Tag Archives: Les Mills Combat

Paging, Planking & Punching on President’s Day

February 18, 2013 Kim 14 Comments

Today I did a plank step-up for my 43. I used the top part of my transfirmer

14" double step (the Transfirmer) — 14″ double step (the Transfirmer)

which is a 6″ step. I put it under me lengthwise while I was in a plank. Then I did step-ups with my hands – right hand up to step, left hand up, right hand down, left hand down = 1 rep.

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crwbkv9YdJQ’]

I tried to keep my body as still as possible but there was a bit of wobble. Half-way through (after 22), I switched and put my left hand up first. 43 fun reps!!

This week I’m repeating last week’s Les Mills Combat plan. Because of my long run on Tuesday I skipped the HIIT workout and then never got back on track – I didn’t do either of the big HIIT programs last week. So it’s a do-over!!! Today was one of my favorites – Combat 60 – Cardio Fighter!!!

After the Combat work-out, I decided to put on my sweet pink boxing glovesand spend some time on the punching bag. I did 20 minutes of solid punching (jabs and crosses only today) – I’m pretty sure that my shoulders and upper back will be sore tomorrow!!! And, the punching bag makes me sweat as much as a hard run!!

Today, Jordan is paging for a local senator.I’m not exactly sure what all that entails besides a day at the Capital. I think Jordan was excited about it (awesome cause he usually prefers to just hang out at home on days out of school)!

One of his friends asked him a couple of weeks ago if he wanted to page with her and he decided he would. (They actually both paged 2 years ago, and it was a good experience then.) Plus, he is all dressed up (and not wearing his standard “uniform” of white Nike shorts and T-shirt!!!).

I hope he has a great day!! I’m sure he will learn lots and have some great stories to share tonight at dinner!!! One more picture of my handsome young man…

The rest of us (Hunter, Chris & I) aren’t nearly as exciting! We are probably just going to chill at home and enjoy the day – who knows – maybe they will play a game with me later!!!

Check out the weird clouds:You can tell the sun was shining then by the shadows but the entire time I was kicking and punching this morning, the clouds were getting darker and darker! Creepy!!!

Happy Monday – have a great President’s Day – hopefully it is a day off for you, too!

Kim

Cardio, Fitness, Pull-Ups

Spider Walking

February 15, 2013 Kim 9 Comments

Don’t be scared!!!

(Sorry, hope spiders don’t gross you out!!! I find them fascinating!!!)

Today’s 43 was one of those that worked pretty much every inch of my body!!! Spider walking!!! Fun stuff for sure!!!

Start in plank or push-up position. Walk your opposite knee and hand forward while dropping your body lower – repeat with other side – continue!

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n3DRMobVYk’]

Jordan has pretty good form – don’t you think??

I counted 3 forward walks on each side (I think that is what Jordan did in the demo, too) as 1 rep then I stood, turned and went the other direction for the next one until I reached the magic # of 43!!! I felt this in my arms, shoulders, core, hip flexors and quads!!!! How’s that for a 5-1 combo move?!

Today I was back to Les Mills Combat with a new work-out: Combat 60 Live – Ultimate Warrior! This has to be my favorite one yet!!! First off, besides the Combat crew, there were about 400 people doing the work-out with them! Second, this work-out was HARD and very intense!!! The 60 minutes went by very quickly because, like all of their work-outs, it is broken into segments and you can see the segment (and total) time at the bottom of the screen.

What I really liked was the fact that there were some new moves and combos in this one!! Plus, the cool-down was different from the others but very effective!!!

Love trying new work-outs!!!

It’s hard to see but this skirt would have been great for yesterday. Running love!! Maybe next year I will do a Valentine’s day run!!

Hooray for a LONG weekend!!! The boys have 5 days out of school (they were out yesterday, too) because of parent/teacher conferences and an inservice on Monday. Chris is off today (SDO – scheduled day off. They work 9 hour days and then have an SDO every other week – pretty cool.) and Monday for President’s Day!WooHoo!! Love it when every one is off!!!

And, finally – 15th day of February and I’m still doing the number of wall-sits to sync up with the day – today I’ve completed 15 1-minute wall-sits. Not gonna lie – it is getting hard!!! I have to spread them out a little more. (I make tally marks as I do them so I don’t lose count and cheat or do any extra!!!) Hunter & Chris are participating, too!!! Hunter does burpees every day and Chris is doing push-ups daily!!! (Jordan opted out – party pooper!!)

Happy Fun Friday!!!

Kim

Core, Fitness

What Makes you Happy?

February 13, 2013 Kim 23 Comments

Today for the 43 I pulled out my Turbo Fire band and used it for a great oblique move (also from Turbo Fire!).

I started by standing on the band with my right foot and holding both handles in my right hand.

Then, I did a slow, 3-count side-bend to the left. (The slight forward bend helps to really target your obliques!)

On the 3rd count, reach down as far as you can.

Return to start and repeat 43 (or whatever # of reps you choose) times. Then, of course, you have to switch sides with the band.

umm....start but you don't have to look so mad about it! — umm….start but you don’t have to look so mad about it!

wow!! gotta work on the facial expressions!

I know you didn’t really need all of those pictures but Hunter took them so I figured I might as well use them!! I really need to quit looking so mad during these pictures – maybe we can just call it my focused look!!

You can see from the pictures that I busted out (not completely literally) my compression shorts again. I figured that they would help the residual stiffness in my hips from yesterday’s long run! I know that I’m way behind the gravy train on the compression stuff but after this morning I know I need more!! Compression everything!!! I really NEED to get some socks – I know it would help my Achilles!

I switched up my Les Mills Combat a little today. It was supposed to be HIIT Power but I decided to save that for tomorrow and do the Combat 45 today. Even though the 45 work-out still has some plyo, it is not as much. It was a great cardio work-out but I still feel like it was good for a recovery day!

I think this is a question that we all occasionally think about. At least, I hope I’m not the only one who sometimes struggles with this!! I think that January and February are sometimes the hardest months of the year. Still a lot of winter left but no major holidays to look forward to or plan for. When I was working, these 2 months weren’t as hard for me but now I’m back to not working and have more time for reflection (or something!).

The past few weeks I have really been thinking a lot about happiness and what really makes me happy.

1. Family

2. Friends

3. Running (usually on my treadmill)

4. Wine!!

5. The beach

I know I could go on and maybe even put some really profound things on here but even with the list – sometimes I feel like I have to work hard to be happy!

I think that somedays I feel like I need to be doing more with my life. I know that I’m a Mom to 2 great boys, a wife to the greatest person I know and I love being both of those thing. But…….

Overall, I’m a pretty happy person. But occasionally I have times that I need to remind myself that it is OK to just be me and do the things I do (or maybe don’t do) – being a surgeon, or chef, or world-class athlete or whatever doesn’t automatically make you happy.

So, what makes you happy? Do you feel happy all the time or do you occasionally have to step back and remind yourself of all the reasons you have to be happy?

Hopefully, we will all have a Happy Wednesday!!!

Kim

BOSU, Fitness, Hamstrings

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It’s Off to the Doc I Go!

February 11, 2013 Kim 10 Comments

For my 43 today, I had Jordan take a couple of pictures yesterday since I knew it would be an early morning! (However, I’m a complete dodo and set my alarm for 5:00 PM instead of AM – good thing I still woke up at 5:08!!!)

Anyway, the 43 would have been easy – a dead lift holding 15 pound dumbbells – but I decided to add an extra challenge:

Yep – I stood on the BOSU!!!

start (try to not slump those shoulders!!!)

Standing still wasn’t too hard – the difficulty came when I started moving!!

I really do have my shoulders back - they just look schlumpy! — I really do have my shoulders back – they just look schlumpy!

I love the extra benefit of using the BOSU for this move! (I can’t believe that this is the first time I’ve ever used it for dead lifts!!!)

Dead lifts are one of my favorite moves – I think because they are so great for my hamstrings and butt!!!

After the balancing act I moved on to the rest of my work-out. Les Mills Combat – Combat 60 Ultimate Fighter!!! Perfect way to start a Monday!!! Other than my 11 wall-sits at 1 minute each, that is the extent of working out today. Super big plans for tomorrow’s work-out!!! One I’m really looking forward to!!!

Today is my yearly physical/well-check – WooHoo – Good Times for Sure!!!! Actually, I’m sort-of glad because this getting older is really not working out like I thought! I’m pretty sure my DR will be happy when I leave today cause I have quite a list of stuff to ask her about!!! Sadly, I’m sure I will be wearing one of these lovely items:

Can hardly wait for that – I hope I can leave my socks on so I don’t freeze. (Fashion is over-rated sometimes!!)

I’m sure that even with my list (just petty little things, really!) I will walk away and not see her again until next year! (Rare for me to go to the DR other than for my physical – except when I crack my hip!!!)

Happy Monday!!! (hopefully y’all have as much fun this morning as I know I will!)

Kim

Cardio, Fitness

Why I Blog

February 9, 2013 Kim 12 Comments

Today for my daily 43, I took another move from one of my Combat work-outs! This one is just plain fun!!!

The move is actually a combo:

upper cut
upper cut
jab
jump-kick
4 jumping jabs back

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9V6QEFw-24′]

(This might be my most uncoordinated looking demo yet!!!!) And, quite frankly, I don’t think it matters which arm does which punch – just pick a way and go with it!!! Then, switch sides and do 43 (or whatever # you choose :Happy:) more.

Check out my cool Combat gloves:

combat gloves - make you feel powerful!!! — combat gloves – make you feel powerful!!!

Wearing them makes me feel like a true combat fighter!!!

The rest of my work-out today was – wait for it… Les Mills Combat. Combat 30 was up for today – this one is short (30 minutes) but pretty intense!! Good news – 8 more jump kicks on each leg!!!

I have been blogging for almost 5 months and for some reason the past 2 nights I have laid in bed wide-awake(for way too many hours!!!) thinking about my blog. Here’s what my sleep-deprived mind came up with:

I started my blog because I thought that this year in addition to running my age on my birthday (as I have for a few years now), I would carry the age thing a step further. I thought (still think, actually) it would be fun to pick a different exercise/move and do the # of reps = to my age (43 as we all know by now!!!).
I thought sharing them on a blog would do a couple of things. First, it helps keep me accountable! Second, I thought it would be a great way to share the idea of doing something active every day. I realize that 43 is sort-of extreme for some (and not enough for others) but 5-10 is doable for everyone!!!
When I first started the blog, I thought I would only post about the daily 43. However, I realized after a short time that I actually really enjoy writing other stuff, too. I like looking for silly pictures or funny quotes. I love having a place to record little parts of my day (hence the name – daywithkt)!
I think that there is a true blogging community (as evidence by the fact that I see the same names over and over on lots of the blogs I enjoy reading). At some point I hope to be a bigger part of the growing community of fitness bloggers!
I have been told that blogging is “self-indulgent” and I think that to a large extent it is. But it is also nice to have a place to share thoughts and ideas on a particular topic. For me, it is almost like a public form of my work-out log (and I’m OK with that!).

Writing out this little list has helped remind me why I started blogging – it had nothing to do with having lots of readers (although I wouldn’t mind that), lots of comments (also something I wouldn’t be opposed to) – I needed to remind myself to enjoy blogging and not become consumed by it.

I also need to remind myself not to compare my blog to any other blogs – defeats the point of my goal with blogging!!!So, I hope that taking the time to write all of this down will ~~help me sleep better tonight~~ help me stay focused on why I wanted to do a blog in the first place!!!