Post Vacation Return

Back to my routine this morning after a week of basking in the 90 degree temperature, bright sunny skies, and flawless crystal clear waters of Miami. Can't say I'm the slightest bit happy about being back in this miserable, fat, frigid state, however, the workout I got in this morning sure beat the lame hotel gym workouts of the past 9 days! While I did get up early and hit the gym before everyone else got up each day as well as took several long beach walks (primarily to ensure my tan was well rounded haha), nothing beats being back in a fully equipped gym with all the equipment necessary to get in a complete workout.

The first thing I did was hit up the fake-n-bake for a few minutes. While I know this is terribly bad for you and I typically do not condone fake tanning, it was oh-so-necessary this morning to ensure that my prime shade is maintained haha. Plus, my winter depression which miraculously disappeared upon stepping off the plane into the warm Florida air decided to creep back into my system this morning so clearly I am once again completely devoid of my vitamin D! After my mini therapy session I pumped out a very satisfying 20 minute run. While I only did one outdoor run while on vacay (the humidity made my body feel like it was carrying an extra 100 lbs of bricks so I gave up after the one try), the timing of my daily gym sessions was not the best for ultimate motivation, i.e. rolling out of bed and hitting the gym without any coffee does not make for a solid workout. Therefore, this was the longest run I've had since pre-vacay. I really pushed myself hard this morning which was great because now I don't have that "Ew, I'm back from a week of indulgence and now I have to start back at square one" feeling haha.

For weights today I decided to do shoulders and moved back and forth between weights and abs.  I kept it simple, starting with arnold presses (3 sets of 8) and then moving on to air-crunches (3 sets of 16 side-to-side).  These felt extremely hard, probably because the hotel gym had limited ab equipment so the majority of my ab exercises involved variations of planks and push-ups. I was also very happy to have my bosu ball back again to  add-in some extra stabilization to my workout! Next, I moved on to front and latteral arm raises (3 sets of 8 each) and then ended with tee-pees (3 sets of 8), balancing on the top of the ball in between sets.

I kept up a solid pace and a good sweat the whole time, drank about a gallon of water, and left after about an hour and a half of gym time. Pretty good post-vacation Sunday morning workout if you ask me! I hit up the grocery store afterward and stocked upon my new favourite post-gym / lunch item, yogurt with granola and fruit. I had key-lime flavour yogurt today which wasn't nearly as good as the slice I had at Joe's Stone Crab the other night but the strawberries, raspberries, and Kashi Go Lean crunch cereal (less fattening than granola and more protein) I added to it were a pretty good substitute! Going to pack this delightful concoction for work lunches this week. Oh god....back to the grind tomorrow. Hopefully the thought of another stellar workout will push me through the workday!

Chocolate Melt-Off

Melting off all of the Valentine's Day chocolate I ate last night that is! Ahhh totally my favourite holiday! Skipped the gym yesterday and instead went for a post-work outdoor run with a special someone. Attempting to run outside in near freezing temperatures was probably not the best idea I ever had. I felt like a smoker must feel, my lungs were struggling so hard to fill with air. I did feel really good afterward though. I figure if I can manage a run in this weather I am looking pretty good for Springtime!

Today I had a fairly non-eventful but good nonetheless bi's & tri's workout at World's. I started out with a light 15 minute elipitcal warmup. My shins are super sore from yesterday's run, probably due to a lack of stretching, so I may have to take it easy on them over the next couple of days. I certainly don't want to get shin splints again! Today's weight sesh was pretty run-of-the-mill. I didn't want to do anything overly strenuous on my legs so I toned down the stability aspect. I started with 3 sets of 8 bicep curls standing on the bosu ball, then moved on to 3 sets of 8 weighted tricep bench dips. Then I did 3 sets of 8 hammer curls on the bosu ball and lastly, 3 sets of 8 tricep extensions on the cables.

For abs I opted for 3 sets of 8 push-ups with my feet on a stability ball and then 3 sets of "air crunches" where I did a sets of 16, then 14, then 12. These were extra hard today so the reduction in reps seemed to keep me going mentally haha. I ended with some good stretching on the mats but I could have probably used a good rollout as well! I'm not sure what's on the agenda tomorrow, maybe shoulders, but I have Friday off so I'm thinking a good morning spin sesh is in order!

Burn Baby Burn!

My legs felt like jello tonight as I pushed through another 6pm spin class...just not quite so jiggly haha. I got to World's about 7:20 am this morning to sign up for class and was already the 5th person on the list! I'm kind of surprised it hasn't died down yet but I guess that's a testament to how great the classes are.

Since I get to the gym around 5 I decided to take my first 45 mins or so and get in a full shoulders & abs workout so by the time I got started with spinning I was already pretty warmed up. For the first part of today's workout I did 3 sets of 8 front shoulder raises, 3 sets of 8 lateral raises, and 3 sets of 12 shoulder shrugs. I actually did shoulders yesterday as well but for some reason I didn't feel like I pushed myself hard enough so I needed to double-up today. Totally different moves yesterday though. Seeing as I started yesterday's workout with a run, I guess it explains why spinning seemed so much harder today!

For abs today I did 3 sets of 16 "air crunches" and 4 sets of 8 on the standing leg lift machine (2 sets front and 2 sets side-to-side). Despite having muscle fatigue right now, I'm ridiculously energized due to another Celcius that I had today around 3:30. These drinks are amazing but should really only be consumed in the first half of the day or else you'll be up all night! I had one yesterday around noon to help push me through a long run and it caused me to not only get to bed much later than usual but also wake up much earlier than usual...and I am already an early riser!

Tonight's spin class was with the pretty teacher again and she didn't fail to motivate, as usual, with her loud pumping music and energized attitude. My only complaint is that she is always saying how much more fun we are having than all the people out in the weight room and I want to be like "hey, you gotta get in a good variety of both to really get a good workout!". But anyway, to each their own I suppose.

Well, that's all for tonight's workout. I'm going to spend the next hour or so trying to wind down so I can actually sleep tonight haha. I think I'll take it easy on the cardio tomorrow and do mostly weights. That way I can hit the cardio hard again this weekend!

First Monday

It's the first Monday of the month and I actually remembered not to go to Planet! As a result, I had an amazing workout at World's today. It was overly crowded, even for a Monday this time of year, but I was so focused on the stellar play list I had going that there could have been no one else in the gym and I wouldn't have known the difference. I tried a new one today which was called something like "Hard Rock Workout". It was basically a lot of popular alternative rock / heavy metal set to a good heart-pumping beat. A lot of screaming and much harder than I usually listen to but anger seems to fuel my workouts so I think I'll keep it set on this one for a while!

I've been sick with a lousy head cold for the past week and while I've been keeping up with my workouts they've been lacking in intensity. Yesterday I bought a spinning membership and did the 10am class. I think all that sweating helped me rid myself of some sick toxins because I felt so much better today! I started today's workout with a short 10 minute run. Running is always so difficult to get back into when I've stopped for even such a short amount of time as a week. Tomorrow is an off day but I plan to go for a longer run on Wednesday and hopefully I'm back to normal by then.

For weights today I did back and chest. I started with 3 sets of 12 standing bosu ball rows and followed these up with 3 sets of chest presses on a stability ball. Next I did 3 sets of 8 bosu ball weighted leg lifts (abs) and then 3 sets (each arm) of bent over free-weight rows. Seeing as I have a serious case of the disappearing boobs I was not going to do another chest exercise so I offset this with extra abs today. I did three sets of 16 "air crunches" next (the ones where you wrap your legs around the padded bar and bend back almost to the ground) which may just be my new favourite ab workout. Maybe its in my head but I think they are causing some major ab definition improvement just in time for my Florida trip! Lastly, I alternated 2 sets of 8 pushups with my feet on a stability ball with 2 sets of 8 teepees, kneeling on the ball in between sets.

All in all a solid hour and an half of focused training. What a great way to start off the work week! I ended with a bit of stretching but it really wasn't necessary since I had stretched so much in between sets. I'm feeling less flexible lately but I really don't want to do the same yoga class as last time with the weird face-touching teacher. I could really use a good yoga recommendation!