Category workouts

Hi Friends!

It’s friday again. I can’t believe I’ve already done two months of Fitness Friday posts.

I look forward to them each week. I even got fancy this week and made some pretty colored workouts for you 🙂

But first, let’s talk about my new favorite toy:

Have you heard of the Gymboss Interval Timer. Guys, it’s AMAZING!!! Especially if you’re into doing Tabata workouts, intervals or circuit workouts like me! I used mine for 3 workouts this week. I don’t use it when i’m on the treadmill, but it’d be perfect if you were running intervals outside!!

Here’s how it works: You can set the Gymboss to keep track of intervals for you. You can choose one or two intervals at the same or varying lengths of time. So when I do my tabatas I set one interval for 20 seconds and one for 10 seconds. Then you can choose how many rounds you want, so if you want to do 5 tabatas, with 8 rounds each you can set it for 40 rounds and it counts down how many you have left. You can also choose how you want it to signal the end of each interval- a loud set of beeps, a softer set of beeps, vibrating or both beeps and vibrating!

This has made my workouts so much easier because I don’t have to drag my computer downstairs to use the tabata time or constantly check the timer on my phone. You just start the gymboss and then totally focus on your workout.

Some other perks:
-You can use it as a stopwatch, a countdown timer or a repeating interval timer.
-It’s super light and clips easily to your shorts or pants
-It comes in all sorts of fun colors
-It’s water & shock resistant
-It’s small and doesn’t get in the way

Best of all? It’s only $20!! The lovely Gymboss folks provided this timer to me for free (All thoughts and opinions are honest and my own), but if they hadn’t, I would have bought one myself! You guys should definitely check them out.
So now that I’ve raved about the Gymboss, let’s look at how I used it for my workouts this week:

Jan 27^th-Put together a tabata workout to try out my new gymboss timer! Inspired by this flamingo workout:

This workout was a fun way to change it up. I enjoyed the challenge of doing things like shoulder presses on one leg. I used 15# dbs for most of the exercises, 25# db for the deadlifts.

Jan 28^th– Hit the treadmill for some intervals. I chose 8.5 as my fast running speed and 4.5 as my recovery speed. I wanted to cover 3 miles. Here’s what I did:

This workout was great! It pushed me but was still doable. I was definitely tired by mile 3 which is why I slowed down my fast run speed but I still finished the 3 miles in 27:00 minutes.

Jan 29^th– I had a test to study for but wanted to squeeze in a quick workout after I got off work. I put together a list of 10 bodyweight exercises and headed to the basement with my gymboss. I set the repeating interval timer for 50 sec/10 sec, 20 rounds. This will get your heartrate up but you’ll still be all done in 20 minutes. No equipment needed!

Finished off the workout with a 2 min plank and two 1 min planks. Here’s a description of Bulgarian Split Squats. I just do it holding dumbbells, not a bar like in the picture.

Jan 30^th– I didn’t sleep well the night before and literally had to drag myself off the  couch but it ended up being my best workout of the week. I hit the treadmill for some more intervals but decided I was going to jog during my recovery instead of walk.

Here’s what I did:

Pin It

So here’s the deal. This workout was a bit of trial and error. For the first mile, I ran the very first minute at 8.0 and decided it wasn’t fast enough so I bumped it up to 8.5. That mile took 8:12. For the next mile I did all 8.5/6.5 and it was 8:06 which I realize isn’t exactly an 8 min mile per the title but it’s pretty darn close! For mile 3, I was tired. So for the first 4 minutes I did 8.6/6.6. Then for the next 4 I did 8.6/4.5. Once I hit 8 minutes I was at 2.92 miles so I bumped it back up to 8.6 and finished mile 3 in 8:35. It was amazing!!! At first I felt bad that I had to walk during my recovery intervals for the second half of that last mile…but then I realized that all three of my miles were still faster than the fastest one I did on Saturday!

Definitely one of my new fav workouts. Next time I’m going to try to do all of them at 8.6/6.6.

Jan 31^st– rest day

Feb 1^st– Needed a heavy lifting day so I picked 4 moves and really focused on heavy weights.

I chose a heavy weight and then a slightly lighter one for round two. I’m getting to the point where it’s almost as hard to hold the 30# dbs as it is to squat with them! I miss having a bar to do squats. But anyways, my legs were screaming by the end of the lunges…and then I went and did wall sits!
I turned my Gymboss into a countdown timer and it was perfect for the wall sits and planks! All I had to do was reset it for the new time during my 30 sec rest periods 🙂

Feb 2nd– Holy soreness from yesterday! That coupled with the fact that I was tired from work and super stressed almost led to me skipping my workout tonight. But I knew I wasn’t really too tired…I was just crabby. So I forced myself downstairs with the promise that I didn’t have to run if I didn’t want to, or lift. So what did I do? Literally crouched on the treadmill in a ball for about 5 minutes staring at the wall…then I got up and started walking.

We all know I like intervals. They help pass the time quickly…but this time I focused on increasing the incline for varying interval lengths (30 sec, then 60 sec, then 90 sec) and left the speed constant.

 This workout was exactly what I needed tonight. I was dripping sweat when I was done and it reminded me of something i often forget. You DON’T have to run to get in a good workout on the treadmill. Walking workouts can be brutal. Especially if your legs and butt are already sore 🙂

Today’s Workout:

Rev & Recover Tabata Workout
I kept the tabatas simple with only 2 exercises for each one. Tabatas 1 & 2 and 4 & 5  will rev up your heart rate and get you breathing hard. Tabatas 3 & 6 let you actively recover with tabatas geared towards ab exercise.

I liked this tabata because it was quick, but still got me sweating. I did 20 sec of work/10 sec rest eight times total per tabata so each exercise was done 4 times. It took 24 minutes with no rest between tabatas.

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!

Hey Hey Friends!

We made it to Friday once again! You know what that means…time for another round of workouts!

This week was pretty cardio heavy, including two 3 mile runs and a serious 1000 rep workout…but it also included 2 rest days and a day of heavy lifting! I like to think that’s a good balance 🙂

Ready? Here we go:

Jan 20^th– rest day

Jan 21st– The hubby and I had to stagger our workouts so one of us can watch the dog this week…so, he went first and ran 4 miles in 40 min! So proud of him!!

When it was my turn, I put together an interval workout for myself with my fastest treadmill speeds ever! It’s a 10 min cycle so you can choose how many times to repeat it to get to your desired workout time.

I did it twice and covered 2.3 miles in 20 minutes, then finished out to get to 3 miles by doing the next five min at 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.1, 6.0 (one min each) and then a min at 6.5 and a min at 7.0 to finish 3 miles in 26:50!

Before today I’d never gone above 8.0 on the treadmill so this was pushing it for me. If you need a little extra time to recover, especially after the first cycle you can walk 30 sec at 4.0, run 30 sec at 6.0 and then leave the speed intervals the same. That’s what I did for the second cycle.

Here’s what it looked like:

Jan 22^nd– I seem to be in a running mood this week, but sometimes I like to break it up with a little break or two. I set out with the goal of running 3 miles total, one mile at a time. In between, I did three 4-min tabatas to give myself some active recovery!

I ran the three miles in 27:52 (9:17 pace) and each Tabata took 4 minutes. I rested for 1 min after each Tabata. I set the treadmill at 6.5mph for each mile. It was tough, but not impossible. By the time I got halfway through the last mile, I wanted to take the speed down to 6.0 SO BADLY but I fought a mental battle with myself and told myself I could do it at the speed I was at, and I did!

Jan 23^rd–  Suddenly it was 11pm and I hadn’t done my workout yet! After 2 days of cardio I decided to do some heavy weights w/ some of my fav arms & legs exercises.

For me, theses were heavier weights than I usually use to do my high rep circuit workouts so this was a challenge for me. I tried to pick a weight that I would really struggle with in the last set. This took me 20 minutes and I felt great

Jan 24^th– Was in the mood to push myself so I put together a new 1000 rep workout. I broke it down into 10 moves, 25 reps of each, repeated 4 times.

Pin It

This.was.killer. If you’re not feeling the burn after this one, I want your legs. Seriously, I almost collapsed on the last set of lunges. If 1000 is too much for you, just do the cycle twice. This took me about 45 minutes, but there was a little editing going on while I was doing it as I worked out the best moves and what order to do them in.

Jan 25th– Rest day!

Jan 26th– Another late night workout. I was in the mood for the treadmill but not just running. I came upon this workout from Jillian at Sprinkle Massacre just before I went downstairs and decided to use it as my starting point.Basically I did the first half and then decided I didn’t like the slower speed/higher incline combo so I reversed the workout and went back down the pyramid and then added a few min at the end.

Mine looked like this:

I finished 3 miles in 32:50.

To be honest, this was easy for me. It works out to about an 11 min/mile pace, which explains why…but my legs were feeling good. I felt like I could have run forever at this pace. If I wanted to challenge myself I would need to up the speeds, but this was a great workout for tonight. Exactly what I needed- just to get moving, sweat some but not totally kill myself. WIN!

Now it’s your turn! What’s the best workout you did this week?!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!

Hi Friends!

We’re back again for another Fitness Friday!

I’ve got a week’s worth of workouts to share with you, plus another vlog!

So let’s get right to it! Here are my workouts for the week:

Jan 13^th– Put together a 25 min Tabata workout for hubby & I, inspired by this one from Lindsay.

Doing only 4 exercises per tabata and repeating them really made this workout go by quickly.

————————————————–

Jan 14^th– Hubby took a rest day and I hopped on the treadmill for a quick run to loosen my legs. Started at 6.5mph and increased by .1 every minute up to 6.9 and back down.

I covered 2.21 miles in 20 min. I hit the two mile mark at 17:54 and then finished out the last 2 minutes. I felt good about this workout because I ran the whole thing, even though I wanted to stop several times. It got me sweating but still let me feel like I was stretching my legs.

—————————————————–

Jan 15^th– Rest day

—————————————————-

Jan 16^th– Put together a workout full of partner exercises to do with the hubby!

We took it kinda easy this workout because we were working through all the exercises and figuring out exactly how to do them. Feel free to increase the number of sets/reps you do with your partner.

A few moves that might need an explanation:
Throwdown situps– One partner sits on the floor with their knees bent. The other partner kneels on their partners feet, put their hands on their partner’s shoulders and pushes them down. The partner on the ground should engage their abs to resist as they go down to the floor slowly and then sit back up
Hamstring Drops– Have your partner kneel in front of you with their feet behind them, soles in the air. Stand on the soles of their shoes and push them forward. The partner will fall to the ground and land in pushup position, then pull themselves back up, engaging their hamstrings.
DB/Med Ball Situp Handoffs– lay down opposite each other on your backs with your feet touching, one person holding a med ball or dumbbell. Sit up and pass the weight to your partner, do another sit up and exchange the weight again. You can also lock your legs together to help your feel from coming up off the ground.
Plank Walkup Hand Slaps– Start facing each other in plank position with your palms on the floor. Both partners lower onto one forearm, then the other, then push back up onto one palm, then the other. Then lift your right hand, slap your partner’s right hand and repeat but slap their left hand.
Situp Punches– One partner lays on their back with their knees bent. The other partner kneels on their feet and holds their hands up over the partner’s knees. The partner on the floor does a situp and lightly punches their right hand across into their partner’s right hand and their left hand across into their partner’s left hand. Do another situp and repeat.
Twist and Pass– Stand back to back. Both partners twist to one side, pass a db or med ball and twist to the other side and pass it again. Two passes is one rep.
Leg Throwdowns– One partner lay on the floor. The other stands behind their head so the partner on the floor can grab their ankles. The partner on the floor lifts their legs off the floor and the standing partner throws them down to the floor. Repeat.
Wheelbarrow Pushups– One partner grabs the other partners ankles and lifts them into the air. The partner with their feet in the air does pushups. Switch partners.
Resistance Band Tricep Extensions– Each partner holds one end of the same resistance band and alternates doing tricep extensions.

——————————————————-

Jan 17^th– Put together a terrible 2’s workout. Wanted something that would pass quickly and be done quickly. The basic idea is you alternate a 2 min fast run with 2 minutes off the treadmill doing as many of an exercise as you can in 2 minutes without compromising good form.

Here’s what mine looked like:

This works out to be 20 minutes long, with 2 minutes of rest total . Get it- 22 mins, 2 mins each exercise, Terrible Twos Workout? Clever right?! Write down how many reps you do of each exercise and try to beat that number next time! If you can’t do a two minute plank, hold it as long as you can and then immediately do another that’s long enough to get you to two minutes.

I covered 1.26 miles on the treadmill. Loved this workout! Flew by and really got me sweating. I did 56 squats, 60 lunges, 38 burpeees and 45 squat jump-ups. I probably could have done more squats but I wanted to go at a speed where I could keep going steadily for the whole two minutes.

A few things:
-Make sure you choose a running speed that is challenging for you. 8.0 mph is the fastest I usually run on the treadmill so it was VERY challenging for me to run at this speed for 2 whole minutes.
-If you’re not tired enough to need the 30 second breaks after running, you’re running fast enough!
-For the squat jump ups, you can use a box/exercise step/or your imagination. Stand with your feet on either side of your box/step, squat down and then jump up on to it with both feet. Step down on either side and repeat.

————————————————

Jan 18^th– Legs were tired so I walked an inclined mile on the treadmill at 4.0 mph/ 7.0 incline and then did a resistance band arm workout.

This workout was just average. I don’t have a good set of resistance bands. Mine don’t have handles and I found it very hard to do some of the exercises. I’m planning to look for a set with handles and try some more resistance band workouts because I really like them!

————————————————-

Jan 19^th– Put together a bench workout that only require the use of a bench and your body weight. It can be done anywhere there’s a bench. In your basement, at the gym, at a park…

Here are the reps I did for rounds 1 & 2: Jump-ups (20,22), Pushups (27,31), Lunges-right & left (26, 29), Dips (31, 30), One Leg Step-ups- right & left (23, 25), Leg lifts (25,26), One leg squats-right & left (20, 22), In & Outs (29, 32), Calf Raises (45, 45).

Here’s me doing my best to explain all the moves in writing:

Bench Jump-ups: Start straddling the bench. Squat down and jump up with both feet landing on the bench. Step down and repeat.
Incline pushups– Place your hands on the side of the bench and do a pushup
Decline pushups– Place your hands on the floor and your toes on the bench and do a pushup
Lunges: Place one toe on the bench and step out with the other leg. Move up and down, forming a 90 degree angle with your front knee, then switch legs.
Dips: Place your hands on the side of the bench and use your triceps to move your body up and down
Step-ups: Start with both feet on the ground, stepup with one foot, follow with the other, and then back down
Leg Lifts– Lay on the bench with your legs hanging off one end. Bring your legs up so they’re perpendicular with the floor and then back down to parallel.
One legged squats: Balance on one leg, squat down and touch your but to the bench and stand back up.
In and Outs: Balance your butt on the bench and lean back. Pull your arms and legs into your chest. Lean back and extend your arms and legs out, then pull back in as you sit up.
Calf Raises: Stand on the edge of the bench or on the ground next to the bench and raise up and down on your toes.

And here’s a little vlog I put together of the moves so you guys can better understand what i’m talking about!

So there ya have it! My week of workouts. They’ve all been added to the fitness page as well. Now it’s your turn. Tell me about your workouts this week! Do anything fun?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

PS. The winner of the Everyday Happy Herbivore Cookbook…

….is Kelly from Laughter, Strength & Food!

Congrats Kelly. Email me your mailing address so we can get your cookbook out to you!

LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!

Hi Friends!

Time for another Fitness Friday and I’m super excited about it this week for several reasons:

1) I did some awesome workouts this week!

2) The hubby has jumped onboard the workout wagon and has been working out with me all week!

3) I did my first vlog about a plank workout!

So, let’s recap those workouts shall we?

Jan 6^th-3 mile run.

I did the whole run without stopping, in 27:42. I ran outside because it was so freakin’ nice out! Shorts in January? When does that ever happen?! When I got home, I took down all the outdoor xmas lights (because I’m an awesome wife) and then I did some planks, including my first ever 3 minute plank!

3 min plank
2 min plank
1 min plank

Jan 7^th– rest day….it was Saturday and I was busy enjoying the day 🙂

Jan 8^th– Got up early and made up a tabata workout to do with the hubby!

It looked like this:

[print_this] Pin It

[/print_this]

This workout was challenging. Hubby remarked multiple times that he “hates Dr. Tab” 🙂 Loved it! Another option would be to do all the exercises once and then start over and do the whole cycle 8 times.

Jan 9^th– Did a killer stair workout. I visited the reservoir where I used to row on the crew team in college. It’s called Hoover Reservoir and at one end is Hoover Dam (not THE hoover dam) but it’s still pretty impressive. There are stairs that run up both sides of the dam, 98 stairs. And after I saw Lindsay run them last week, I knew I had to get myself out there and do it too.

I headed over after class and ran the set of 98 stairs 15 times. I didn’t stop in between so it took me about 20 minutes and my legs were SHAKY by the end. When hubby got home from work, he couldn’t believe I went without him, so we put the dogs in the car and headed back over and ran them 10 more times!

So, 98 stairs 25 times = 2450 stairs plus there was another set to get to the 98 so we’re just gonna go ahead and call that 2500 stairs! My calves were BURNING the next day.

After the first round of stairs I came home and did some planks: 2 ½ min plank, 1 ½ min plank, 1 min plank.

Jan 10^th– Rest day. I wasn’t feeling 100% and my calves were super sore from the stairs.

Jan 11^th– Hubby and I made up a circuit workout in the basement using the treadmill and rowing machine that we have, along with some dumbbell exercises.

It looked like this:

[print_this]

[/print_this]

Here’s a shot of what our setup looked like. Excuse the mess, and note Hubby passed out on the weight bench after we were done!

Afterwards, I did an intense plank workout. I started thinking about all the different kinds of planks and plank exercises you can do and I just strung a bunch of them together:

[print_this][/print_this]

And look! I made my first vlog about this plank workout! I had quite the time getting the video camera up high enough so that you could see me. Check out my setup:

After I was done, hubby came home and informed me that we have a tripod, so I’ll probably just use that next time 🙂 But this was fun!

Anyways check out the video if you feel so inclined. Hubby says the intro is too long, sorry about that…still workout on this whole video thing. You can skip through the beginning to get to the exercises if you want!

Eeeep! So there ya go! Let me know if you try it out! I know my form’s not 100% perfect- but I was too worried about talking to the camera! I’ll get better 🙂

Jan 12th- Hubby & I did another slightly modified version of one of my fav 100 workouts. It’d been a couple weeks since i’d done it and i missed it! And it was fun introducing it to hubby, although he complained about how many leg exercises there were 🙂 I did modify it a bit to make it leg focused since my arms were tired.

This is what it looked like:

[print_this]

[/print_this]

And that’s a wrap. A week’s worth of workouts in the Bean household.

A couple more things to point out:
1. I fixed the button on the right sidebar so you may subscribe to The Lean Green Bean via email if you’d like…just click the button that looks like an envelope.
2. I’ve added a button so you can easily follow me on Pinterest. Just click the button on the right sidebar
3. Speaking of Pinterest, I added one Pin It button in today’s post (under the tabata workout) but I’m not quite advanced enough to figure out how to put it under every workout. But if you ever see a workout or a recipe you really like here on The Bean, and you use Pinterest, I’d love it if you pinned your favorites to your boards! You can install the Pin It button on your toolbar (directions here) to make it super easy for you to pin stuff from any website you might be on throughout the day!

Whew, I’m exhausted. That’s enough for today!

Happy Friday friends 🙂

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Today’s Workout:

Put together a 25 min Tabata workout for hubby & I, inspired by this one from Lindsay.

Doing only 4 exercises per tabata and repeating them really made this workout go by quickly.

LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!

It’s Friday!

Due to last Friday being Foodie Penpal reveal day, today you’re going to be treated to two weeks worth of workouts!! This goes all the way back to before Christmas if you can believe it.

I was pretty impressed with myself when we took our trip to NYC. I used the gym there to workout 3 of the 4 mornings and gave myself rest days on the two days we traveled, plus Christmas. Better than most of my vacations!

So here we go:

Dec 23^rd– Ran on the treadmill. I ran one min at 6.5 mph, one min at 8.0 mph and repeat until I reached two mile. Ran two 8:20 miles. Fast for me!! Then walked the dog 2 miles.

Dec 24^th– Wasn’t in the mood but did a quick weights workout anyways. For arms I used the machines a little bit since I don’t have those at home. I used heavy dumbells for my legs to help get my heart rate up and I could definitely feel it.

[print_this]
Arms & Legs Strength Workout

[/print_this]

Dec 25^th– Christmas! Rest day!

Dec 26^th– Gave myself another rest day while we traveled home.

Dec 27^th– Inspired by this workout: http://www.fitinheels.com/2011/10/new-workout-obsession-tread.html and this workout: http://www.angrytrainerfitness.com/2011/10/get-with-the-program-the-14-mile-drag-workout/

Mine looked like this:

[print_this]

 30 Minute Quarter Mile Workout

[/print_this]

I ran all of my quarter miles at 7.0 mph and finished the two miles in 17:40. Adding the 8 minutes of exercises and the few minutes of walking warmup I did brought me to just under ½ an hour. I was dripping sweat.

If you want to make this harder you could: run faster, run longer in between exercises, or use dumbells. I did all of the exercises with just body weight and did as many as I could in 1 min. I also didn’t rest at all.

Next time I’m going to add another mile and alternate running my quarter miles at 7.0 and 7.5, or increase my speed each quarter mile for a mile and then start over, pyramid style. I really liked this workout because it got me sweating, kept my heart rate up and the time flew by!

Dec 28^th– Decided to try the Spartacus Workout: http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/high-intensity-circuit-routine/index.php

Did one round and wasn’t a fan. I’m not sure if it was my mood, or the exercises, or a combo of both, but I wasn’t feelin’ it at all.

Hopped on the treadmill and ran a mile in 8:43. Did 100 crunches, 50 reverse crunches.
Finished up by doing 50 bodyweight squats, a 90 sec plank, a 60 sec plank, 50 more squats and two more 60 sec planks and called it a day.

Dec 29^th– Rest day. I was weirdly sore from my random workout yesterday and chose to spend some time with the hubby instead.

Dec 30^th–  I used this workout for inspiration: http://www.thedailycrumb.com/2011/12/27/tomorrows-workout/ but made some modifications because I could tell my legs were tired as soon as I started running and that I would need some walking breaks

Mine looked like this:

[print_this]
Run/Walk Interval Workout
[/print_this]

Total Time: 32 mintes
Distance: 3 miles

This was the perfect example of modifying a workout to fit your needs. I have no doubt I probably could have the original workout…but on this particular day, it just wasn’t going to happen. But instead of just giving up, I made some modifications and ended up finishing 3 miles. I was pretty impressed with that considering how many walking intervals I did. Just another example of why I love HIIT intervals! I hit the 2 mile mark at 22 minutes and then finished up that last mile in the last 10 minutes. I ran the last 3 minutes instead of just two to get to 3 miles.

To finish up, I did a 2 minute plank!!! And then a 1 minute plank.

Dec 31^st– Wanted to squeeze in a quick run before heading out for our NYE celebrations. Here’s what I did: 2 min @ 8.0 mph, 1 min @ 4.0 for the first mile. After the first three minutes of the second mile, I switched to 1 min @ 8.0 mph, 1 min @ 4.0 mph. I finished up 2.1 miles in 20 min, did two 90 sec planks and called it a day.

Jan 1^st– Put together a leg-heavy workout because I didn’t feel like running.

[print_this]

1000 workout

 [/print_this]

My legs were exhausted by the end and the next morning they were SORE. I loved it. I’ll be doing this one again for sure. Took me about 45 minutes but I wasn’t going as quickly as I could have.

Jan 2^nd– Got our first snow of the winter and we both had the day off so the hubby and I bundled up and took the dogs on a 2.5 mile walk!

Jan 3^rd– Needed to do some work on arms. Threw together some of my fav exercises, alternating arms and abs.

[print_this]
Arms & Abs

[/print_this]

My arms felt like jello afterwards. I think the ab part could have been a little more challenging. I’ll up the intensity a little next time.

Jan 4^th– did The Devil’s Workout: http://www.fitinheels.com/2011/11/devil.html

Followed her workout exactly. This was my first tabata workout and it was serious business! My legs were SCREAMING by the end!

I used this online tabata timer which is amazing: http://www.beach-fitness.com/tabata/

You can set up the length of time for each interval, number of intervals and then it changes the color of your whole screen between green and red when you should be going or stopping so you don’t have to watch the actual time, you can just glance at the screen. It also rings bells to tell you when to start and buzzes when it’s time to stop.

Overall awesome workout! Definitely will be doing more tabata routines.

Jan 5th– rest day

So there you go. My two favorites were the tabata workout and the 1000 workout that I created. I was sore for 3 days after the leg workout, and the tabata one was just a lot of fun. It got me moving and definitely made me feel the burn. I love that you don’t need a lot of equipment to do the tabata workouts. I did mine in the basement and I didn’t have a box to jump over, so i used a giant bag of (clean) cat litter. Whatever works, friends!

What’s the best workout you did this week? Feel free to leave me a link!!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!

It’s time for another Fitness Friday post!

{Source}

If you’re looking for some workout inspiration or ideas, be sure to check out my previous Fitness Fridays!

Fitness Friday 1
Fitness Friday 2

Here’s a look at my workouts from the last week:

Dec 16^th– I was feeling pretty tired from yesterdays workout but knew I should get on the treadmill. It’d been a while since I did anything on an incline so I put together this 25 minute routine.

[print_this]

25 Minute Incline Walk/Run Treadmill

[/print_this]

I went 2.06 miles.

Running on an incline is hard for me even when I’m not tired so 6 mph was plenty fast enough to challenge me. I tried bumping it up to 6.5 for one minute and quickly realized I wouldn’t make it through the workout at that speed so I went back down. 3 minutes is a long time for me to run continuously at an incline so the running intervals were definitely challenging. I was dripping sweat when this was over!

Dec 17^th– I didn’t have much time before I had to be ready to go out to dinner but I still wanted to get some weights in, so I put together a 20 minute circuit with one minute intervals. 10 minutes legs, 5 minutes arms, 5 minutes abs.

Here’s what it looked like:

[print_this]

20 Minute Circuit Workout

Do each exercise for one minute and move immediately to the next.
To make it slightly easier, take a 15 second break between each exercise.

[/print_this]

This was definitely challenging, especially without any rest in between!

Dec 18^th– The hubby and I took the dogs on a 1.75 mile walk. It took us about 27 minutes. Then, instead of laying down to read my book, I went downstairs and hopped on the treadmill with the goal of walking for an hour while I read. I set the incline at 6.0 and started at a slow mph so that I could read without the book shaking around. For the first 20 minutes I walked at 3.0, for the second 20 minutes I slowly increased my speed from 3.0 – 3.3 mph. For the last 20 minutes I stopped reading and bumped the speed up to 4.0. I finished 3.25 miles in just under an hour.

Total: 5 miles walked in approximately 1 hour and 25 minutes.

Dec 19^th– I hopped on the treadmill this morning and walked another 3 miles. For the first 20 minutes I walked and read at 3.5 mph, incline 7.0. From minutes 20-25 I bumped it up to 3.7 mph. Then I put the book down and bumped it up to 4.0 mph. When I hit 2 miles, I increased my speed to 4.2 mph and finished 3 miles in 47:05.

After a short break for lunch, I headed back to the basement and did a new 100 workout. I modified the one I’ve been doing on Mondays: http://www.healthywithheather.com/2011/11/100-workout-strength/

And made it all legs.

Here’s what it looked it:

[print_this]

100 workout LEGS

[/print_this]

This took me 23 minutes. I used weights for the 100 squats, deadlifts and calf raises but did the rest with just bodyweight. My goal was to finish in under 25 minutes.

Dec 20^th– I woke up not feeling the greatest and with a sore hip and knee. However, I knew I was going on vacation so I wanted to get a quick workout in at least and thought I could handle doing some arms and abs.

Arms:

[print_this]

Quick Arm Workout

[/print_this]

 Abs: 2 min plank, 1 min plank, 100 crunches, 100 reverse crunches

Dec 21st- Rest day/travel day

Dec 22^nd– first time at my parent’s gym. They have an elliptical which I haven’t used in months so I did 20 minutes on that, and then hopped on the treadmill and ran a mile. I set it at 6.5mph (9:13) mile and guess what? It was easy!!! Felt like I could have ran forever. That means I’m making 6.5 my new slow/recovery speed in some of my workouts instead of 6.0 mph!

3 miles on the elliptical (20 min) + 1 mile on the treadmill (9:15)

—————————————–

So there you have it! A week’s worth of workouts. Now it’s your turn. Tell me one fitness goal you achieved or set for yourself this week!??

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!

It’s Friday!

To celebrate, we’re going to kick this post off with a little confession. Are you ready?

I’ve been, for the most part, wearing the same sports bras since high school. I know, I know, please don’t judge me. They’ve literally been through thousands of volleyball practices, gym sessions and loads of laundry. They’re faded and let’s face it…old.

SO when Champion offered to send me a few new ones to try, you’d better believe I was all over that offer! They arrived earlier this week and if you follow me on twitter, you may have seen my tweet about my exercise motivation arriving via mail!

Since I pretty much live in workout clothes all day, every day, even though I usually don’t exercise until late at night, I immediately put this one on. And lemme just say, it’s awesome. And after my terribly sweaty running workout…you know what? It was still awesome.

I love love love that they’re moisture wicking! And they’re tagless…which is awesome because almost every tag annoys me so much that I cut it out, and then it still itches, or I can’t remember how to wash whatever I’m wearing….anyways, tag free is the way to be. And finally, I love the thin straps. I’m kind of obsessed with this style…fashionable AND effective.

Fact: Sepia photos make your muscles look better!

The next day I tried out this one which was also great. Mine is plain black, but this style is super fun because it’s reversible and they have several different ones with two colors. I’ve yet to try the third one, but i’m sure i will love it equally as much 🙂

Bottom line is, buy yourself new workout clothes….don’t wait 10 years like I did. But you know what, those 10 year old sports bras? Champion. They’re built to last. I’m just sayin….Now if i could just find some workout pants that I liked this much!

And now for a look at this week’s workouts!

Dec 9^th– http://iowagirleats.com/2009/12/16/a-quad-burning-gasp-inducing-morning/

Only had to make a few minor changes. Mine looked like this:

26 min interval run
[print_this][/print_this] 

Total: 2.5 miles in 26 minutes

Even though the total rest day did me a world of good, I was still a little tired so on the way back down the pyramid, I split the recovery runs into one minute walk, one minute jog…instead of 2 minutes of jogging. Then I amped it up at the end with 2 minutes of running at 6.5 and walked an extra minute to get to 2.5 miles. I really liked this one because it changed up the speed and intervals but it was easy to follow and remember when to change speeds and heights. Next time I do this one I will eliminate at least 2 of the walking minutes.

Dec 10^th– I used this workout generator (which is AWESOME by the way- Amy is a genius) for inspiration & put together a bunch of moves to make my own workout.

[print_this][/print_this]

This took me about 30 minutes. The stability ball stuff was the hardest because I hadn’t used it in a long time.

Dec 11^th– http://www.yourinnerskinny.ca/25-minute-bodyweight-workout/

I found this workout thanks to Lindsay who tweeted about how awesome it was. Without an interval timer, I decided it would be too much of a hassle to switch between my timer and the list of things I was supposed to be doing so I did reps instead of time, and knocked off the last set to make it still take 25 minutes.

Mine looked like this:

[print_this][/print_this]

This took me exactly 25 minutes. I didn’t rest between any of the moves within each set and rested no more than 30 seconds between sets. It definitely worked up a sweat and it was just bodyweight so there were no weights to worry about. I’ll be doing this one again. I want to do it the original way with timed intervals and see which way I like better.

Dec 12^th– http://www.healthywithheather.com/2011/11/100-workout-strength/

Did my favorite Monday workout again. Shaved another 4 minutes off my time so took 32 minutes. I used 10 lb dbs for everything except the deadlifts where I used a 15lb. Took it a little easy on the weights because my back has been a little sore. I used to have major problems with my back when I played volleyball and rowed so I try to pay attention when it hurts now. As much as I like this workout, there are a few moves I’m not crazy about so I think I may switch it up just a bit next week.  No quad pain this time but I noticed my knees were sore walking around the rest of the night.

Dec 13^th– much needed rest day!

Dec 14^th– Made up my own treadmill workout. I wanted to force myself to run for an extended period of time and recover to at 6.0 instead of walking like I have been…but still needed intervals to pass the time more quickly.

My workout looked like this:

[print_this]

Treadmill:
2 min @ 4.0
1 min @ 6.0
1 min @ 6.5
1 min @ 7.0
Repeat running cycle 5 more times to get to 20 min

Abs:
25 stability ball tucks
25 crunches
25 reverse crunches
Repeat once

Treadmill:
2 min @ 6.5
2 min @ 6.5

Repeat running cycle 3 more times
2 more minutes at 6.5 to get to 10 min

[/print_this]

Treadmill Total: 3.12 miles, 30 minutes

I really liked this workout. Changing the speed every minute helped pass the time quickly and I pushed myself to use the 6.0 to recover instead of go down to 4.0. This was the longest amount of steady running I’d done in a long time. Truthfully, I was ready to be done after the first 20 min run and the abs….but I pushed myself to get back on and do another mile.

And then I tweeted this:

And I truly believe it. I’m making it a goal to push myself just a little bit further when I feel like I’m done with each workout. Doesn’t always have to be as big as a mile…could just be 25 extra crunches. Every little bit counts!

Dec 15^th– Made up a weights workout of my own. Combined a lot of moves that are used on various days in the Jillian Michael’s Slimdown App which I have a free trial of.

Here’s how it looked:

[print_this][/print_this]

This one was fun because I did some moves I’d never done before like split squats and sumo squats. I also really pushed myself on the arm weights and I could definitely feel it by the end. It took me about 50 minutes.

So there ya have it! A week’s worth of workouts in Lindsay’s world.

One thing I’m finally getting the hang of this time around with exercise is the difference between tired and lazy.

When you’re sitting on the couch telling yourself you’re too tired to work out & you just wanna sit there and watch one more show, or read one more blog, you’re not tired, you’re being lazy. GO WORKOUT!

When you’re sitting on the couch and the mere though of trying to get up and go to the basement/gym/treadmill literally makes you want to cry out in pain or collapse from exhaustion, you’re not being lazy, you’re tired. Your muscles are screaming for time to rest and recover. LISTEN TO THEM.

There’s nothing wrong with a rest day when you really need it.

So tell me, what’s the best workout you did this week? Got any good ones for me to bookmark?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Today’s Workout:

25 Min Incline Run/Walk

I went 2.06 miles.

Running on an incline is hard for me even when I’m not tired so 6 mph was plenty fast enough to challenge me. I tried bumping it up to 6.5 for one minute and quickly realized I wouldn’t make it through the workout at that speed so I went back down. 3 minutes is a long time for me to run continuously at an incline so the running intervals were definitely challenging. I was dripping sweat when this was over!

LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!

Hi Friends!

We’re going to do something a little different around here today. Hope you like it. I know at least one friend is looking forward to it (Hi Britta!!) Over the past few months I’ve been posting some inspirational workout mantras, usually over the weekend to help encourage you to exercise…but I’ve never really talked about exercise on my blog. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and since I’m studying to become an RD, I strongly believe in finding a healthy balance between eating well and exercising.

Growing up I was always an athlete. I played volleyball, soccer, softball, basketball, swam on a swim team, ran track….you name it, I did it. As I got to high school, I narrowed it down to volleyball and played pretty seriously year-round. In college, I did crew (rowing) for the first couple years. Then, somewhere around my junior year I kinda fell off the wagon. I wasn’t eating right and was having a lot of fun, so even though I would head to the gym occasionally, it wasn’t really doing much.

After I graduated, I got serious about eating right AND I started exercising. Then, over the next few years I went through exercise cycles. I’ve kept my eating pretty much on track but when it came to exercise, I’d go through a few months where I was really into it, and then I’d get sick, or busy, or just stop caring and I’d do nothing for a while. Between the hubby and I, we wasted a lot of money on unused gym memberships…

But over the last year or so I’ve slowly gotten my act together. Especially since late spring. My gym membership expired, so I started running outside and I’ve been running pretty consistently since March. And that was all well and good for the cardio side of things. But I knew something was still missing- weights.

I’ve lifted weights before. I took a class in high school, I had lift for volleyball, I’ve been to personal trainers…I know how to do it correctly. In fact, I used to be pretty freakin’ strong.  And being a nutrition major, I know how important it is. But quite frankly, I just haven’t felt like doing it for ohhh, the past 6 years or so.

Good news is, I’ve fallen in love with weights again. You may have noticed that as soon as Thanksgiving hit this year, all sorts of exercise posts started popping up about avoiding holiday weight gain. A lot of bloggers, like Samantha & Kristin, are hosting awesome exercise challenges. I don’t know what it was about this year…I read these same kinds of posts last year…but this year I got the spark! Two weeks ago I decided I was going to make exercise a habit again. And not just cardio…weights too.

I’ve challenged myself to break a sweat every day until the new year and so far I’m on a roll. I also started doing something I haven’t done in a long time….I’ve been writing (well, typing) down my workouts. Mostly for myself, but also so I can share them with you! I’ve had about 1.8 million workouts bookmarked from other bloggers and I thought this challenge would be the perfect excuse to start going through and actually doing them!

So here you go…my first two weeks of workouts. I’m literally just copying and pasting what I sat down and wrote after each workout so it’s kinda like an exercise journal. There are links to the original workouts, plus how I modified them, how far I went and how long it took me. I’ve been trying to do two more intense strength training workouts a week, plus a few full body and some running. I’ve found that circuits and intervals work much better for me than just getting on the treadmill and running 5 miles. It helps keep my attention span and passes the time quickly. I’ve also been using Saturday as an active rest day, typically to walk the dogs. But don’t let that fool you- they provide quite the workout!

Nov 28^th– http://www.healthywithheather.com/2011/11/100-workout-strength/

Took about 45 minutes. Used 15 lb dbs for the 100 squats and 8lb dbs for the rest of the workout. Exhausted by the end!

Nov 29^th– http://www.eatingbirdfood.com/2011/05/protein-overnight-oats-and-incline-walking-hiit/

Changes- after incline 15 at minute 17, I went back down to 12, 8 & 4 and then walked two extra minutes at incline 2 to get to 1.5 miles.
took 22 minutes

Nov 30^th– http://www.sweettoothsweetlife.com/workout-log/30-minute-speedy-interval-run/

Changes- had to modify this one since 8.0mph was as fast as I’d gone on a treadmill and didn’t want to push myself too much. Mine looked like this:

2.62 miles, 30 minutes. If I did it again, I would cut the warmup and cooldown to 4 minutes and add and on two extra running intervals, plus cut the two 2 min walking breaks down to one minute each. Could easily reach 3 miles next time. Still super sore from Monday’s workout so taking it a little easy.

December 1^st– made up my own supersets workout!

Took about 35 minutes, sweaty by the end. Tried to think of two supersets where you could do the exercises simultaneously and three where you alternated

December 2^nd– http://www.sweettoothsweetlife.com/2011/11/19/20-minute-give-it-your-all-hiit-workout/

Modified: Again, I didn’t want to run at anything about 8 so after confirming that by running the first interval at 8.5, I dropped all of the 8.5s down to 8.0. I also added an incline for the warmup and added a couple walking breaks.

Mine looked like this:

*incline 8.0

Although I wasn’t nearly as sore as I thought I’d be when I got up this morning, as soon as I got on the treadmill and started running I could tell how tired my legs were. I wanted to bring the 6.5 down to 6.0 so many times but I compromised by giving myself two walking breaks instead. Near the end I could tell I wouldn’t get to 2 miles if I walked the last 3 minutes so I walked one and ran two.

2.00 miles in 20 minutes

Considering I walked 5 of them, I’m pretty happy with that! Next time I do this I’ll try to eliminate the two walking breaks or increase them from 4.0 to 6.0

Dec 3^rd– Active rest day. Walked the dogs 2.35 miles in 32 minutes.

Dec 4^th– http://insweetnessandinhealth.com/2011/12/04/incline-pyramid-interval-workout/

Modified this to make it a bit harder. I knew walking at 3.5 would be too slow for me so I bumped them all up to 4. I decided to challenge myself and run them all at 6 instead of decreasing speed. Mine looked like this:

Pyramid Interval Treadmill Workout

2.0 miles in 25 minutes. This wasn’t the hardest workout ever but it definitely got me sweating. I could really feel my legs using different muscles than when I run at no incline. The 4 minutes at the 10 incline were tough!

Dec 5^th– http://www.healthywithheather.com/2011/11/100-workout-strength/

Loved this one so much last week I did it again this Monday. Took me 36 minutes. 10 minutes faster than last week. Used 10 lb dumbells the whole time. My arms were feeling it! My right quad was a little tight. Hurt on some of the lunges but pushed through! On the chest flies and back flies I did arms and legs separately.

Dec 6^th– intended to do this workout: http://www.faithfitnessfun.com/14123/a-blessing-in-disguise/

Could tell as soon as I started that my body is too tired. Adjusting to all this working out it catching up to me so I adapted. Wanted to get my muscles moving. I was sore today but not nearly as sore as I was after last Monday’s workout. My upper body was more sore and I could definitely tell I used 10 lb dbs instead of 8. Today’s run was long intervals and it was BORING. They seemed to last forever and it made the run go slowly. I could tell I was tired because running at 6.0 mph was hard for me and that’s usually my slow slow pace. I wanted to stop so many times during the last 6.7 interval but I knew it was mental so I pushed through it.

Total 3 miles, 33 minutes.  It wasn’t anything crazy but it got me sweating and covered the distance I wanted it to.

Dec7th– http://pinterest.com/pin/612408822/

Modified the crunch and leg lift part of each set

Mine looked like this:

 99 workout

This took me 1 hour and 5 minutes. I covered a mile in my very slow run/walk at the end. This workout was a bit long to do all the time. I’d say it’d be good to do once a month or so to change things up but not every week. I was sweating by the end.

Dec 8th-  In honor of this post, I took a total rest day 🙂 It was MUCH needed.

So whaddya think? More fitness on The Bean? Or should I just stick to food? Please note that future fitness posts would not be this long!!!

Happy Friday 🙂
–Lindsay–

LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!