Saturday, May 17, 2008

Open mouth, insert money


Oh, wait...that's not how that saying goes...

Anyway, in the spirit of the video I posted yesterday, I worked out today in spite of the obstacles.

Here is the background (and it's really long and I'm really wordy and oh well, just deal): I usually exercise in the morning after the kids go to school or in the evening after they go to bed. My dh is home virtually all the time these days, as we're getting ready to move, and I homeschool my almost 13-y/o, so I really have no excuse whatsoever to not get my hiney moving. The last couple of weeks I've been trying to ramp up my strength training, as I have a multitude of what a friend once called "squishues." I am getting near to my goal weight (p.s. Holly, I would have readily admitted that; no need to rat me out! ;), but I am still so doughy and, well, squishy, that I really need to be more consistent about working out with weights in order to get the body I want. So, like I've said, I've been working harder at getting that done lately. Mostly I work out at home, and I have a pretty good collection of weights, bands, etc. that I use. However, three weeks ago, movers came to my house and took away all my weights and bands and even my etc. So then I had to start dragging myself to the gym at our neighborhood's community center. I hate that gym, especially the weight room, as it is nigh unto useless. But that's what I've been doing in order to get my workouts done.

This week has been harder, as we had another set of movers come and take even more stuff (since we're moving overseas, we're sending our stuff in waves, in the hopes that it will all arrive roughly the same time we do), and I haven't gotten all of the weight workouts in that I wanted. I knew that this morning was basically my last chance to get it done in order to get the 48-hour requisite rest period before my Monday morning workout. But my dh is out of town! And my handy dandy built-in-babysitter-eldest-child (a.k.a., the reason you don't kill them when they're little? so they can grow up and babysit for you!) had an early-morning (as in, out the door at 5:45am) church youth activity to go to! And my older son is camping. So what to do what to do. Hello, body-weight circuit training! Last night before I went bed, I came up with a full-body workout using just my body weight. I laid out my clothes, water, and ipod last night and then when I got up to help get my dd out the door at way-too-early o'clock, I worked out! Go me!

Here's what I did:
5 minute warm up on the old and crappy yet free treadmill (the movers didn't take it, because the electrical system of the apartment building we'll be living in can't handle it)
10 push-ups
20 squats (technically, I guess I did "prisoner squats" as I raised my arms overhead whilst I was performing aforementioned squats)
20 tricep dips
25 crunches (I like to do these with my feet on the wall and my legs at a 90-degree angle. Then when I crunch up, I push my feet against the wall, thereby increasing the contraction in my lower abs.)
15 lunges, each side (also, I hate lunges!)
20 calf-raises on the bottom step of the staircase
30-second plank position (I had to fudge that a little as I am still pretty weak, so I did 10 seconds doing it right, 10 seconds holding it halfway, and then 10 more seconds doing it fully) (also, ow)
30 mountain climbers

Then I started over back at the beginning and did it again. I had intended to get on the treadmill after that and go for as long as I could, but just as I was starting my second trip through the circuit, my youngest woke up and vehemently demanded my attention. I got him settled with some food and a show long enough to finish the circuit, but there's no way to contain him well enough to allow me to get on the 'mill, and the other 2 kids weren't awake yet (gratefully! it wasn't even 7!). He's 22-months and fully into the stage that a friend of my mom's describes as "Maximum Mobility, Minimum Judgment." So the extended treadmill session will have to wait for tonight after bedtime, but I'm very happy to have the strength workout done. I don't expect to be able to lift many things today, and tomorrow may involve a lot of sitting and saying, "ow," but for now I'm happy.

The other thing that makes me happy about coming up with this workout is that in 10 days or so, I'm going to be homeless for 6 weeks or more (depending on when we can get into our new place) and gym availability is going to be sketchy at best, so now I know that I'm going to be able to put together effective workouts regardless. I figure if I add in a jump rope, marching in place (sometime soon, Holly needs to tell y'all about LRR), and/or jumping jacks, and I'll be good for the cardio portions of the circuit.

3 comments:

Wendi said...

I hate it when things are "nigh unto useless" :)

Wendi said...

Go you! (I'm so impressed, slug that I am...)

Anne N said...

I'm totally copying your circuit routine and passing it off as my own. I don't do any weight training at all right now, which is probably why I have lots of "squishues" too. ;)