Today I took a move from my Combat workouts and turned it into my 43. This was total cardio – plyo style!!
I did a double right knee (bounce on left foot), double left knee (bounce on right foot), then a double knee strike (jump with right knee in front), double knee strike (jump with left knee in front) = 1 rep. Confused? Check out the demo:
Considering that he had only practiced with the accompanist once before yesterday, he did a great job!! At one point he forgot where he was but he smiled and found his way again. He was the only one of the kids who played from memory yesterday.
I better get in the kitchen and get busy with lunch prep:
barbecue brisket
cheesy potatoes
green bean casserole
oriental slaw
strawberry cheesecake
We have several friends coming over to spend part of the day – always fun!
It is rare for me to be up before 7:00 on a Saturday (especially when I stayed up till midnight watching basketball) – however today is for a good cause – Hunter has a Cello Competition in Manhattan this morning so off we go!!! I wanted to get my workout done before we left because the rest of the day is going to be full!
For the 43 today I did a Plie Squat and lunge combo. Start with a plie squat:
plie squat
Turn to right lunge:
Lunge right (closing your eyes takes away the pain!)
Back to plie:
plie squat
Left lunge:
Lunge left
Those 4 moves = 1 rep x 43. I stayed in a low squat/lunge the entire time so my quads were on fire by the time I finished all 43!! Thanks to Chris for posing for the pictures last night!!
I wanted to do a pretty quick workout so I did Les Mills Combat – Combat 45. It’s been a couple of weeks since I did some Combat and I always love it (even if it is at the butt crack of dawn!!).
Yesterday afternoon was beautiful!!! I went on a 2 mile walk with a neighbor and one of her dogs (a cute little Papillon who wasn’t really into walking and ended up being carried over half the way – silly girl!).
Then Chris and the boys and I played tennis for about an hour – always fun because Chris is the only true tennis player in the group the rest of us just run around a lot!!
Jordan – always has something crazy going on!Hunter – what are you doing?What kind of sunglasses are those??? Oh- tennis glasses!serveso excited
Fun times for sure!! Hunter wore his new basketball shoes because he wants to break them in a little before he starts basketball camp on Monday night. Tennis – basketball – both involve a ball – who needs special shoes??
Since I was the one who stopped and took a few pictures, there are none of me (funny that happens on vacation a lot, too) – maybe we should work on that!! Nah!
Jordan and I decided to enjoy the weather and just walk home from the courts – another 2.5 mile walk around the lake!!!
after an afternoon outside!
I think my post title yesterday was pretty accurate – it was definitely a Fun Friday! We finished off the night with some Chinese food, rum drinks and the NCAA basketball tournament! Bummer that Kansas lost but I still have Duke winning the whole thing so I have a chance to win!!
Now – I’m off to listen to some awesome cello music!!
It took me 3:20 minutes (holding plank the whole time) to complete 43 reps! The hard part was trying not to rock my body or drop my hips (or stick my butt too high). If you add a boost to a normal plank – try this move!
Because I’ve sort-of slacked on workouts the past couple of days I decided to step it up a bit with Cathe XTrain – Tabatacise. I did all 5 Tabatas (killer!) then I did the 100 Rep challenges – 100 flat bench triceps (I used 8 pound dumbbells) & 100 bicep curls (10 pound dumbbells) – UGH!!! I finished with the Bonus Core #2.
When I finished Jordan said, “That looked hard – I’m never gonna do that!” (no school today & Chris is off so the gangs all here!!) OK, Jordan, whatever!! I did convince him to go for a walk with me yesterday afternoon so there is that!!
I’m looking forward to the weekend! The weather is supposed to be nice for a few more days (and then maybe snow on April 1 – what is that about?!), the NCAA basketball tournament is going on, Easter – time with all 3 of my boys – what more could anyone ask for?!
Happy Fun Friday – I hope everyone has a great weekend with family and/or friends!
For today’s 43 I got my inspiration from a post I read yesterday over at Cranky Fitness. The post was all about glute activation. A couple different trainers weighed in with video or pictures and I realized that I had never done the move the exact way they were showing – until today!!!
The move is a hip lift, or bridge (which I have done before) but instead of leaving your feet flat on the floor, you raise your toes.
start
(Also, your feet are supposed to be as close to your butt as possible – putting them out further allows the hamstrings to do the work and it is supposed to be a butt move!!!)
From the starting position, you lift your hips and try to form a straight line from your knees to your head (I always squeeze my butt as I lift and hold for a little extra bonus):
Lift
I held this for a 3-count. Then lowered just enough for my butt to barely touch the ground.
barely touch
After I finished all 43 I tried a couple of bridges with my feet flat on the ground to see if I could tell a difference – umm, NO because my butt my hips/butt already hurt from the 43!! One thing I did notice by doing this move with my toes up – my shins hurt while I was holding the position. (Maybe I put to much weight in my heels??!!)
Yesterday was an unplanned day off so today I decided to push through. (whine – I still have a residual headache but “suck it up, buttercup!!”)
I did an oldie from The Firm – Aerobic Body Shaping (part of the TransFirmer series) which means I used my cool step.
14″ double step (the Transfirmer)
The double step is used for a lot of the leg/butt work. The angled version (below) is used for a couple of the aerobic sections and a lunge series plus some of the upper body work.
This is a pretty good whole body workout – it includes toning and aerobics in just under an hour. I also did the bonus 10 minute glute work.
First the negative: Tuesday night someone hacked my email account!! Why?? I just don’t understand people. They set it up to send all of my email to a new account and they got into my eBay account (probably from an old email) – 36 people now think I’m going to shell out a total of $25,000 for crap I don’t want! Fortunately after 45 minutes on the phone last night with someone who spoke minimal English, the eBay situation is being investigated. (Plus I spent almost an hour, most of it on hold, on the phone with PayPal to make sure all was good there.) Chris spent about and hour and a half on the phone fixing my email account. Lots of new passwords and all is well!
Now for the Positive!!! I just started using Bloglovin (sorry I can’t get a link on here cause I’m stupid technologically challenged, but I have the button at the top of my page that links) and I love it!!! Because I’m really behind the times (and slow!), I never used Google Reader. I wasted so much time clicking around to blogs only to find that I had already read the most current post. No more!!! (I know, this is old hat to most of y’all but exciting for me!!!)
Here’s to a positive day for all – plus the NCAA basketball tournament is going on again this weekend (starting today!) – WooHoo!!
Today was day 193 out of 365 and the first time since I started this that a daily 43 almost didn’t happen. But – I’m stubborn determined to reach my goal so I pushed through!
For the 43 I used an 8 pound medicine ball and my double step.
14″ double step (the Transfirmer)
I held the ball with both hands and stepped up with my right leg while lifting my left knee and twisting to the left. Of course, after doing 43 on the right side I had to switch sides and do a second set of 43.
I struggled to even figure out what to do today (which is rare for me!) and this was the best I could come up with.
The rest of my workout – a big fat zero!!!
Yesterday afternoon I got the worst headache (I have headaches lots of days but not like this) – I’m calling it a migraine because I had most all the symptoms of one. This morning it is a little better but still hanging on. After the trouble I had coming up with a 43 and then how tired I felt doing it I decided to take the day off.
I may not be a machine but I’m usually pretty tough – it always pisses me off when I can’t do what I really want to do!!
In fact one of my favorite sayings is
I say it to myself regularly!!! But today it’s just not gonna happen.
