workouts

My Workouts During A Pandemic

August 5, 2020 by Alicia Leave a Comment

I’ve been thinking about this post for a while. Sharing my thoughts on my workouts through this pandemic period. For the most part, I would consider myself highly motivated to go to the gym, but workouts at home are totally different. Also with no AC and 90 degree days, the heat wore me down and I just did not want to sweat more than I was just walking around the house.

I am now in week 20 of working from home and really it has been about 21 weeks without a gym to go to. To put it simply, it has been very hard, mentally and physically. At first, in March, I was like, OK I can finally try out some of these at home workouts and I purchased the PIIT28 1.0 program as I have enjoyed the Blogilates videos on Youtube and it was a simple program laid out to follow. Also the price was around $30 which wasn’t bad for a month program.

Even though I have been working from home, I have my alarm set for 5am most mornings. I would wake up and put on my workout clothes and do the warm up and get into the PIIT program for the morning before making my breakfast. The program ended up taking me 2 months to complete though, as I started out with a little too much high intensity for myself and realized I did better doing the workouts every other day instead. I also took a few Zumba classes through Zoom on Saturdays so that was my cardio. I added lots of walking to my routine with lunch time walks and sometimes evening walks with Brian. I missed going to yoga classes and tried a few through Instagram live, but it was hard to watch on my phone screen. Here was another opportunity to try something and I got a membership to Bad Yogi Studio online which is only $9.99 a month, basically less than 1 yoga class and I had been previously going to 1-2 classes a week when I could. So on days that I didn’t do my PIIT28 workout, I would pull up a yoga class or just stretch in the morning. Sometimes I don’t do a workout and I was doing homework instead.

Week 9 hit and they had announced that gyms could possibly open at the end of June, so I had a month or so to wait. After finishing PIIT28, I felt like a break was good. The weather was warming up and I decided to start trying to run. This lasted only a couple weeks, running 2-3 times in the week as my right ankle would get really sore. I think I need to strengthen my ankles more. Then as the days got hot, I lost all motivation. I was counting down to the gyms opening, which would have been around 14 weeks.

Just 2 days before the gyms were supposed to open, they announced they couldn’t. I was crushed!! It was seriously really hard. What I had been doing was walking 2 miles in the morning and doing yoga from Bad Yogi. Both of those things were great, but NOTHING could replace my weight lifting I missed so much and how it makes me body feel. I basically spent a night crying because gyms were not opening. The gym has been my second home since college, a place to get out and also just make me feel good. A place to socialize and chat with others who enjoy lifting. I know this has been tough on many others as well.

Knowing that gyms would now have no date of opening in the near future, I needed to do something. In mid July, the number of states I am not allowed to travel to per New York, is increasing. The one thing I had to look forward to in mid July was a trip with a couple friends to Kentucky and that was quickly taken from me as their numbers rose and last minute we cancelled. I knew it was the right decision but I was very sad about it because all my plans I have tried to make this year have been cancelled (and I know so many other people out there are dealing with the same disappointment).

One thing was though, I was not feeling myself without my weight lifting. I only had 8lb and 10lb dumbbells and after so many weeks without a gym, I needed some 5lb dumbbells for some of the arm exercises. So our trip was cancelled and here I was searching for weights and pricing out squat racks online. A squat rack was 5 weeks backordered, but the hardest part seemed to be locating weights and a barbell. Brian searched Craigslist and happened to see a weight set and bar that had just been posted. Since we switched our plans to head towards the Thousand Islands, we would be heading right through Syracuse to get the weights. Luckily, they were still available in the morning and I texted with the guy all morning as we drove and scheduled a place and time to meet. Besides my Bad Yogi membership of $9.99 a month, buying these weights has been the best purchase I made in quarantine. I now could work on some moves to get some strength back. I still have not purchased a squat rack, but for now, I wrote up 3 beginner weight workouts to ease back in. I am taking things light and doing the workouts every other day in the morning. On the opposite days, I am either going for long walks or doing a 30-40 minute yoga class from Bad Yogi. I love that Bad Yogi comes out with a couple new videos each month and that there are fun, not ordinary, moves sometimes. I always love the more creative flows and vinyasa style.

So after about a month in a funk over what to do, I am in a good spot as I can work on deadlifts again. I hope to also work on my bench press from the floor (since I don’t have a bench) with some help from Brian too.

I have hopes for next year to get back to Powerlifting training and maybe hire a coach again. I know I did the best when I had a coach, but with school, my mind hasn’t been totally focused on training. If there is one thing this pandemic has taught me though, it’s how important I need to make my training, because it helps me feel the best. Right now, I am enjoying just a quick 30 minute session of some weight lifting and by starting really light, I feel I can increase a little each time and then I will work to increase number of sets or reps. I am also working on my nutrition again, focusing on protein intake to help with recovery and lots of water.

A Massage and Workouts

September 25, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Hey there! Welcome back to another Monday.

Today is going to be a tough day as my family and I have the services for my uncle who passed away last week. I flew to Chicago Saturday afternoon. While flying home was not for the best reason, it was the perfect flying weather with clear skies the entire flight.

I was on a somewhat small plane but thanks to the nice weather the flight wasn’t too bad. I downloaded some podcasts to listen to and the flight quickly passed by. We were even coming in at 30 minutes ahead of schedule and then we did a big loop (that wasn’t the most fun as we went through clouds) before landing. By the time we arrived at the gate we were still a good 20 minutes early. I also didn’t check a bag so I was able to quickly walk through the terminal and meet my dad at the passenger pick up.

I picked up an Argo Tea on my way out of the airport. Iced mojitea. It’s like a mojito without the alcohol and iced is necessary when it’s 93 degrees at the end of September…

Before I headed to the airport Saturday, I had one thing on my agenda, a massage.

I decided to get two massages this month and I am glad I didn’t have to cancel this one. I had a different masseuse this time so her style was a little different but she definitely got deep. I was most surprised at how sore my arms felt as she massaged them and then my neck. OMG the right side of my neck was sooo tight. That was the first thing she commented on when we finished. I was very surprised as usually my shoulders and legs are the tight areas. My head definitely felt a bit lighter afterwards. I had just enough time to shower and eat some lunch after before heading to the airport.

I’ll share about my visit home later this week but I wanted to share my workouts from the past week as it has been a few weeks or a month since sharing. I started tap dance this past week and excited for that. It had been 5 years since I last tapped and overall I wasn’t too rusty but my calves and ankles certainly weren’t used to it. Funny how you don’t realize what muscles are used with certain activities until you stop for 5 years. I think it will be really good for my feet and ankles to get more exercise again.

With the warm 80 degree days I also tried to enjoy the outdoors with some walks here and there. Have to soak up those last days of summer weather.

Workouts

Sun 9/17: yoga

Mon 9/18: weights-Bench

Tues 9/19: aerial yoga

Wed 9/20: weights -deadlifts, increased to 105 lbs 🙂

Thurs 9/21: 30 min walk and tap dance

Fri 9/22: yoga

Sat 9/23: rest – massage day

That’s all for me today. Hope you guys have a wonderful day.

Anybody else soaking up the last bit of summer weather?

Spiedie Fest, Netflix, a BBQ and Workouts

August 7, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Happy Monday!! I hope everyone had a great weekend. This was my first semi free weekend in 3 weeks and it was much needed. Friday evening I got to head to a vinyasa yoga class. My body was craving a true vinyasa flow class and I loved it. I got to play in crow and side crow as well.

Saturday morning I headed to the yoga studio to take a class and work for a bit before running a bunch of errands. I got back home with my groceries and bags, had a snack and then met up with one of my co workers to go to Spiedie Fest. I love chicken spiedies! The festival had pork and lamb speidies as well, but since I couldn’t wait to eat, I wasn’t super hungry and just got a sandwich size of spiedies. We walked around and I couldn’t pass up a half and half lemonade and iced tea. I didn’t taste much of the tea, but it was delicious lemonade.

We checked out a few of the booths, but didn’t buy anything. Then we got a funnel cake to share and sat in the grass just chatting for a bit. It was fun to meet up outside of work and I was happy to check out Spiedie fest. One of the things I missed though was watching the hot air balloons. We only spent a couple hours there walking around and the balloons were not launched until 6:30pm. Many people pay for the concert area too. That just started around 4 whenwe left and I was happy to leave because it was getting more crowded with the concerts starting up. I am really not a concert person with how loud it can be and the crowds.

When I got home, I wanted to work on my yin homework, but I also just needed some tv time. I was so busy going to yoga classes in the evening this week and staying late a couple times for month end, that I really didn’t have much down time. I am finishing up Switched at Birth on Netflix. I had watched it a few years ago when it was on tv and they just had the finale earlier this year so I thought I would finish the season and a half I missed. It was a quiet evening to myself and I really enjoyed that.

Sunday morning was my first day I could actually sleep in, in the past 3 weeks. I didn’t need to be anywhere at a specific time. However, it was finally a sunny day and I was still up around 6:30, but waited until about 7 to get out of bed.

I had some breakfast and then headed off to the gym. It was squat day and my right hip has been acting up so I took it easy, lowering my weights and doing some extra stretching and movements for my hip. As I study yin yoga and learn more awareness about my body, I have realized how unbalanced my hips are and maybe I was leaning more into my right side without noticing before. Hopefully rest and taking it easy will help. I also have a massage scheduled Saturday that I am HIGHLY looking forward to.

After the gym I took a nice relaxing salt bath. Giving my muscles and body some much needed TLC. Then I finally got to work on some of my yin homework and reading, before playing a bit in my bullet journal, trying some handwriting and layouts.

bullet journal — found this layout from Instagram searching #bujominimalist

In the afternoon, I headed to a friend’s for a BBQ. There was some delicious food, good company and a bunch of dogs.

this sweet kitty who clearly wasn’t happy to be held

ellie fetch — she will keep fetching until she drops

I finally got home around 7 and made my lunch for today and then went back to reading and Netflixing ( <– that’s a word now right?).

Workouts from the past week were pretty good other than my hip and shoulder acting up starting Wednesday. The rest and yoga at the end of the week felt good, but I can tell I still need to tone it down for a bit.

Sun 7/30: weights – squats

Mon 7/31: weights – bench

Tues 8/1: aerial yoga

Wed 8/2: deadlifts and yin yoga

Thurs 8/3: rest

Fri 8/4: vinyasa yoga

Sat 8/5: slow flow yoga

What did you do this weekend?

Returning from Blogfest and Workouts

July 24, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Wow what a weekend!! The last 4 days were incredible; filled with inspiring people and great workouts. I was excited to meet a couple bloggers in person that I follow, Megan and Beth. I also briefly got to meet Beth’s beautiful daughter. She is seriously so cute. My friend Kasey was also there and she was so good at introducing me to so many of her friends. In fact at our little happy hour, she introduced me to the TRX squad and I learned there is a TRX for yoga. Somehow 40 minutes went by with them and I tried out some moves with them.

Powercakes and Me Blogfest 2017 — Me and Kasey

I love that everyone who had been to Blogfest before was so welcoming to the newbies. So many of us travel solo to the event, but you never really feel alone. In fact by mid day Friday, the jet lag or amount of events was really catching up with me and I was happy to have a bit of a break to hit up the pool for an hour. When it’s 105 degrees outside, the water barely feels cold, but then when I would get out to read, sometimes there was the slightest breeze and it felt amazing. I loved getting a bit of sun and felt better after.

Saturday and Sunday allowed for a bit more relaxing time which was much needed for me to start working on some writing and processing. I didn’t go out and explore Vegas. It just didn’t fit my schedule and I opted for sleep at night since I was waking up at 5:30am each day (partly due to the time zone change and also because no Starbucks line at that time so I could get hot water and make oatmeal in my room). I’ll be recapping my first experience at Blogfest and some takeaways on Wednesday, so keep an eye out for that post.

I’m writing this as I wait in the airport in Las Vegas for my first flight to Detroit. Then I fly Detroit to Binghamton. With the 3 hour time zone change, I don’t land until 11:30pm, so it may be a bit rough today as I work at 8am. Hopefully I can take a bit of a nap on one of the flights and sleep well when I get home. I definitely can’t wait to cook food again as I mostly lived on protein bars and a few items I bought at Whole Foods (thanks to my friend for taking me there). Note to others, living on high protein and fiber filled bars for multiple meals makes your stomach very unhappy. I probably lost weight on this trip, who knows. I arrived to the airport with plenty of time to spare so I got myself a turkey club sandwich at Chilli’s. Somehow I wasn’t even hungry for the fries, but the sandwich was delicious and my only meal besides oatmeal and fruit in the morning. I also had some chocolate I brought. Chocolate totally counts as its own food group right?!

This past week of workouts was pretty light. Even with IDEA world, I didn’t do too many of the workout classes as I focused on anatomy for most of my classes. The rest days were very beneficial though since the week before I didn’t take any rest days. I needed a little break to recover. Getting back to my workouts tomorrow. Today is work, laundry and grocery shopping day.

Sunday 7/16: gentle yoga

Monday 7/17: bench workout (morning), yin yoga (evening)

Tuesday 7/18: rest day

Wednesday 7/19: rest day

Thursday 7/20: got over 10K steps, but mostly rest day – sadly missed the Zumba session at Blogfest due to going to lunch with a friend

Friday 7/21: model sculpt workout at blogfest (similar to a barre/pilates mix), aerial in the expo, over 10K steps again

Saturday 7/22: POP Pilates with Cassey Ho – I was so excited when I saw this on the schedule for Blogfest/IDEA world and was so excited to stay and actually meet Cassey. She is seriously so sweet in person, just as you would imagine.

One thing I continue to notice when doing new or different workouts is how strong I feel since starting powerlifting about 10 weeks ago. Especially during the POP Pilates, I noticed the moves weren’t too bad for me. I used to do some of the Blogilates videos on Youtube at home last year and it was always challenging to not take a break. I did take a break during some of the plank jacks, but besides that, I felt like my core has gained strength and the workout went well. One thing I will say I struggle with when it comes to pilates is doing so much core and keeping my low back on the ground. I usually get pain in my low back at some point and I know it’s due to the curve in my back and how I lose the proper posture if I do the move too fast. I try to slow down if I have to or take a break. It’s always important to listen to your body and be aware of your position.

Have you ever gone to a convention?