Hi everyone,
What a week I have had! My friend, Rog Law was over visiting, so I decided to take a break from blogging while he was here. Â Rog and I did a little bit of training, but not much – Â Mostly, we explored Northern Ireland, held a Halloween party, played silly halloween games, went Ziplining, watched DVDs and ate WAY TOO MUCH FOOD! In 8 days, I gained 8lbs :-/ oops! But I wouldn’t change it for the world! Â Even though I don’t look my best (clothes are tight), I really never want to hold back on the occasional splurge like this.
During a first couple of days Rog was here, we played a rather fun “fitness-related” game called “Barbell Hip Thrusts”. Â Using homemade marshmallows (click the link for the recipe), made by our mutual friend Shanna Schad, we had a rather interesting an hysterical time! If you haven’t already seen it, check out the video of said game:
I think this could catch on, don’t you?
Now on to some actual fitness-related stuff … Rog Law front squats me!
As you can all see, we had a lot of laughs!
Now on with business – a new workout!
The Workout
I designed 2 different sections for this workout, just for a little variety. Â Performing each section twice, this workout ended up being about 24 minutes long.
Set your Gymboss Interval Timer for 6 cycles of 20 seconds rest and 40 seconds effort and complete 2 total rounds of each section.
This workout was filmed the week before last, and I wiped my scores off my white-board.
Section 1
- Front Squat to Reverse Lunge (right) (16kg)
- Same on Left
- Inverted Rows
- Push Press (left) (16kg)
- Same on right
- Two-Handed KB Swing
Section 2
- Weighted Side Step-Up (right) (12kg)
- Same on Left
- Bench Jump Overs
- Single Arm Swing (left)
- Same on right
- Two-Jump Burpees
That’s all for today everyone! I’ll be back soon with a new workout.
Cheers,
Marianne
Cool, I love the exercise (and the jammies). And hey, everybody needs cheat days once in awhile 😉
Did this one in a fasted state today but not in a onezie 🙂
I have definitely noticed my fitness has improved as it takes me a lot less time to recover and to catch my breath! If I had done this workout a year ago, I would have probably passed out but today I managed it with 12kg swings & bent over row for the inverted rows and 6kg push presses/1 arm swings and full burpees with proper pushups – yay! Was a fun workout – cheers 🙂
Great job, Isalia 😀
Hi Everyone!
I did the side step ups because lunges got boring. I did them on a box at the gym with 30-pound kettlbell.
What I want to know is: am I the only one with a very weak left side (I am right-handed, so right-footed too I suppose)? My right leg could do this without a problem but I had to gather ALL my strength to get my left leg to do a heavy side step up and even then my left side could do far fewer reps.
Does anybody else have this problem? any remedies?
Thank you
zobot
Zobot, it is very common to have a strength difference in your legs and arms. The key is to train using exercises that use both sides together, but also have single-sided exercises too. Try to achieve the same reps in each side with the same weight. This may require you to break the main set down into bite-sized sets for the “Weaker” side. Over time, the strength difference will reduce, but it will never be 100% equal, as we are made asymetrical.
You can also start deliberately initiating things with your weaker side: walking forward with it first, reaching for doors with your non-dominant side and trying to improve the mind-muscle relationship through thinking about your weaker side more as being stronger and more responsive. All these little things will help improve muscle activation, co-ordination and strength 🙂
I think about this often as well. Interestingly, my left side (non-dominant) is not as strong as my right. As you know, Marianne, I had breast cancer on my right side. But having lived the last 43 years as a right handed/dominant person trumps what occurs ‘in the moment’. I consistently do less reps on my left side than my right, although my numbers are fairly tight. I will put my mind to initiating on the left for a bit and see where it goes.
Thank you, Marianne. I have been trying to be more mindful of my left side– using my left hand for applying mascara, for example 😛 results can be clownish, so beware! Tomorrow I will try some heavier left-side step ups, in baby sections.
Thank you also for the great website. I can’t understand HOW you’ve managed to do this for me, but in the last month the daily visits to your website have tremendously boosted my fitness, self image, and positive relationship to body and food (LOVE synaptic surprises and all your pre-workout speeches, keep it coming!). I just feel happier. It’s my new myomytv drug 😀 Also we are both married to an Andrew lol, what a coincidence.
What a compliment 🙂 Though perhaps you are just starting to see more positives.
Though, I didn’t marry my Andrew. It wasn’t meant to be.
Hi Marianne, this is adorable! I’m a long-time reader, but watching you two have such a blast has prompted me to comment. 🙂
Thanks for the smiles.
Nadia
PS Where are those workout pants from? I love them, and I’m so sick of wearing black all the time to the gym.
Hey, Nadia! Thank you for commenting 🙂
The pants are from Lululemon. I got them in Phoenix back in April. I was sick of always wearing black too 😀
Ah, Lululemon. It will be the end of my wallet!
Haha! Tell me about it!
*Must.resist.ordering.from.their.website* LOL
I pretty much can’t stop laughing at the “barbell hip thrusts” video. You two are hysterical! And thank you for linking to my blog for the recipe – it is appreciated! Just glad that Rog didn’t eat them all before he traveled to see you and that they made it past airport security. They seem to confiscate the strangest things these days!!
No worries, Shanna. I’m very grateful you sent them to Rog; very very tasty 😉 Especially when we made the S’mores 😀
just read this and thought you would find it interesting and also a lot of your visitors it might be good to have a link to it…you are so strong and when i saw your vid you did in germany this article rang a bell….love the effort you put in to this site. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/why-women-cant-do-pull-ups/
Interesting article – doesn’t seem to even encourage women to try! The issue with the training was that they isolated the muscles and trained them outside of the movement pattern they wanted to achieve and the ligaments, tendons, nervous system and mind didn’t get the chance to train with the muscle for the pull up. Some women might have it harder because of body type, but I think it’s important to encourage people to try anyway – imagine the feeling when you defy this apparent truth 😉
Thanks Paul!
Wow! That had to have been one of your toughest workouts ever! I don’t know why… it doesn’t look worse than any other, but I found it a real challenge. I had to go down in weight on the one-arm swings and I could barely even do the burpees! I better do this again, just to prove I can!
Love those Marianne Squats in a zebra suit! You are refreshing in not taking yourself too seriously.
~ Gillian
Hey Gillian, we were silly the whole week and I feel great because of it – Rog is such a fun guy!
Hope you got on better the second time around.
🙂
That was hilarious, especially in the pajamas. I think you should post a link to the jama store!
Good idea! Must ask Rog again where he got his – he told me, but I forgot. I got mine here in a high street store.
Okay – that was hysterical! I was slightly gagging as I watched you shove those ginormous marshmallows in your mouth, and at the same time giggling along with you! So glad you had fun – loved the tail on your jammies! Thanks for the workout!
😀 LOL! I have never laughed so much !
ha ha you are a total weirdo and so is Rog.
I think it is great to sometimes let go, be silly and eat what you want. I did that during the hurricane had no power so I went on a road trip with my bo and ate the greasiest food and drank wine and slept a lot.
Now am back to normal. I love inverted rows. will try this as soon as I get out of my slump. or should this workout be the get out of the slump workout?
Cheers
I vote for the later! Hope this was your “get out of slump workout” 🙂
Glad you are safe!
Funniest post ever!! Love all the humor! 🙂
well u certainly took a mouthful i can see ur popularity rising in the male division lol sorry couldnt help it laughing here
Nice work out. I think the occasional splurge is okay. Beside you have a body of a goddess.
Haha, nice jammies, peeps!
Looked like you guys had a blast! Roger seems like a nice fellow and loads of fun!
Looking forward to this workout – thanks!
Wendy
Surrey BC, Canada
Okay, the pyjama front squat is waaaaay better than a striped socks workout! Should be olympic 😀
Love this workout! Will be trying this one out asap. So glad you had a great week with Rog. Sounds like it was a blast. It seriously does a person good to take a week off mentally and just go out and have fun. So I am glad you had a blast! Btw, the onesies are amazing. ha!