30 seconds side plank, 30 seconds plank, 30 seconds other side plank, without dropping), 30 pushups (15 normal, 15 triceps), stretched, attempted to do a splits stretch, and headed home. Not the most strenuous workout I’ve ever had, but my body is still feeling all the barre workouts I’ve been doing, so I’m glad I took it a little easier than normal today.

Day Twenty Seven: Pure Barre Marin

Today’s workout was another Pure Barre class (yes, I’m somewhat of an addict… I’ve looked into monthly contract pricing more than once), at a different location. It was another great workout that made my legs, abs, butt, arms, and everything else burn and shake in such an awesome way. And I looked at myself in the mirror this evening and I can definitely see results! My arms are more toned, my stomach is flatter, and my butt (“seat,” as they call it in Pure Barre) is lifted. So cool to see! And now I’m even more committed to working out and eating healthily, after having seen some positive change in just a few weeks (27 days, to be exact).

Anyway, the barre class today was great, and the instructor, Alex, was really fun and upbeat, as all the Pure Barre instructors have been! And after class, we could try some free juice samples that a neighboring company makes. Pretty cool, and an overall positive workout experience!

Day Twenty Six: Bar Method Marin

I went to another ClassPass class today, this time at the Bar Method in Bon Air Shopping Center. I’ve been to another Bar Method class, in Chicago, which I enjoyed due to the emphasis on getting perfect form, but I have to say I LOVED this class! The instructor, Alyssa, was incredible – knowledgeable, encouraging, and engaging, as all instructors I’ve had are, and she also had a killer sense of humor. When she explained which part of the body we should be focusing on in certain exercises, she told us which items of clothing it would make us look great in. She gave us alternatives for exercises that would make them more difficult by saying “And here you have the option to *whatever*. And by ‘option,’ I mean ‘it’s a Friday in the holiday season, get your butt in gear!'” These little one-liners and jokes made the class fly by, and it kept me focused on something other than the burn. And yes, it BURNED!

This class was one of my favorites to date!

Day Twenty Five: Pure Barre San Rafael

Today, I realized that my ClassPass month is ending on December 7, and I haven’t used my 3 allotted uses out of some of my favorite studios in Chicago, and since I can use it in any city with ClassPass, I signed up for my favorite – Pure Barre!

Just like all my other Pure Barre experiences in Old Town Chicago, I had a great time at Pure Barre San Rafael, and had yet another great instructor who pushed all of us to give it our all and corrected when needed while still being encouraging and upbeat. The class definitely kicked my butt (in an awesome way, of course), and I’m so glad I went!

Day Twenty Four: Long Walk and a Few Hill Sprints

The three-week workout program I mentioned in yesterday’s post called for 45 minutes of cardio today. My initial thought: “um, no.”

I’ve never been a huge fan of running just for the sake of running – it was always for soccer conditioning in middle school and high school – and I’m not a big biker, swimmer, ellipticaller (?), or any other cardio-based workout that isn’t playing sports. I would’ve been down to go play soccer or tennis or some fun sport with friends, but since I’m currently at home with my parents, the pickings are slim for fielding anything more than 2-player soccer (to clarify, that would be me and a wall).

I was honestly pretty close to not even working out today. I was pretty lethargic, and it was one of those dark gray almost-raining-all-the-time-but-never-quite-raining days, so I had very little motivation. But I made the smart choice to tell my mom about the three-week workout plan, and I answered her inquiry about today’s workout being 45 minutes of cardio, she suggested that we go on an up-tempo walk. I like to encourage my family (mostly my parents, since my sister is a workout powerhouse) to be healthy, so I figured this was good for me and for my mom. And I even did 3 sprints up one of the steep hills nearby. I was huffing and puffing so hard that by the top of each hill sprint I probably would’ve been going faster if I had walked, but I felt good about getting some high-intensity moments into the walk.

We ended up walking for over an hour,  and while this isn’t exactly the style of cardio that I’m hoping to do on most “cardio days,” I still consider this a workout, and I don’t feel bad at all about counting this as my 45 minutes of cardio!

Day Twenty Three: YMCA Membership and a New 3-Week Program!

I went to my local YMCA today and got a month-long membership for only $50 – a pretty awesome deal! After filling out the necessary paperwork and swiping my card, I went in to the gym and started day one of a three-week workout program I found on Pinterest (of course… because where else do I get new ideas?). It’s from HerCampus, and it’s technically a pre-spring-break workout for college students, but there’s no reason I can’t just use it to amp up for the New Year! Here’s a link to the workout program. It’s pretty cardio-heavy, which I’m not too psyched about, but as I’ve mentioned in past posts, cardio is the area I think I need the most help in, so it’ll be good to try to force myself to get better about it.

Today, I did the Monday workout for week 1 – 30 minutes of cardio, and the arms, abs, and legs exercises. I think I was a bit dehydrated, because I got a little lightheaded at times, so I’ll need to pay attention to how much water I’m drinking every day and be sure to up my consumption levels, but other than that, it felt like a solid workout! Hopefully I’ll get myself to stick to it for these next three weeks… the challenge will be continuing it while I’m in Seattle visiting Nate… the weekdays are fine, but weekends when he’s home from work can get a little rough in terms of fitness…. We’ll see how it goes next week!

Day Twenty Two: Lazy Day #3

Today, I didn’t do much physical activity (again). Officially Day Three of Slacking Off.

We cleaned up the beach house and packed up the cars, and my sister, her friend and I left around noon and took a leisurely drive down the coast, stopping in various small towns to look around shops and get some snacks, back to our house. Then we went to see the new Hunger Games movie, which I thought was pretty good, picked up some Thai and Chinese food for dinner (I went with Thai – yum!), and spent the rest of the evening hanging out as a family before my sister left the next morning. It was a nice off-day, and I don’t really regret not working out as much as I have the other two days that I missed.

Day Twenty One: Beach Fitness Center (yet again)

I did some more arms and abs today, pretty much the same as I did on day nineteen, plus some stability ball crunches which burned in a great way while I was doing them. Nothing too exciting to update, aside from the fact that I made it to the gym and got a good workout in!

Day Twenty: Beach Fitness Center and a Walk

I went to the fitness center again today and did mostly leg and abs work this time around – I found myself defaulting to a lot of exercises I’ve done in various barre classes in Chicago, and it’s cool to realize that I’ve expanded my exercise repertoire pretty significantly in the past 20 days.

I didn’t feel like I got that great of a workout in, but I woke up the next day (I’m writing this blog post a little late) feeling so much soreness in my butt and upper hamstrings – in the best way possible!

Day Nineteen: Beach Fitness Center

I went back to the fitness center today and warmed up for about 15 minutes on the elliptical, then did mostly arms today. More lat pull-downs (60 lbs. – I’m glad I haven’t lost too much strength since the last time I remember doing lat pull-downs at 70 lbs.), rows, triceps, biceps, milk-jugs (not sure what else to call them…. that’s how my dad described them to me: pretend you’re holding a gallon of milk and pouring it out onto your feet repeatedly), etc.

I’m feeling pretty good about my workouts while we’re up in Bodega Bay, since all our family friends and family members are here and it’d be very easy to just take the Thanksgiving week off!