So I haven't been blogging, but I have been pilates-ing, every second evening. I've just been doing that basic routine that I set up at the start of this. Happy to say my plank has gotten to the point where a minute feels okay instead of like grasping. I won't be attempting to do a longer hold (that's not recommended), but I may try working it into both the beginning and end of the workout instead of just once.
I'm still on the lookout for a good intermediate DVD to follow — I think that will kick me up a notch both in my inspiration to continue and in my abilities to do different exercises.
Also, I really need to start working more salads into my diet. At the moment I have far too many cheese-centric meals to be really healthy. They have plenty of vegetables, but there's definitely an emphasis on cheese. Need to keep buying spinach and eat it in its raw form instead of throwing it into casseroles etc.
Will attempt to keep this blog slightly more regular. No guarantees :)
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Day 4 - power walking
So I've kinda been giving my Pilates a bit of a miss this weekend, for a couple of reasons. One is that I had a really crappy evening on Friday and it made me uninspired, but also for the rest of the weekend I spent a LOT of time running errands, and I did most of it by walking and metro-ing (woo stair-climbing!). When I turn on my good tunes on my iPod, I can get a really good speed up to my walking, and Montreal is really great for hills, so I actually have been working up a bit of a sweat on some of my errands, especially when carrying heavy bags of groceries.
This sounds a little bit like justifying a lack of exercise routine, sure, but if I'm too tired out from my running around all day to do a workout, then doesn't that kinda mean I've been getting some exercise?
Back to my abs workout tomorrow after work.
This sounds a little bit like justifying a lack of exercise routine, sure, but if I'm too tired out from my running around all day to do a workout, then doesn't that kinda mean I've been getting some exercise?
Back to my abs workout tomorrow after work.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Day 3 - arms & legs
So I found my pilates resistance tubing. Hiding in the back of a closet, of course. I did a WHOLE LOT of stair climbing today — my job for today was on the fourth floor of a building with no elevators, and I tried as much as possible to take the stairs or walk up the escalators in all of the metro stations that I went to — so I figured I had done a good amount of leg exercise. I just did a few side kicks with the tube to work my inner thigh muscles. I can't actually find a good website with a demo of this, but it's in the starter guide that came with the tube. You stand on the middle of the tube with one foot and loop the handle of one end around the other foot, and use that one to kick out to the side, stretching your inner thigh.
After that, I moved on to a few arm exercises. I did bicep curls, tricep extensions, and lateral raises, 3 sets of 10 reps each. Just the recommended amount, nothing more. My arm muscles are pretty lame, I think I'll have to do these exercises more often than the abs.
On a side note, my cat found the resistance tubing fascinating to chase, and now she has gone completely psycho and is chasing nothingness on my bed. This exercise regime may cause her to go entirely insane.
After that, I moved on to a few arm exercises. I did bicep curls, tricep extensions, and lateral raises, 3 sets of 10 reps each. Just the recommended amount, nothing more. My arm muscles are pretty lame, I think I'll have to do these exercises more often than the abs.
On a side note, my cat found the resistance tubing fascinating to chase, and now she has gone completely psycho and is chasing nothingness on my bed. This exercise regime may cause her to go entirely insane.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Day 2 - feel the burn...
Tonight I was feeling some soreness from my workout yesterday, so I decided to just run through my little made-up regimen of chest lifts and leg extensions from last night. (I was also feeling too lazy to search for more videos to follow. C'est la vie) I made it through 3 repetitions of the 20 chest lifts and 10 leg extensions, but my abs really were starting to hate on me, and I figured that if I wanted to be able to run around with the little kiddies at my work again tomorrow, I'd best just leave it at that, so I finished with a minute plank (and actually made it to a full minute tonight! I propped my heels against a trunk so they wouldn't slip as easily, that helped) and then stretched out with a yoga pose called the Cobra to stretch out my tense abdominal muscles. I might take a day off from the ab work tomorrow and focus on a different muscle group instead, maybe try some more leg work or see if I can find my Pilates workout band to do some arm work. I could swear I saw it when I was moving house a year ago...
To continue with my healthy habitting, I downloaded a free app on my iPod touch called Smidge that helps you train yourself into healthy habits by giving you daily reminders on things like drinking more water, eating more fruits and veggies, and etc. I'm just using the water segment to start, because we're heading into winter, when I tend to get SUPER dehydrated and dried out. I'd like to start monitoring my water intake to make sure I'm getting the recommended daily intake, and then increase my intake during the winter so that I don't dry out like a raisin. It's made by Pfizer, so y'know... if it wasn't free I probably wouldn't buy it. Don't need to support the Viagra dudes, they get plenty of money.
A dirty-minded man who shall remain nameless sent me his recommended workout video today after he saw my blog post from yesterday. I like it, but I shan't be using it. You'll see why if you watch it for yourself. (NSFW)
To continue with my healthy habitting, I downloaded a free app on my iPod touch called Smidge that helps you train yourself into healthy habits by giving you daily reminders on things like drinking more water, eating more fruits and veggies, and etc. I'm just using the water segment to start, because we're heading into winter, when I tend to get SUPER dehydrated and dried out. I'd like to start monitoring my water intake to make sure I'm getting the recommended daily intake, and then increase my intake during the winter so that I don't dry out like a raisin. It's made by Pfizer, so y'know... if it wasn't free I probably wouldn't buy it. Don't need to support the Viagra dudes, they get plenty of money.
A dirty-minded man who shall remain nameless sent me his recommended workout video today after he saw my blog post from yesterday. I like it, but I shan't be using it. You'll see why if you watch it for yourself. (NSFW)
Monday, October 17, 2011
Day One - What are you doing, you crazy girl?
Today, I had some serious pent-up energy going on. All day I was wired, from chasing my daycare kids through the park (I never do that. Seriously. It just riles them up), to not being able to sit and relax and enjoy an evening of watching TV (I do that all the time. Seriously. It's my life). I was also giving in to random impulses and one of them, thankfully and healthily enough, was that I wanted to get back into doing Pilates.
I had a brief fling with Pilates back in university, when my roomies and I decided to follow the regimen set out for us on a DVD we got from a cereal box, and we may have gone to a few yoga classes at the uni gym as well, but really, the routine didn't stick for me. For one thing, we didn't have the space for it in our house, really. And after I got out of university, not having the roomies to do it with me was uninspiring. But I now know the basics of ab-work, and I had the idea that I would probably want a mat to do it on, so I decided, since I couldn't sit still anyway, that I would go out and look for a new Pilates DVD to follow.
My brief search at Indigo was fruitless, but I did invest in a mat so as to not bruise my tailbone on my hardwood floors. When I got home, I did a bit of Googling, and decided to hop right into something recognizable. The first thing I found was a quick 8 minute-ish video on YouTube from Erin Huggins with a really basic starter, that really looked like a warm-up to me. Remembering that my abilities in Pilates were probably down the toilet, I decided to give it a try. Videos are a lot more helpful to me than instruction books, I have to see someone doing it before I "get" what they mean.
I went through the moves in the video twice, since once didn't really feel like I had gotten "warm," and then just sort of started winging it by using some of what I remembered, and some tips from this site. I started with some chest lifts, and then did some more of the leg lifts from the video, some side kicks, and then I tried out something I made up: a practice-plank. You know how to do a "girly push-up?" That, but planking. So forearms on the ground in a triangle, and knees down. I held that position for a minute and thought "hey, that wasn't so bad." Silly, silly me. Anyway.
For the next step, I tried to do something a little more regimented, and did 5 sets of 20 chest lifts followed by 10 leg extensions on either side.. I couldn't find any instructions on how to do the leg extensions, so I did it from memory: lay with your back flat and lift your legs into "chair" position (bent 90 degrees, essentially), then extend one out towards the ground, without touching the ground, and pull it back in, then extend the other one out, and etc. So extend right, then left, that's one. Right, left, that's two. Count to ten. Etc. So that set came to a total of 100 chest lifts and 50 leg extensions.
At this point I was feeling like a total rock star, so I decided, what the heck, I'm gonna try a real plank and see how it goes. Apparently what I think of as a "real" plank is a "dolphin arm" plank, a variation from yoga, and some people think it's harder, according to this page. This was what I remembered though, so I went with it. I don't like full push-up position, it makes my arms hurt before my abs give out. I made it to 58 seconds before completely collapsing, and I'm really happy about that. After that, I really didn't think I could do anything more, so I just did some deep breathing as a "cool-down" and then that was it. My muscles were a bit shaky (still are, about an hour later), but that's probably because they really haven't had this kind of use in a while! I feel sure that they'll get accustomed to it.
My sister, who I Skyped with immediately afterward, said that I should write down everything I do in this quest to reclaim Pilates glory, so that she can learn about it and maybe give it a try. If I do end up finding a good DVD, I think that will go a long way to challenging my abilities, but I think I will keep doing at least that mini-workout of chest lifts, leg extensions, and plank. I'll keep poking around YouTube and such for other inspirations and see how it goes. And, if I remember to, post it on here!
I had a brief fling with Pilates back in university, when my roomies and I decided to follow the regimen set out for us on a DVD we got from a cereal box, and we may have gone to a few yoga classes at the uni gym as well, but really, the routine didn't stick for me. For one thing, we didn't have the space for it in our house, really. And after I got out of university, not having the roomies to do it with me was uninspiring. But I now know the basics of ab-work, and I had the idea that I would probably want a mat to do it on, so I decided, since I couldn't sit still anyway, that I would go out and look for a new Pilates DVD to follow.
My brief search at Indigo was fruitless, but I did invest in a mat so as to not bruise my tailbone on my hardwood floors. When I got home, I did a bit of Googling, and decided to hop right into something recognizable. The first thing I found was a quick 8 minute-ish video on YouTube from Erin Huggins with a really basic starter, that really looked like a warm-up to me. Remembering that my abilities in Pilates were probably down the toilet, I decided to give it a try. Videos are a lot more helpful to me than instruction books, I have to see someone doing it before I "get" what they mean.
I went through the moves in the video twice, since once didn't really feel like I had gotten "warm," and then just sort of started winging it by using some of what I remembered, and some tips from this site. I started with some chest lifts, and then did some more of the leg lifts from the video, some side kicks, and then I tried out something I made up: a practice-plank. You know how to do a "girly push-up?" That, but planking. So forearms on the ground in a triangle, and knees down. I held that position for a minute and thought "hey, that wasn't so bad." Silly, silly me. Anyway.
For the next step, I tried to do something a little more regimented, and did 5 sets of 20 chest lifts followed by 10 leg extensions on either side.. I couldn't find any instructions on how to do the leg extensions, so I did it from memory: lay with your back flat and lift your legs into "chair" position (bent 90 degrees, essentially), then extend one out towards the ground, without touching the ground, and pull it back in, then extend the other one out, and etc. So extend right, then left, that's one. Right, left, that's two. Count to ten. Etc. So that set came to a total of 100 chest lifts and 50 leg extensions.
At this point I was feeling like a total rock star, so I decided, what the heck, I'm gonna try a real plank and see how it goes. Apparently what I think of as a "real" plank is a "dolphin arm" plank, a variation from yoga, and some people think it's harder, according to this page. This was what I remembered though, so I went with it. I don't like full push-up position, it makes my arms hurt before my abs give out. I made it to 58 seconds before completely collapsing, and I'm really happy about that. After that, I really didn't think I could do anything more, so I just did some deep breathing as a "cool-down" and then that was it. My muscles were a bit shaky (still are, about an hour later), but that's probably because they really haven't had this kind of use in a while! I feel sure that they'll get accustomed to it.
My sister, who I Skyped with immediately afterward, said that I should write down everything I do in this quest to reclaim Pilates glory, so that she can learn about it and maybe give it a try. If I do end up finding a good DVD, I think that will go a long way to challenging my abilities, but I think I will keep doing at least that mini-workout of chest lifts, leg extensions, and plank. I'll keep poking around YouTube and such for other inspirations and see how it goes. And, if I remember to, post it on here!
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