Friday was spent preparing for Lucy's school fundraiser. I ate all my meals at the school - breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. It started well with fruit but degenerated to lots of salty and oily Indian food. I wasn't able to get in traditional exercise that day but I did do lots of walking, lifting, pushing and carrying. So at least I was active.
I arose early Saturday and decided to do a quick workout after being inspired by this post. We had a family commitment in the afternoon and the school party that night which was not going to leave any room for exercise. So I did a few push ups and sit-ups followed by a 15 minute mini-yoga session which consisted of lots of downward dog.
Sunday was a bust. Tea Party (read cupcakes) and deli food.
And that brings us to today. At last. Back to a routine. For perhaps the first time in my life I was relieved to know that I could get to the gym and here's how it went:
30 minutes on stationary bike. I tried to mimic a spinning class by doing a 4 minute climb followed by two 1 minute sprints with 1 minute rest in between. I did this for 3 cycles with warm up and cool down.
Then for strength training:
10 push-ups using Bosu ball (half ball thing)
10 squat/jumps with one foot on Bosu ball, repeat on other side, 20 total.
Repeat above for a total of 3 times.
15 medicine ball swings - squat, swing ball between legs then up until arms are parallel to ground.
15 medicine ball squat presses - holding medicine ball at chest, squat allowing elbows to touch knees then stand and press ball above head. This one really gets your HR up!
Repeat for a total of 3 times.
30 seconds of "crawl" using resistance band - ok, let me try to explain this one. Wrap band around a bar at about waist height. Hold one handle in each hand. S In a lunge position, bend at hip and do crawling motion for 30 seconds. You should have enough resistance that it's hard but not so much that you can't go the whole 30 secs. Rest for 30-60 seconds. Repeat 2 more times alternating lunge with each rep.
5 minutes of stretching.
Time total with 60 minutes on the dot. whew.
A few comments about today. I got another endorphin rush around 45 minutes which I think was due to the fact that I was working harder, a lot harder. That spinning class last week pushed me to the limit which was a good thing - it made me realize how much better shape I am in now thus encouraging me to add more resistance to my training.
There's something else that has been going on that I haven't written about much. I have an IT band injury which can be painful but is really more of a nuisance. For the most part I'm no longer jogging so I've had to reconfigure my training. It means that I won't be doing a triathlon this year. This decision initially crushed me but now I see it as an opportunity. I'm biking more and trying to vary my routines. Plus I've added stretching once or twice a day which can only be a good thing. Try this book
for some good stretching exercises. And I just picked up this book
of exercises to try to get some ideas for summer exercising.
I don't understand the crawl thing....
ReplyDeleteAlso, did you use a medicine ball with a handle? Not sure how I would keep from throwing the ball through the mirror on the swings.
Finally, did you have the Bosu flat side on the ground or upside-down for both exercises?
Will have to show you the crawl thing.
ReplyDeleteno handles on medicine ball, I just hold on really tight. One with handles would be fine too.
Bosu push-ups: ball down.
Bosu jumbs - Ball up, that is flat part on ground.