I started my morning off with some HIIT today! Starting off my week with fitness definitely helps me get focused. Especially since I was out of town this weekend and totally discombobulated from real life. 🙂
I’m going to get right to this weekend’s shenanigans. It was an amazing weekend with friends and fitness!
Last Thursday night, my friends and I drove out to AZ! One of my friends was running the Rock n Roll Marathon, and since my family is from AZ, we decided to go support her! Instead of writing all about it, I figured I’d like pictures and videos tell the story!
I spent some time with my family..
My dad and my nephew, Matty
Me and my littlebig bro, Ben at La Grande Orange
DRANK GOOD COFFEE….
Best. Coffee. Ever.
Kombucha ON TAP at La Grande Orange…(GAME CHANGER)
My favorite flavor: TRILOGY
Shenanigans with friends…
Torri set a new marathon PR…and Francesca and I walked a mile to meet her at the finish line..so that counts for something, right?!
Worked out at my favorite gym, Maximum Fitness with the master, Karl
Feeling the pain in 3,2,1…
Set some new PR’s at Bret’s (i’m pretty sure there is special PR Fairy dust in Bret’s garage….I always hit PR’s when I’m there!)
OH, and I can’t forget the #bootybump! Who needs a chest bump when you can booty bump?!
I had so much fun this weekend, but back to work it is!
Hope everyone had a great weekend themselves!
Question of the Day
1. Have you ever run a marathon or 1/2 marathon?
I did the AZ Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon a few years ago, and have thought about doing another, but right now I’m focused on my lifting.
This weekend actually felt quite long (not that I’m complaining), so I feel good and refreshed coming into this week. Here’s some of the fun I had:
Saturday, I took a boxing class in the morning. It was quite the sweat session! There were 3 instructors bringing the pain for an hour. Even though it was tough, I had a blast. Can’t wait for tomorrow night’s class!
After we showered up, I decided to get a my hair blown out before we headed to a music festival. It wasn’t a fancy festival or anything, but I just didn’t feel like doing my hair. -_-
Guys…I’m SUPER lazy with my hair. I either let it air dry or put it up in a top knot. I have SO much hair and it’s wavy/frizzy, so it can be a pain in the ass. stop-any-disease, once my hair was all done and pretty, and since I knew I’d actually be wearing NPC (normal-people-clothes) instead of gym clothes, I decided to do my makeup too! (Call it a national holiday! Alert the press!)
We then headed out to the Eagle Rock Music Festival. It had promise, but ended up being somewhat of a fail. The vibe was really cool and very family-oriented, but the music was just meh. There were a LOT of DJ’s (not my thing…and I can’t understand what is entertaining about watching someone stand in one place pushing buttons on a laptop and turning discs….but I digress) and the only decent bands were playing in acoustically untreated buildings = muddy musical mess. We did see one latino band that was totally not my style of music, but TOTALLY GOOD. Had we known what the rest of our options were, we definitely would have stayed and watched them longer.
People standing around watching a DJ….I DON’T GET IT. WHAT IS THERE TO SEE?!
Sunday, we headed to the batting cages to hit some balls. As many of you know, I played on the guys’ baseball team growing up, so I love getting chances to play! Happy to know, I’ve still got it!
We watched a little bit of the Chiefs game, and then I headed to the sauna gym for a workout. We’re going through a major heatwave (…didn’t I move from AZ to get away from that?!), so the temps have been quite ridiculous. Like, 97 in Santa Monica ridiculous!
Leg Day Insanity
4 sets of
Superset #1: Barbell Squats at (95lbs x 15) w/ Medicine Ball Jump Squats (10lbs x 15)
3 sets of
Superset #2: Leg Extensions (50lbs x 15) w/ Supinated Hamstring Curls (50lbs x 15)
3 sets of
Superset #3:Barbell Walking Lunges (50lbs x 12 per leg) w/ Split Squat Jumps (bodyweight x 10 per side)
2 sets of
Superset #4: (1 leg at a time!!!) DB Step Up (20lbs x 10) w/ Step Up Jumps (bodyweight x 10)
I may or may not have walked out of the gym looking like I just jumped off a horse. As always, check with a doc before starting any new exercise routine. Use weights you’re comfortable with. I posted mine for reference, but you should do what is best for YOU.
Hope you guys have a great rest of your day! I’ll be back tomorrow with some more workouts for the week.
Be sure to check out my Ask Me Anything post and leave a comment with any questions you may have! I’ll be answering them all this week on the blog!
Question of the Day
1. What is the weather like in your part of the world? Still summer-like? Fall? Winter-y?
The holiday weekend is thisclose!!!! Is everyone else as excited as I am? I love my work, but I love my playtime too!
I plan on doing a mix of kicking back and relaxing as well as going on some adventures! The weather is gorgeous this time of year (and ummm every other time of the year…thanks Santa Monica!) so I’m going to take advantage of it somehow! I’ve really been wanting to rollerblade down by the beach lately. I loooovvveee rollerblading and don’t do it often enough. Any other bladers around here or is it just me?!
On Tuesday, I did a pretty killer leg workout. It was a mixture of strength training and athletic movements. It completely turned my legs to jello and was a lot of fun! I’ve been doing hip thrusts since pretty much the beginning of hip thrusts (thanks Bret!), and have done them with barbells, dumbbells, and bands. Since my first training studio had a Skorcher (built specifically for hip thrusts), I was able to do banded hip thrusts whenever I wanted, but most gyms don’t have that. I had never actually attempted to do them anywhere else, but decided to try to get creative and figure it out. I found the PERFECT solution and it can be done at any gym containing a standard bench press. Maybe people have already been doing this for a while, but if not, I highly recommend trying it out:
Here’s the full leg workout I did:
Deadlifts: 4 sets at 149 x 15, 159 x 12, 169 x 10, 179 x 8
Deadlift set up
Banded Hip Thrusts:4 sets of 20 reps (next time I’ll try with a thicker band)
Superset: 3 sets of DB Walking Lunges (20lb DB’s x 10) + Broad Jumps(10 reps)
Definitely scale this to what you can do and as always, check with a doctor before trying any new workout programs. If you’re unsure of how to do any of these movements, feel free to e-mail me! I’m happy to do video demonstrations!
It’s been quite a week over here! Not going to lie, I’m REALLY excited for the weekend! Not only will I have a chance to chill out, but my brother-in-law is coming to visit, too. This week has definitely tested my patience, but I’m determined to come out on top. Facetime with this little guy on Tuesday definitely helped make it all better….
MATTY!
If you’ve never Facetimed with an almost-2 year old, I highly recommend it. Haha! This kid cracks me up! I also had a pretty fun assistant in the office for a bit. Meet….RUFUS. He’s the best.
This week’s workouts have been pretty good! I took a much needed rest day yesterday. I actually almost tried to make myself go to the gym in the evening, but I knew it would benefit me to just relax. I just love working out so much and feel so good when I do, that it’s hard for me to rest sometimes. I’ve got a Shoulder/Chest workout on the agenda for this afternoon, so I’ll post that workout tomorrow.
Leg day on Tuesday turned out to be pretty killer. I was sweating like crazy and was definitely glad when it was over. Leg day is my favorite but MAN can it be brutal! Here’s what I did:
Tuesday Leg Workout
4 Sets of Deadlifts (worked up to 169 pounds x 8 reps)
3 Sets of Barbell Reverse Lunges (75 pounds)
3 Supersets of Glute Donkey Kicks on the Leg ext. + Wide Stance KB Goblet Squats
2 Supersets of DB Step Ups + Step Up Jumps
I thought it would be fun to give you guys an idea of how I eat most of the time. I for sure have treats every now and then and don’t worry about it, but this is my 80%. Meaning that 80% of the time, this is how I eat. This is how I choose to eat….not for any other reason than it makes me feel good, supports my training, and still keeps me satisfied. Yep, I EAT CHEESE and lots of FRUIT and omg, I eat after 6pm too….and still live to tell about it. 😉
Fooooooods
8:30am: Large Americano w/ Nonfat Steamed Milk
9am: 2 Scrambled Eggs + 1/2 cup oatmeal OR a slice of Ezekiel bread + an apple
10:30-11am: an apple + almonds OR Cookies & Cream Quest Bar
12-1pm: chicken or turkey + brown rice or quinoa + veggies + sometimes avocado or cheese (sometimes I do a paleo burger too)
3-3:30pm: Cookies and Cream Quest Bar & a Large Americano w/ nonfat steamed milk
