(No clue why my eyes are closed!!! And, my T-shirt is ginormous! Issues!!!) – You can see the different positions this way, though.
Of course, after I did 43 with my right leg, I had another set of 43 to do with my left leg. My legs were nice and shaky by the time I finished!!!
BOSU
I pulled out another DVD that I haven’t used in awhile – BOSU Total Body Blast with Mindy Mylrea. This is a great total body workout (70 minutes). It has cardio through-out and lots of leg toning plus some core work at the end. Mindy is a bit of a goof but the time goes pretty quickly and most of the moves are easy to catch on to – lots of repetition!!
Today, I just feel the need for some laughs!!!
I’m pretty sure that Jordan and some of the other kids I tutor in Algebra think this next one!
This little thing about exercise made me smile!!
Q: What goes up and down but does not move?
A: Stairs
Q: If you were in a race and passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in?
A: 2nd place!
I hope y’all have a day full of smiles and laughter!!!
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!!
This band is fairly small and provides a lot of resistance. ( Note: you could do the move without a band.) I started with the band around one ankle and the bottom of my other shoe:
start
(Check out my super cute running skirt!! MizFit workout skirt – check it out here.)
From this position, I pushed my foot straight back (it’s not a big move) and then brought it back to the start.
push foot back
After 43 of the back-push move, I did another set of 43 where I flexed my leg down (without touching the ground) and back up.
going downpush leg down (don’t touch ground)
These moves may look like nothing but if you squeeze your butt as you do both of them, you will feel it for sure!
Of course, I don’t want my hamstrings or butt to be lopsided so I had to repeat both of the 43s on the other leg. I think the second leg is always harder because it is already a little fatigued from supporting you while you work the first side.
Today was a running day for a couple of reasons: it’s been a few days since my last run and that’s about the only thing I can do because my arms HURT!!!! I’m not sure who thought doing thousands of jumping jacks was a good idea!! Moving my arms to run was OK once I got started but lifting my arms to the side or over my head – painful. I had no idea that jumping jacks could do that to a person – maybe it is because I’m an idiot and did 4,300!!!
Anyway – I ran on my treadmill (I don’t run in snow, you know) at a 1.5% incline – 8 miles (52:17) and then 2.5 more miles much easier for a total of 85:00 minutes.
Moderation can apply to so many things and areas of our lives. We all know that I like wine and cosmos and… but I do try to always use moderation in that part of my life.Potato chips – ummm…..hard to have moderation here! (I have to just not buy them!!!)
What about other areas of life (not just food/beverages)? Is moderation important?
In a lot of ways, I’m an all-or-nothing person. I know that isn’t always for the best but
I don’t really think that (all the time)! Some days I need to work on moderation (like when I have a stupid idea to do 4,300 jumping jacks!!!) but other days I kind of like extremes!
What are you – moderate, extreme, mixture of both, neither?
Today I decided to do a circuit for my 43. I wanted to get some toning, cardio, plyo – basically some of everything in one quick round (well actually 43 rounds!). Looking at the circuit you might think it is no big deal – try a few!!!
The first 10 or so weren’t terrible – but the last 10 were brutal!!! A tough 43 for sure!!!
I think part of the challenge came from the fact that I kept going from floor moves to standing – constant up and down. It was a good workout for sure!!!
I’m not sure what is going on with Phil the groundhog – I think he was a little off this year.
On a happy note – I finally figured out how to make a picture collage!!! Thanks to Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean for sharing her favorite 30 Apps for the iPhone the other day – I learned about Diptic!!
Even though my Grandmother is no longer here, today would be her birthday – Happy Birthday, Mema!! I miss you every day!!!
aren’t they cute!!
(My Mema never looked at the camera – only at the people in the picture with her!)
The 43 today worked my quads, butt and balance!!! I did a single leg squat with the opposite leg crossed over.
Start (with a big grin)umm….try again!and down
I held the squat for a 2-count then stood and repeated x 43. Of course, I had to get both legs.
focuswow – looks painful
Between the balance and the hold – this was a challenging 43!!
Since I’m not in the middle of any long-term programs right now (although Jordan told me this morning that I should do Insanity again – maybe in April) I have been trying to really mix it up with my workouts. Today I decided to go with a Jari Love DVD. I have quite a few of her workouts and I think they are all good! I especially love the ones that combine strength training with cardio intervals. Her weight training ones are good because they focus on really high reps (like 75-100 of some moves).
Today I did Jari Love Get Extremely Ripped 1000 Hardcore. (I think this was my first time doing this workout.) Talk about madness!!! You can break the program into 2 different 30-minute workouts, or do just the cardio or just the strength segments. I went with the whole thing – 75 minutes. Yikes!!! The strength training sections are all combo moves so my heart rate stayed up even during that part. (and lots of reps!) The cardio was definitely HIIT!! In all of her programs (the ones I’ve done anyway), Jari keeps the moves simple so you don’t have to worry about any fancy choreography – you can use a step or not. I used my 8″ one (the bottom part). Lots of jumping up and down from step to floor!!!
14″ double step (the Transfirmer)
At one point, Hunter walked through the room and I could barely say – Good morning – sign of a great workout!!!!
Since yesterday was St. Patrick’s day (not that we are Irish), I thought it would be fun to do a themed meal. We had Irish Soda Bread (not my favorite at all!), green mac & cheese (thanks to a spinach sauce), cabbage and sausage (I loved the cabbage!!) and some really special green cookies!!
Sort-of fun to do meals with a theme! Hopefully these are good memories that my boys will keep forever!!!
College basketball is one of my favorite sports to watch!!! And, I love March Madness!!! Tonight, we will all 4 fill out our brackets so we are ready to go.This has been a fun family tradition since Jordan was in kindergarten (I think this is our 9th year!). We keep track of who wins the most in each round, the most overall and of course the Championship game!
Even though my team (Texas Longhorns) aren’t in the tournament this year, there are plenty of other Big 12 teams for me to root for (plus Duke!!).
Do you fill out a bracket? What team are you cheering on?
Happy Monday! It’s spring break for us!! (hopefully we get some nice spring weather and not the cold/snow that is predicted!)
(No clue why my eyes are closed!!! And, my T-shirt is ginormous! Issues!!!) – You can see the different positions this way, though.
