kickboxing

I am literally counting down the minutes over here until the weekend. It’s 9 days until my half and I’m taking this last weekend to celebrate before I start tapering. That means partying it up for one of my Philly girls’ birthdays with some of my girlfriends and getting my rest on, two things that I’m very much a fan of.

This week has been tough workout wise. I’ve started coming up with new routines for myself on days where I’m not running and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t kicking my own butt. I’m working on incorporating the training I learned from getting my NASM certification to build a solid plan for myself to really start seeing results. I built a pretty solid foundation with the BBG and I’m ready to turn it up a notch.

Which means more food, which really means more pancakes. And that, my friends, is one of the best things in the world.

Along with switching up my workout routine a little bit, I’ve been trying to get back to kickboxing. I’m going to be 100% honest with you guys and let you know I haven’t been to kickboxing in probably a good three weeks and it wasn’t because of lack of motivation.

I started resenting the instructor. I know that sounds really dramatic, but hear me out. The class schedule for the kickboxing gym I attend has a 5:45 am class, a 10 am class (which usually conflicts with meetings for me), a 4:30 pm class (still working), and a 7:00 class (I’m just not a night time workout type of girl). Now, I’m a morning person, but 5:45 means I have to get up at 5:15 to get ready and drive all the way there and that just isn’t something I’m willing to do the 3 days a week they list that as an option. Instead, I had just been going once a week to the 5:45 am class.

Now if I’m getting my butt up to go to class at 5:45, it had better be a good one. And this class just continually was not. We spent the first 15 minutes warming up, the next 10 punching the bag, the next 20 doing ab work on the floor, and the final 15 cooling down. So basically my heart rate went no where and while my abs were getting a kicking workout, that’s not why I paid the big bucks to go to a kickboxing gym. I went to BOX. To hit the darn bag. To get out that frustration. Finally, I realized it wasn’t worth it for me to be getting up this early and for me to be upset about it, so I stopped going.

Enter Wednesday.

I had an early morning meeting at 7:30, so instead of waking up and hitting the gym at the crack of dawn, I opted to sleep in and fit my workout into my lunch break. I realized that there was a kickboxing class at 10am that I could swing, so I laced up my shoes and headed out.

This class was just what I needed. We spent an appropriate amount of time warming up and then we got down to business. There were burpees. There were laps around the gym. There were squat jumps. There were intervals of speed punching and power punching. And at the end, I was out of my mind tired and sweaty, and I loved it.

But more than anything, I loved the mantra that the instructor kept instilling in us. “Why are you here” she was say over and over as we punched the bag. And it got me thinking. We’re all working out for different reasons, but something brings us to the gym every day. Something lights that fire that says, it’s time to do something for yourself. Going to the gym is a very selfish activity, but selfish in the best possible way.

The best part about the “why are you here” question? If you don’t like the answer, change it. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: not everyone works out the same way.

If you hate running, don’t run.

If you hate circuit workouts, choose something else.

If you hate working out alone, go to a class.

You have a million options and maybe you just haven’t found the perfect one for you yet, but when you ask yourself “Why are you here” and finally get that answer you’ve been looking for, you know you’re doing something right.

And I’ll leave you with an obligatory picture of the Boo getting her speed on. I have been taking her on runs lately since the weather has been so nice, and good god is she improving. Literally break neck pace over here.

-sj

Wow. What hasn’t happened since my last post? It hasn’t even been a week and I’ve been all over the place and then some. So let’s start it off with some awesome news. As of Wednesday, I’m officially a NASM Certified Personal Trainer!!

This is something I really wanted to do for myself. I have loved working out for years, but I knew if I wanted to get serious, I needed to get smart about it. People had been coming to me time and time again for advice and I decided if I wanted to give advice, I needed to give smart, well-informed advice. So I did some research and found the NASM program which is one of the most accredited in the biz. (You can read more about my decision to do the NASM exam here) The test was not as easy as I expected to be honest (I mean there was 700 pages of material to cover), but I am elated that I passed. Almost as elated as this nugget who tried to eat the paper that said I passed:

So what’s the first thing I did when I got my certification? Hop on the plane and head down to Houston. I went to college there and lived there for over 5 years, so it has a special place in my heart. There was an alumni event this weekend and, as always, it was the perfect time getting together with some of my favorite people.

I took Friday off from work and enjoyed some girl time which included hitting the gym with one of my friends who dared to try one of my circuit workouts. This one left us absolutely drenched in sweat. 45 seconds doing the moves and then we spent 15 seconds doing either jumping jacks, high knees, or resting. Believe me, by the second time through of the last circuit we were resting more than I care to admit, but boy was my heart rate up there. Try this one out:

The workout was a perfect way to prep for the next day which was full of fun, food, drinks, and a lot of walking around. The Houston sun was a perfect accompaniment to good times with friends. Good thing it was my rest day though because my legs were shot from an almost 30 mile running week and some pretty killer extra workouts.

Want to know the best way to recover from hanging out with friends and eating and drinking all day? Hop on a plane and head home for some sports. My parents had let me know that they had tickets to the Blackhawks game on Sunday night and the Bulls game on Monday and that was just something I couldn’t pass up. I’m a huge Chicago sports fan and wasn’t missing this.

So happy to be able to spend some time with my awesome parents. Please note that is not the face my dad had when we ran before the game.

just a picture of my future husband/one true love Jonathon Toews

The only issue with all this traveling and friend time? It was hard to schedule my workouts in. But, you know what, I got them all done. Whether it was awesome friends offering to workout with me or my dad getting a kick out of the workout plan I wrote for him, I did it.

Pre-hockey game was a 6 mile run and some weights. I took over 27,000 steps on Sunday between walking around the airport, working out, and stepping around the United Center. I’m really proud of myself for sticking to my workout schedule and sweating it out. For anyone who thinks that they don’t have time to workout, you do have time if you make time.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to workout and odd hours just to make sure I got it done. It could be 5am. It could be my lunch break. It could even be after dinner. I do it because it makes me feel good and I NEVER regret a workout. If you make it a priority, you’ll get it schedule. If you don’t, it won’t. It’s that simple.

-sj

Love & Lunge

“why are you here.” and picking the right workout for you.

the sweatiest full-body circuit I’ve ever done and some exciting news!