Hey Fitness Fans,

It's Friday Eve.  Congrats, you made it & it's almost the weekend!  Let's celebrate with an invigorating move.  Are you getting enough Cardio exercise?  While I think doing only cardio is a mistake many people make, doing no cardio is a mistake as well. 

  Instead of always heading to the dreadmill, I like to use HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) moves for my cardio.  This is another great HIIT exercise to intersperse in your workouts.  It'll raise your heartbeat, force you to work on your balance, agility AND work your legs & abs nicely at the same time.  It's similar to the side to side lunge jumps we did awhile back.

Speed Skaters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jiwdsigh6SQ

You don't have to do 100 at once.  Do 5 sets of 20 or 4 sets of 25.

Oh & it's also a fun distraction exercise as you pretend you're a speed skater in the Olympics.  I always wanted to be professional figure skater but I just knew that wasn't in the cards for me.  I was a tomboy not a gymnist or ballerina, and graceful was not an adjective you'd use to describe me as a kid.  It was a great accomplishment for this skater to do a simple crossover.  That's where you lift your outside leg up off of the ice, cross it over your other foot, transfer your weight & not trip yourself and fall down.  It took me a lot of trys to master this simple move.  However once you accomplish the crossover, you can skate much faster around the rink.  That is a lot of fun!  Unfortunately I never got very good at stopping either....  Does anyone want to go ice skating with me?  Mentor has a great rink.  

See ya tomorrow & enjoy your workout fantasies,

Karen

Welcome Back to my Blog

So I don't think anyone really checks this thing, but I've decided to become an active blogger again.  I've been doing a Daily Challenge everyday for a small group of email subscribers since the beginning of 2015.  Here was today's post.

Time for a Rest Day

     Personally I don't have a set rest day & I usually only take one when my body say "ENOUGH"!  Last night several muscles told me I needed one.  I heard pleas of mercy from my abs, chest, triceps & the loudest cry was coming from my calves.  Somehow I knew my shoulders weren't ready for an entire day devoted to them.  So I listened & gave them all a day of rest.

I blame it on Dan, the owner of the gym where I belong.  We are lucky to have so many machines to chose from at our gym that I still haven't tried them all.  Then he's always adding more new equipment.  It's pretty awesome.  Every few days I'll try something new to expand my fitness horizons.  Sunday I finally tried the seated calf press. Generally I watch someone if I'm not 100% sure what to do & everyone is happy to answer your questions if you ask. I watched the duo working this machine prior to me & it seemed pretty simple.  I wisely decided to remove the 2  - 45lb plates on each side that they had used & replaced them with 2 -25's & 2 10's.  I knocked out 20 pretty easily; so, I added another 25lb plate on each side.  Again I blame Dan.  It's hard to find plates smaller than 25lbs.  This time I only did 12.  For the 3rd set I took off the extra weight & went back to my original try.  I was able to do 25.  That was all I did focusing strictly on my calves, but I did a LOT of other leg work.

Skip ahead to Monday.... I really didn't feel the workout & was kind of disappointed.  I LIKE to feel a little "after effect".

Tuesday......hmm....Suddenly my calves are quite tight & sore.  I stretch but it progresses thru the day.  They remind me of Sunday's workout all day long.  Now it's hard to even get comfortable in bed.

Wed am....My calves are screaming everytime I go down the stairs or get up from a chair or do just about anything...  

Thursday - I decided on a rest day.

Friday - I can not wait to hit legs again!

Have a great Rest or Catch Up Day Ladies!!

Cheers,

Karen