Hello everyone, long time no chat. Sorry about the mini-hiatus I've been at my parents house this week because my Grandma passed away last Friday. In the mist of everything that's been going on I wanted to share this take anywhere, minimal equipment workout that I came up with since I didn't have any weights on hand. I've linked how to do the exercises below, enjoy! :)
I first dabbled into fitness when I was in college. My freshman roommate was into going to the gym and working out. At that point in time I was probably 35 to 40 pounds heavier than I am now. I lost around 15 to 20 pounds my freshman year thanks to my healthy influence. Honestly I don't remember too much about my workout routine, it was probably more cardio than anything and having friends as workout partners. This carried throughout my college career. I do remember senior year loving Splenda. I always remember adding 2 packets to my morning oatmeal every day. (I cringe now, but you live and learn.) Fast forward to after graduation, I had back surgery that July for a herniated disc and a bone chip floating around. January 2007 I landed my first office job and became sedatary. Within that time frame, I gained all of the weight that I lost in college and remember picking out capris that summer in my old size pre-college. Then I vowed to myself I wouldn't be this weight again. One night I stumbled upon some healthy living blogs. I specifically remember Tina's blog the most, This started my official healthier living that I have maintained today. At that time I started an exercise regimen and was introduced to Turbo Jam. I was drawn to it because it looked like a lot of fun. Chalene is a fantastic motivator and the workouts seem to fly by because it didn't feel like I was working out. Working out combined with eating nutritious foods helped me to drop the weight and keep it off since 2007.
Fast forward to now: my workouts now are short and effective. Honestly I don't have the attention span to do more than hour of exercise. I did do a month of Insanity last year but I got burnt out on it. I loved how Insanity got my heart rate up but the length of the workouts were sometimes a drag. Enter Shaun T's new workout, FOCUS T25. Can I say how excited I am to try it?! 25 minutes of pure sweat with minimal equipment (yoga mat, resistance band and a pair of weights). It's scheduled release is for June of this year, and I am marking it on my calendar. I love to workout at home and Beachbody's programs make it easier to get in a quality workout without having to drive to the gym.
*Disclaimer: I was contacted by Beachbody to do this review. I did not receive any compensation for this post. This review is my sole opinion only.
Lately I have been a bit bored with my strength training. I switched up my splits from Synergistic to Upper and Lower body recently to breath new life into my routine. (Gina has a great post on splits here.) On Tuesday I wanted to strength train but was already bored with my somewhat new routine. This is a new upper body workout I came up with. I used the Runloop's Interval Timer app to tell me when 1 minute was up. I set the timer up as a Circuit Training Timer with 9 exercises for 1 minute and 25 seconds of rest after each exercise. The only con about the free version of this app is that it does not save your timer after you're done using it, but I'm ok with saving $5 for the full version. ;) I did this workout twice with 8lb dumbbells and the next day my upper body was sore. Not so sore that I couldn't move but sore enough to know that I kicked it's booty.
