weight lifting

Yin Yoga Training Weekend 2 and Workouts

July 31, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

This weekend was another busy one with yin yoga training weekend 2 of 4. We did a lot of practice teaching of poses and also learned about meridians. After starting my yin hw assignment, I learned that the Indian culture refers to meridians as Nadis which I am somewhat familiar with from my first teacher training. It is interesting how many different types of yoga there are and how when you study yoga there are different names for similar ideas whether you are studying the Chinese method or Indian method.

Not only does studying yin bring in different thinking and awareness for me but also just studying in a different yoga studio. If you are familiar with yoga, you know that each studio has their own ways of teaching. Obviously when you do a training at a different location, you get a different perspective and I think that is great as it brings more variety and awareness to your thoughts.

Three years ago I definitely was not as in tune with my body as I am now and there is still more to learn always.

Those are my thoughts from the weekend. There was definitely a lot of information but it was balanced with a lot of teaching and teaching yin is out of my comfort zone because while we do similar poses to a yang (vinyasa) practice, yin yields a different outcome and you want your student to feel that outcome. While I had practiced yin before this training, I now understand so much more about what yin is and what I should be feeling in practice.

On another note, I did some squats on Saturday morning after nearly a week of rest due to my traveling. I honestly felt super strong. Then I increased the weight and it was more challenging and I got sweaty but it was good. The hardest part of the workout wasn’t the squats though. The hardest part was doing lunges and goblet squats after the squats. Talk about a leg day! I pushed through though because when you push through, that is when the changes happen.

I came across this on twitter Saturday night and loved it.

“Your mind will quit 100 times before your body ever does…”

So true and this is also why I love yoga and yoga training because it gets me to focus on my mind and my thoughts. Part of our yin hw these next few weeks is to journal after each yoga practice. I haven’t been great at journaling consistently in a while but lately I have all this motivation to write after Blogfest so I look forward to this part of the hw.

Saturday night I was so excited to lay in bed early at 9pm so I could really catch up on sleep. I have felt behind all week after returning from traveling.

Sunday morning I was awake around 6:30 since I went to bed so early. I was happy to feel well rested at 6:30am though. I got up and made some protein pancakes for breakfast and had a bit of down time before leaving around 8 to head to yoga. This was a gentle/chair yoga class and it felt nice to just slowly move my sore body in the morning. I had realized I forgot to foam roll after my squats on Saturday and so my glutes were quite sore when I woke up. Foam rolling seriously makes a difference in recovery.

After yoga and a bit of work at the studio, I headed to Target. I needed to get some highlighters and post its for some marking up in my yoga books. It was perfect since it’s back to school season. I always loved getting a school supply list and going shopping for new pencils and notebooks. Every Sunday my family would get the newspaper with the ads and we would see what supplies were on sale each week.

I also got some more La Croix because I had a coupon for a free pack thanks to Blogfest. Passionfruit is my current favorite.

When I got home I had some lunch and then got to writing, journaling and reading for yin. It was absolutely beautiful outside. I wish I had had an outdoor activity but when I sit outside at the house there are way too many giant flying bugs or bees. I’ve decided I will just be pale this summer…

Also here is a look at my workouts from the last week. Slowly getting back to my regular schedule, but there were a few more rest days due to the traveling and just knowing that I needed sleep as a priority this past week.

Sun 7/23: rest (headed home from Blogfest)

Mon 7/24: rest (was so tired and needed to catch up on sleep)

Tues 7/25: aerial yoga

Wed 7/26: deadlift day

Thurs 7/27: arm accessory day

Fri 7/28: rest – practice teaching in yin but didn’t do a full practice

Sat 7/29: squats and practice teaching in yin

squat face 072917 — deep in concentration #squatface

What’s your favorite La Croix?

Do you like to journal?

Weekend and Workout Recap 7/10/17

July 10, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Happy Monday!! I guess we are back to the 5 day work weeks for a while. This weekend I didn’t have too many plans as the rest of my July weekends are pretty busy. Since Brian was still home, we ended up seeing Despicable Me 3 and I have to say, it was so good and funny. You must go see it. I remember I didn’t like number 2 as much as 1, but I think 3 redeemed it. It also kind of ended in a way that there could be a 4^th. I love the minions!!

Later in the day Saturday, Brian decided to start working on our new bedroom. He replaced each of the electrical outlets with an ivory color instead of the dark brown and it looks much better with the new paint. We also amazingly brought up our mattress from the basement. We have been sleeping on a Full size bed and I can’t wait until we can sleep on our Queen size mattress again. We have a foam mattress so it folds in half (with the help of bungee cords) and we managed to squeeze it up the basement stairs with it folded in half. It was quite a sight and I totally wish I had a picture of it.

Sunday I went to workout. My gym uses fingerprints to get access and they replaced the fingerprint machine with a new one since my last visit Thursday. Well it took me 15 minutes to get my fingerprint to work. I don’t have great fingerprints…I hope this isn’t the case each time. I think I somewhat figured out the way to set my finger to get it to work.

Since the gym is a major part of my life, I wanted to start to share workout recaps from time to time. I try to keep my schedule similar each week so it would be boring to recap each week, but I just started a new powerlifting plan, so I thought I would give you a glimpse at my week last week.

Last week was a bit different since it was a holiday week and I had Monday and Tuesday off. Since I was getting used to my new workouts, I took those days and went to the gym. Also one of my yoga studios was closed for the holiday week so I didn’t have as much yoga as usual.

Sunday 7/2: squat day at the gym (workout 1 of 4)

Monday 7/3: Deadlift day at the gym (workout 4 of 4) – wanted to do deadlifts on my day off since it was my first time doing them in 5 years and I wasn’t sure how much time they would take me. I learned there may be a reason for having a few days between squats and heavy deadlifts because this was HARD back to back.

Tuesday 7/4: Accessory day, lots of arm focus (workout 3 of 4) – also a new to me workout and I knew I would be out late for fireworks on the 4^th so I didn’t want to go Wednesday morning to the gym. I also did a bit of yoga and stretching at home while the boys were out for the day.

Wednesday 7/5: – rest day

Thursday 7/6: – Bench day (workout 2 of 4) in morning, yin yoga after work

Friday 7/7: – rest day

Saturday 7/8: – yoga

So that’s what my week looked like. Ideally I plan to do my weight lifting days Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and in order 1-4, but adjusted with the holiday. I actually love working out on holidays because there are usually fewer people at the gym. Actually the gym was more crowded Tuesday morning than Monday morning when I went, but still no more than 10 people were there.

Looking forward to each of my workouts this week and then starting Yin Yoga training Friday after work.

Do you like to workout on holidays?

My New Gym: MIMM 108

May 15, 2017 by Alicia 2 Comments

My weekend wasn’t very exciting. It was quite rainy Saturday so all I did was go out to the grocery store, make cookies and read some of my new book.

I figure I have time right now so I am using it to invest in me and taking the first step towards the NASM personal training and just learning some anatomy first. It should also help my yoga and I have my yoga anatomy book too. I read Heather (lifeinleggings) post and she said it was a great book. Plus who doesn’t love coloring while studying?!

After mostly sitting Saturday, I could not sleep in the evening. I was too antsy and had too many thoughts roaming in my head. I don’t think I got to sleep until after midnight and I still woke up at 6am.

Sunday morning I headed to an 8:30 yoga class. It was so nice to be in a class and get some good stretches after my workout Friday. Friday was squat day and chair pose is really tough after squat day. I needed to get off some energy and rain was forecasted for the afternoon so I decided to head out for a walk shortly after 11. I basically walked and typed this post up on my phone. Walks lately bring up so many ideas and thoughts and I can’t remember them after until I am trying to fall asleep. Writing and walking was perfect for clearing my head and I got back just in time for thunder, rain and hail to start. Yes hail in May!! This weather lately has been crazy. Looking forward to hitting 80 degrees this week.

Since my weekend wasn’t too exciting, I thought I would talk about my new gym and workout plans.

I joined a gym, a “real gym” just weights and a bathroom. No showers, no classes, no pool. Of course I love all those luxury things but what I have realized is I struggle without weightlifting in my life. I love yoga to compliment my weight lifting and remind me to breathe and relax. I love a challenging yoga workshop getting deep into my mind and thoughts and releasing.

workout shirt I wore to my training Friday to remind me to dig deep. also a great reminder for yoga though

But weight lifting makes me feel confident and strong in different ways and my body responses well to it. Actually because I didn’t weight lift for the last 5 months (with traveling) my shoulder is bothering me more than ever. I should write a post about it but I have shoulder bursitis in my right shoulder. It currently bothers me on drives longer than an hour (yes it was painful to drive to Iowa and back and then Ohio, Buffalo and Binghamton). Too many push ups bother it so I decided I should take a break from push ups and focus on just plank for now. I do a few chaturangas here and there but I modify when needed. I can’t run. I mean I couldn’t really before but last year just being consistent with weight lifting helped me to run about a mile pain free. Jumping tends to aggravate my shoulder which is why I don’t do much HIIT training. I loved my traveling but I have yet to figure out how to do my shoulder exercises on the road very well. I can’t exactly travel with dumbbells. Maybe I will have to figure out band exercises as that is more portable.

Anyway I am so happy to be back to weight lifting and incorporating deadlifts again starting with kettle bell deadlift which I think is a great first step back to them. This is an exercise I have specifically avoided for a few years because I always question my form. I signed up for 2 personal training sessions at the gym to learn a basic 6 week program I will follow to get back to weightlifting. After 6 weeks, I will probably go back to the personal trainer and see if she can write me a powerlifting program. I have been following FitGirlMoves and have been really inspired to powerlift, especially since squats, bench and deadlifts is where I started with weightlifting with Brian in 2010. Unfortunately once I moved to Philly, I couldn’t really find a gym that worked well for powerlifting and I had limited time. I am hoping I will have a shorter commute once I find a job. I will also be back to a driving commute since there are no trains in Binghamton and hopefully that will make it easier to go to the gym after work.

So weightlifting and yoga will be my current focus in terms of workouts. I am also looking around for yoga subbing or teaching and plan to focus on that this week by checking out other studios.

balance t shirt — working on finding balance in my life always

Whenever I have a bunch of free time I tend to go to the gym more frequently and I am happy to have a partially structured gym plan at the moment. It is only 2 days a week but I plan to go there at least 4 days and do accessory work such as my shoulder exercises and maybe some abs and light cardio. Ideally I want to go 6 days a week but I don’t want to overdo it as I get back into things. On other days I plan to take long walks and maybe get some of my own yoga in outside again as the weather warms up.

Linking up with Katie for MIMM.

What is your favorite workout?

I am Proud: My Gym Story TOL #44

April 21, 2016 by Alicia 10 Comments

Hello and Happy Thursday. Also a Happy Birthday to my Dad!!

A little #throwbackThursday Prom May 2008, how has it been 8 years since high school?! My dad was going to the Chicago Symphony that night with a friend so he was dressed up too.

Alright back to present day, I feel like April is absolutely flying by now. I am loving every moment of sunshine I get not just during lunch but also after work at home. I felt my patio doors were useless through the winter as I wasn’t home during the short daylight hours. It has made me so much happier to have more sunlight and even see the sun starting to rise when I come back from the gym at 6am.

Speaking of the gym, it was a year ago that I got back to my weight lifting as Yoga Teacher Training came to an end. Due to the demands of yoga training and working full time, I canceled my gym membership and then I moved too.

I really wanted to be able to do a pull up unassisted (which I was able to do about 3 years ago and lost the strength) and I finally can do about 2 in a row today! I am so happy I have been building my strength back up. I started with about 70 lbs assistance and now do reps with 10-15 lbs assistance after attempting 2 or so without assistance.

Of course there are plenty of strong yogis out there, especially when it comes to handstands and advanced moves. Heck, just doing chaturangas and balancing poses like warrior 3, builds strength. I do love yoga, but I love it as part of a balance of all my working out.

I believe I have a deeper love for weight lifting. Weight lifting makes me feel empowered, strong and more confident in myself. I also feel that my body responds well to weight lifting, toning up the muscles and losing excess tummy fat. I actually struggled in yoga training because I have a bad shoulder and other parts of my body, like my foot or knee would start to act up sometimes. As soon as I got back to weight lifting, these were less of an issue. Remember that every body is different.

I used to be that girl who would never touch a weight. Actually I never even would go to a gym other than to swim from time to time. I was never a cardio junkie and while people thought I was in amazing shape, I really could hardly run and discovered I was actually pretty weak during my first time at the gym.

In Fall 2010, Brian introduced me to weight lifting. We were both newbies, though he started in the summer and could see the difference in his body that weight lifting was doing. He was more tone and losing fat. Together, we would do workouts a couple mornings before class, sometimes my suite mate would also join. It was so much fun! From then on, I fell in love with weight lifting. I honestly felt the best in my body than I probably ever have at that time in my life.

When I moved home in June 2012, I joined a local big gym and though I was hesitant to work out by myself and lift weights, I did what I could. In college, I did more deadlifts, barbell squats and bench press than now as I still feel the need for a spotter, especially to increase my weights, but mostly for my form. I know my form needs improvement especially with deadlifts.

I focus on form, I focus on what I can do in the amount of time that I have and you know what? I feel great! Could I improve more? Absolutely. Could I work harder? Probably with someone with me. But mainly I go to the gym for me. I go because I love it. I go because it destresses me and makes me feel better. It’s become part of my lifestyle. When I increase the weights and push through the reps, I feel so proud of myself.

One day, hopefully Brian and I can work out together more and I can improve the big 3: deadlifts, barbell squats and barbell bench press. But for now, I am proud of what I have accomplished on my own. I am proud of my progress. I am proud that I get up at 4:45am to get my workout in at 5am. I found a way to make it work with my schedule because it is important to me.

I should also mention these last 2 months, I haven’t been entirely by myself as I participated in Becky’s core bootcamp last month and currently doing her booty bootcamp (so much harder than core for me!).

Having a 20 minute or so workout laid out for me to tag onto the end of my working out is perfect and I really did feel so much stronger in my core and even my posture felt better after the month of March with the core bootcamp. I highly recommend it. Booty Bootcamp I have had to modify a bit just as I am not quite strong enough to fully complete some of them, but I do already notice my butt shaping up lol.

That’s a little bit about my story of weight lifting. My goal is one day to become a personal trainer, especially to share with other women who might be hesitant to weight lift, how good it is for you and how amazing you can feel. In case you need more reasons to weight lift as a woman, check out Lauren’s blog post from the other day.

What’s your favorite form of exercise?

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