Spin Safety

Safe Spinning

Here's an article full of quick and helpful tips when riding a spin bike for exercise!

Tough Total Body Workout

This week I haven't eaten my healthiest. Granted, it was my birthday on Tuesday and I drank more than my fair share of beer at a Spurs game. My workouts haven't been so structured either. That however doesn't mean I haven't pushed hard.

I found a simple body weight workout on Pinterest this morning and it caught my eye. I mean simple as in, oh yes, push-ups, crunches, plank... those exercises are familiar.

It took me TWO HOURS to complete. After completing one set of all these exercises I looked at the clock, thinking you know, I would have had a great workout just doing this... but can I do it? Challenge accepted.

I have never sweat so much in my life but I actually had the energy to do it. (I had about 700 calories before this afternoon workout, with about 60-70% of them from protein.) For my 15 minutes of cardio I ran 1.5 miles on the treadmill each time. After completing two sets of everything, I finished with 20 minutes on the stair step machine.

I am beat but feel so accomplished right now. I wouldn't recommend this kind of workout on a regular basis though. You'd end up hurting yourself in the long run. But every once in awhile? Go for it!

I'm going out tonight for my last birthday celebration which will include vegetarian mexican food and margaritas. I will feel no guilt about it now!

Motivation and Protein Powder

A couple of my clients have motivated me recently. I don't want to be a sub par trainer. I want to continue to evolve and make myself a better person.

This last week I've been slacking off a bit. It started because I was feeling tired, but I just need to work my schedule around that. No excuses. These next two weeks my work schedule will be a bit crazy. I'm covering night shifts at a different location while keeping up my training clients and switching them to early mornings. It's also my birthday this week, so it won't be all work! I've got a fun week planned as well.

Using this birthday as a new opportunity to begin change, I want to achieve these goals:

- Run a half marathon before the year ends

- Increase my standard running pace to 6.5 mph (about 9:15 minute mile)

- Decrease my body fat % enough to where I see more than the top half of my abs

- Decrease the amount of sugar I consume

My boyfriend and I just got our first tub of vanilla protein powder. I'm curious to its effects and how it could help me. I'm not big on making shakes (mostly because I'm too lazy to get out the blender everyday, much less clean it everyday) so I'm trying to come up with different ways to incorporate it into my diet.

Tropical Protein Parfait

- 1/2 cup strawberries, sliced

- 1/2 cup pineapple chunks

- 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese

- 1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder

- 8 walnut halves

The vanilla protein powder makes this concoction taste sweet. I like how the juice from the pineapple chunks makes this taste better than I think it would on its own. After a few bites, I realized that the vanilla protein mixed with cottage cheese pretty much tasted like cake batter. Whether that's good or bad is all up to you.

Spin Playlist 04/11

1) Cobrastyle - Teddybears Feat. Mad Cobra
2) Five O'Clock World - The Vogues
3) I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters
4) I Fought The Law - The Clash
5) Mr. Saxobeat - Alexandra Stan
6) Remember The Time - Michael Jackson
7) Back In Black - AC/DC
8) I Feel You - Depeche Mode
9) Help! - The Beatles
10) Video Killed The Radio Star - The Presidents of the United States of America
11) Don't Cry Out - Shiny Toy Guns
12) Starlight - Muse
13) Rise Above 1 - Reeve Carney Feat. Bono & The Edge

Step It Up

Amanda's Step It Up Workout

Grab a step and a few risers to complete these exercises.

1) Squat with Side Leg Lift - 12-15 reps each side
(right foot on center of the step, left foot on floor, squat, as you come up perform a lateral leg lift on the left side; repeat on opposite side)

2) Incline Push Ups - 12-15 reps

(place hands on center of step and complete regular push ups)

3) Triceps Dips - 12-15 reps

(start with hands on edge of step, legs extended out in front, use the upper body to lower down and then up)

4) Running Man on Step - 12-15 reps each side

(using core stability, step up with right foot, then bring left knee up to balance, then return to start; repeat on opposite side)

5) Up Up Down Down - 30-60 seconds

(quickly step up with right foot, left foot, then down with right foot, left foot; get that HR up!)

After not exercising yesterday I decided to stay off of my strength training program for one more day. Signs of inflammation are still present but definitely not as bad. On my schedule for today I had one client to train then I had my spin class to instruct. It was my first session as the regular instructor and I'm happy to say it went well! I was complimented on my song choice and the format of my class. I hope to have repeat students next week and maybe a few more due to word of mouth. I'm so excited to be able to come up with future playlists too.

Today's playlist:

1) Puppets (remix) - Depeche Mode

2) Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand

3) Surrender - Cheap Trick

4) Twist and Shout - The Beatles

5) Kids In America (remix) - Kim Wilde

6) I Wanna Go - Britney Spears

7) Great DJ - The Ting Tings

8) The Edge of Glory - Lady Gaga

9) Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson

10) Do You Right - 311

11) Helena Beat - Foster The People

12) Short Cut/Detour - Pretty Lights

I also had to come up with my Workout of the Day to be displayed tomorrow.

Medicine Ball Total Body Circuit

1) Lunges with Medicine Ball Twist, 16-20 reps

(holding med ball at your chest, lunge forward with right foot and twist toward the right, leading with your core; repeat immediately on left side)

2) Narrow Chair Squats to Medicine Ball Press, 16-20 reps

(stand with feet together, squat imagining you're sitting back into a chair, while lifting med ball up to press)

3) Sumo Squat to Calf Raise, 12-16 reps

(stand with feet wider than hip width apart, toes turned out to a 45 degree angle, sink deep down into a squat, lift up and balance on your toes to perform a calf raise)

4) Pullover Crunches with Medicine Ball, 12-16 reps

(lie on the mat with knees bent and heels on the ground, extend your arms above your head with elbows near your ears holding the medicine ball, then lift med ball up above your chest and crunch)

5) Side Plank Hold, 10-20 seconds each side

(lie on your side supported on your elbow, elbow underneath your shoulder, aligning your body from shoulder to heels in a straight line, lift and hold)

Repeat 2-3x

Unexpected R&R

Today was supposed to be shoulders and legs day at the gym but my body has rebelled against me. Last night I barely got four hours of sleep and I had to be up to train a client this morning at 7 am.

Possible reasons why I wasn't feeling on top of my game:

- Over-stressing my body with 6 days/week strength training workouts these last couple of weeks

- Not enough restful sleep

- Dinner last night was a slice of veggie pizza, a couple of handfuls of vegetable crudites, but also several cookies and Diet Coke

I woke up this morning feeling like there was a brick in my stomach. Those cookies were not worth it. And while I've never drank regular sodas in my adult life, I know diet sodas are no better.

As of now I will be skipping my workout for today. When I get signs of inflammation, which manifested itself in the form of a painful little bump in my underarm today, I truly know I should hold back. I will use today for some rest and relaxation so that I'm back to 100% tomorrow for training and teaching my first regular spin class!

Feels Good to Follow A Routine

I just got home from my Monday afternoon gym session. For breakfast I had 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese, 1 orange sliced, 1/2 banana sliced, 2 tbsp ground flaxseed, and about 10 almonds mixed together. Today was back and biceps day. I did a one mile warm up on the treadmill, did my sets, then went back to the treadmill for another interval workout. Yesterday I focused on speed intervals but today I worked on incline:

0:00-1:00- warm up at 4.0 mph/1% incline

1:00-2:00- 5.0 mph/4% incline

2:00-3:00- 5.0 mph/7% incline

3:00-3:30- 5.0 mph/10% incline

3:30-5:00- 5.0 mph/4% incline

Repeat until you hit 30 minutes.

Let me tell you, at around 15 minutes I thought, what the hell are you doing? This is rough! But I persisted... I always put myself in the mindset of someone I would be training. I cooled down for 2 minutes at no incline walking at 4.0 mph then I was done.

My post workout snack is 1 cup of kashi with 1/2 cup of soymilk sprinkled with lots of cinnamon spice.

April Now

April is my favorite month of the year. I may be biased since my birthday is the 17th but I love springtime and just the general feeling of this beautiful season.

There are some days I look forward to my workout. Today was not one of those days. But like I said, I want to get off to a good start for April. I'm continuing to follow a double split strength training schedule. It's a six day a week format with one rest day that looks like this:

Day 1: chest, triceps, core

Day 2: back, biceps

Day 3: shoulders, glutes, quads, hams, core

REST

Day 5-7: repeat Day 1-3 consecutively

I did a 15 minute warm up on the spin bike. I did 4 different chest exercises using various weight machines (about 8-15 reps, 2-3 sets, depending on weight used), 3 different triceps exercises, and about 10 minutes of core work. To finish off, I did cardio intervals on the treadmill. Warm up for 2 minutes, and then every odd minute I did 30 seconds at 7.0 mph/1% incline, active recovery 1:30 at 5 mph/1% incline. I repeated that until I hit 30 minutes.

That might all sound confusing but it's really just about playing around with various speeds to keep the workout interesting.