Guys. There's sunlight and warmth outside. It's a miracle! Spring is finally here, which is fantastic because my poor winter boots need a break from being worn every single day, but it also means that we're on the home stretch before our wedding. For the last few weeks we've been focusing on keeping a really consistent gym schedule so we can feel great for our wedding and honeymoon. Neither of us want to change a lot -- no major weight loss or gain goals, no bulking up or shredding, just good old fashioned maintenance and basic strength. I thought I'd take you guys along for the week to show you what we've been doing lately and talk a bit about what our gym plans are up until the big day!
Sunday
Weekends have been active rest days for us for as long as I can remember. Some people like having the leisure of more time on the weekends to hit the gym, but I'd rather squeeze it in during the weekdays and then use my weekend time for delightful tasks like cooking, cleaning and running errands. Such fun. This Sunday we spent our morning batch cooking all our meals for the week. (Batch cooking has seriously changed our weeks. More on that some other day perhaps.) That's about 3 hours of chopping, standing by the stove and over the sink doing dishes. Nothing to break a sweat, but it keeps you on your feet. The rest of our afternoon before dinner was running all kinds of errands -- wedding band shopping, a quick Target and Home Goods run and a trip to Trader Joes. All in all we were probably on our feet for 6 hours of the day. Not bad for active rest!
Today's workout:
None!
Monday
Up at 5:50am today to head to the gym. This is only our second week of trying out morning workouts. We realized we'd only have to wake up 10 minutes earlier than we had been anyway in order for us to get to the gym, workout, shower off and get ready there instead, and then we'd be able to go home straight after work instead of losing an hour of our evening free time. All we have to do is make sure we prep our gym bags and lunches the night before, which is totally doable! I will say, waking up at 5:50am this week was harder than last week thanks to daylight savings time, but we made it work.
Today's workout:
Kayla Itsines' Bikini Body Guide (BBG) Week 2 - Legs and Cardio
Circuit 1
10 burpees
20 jump lunges
24 knee ups
15 sumo squats
Circuit 2
100 jump rope skips (I don't use a jump rope, I just hop)
24 weighted walking lunges
30 reverse lunges + knee lift
15 jump squats
Tuesday
Two days a week we tend to do some low impact steady state (LISS) cardio. When the weather's nice we are planning on walking to work and back, which is about 2 miles each way, but alas, winter appears to never be going away so we hit the gym instead. I opted for the recumbent bike and 35 minutes of scrolling through Instagram and Facebook. Perhaps not the best use of my time, but sometimes that's all you can take at 6am. One thing I'm still trying to figure out is how to go from a sweaty betty to work appropriate within an hour. My face always gets really red, and even though we have showers to rinse off and cool down in, when I attempt to put on concealer it's almost comical how much it stands out from my beet red face. Today I had to wait and do my makeup in my work bathroom. The cleaning people that I ran into in the bathroom probably thought it was a morning after situation 😂
Today's workout:
10 miles (35 minutes) on the recumbent bike, medium resistance.
Wednesday
So just like Monday's workout, today is another workout from Kayla Itsines' Bikini Body Guide. I've done both her first and second guides (her second one is no longer sold) several times through before and I always go back to them when I just want something quick, hard and all planned out for me. There are basically three workouts a week, with some recommended LISS or HIIT workouts on a few other days of the week. Each workout is 28 minutes plus some rest time and they're comprised of 2 circuits of 4 exercises each. You set a timer for 7 minutes and do the exercises from one circuit as many times through as you can. Then you rest for a minute or two and move onto the second circuit for another 7 minutes. Repeat both circuits again and then you're done! It's all exercises you can do with only some basic equipment so it's easy to do in any gym or even at home. Honestly, I torrented the guides back in 2015, but if I knew then how much I would use them and still be using them in 2019, I would have paid. They're definitely effective!
Today's workout:
BBG Week 2 - Arms & Abs
Circuit 1
15 dumbbell squat and press
15 tricep dips
24 commands
20 straight leg jackknifes
Circuit 2
20 situps
15 mountain climber (4) + pushup (1)
15 straight leg raises
15 lay down push ups
Thursday
Another LISS day in the gym this morning. Even though I'd rather have been walking outside, at least I got in some extra reading time today. Currently reading The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan and it's starting to become a page turner so I'm grateful for the opportunity to really settle in with it. (I've got Goodreads if you want to be friends)
Today's workout:
9 miles (30 minutes) on the bike, medium resistance.
Friday
Today was tough. Five days of pre 6am wakeup calls is no joke, especially when the night before was spent going to dinner, grabbing a drink and dessert and then seeing Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra afterwards. I was not feeling motivated to do burpees. We still went to the gym, and we still did our planned workout, but perhaps it wasn't my best effort ever. I still left the gym as bright red as ever though! After work we spent the evening doing all our grocery shopping so we were up on our feet again for about 2 hours while in pursuit of the best bulk deals.
Today's workout:
BBG Week 2 - Full Body
Circuit 1
10 burpees
30 jump lunges
15 lay down pushups
15 sumo squats
Circuit 2
15 mountain climber (4) + pushup (1)
15 straight leg jackknifes
100 skips
24 commandos
Saturday
Another active rest day today. And we can sleep in! What luxury! We were still up and at 'em at 8am so we could start another morning of wedding-related appointments and errands. (Seriously, planning a wedding sucks) The afternoon I spent deep cleaning the house. Last week was madness due to car troubles with BOTH CARS and honeymoon planning, so the house reaaaaally needs it this week. I was zipping around the house for a couple hours, but then I balanced it out with dinner at Chipotle with the future in-laws and binge watching the newest season of Queer Eye at night. Perfection.
Today's workout:
None!
For the time being, we're still planning to carry on with these absurdly early workouts and I hope to finish another round of Kayla Itsines' 12 week guide before the wedding. Having a limited timeline is helping me stick with it and not give into the snooze button, but maybe we'll go back to evening workouts if we're feeling particularly tired some week. I'm just glad to be back on a workout routine! I'll be sure to keep you all posted. Until next time, have a great week!
Sunday
Weekends have been active rest days for us for as long as I can remember. Some people like having the leisure of more time on the weekends to hit the gym, but I'd rather squeeze it in during the weekdays and then use my weekend time for delightful tasks like cooking, cleaning and running errands. Such fun. This Sunday we spent our morning batch cooking all our meals for the week. (Batch cooking has seriously changed our weeks. More on that some other day perhaps.) That's about 3 hours of chopping, standing by the stove and over the sink doing dishes. Nothing to break a sweat, but it keeps you on your feet. The rest of our afternoon before dinner was running all kinds of errands -- wedding band shopping, a quick Target and Home Goods run and a trip to Trader Joes. All in all we were probably on our feet for 6 hours of the day. Not bad for active rest!
Today's workout:
None!
Monday
Up at 5:50am today to head to the gym. This is only our second week of trying out morning workouts. We realized we'd only have to wake up 10 minutes earlier than we had been anyway in order for us to get to the gym, workout, shower off and get ready there instead, and then we'd be able to go home straight after work instead of losing an hour of our evening free time. All we have to do is make sure we prep our gym bags and lunches the night before, which is totally doable! I will say, waking up at 5:50am this week was harder than last week thanks to daylight savings time, but we made it work.
Today's workout:
Kayla Itsines' Bikini Body Guide (BBG) Week 2 - Legs and Cardio
Circuit 1
10 burpees
20 jump lunges
24 knee ups
15 sumo squats
Circuit 2
100 jump rope skips (I don't use a jump rope, I just hop)
24 weighted walking lunges
30 reverse lunges + knee lift
15 jump squats
Tuesday
Two days a week we tend to do some low impact steady state (LISS) cardio. When the weather's nice we are planning on walking to work and back, which is about 2 miles each way, but alas, winter appears to never be going away so we hit the gym instead. I opted for the recumbent bike and 35 minutes of scrolling through Instagram and Facebook. Perhaps not the best use of my time, but sometimes that's all you can take at 6am. One thing I'm still trying to figure out is how to go from a sweaty betty to work appropriate within an hour. My face always gets really red, and even though we have showers to rinse off and cool down in, when I attempt to put on concealer it's almost comical how much it stands out from my beet red face. Today I had to wait and do my makeup in my work bathroom. The cleaning people that I ran into in the bathroom probably thought it was a morning after situation 😂
Today's workout:
10 miles (35 minutes) on the recumbent bike, medium resistance.
Wednesday
So just like Monday's workout, today is another workout from Kayla Itsines' Bikini Body Guide. I've done both her first and second guides (her second one is no longer sold) several times through before and I always go back to them when I just want something quick, hard and all planned out for me. There are basically three workouts a week, with some recommended LISS or HIIT workouts on a few other days of the week. Each workout is 28 minutes plus some rest time and they're comprised of 2 circuits of 4 exercises each. You set a timer for 7 minutes and do the exercises from one circuit as many times through as you can. Then you rest for a minute or two and move onto the second circuit for another 7 minutes. Repeat both circuits again and then you're done! It's all exercises you can do with only some basic equipment so it's easy to do in any gym or even at home. Honestly, I torrented the guides back in 2015, but if I knew then how much I would use them and still be using them in 2019, I would have paid. They're definitely effective!
Today's workout:
BBG Week 2 - Arms & Abs
Circuit 1
15 dumbbell squat and press
15 tricep dips
24 commands
20 straight leg jackknifes
Circuit 2
20 situps
15 mountain climber (4) + pushup (1)
15 straight leg raises
15 lay down push ups
Thursday
Another LISS day in the gym this morning. Even though I'd rather have been walking outside, at least I got in some extra reading time today. Currently reading The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan and it's starting to become a page turner so I'm grateful for the opportunity to really settle in with it. (I've got Goodreads if you want to be friends)
Today's workout:
9 miles (30 minutes) on the bike, medium resistance.
Friday
Today was tough. Five days of pre 6am wakeup calls is no joke, especially when the night before was spent going to dinner, grabbing a drink and dessert and then seeing Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra afterwards. I was not feeling motivated to do burpees. We still went to the gym, and we still did our planned workout, but perhaps it wasn't my best effort ever. I still left the gym as bright red as ever though! After work we spent the evening doing all our grocery shopping so we were up on our feet again for about 2 hours while in pursuit of the best bulk deals.
Today's workout:
BBG Week 2 - Full Body
Circuit 1
10 burpees
30 jump lunges
15 lay down pushups
15 sumo squats
Circuit 2
15 mountain climber (4) + pushup (1)
15 straight leg jackknifes
100 skips
24 commandos
Saturday
Another active rest day today. And we can sleep in! What luxury! We were still up and at 'em at 8am so we could start another morning of wedding-related appointments and errands. (Seriously, planning a wedding sucks) The afternoon I spent deep cleaning the house. Last week was madness due to car troubles with BOTH CARS and honeymoon planning, so the house reaaaaally needs it this week. I was zipping around the house for a couple hours, but then I balanced it out with dinner at Chipotle with the future in-laws and binge watching the newest season of Queer Eye at night. Perfection.
Today's workout:
None!
For the time being, we're still planning to carry on with these absurdly early workouts and I hope to finish another round of Kayla Itsines' 12 week guide before the wedding. Having a limited timeline is helping me stick with it and not give into the snooze button, but maybe we'll go back to evening workouts if we're feeling particularly tired some week. I'm just glad to be back on a workout routine! I'll be sure to keep you all posted. Until next time, have a great week!
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