The weather here in PA has been ridiculously cold these past few weeks, so much so that I have joked that my husband's family in Winnipeg, Manitoba have sent us their winter and I wish they would take it back! Consequently, school schedules have been constantly disrupted which means my personal schedule has been disrupted and in the past three weeks I have only made it to the gym twice. Craziness... considering when I don't get a chance to literally blow of some steam I get a little crazy myself. Of course I am a big proponent of the fact that you can get a really great work out without leaving your living room if you know what to do, but sometimes the motivation just isn't there. I have done pretty well these past few weeks, but I know I am not in the same shape I was in two months ago. Although it is hard to detect any differences day to day, it was obvious how things have changed after struggling through the home workout I created for myself yesterday.
I had about 30 minutes of time to spare before I had to pick my daughter up at preschool, so I turned up some music and got to work. I have a set of six steps up to my living room from the entryway of our house so I used that as the base for the cardio portion of my workout. The routine I did is as follows:
30 times up and down the stairs
30 crunches
24 side plank dips (12 per side)
50 front lunges holding 8 pound weights (25 per side)
16 side lateral raises using 8 pound weights
40 times up and down the stairs
30 crunches
24 side plank dips
50 back lunges holding 8 pound weights
16 lateral raises using 8 pound weights
30 times up and down the stairs
It actually looks like more than I thought it would be when I write it out and a few months ago this routine would have been fairly simple for me, but it just about killed me yesterday. Especially the side planks. Before Christmas I could whip those out so easily but yesterday I did my first two and almost fell over. I felt so weak. But I did them and today I am sore so I guess they worked. Now I know what to do more of starting tomorrow!! Anyway, the reason for this post is to encourage others to not make being unable to get to a gym or being stuck inside because of the weather an excuse for not moving your body. If you have stairs you have a cardio machine, if not, do jumping jacks or run in place. It all works. Switch up a little cardio with some toning exercises of your choosing (sit ups, push ups, tricep dips with your hands on a chair, squats...). I find that writing out either on paper or in your mind a routine you hope to achieve helps you actually follow through. You could even do it with a friend, either physically together, or just as a promise to both do the same routine while snowed in separately. With the way this winter has been going I know that I will definitely be creating a lot of little workouts like this to keep my body and my mind in top form. So get up and start moving!!!
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