So, it looks like my life is about to take me on an unexpected journey … to Saudi Arabia, where Jonathan works. It just blows my mind how much has happened in my life in the last year: Moved home (feeling i was back to square one), met Jonathan (and tried to remain positive about the long time we’d have apart), left my nursing job (hugest leap of faith i ever took!) … then things really took off when I got engaged to Jonathan (to get married on New Years Eve 2013) and… moving to the KSA early next year! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Talk about an adventure!
Never give up hope of your life being better than you even thought possible. Though you will have challenges, pain and hardship, you should always seek to look at the bigger picture, never feel insignificant and always feel grateful for the things you learn along the way.
And now, since you survived all the mush, here is my latest workout as your reward 😉 lol
The Workout
Set your Gymboss Interval Timer for 6-9 cycles of 20 seconds rest and 40 seconds effort. Complete 2-3 rounds of the following Triplets and rest as indicated:
Triplet 1
1. Goblet Squat (20kg) (18, 17)
2. Single-Leg Hip Thrust (r) (15, 13)
3. Single-Leg Hip Thrust (l) (14, 14)
(Rest for about 2 mins)
Triplet 2
1. Renegade Row: (2x16kg) (18, 16)
2. Single-Arm Swing (r): (20kg) (23, 20)
3. Single-Arm Swing (l): (20kg) (22, 20)
(Rest about 2 mins)
Triplet 3
1. Push Press (r): (16kg) (12, 10)
2. Push Press (l): (16kg) (13, 10)
3. Two-Handed Swing: (24kg) (30, 29)
So, that’s about it for today. BTW – I saw a few of the ‘tests” for my new site design the other day … and it is going to be awesome ! Getting new photos taken in the next couple of weeks. I really can’t thank you all enough for allowing me to keep improving things and to continue doing what i love.
The title of today’s is to remind us all to make everything we do count, no matter how big or small. What is small innings to one person, might change the life of someone else!
As of today, I am NO LONGER a leading member of Girls Gone Strong 🙁 I am, of course, still a fan and always will be an Original Co-Founder (which I am very proud of). I am confident that GGS will survive and flourish without me – myomytv would not.
With this being Thanksgiving week in the USA, I am thankful that I was involved in GGS at its birth and thankful for the wonderful friends I made in the process 🙂 They certainly made their mark on me <3
Before I start tearing up again, let’s get on with today’s workout:
The Workout
Simplify your life and simplify your workouts!
Set your Gymboss miniMAX Interval Timer for 24 cycles of 20 seconds rest and 40 seconds effort. Complete 3 rounds of the following 8 exercises. Remember you can adjust the times to suit your own fitness level, just as long as you aren’t slacking! Check out the weights I used and reps per exercise in brackets below):
Lateral Lunge (left) (12kg) (11, 11, 11) – these are tougher than they look!
Push Press (right) (14kg) (14, 14, 12)
Push Press (left) (14kg) (14, 15, 13) – could’ve used the 16kg if I’m honest.
Two-Handed KB Swing (24kg) (30, 30, 29)
Hope you all enjoy this and have a wonderful week! I will be spending spending some time away in Galway with my mum for her Birthday.
Finally, there is a chance the site might be down for a while during the week as some changes and updates are put in place. We aim to get these done during an off-peak time so as not to inconvenience anyone 🙂
Cheers,
Marianne
PS – If you buy a gymboss through text or banner links on my pages, I will earn a wee bit of money for that. I have been a gymboss affiliate since 2010 because I loved them then and I love them now. Especially because it one more thing I can operate that’s not on my phone.
What a time of it I had last week! I don’t know what happened, but major fatigue came out of nowhere and I had ZERO energy to train and I could bearly get out of bed to go to work! To make matters worse, I had 3 night shifts to do in a row, train clients both Online and Offline and make time to work on other GGS-related projects – all in the space of 4 days!
The good thing is that this has help me arrive at a very important decision, one I have been somewhat afraid to make. And it’s scary even for me to mention it here as it kind of makes it very final; but for the past year, I have not been happy in my nursing job. I LOVE being a nurse, but the circumstances are not what they should be to allow for optimal nursing and I do not have the time with each patient I would like in order to make a TRUE difference to their care, bar covering the essentials. For me, that is not enough! Also, I am becoming more and more disenchanted by focusing on sickness, symptoms, medications and people’s gravitation towards the “sick role” once they step through the hospital walls. I have heard such a mind-set being branded “Pajamaitis”. I cannot fix this! To make matters worse, it seems many staff in the health service do nothing but complain – and I can’t be around this anymore … I want to be making a difference to people’s HEALTH and WELL-BEING! It is such an irony that this cannot be done as a nurse in an acute care setting, because everyone is “sick”. So what is my big decision??
I am applying for a career break to explore my fitness calling. For the past 2 and a half years I have lead a double life; one in which I nurse the sick, and another where I nurture the health-seekers to become more healthy and take ownership of their fitness and well-being. Guess which one has the highest success?? And the great thing is that what I do here should impact positively on, as a friend put it, the “sickness industry” – as more people reduce many risk factors for potential diseases such as cardiovascular disorders, Type 2 Diabetes, Obesity-related diseases, osteoporosis (reducing future admissions to hospital with fractures, especially in the over 60’s), immune diseases, arthritic conditions AND MANY MORE!
It’s the same principle I am applying to the rest of my life. Focus on what you want to happen, not what you don’t want. So, by focusing my energy on HEALTH rather than SICKNESS, I help people create healthier lives and all the wonderful things that come of that. It’s not that I no longer care about sick people, of course I do – but I need to follow what I love to do more and follow my passion . When you do that, you never have to work a day in your life 🙂
When everything is pointing towards making this break, I would regret not putting my full effort into it. Right now, I feel I am unable to do that due to my ONLY tie here – Nursing! As for where I will base myself, in relation to my fitness career, that has yet to be decided. But something inside me is drawing me to San Diego! I have no idea why, as I have never been there, but I am planning a visit there in September and will suss it out as I go 🙂 This plan is subject to change of course, but it’s been such a strong desire for a while now, I cannot ignore it any more!
Now that I have that update out of the way I want to direct you to a couple of articles from last week that I contributed to. They were shared on Facebook and Twitter, but I know some of you do not have accounts in Social Media, so I will link to them here:
What do you eat? ~ by Jen Comas Keck (with lots of contributions, include one from moi)
Now on with business
The Workout
After a 4 days break from training, this was my workout to get started. Two rounds of only 10 exercises LOL!
Set your Gymboss Interval Timer for 10 cycles of 15 seconds rest and 45 seconds effort (I recommend a longer break between rounds), and complete 2 – 3 rounds of the following (my reps per exercise and weights used are in brackets as always):
Goblet Squat (20kg) (20, 16)
Vertical Pull/Swing Burpee (20kg) (11, 10)
Renegade Row (2 x 16kg) (18, 17)
Two-Handed Swing (20kg) (32, 32) – I need to progress
Spiderman Push Ups (16, 15) – this annoyed my SI a bit)
Stand-Kneel-Stand (right) (16kg) (14, 14) – also felt this in SIJ
S-K-S (left) (16kg) (14, 13)
Weighted Side to Side Step Overs (6kg) (44, 41) – SIJ 🙁
Burpees (11, 11)
Alternating KB Swing (20kg) (30, 30)
It seems that ANY unilateral exercises annoy my SIJ/back issue. So I need to stick to Bilateral stuff for a while longer – which is PANTS, because I miss my reverse lunges 🙁 🙁 🙁
As you can see, I did 2 rounds only, but this was enough for me, because I was super tired again!
Hope you enjoy the workout.
Remember that I am now offering a variety of great Training Services both Online and Offline. For further info, check the following link: Training Services.
Cheers
Marianne
PS – I am by no means discrediting or belittling the work done by the nursing and medical professions, as we do indeed need them. However, I feel a draw to do something else now, and I am very grateful that I have my nursing experience. Without it, I would never have developed my skills in communication, teamwork and many other things. I am also so grateful to have such a bank of humorous, encouraging, inspiring and proud memories and stories to hold on to. Let’s see how it all pans out 🙂
Hope you all had a great weekend? I’d like to hear if anyone did anything extra fun? I went out with a bunch of girl friends for a big feed and few drinks. Was a great wee night, but I was ready for a chill-out session on Sunday. I sat and got caught up on all my TV programs (Grey’s, CSI, Mentalist, Bones etc etc … ). It was nice to see my friends, but equally nice to relax on my own.
Anyway, the weather here seems to be picking up, so I decided to head outdoors for a blast of KBs and VitD with this short but sweet Interval Workout. Please please don’t judge my gardening skills, or lack there of 🙁 First of all, I don’t have a lawn mower (so I need to ask my landlord to cut the grass), second of all – I hate bugs and creepy crawlies, so I stay well away from the flower beds, hedges and edges … because that’s where they lurk! But the buzzing ones still manage to seek me out no matter where I go … eeek!
ANYWAY!
The Workout
Set your Gymboss Interval Timer for 18 cycles of 15 seconds rest and 45 seconds effort (or what ever interval breakdown works best for you), and complete 3 rounds of the following 6 exercises. My reps per exercise are in brackets btw:
Reverse Lunge (right) (20kg) (15, 14, 14)
Reverse Lunge (left) (20kg) (16, 15, 15) – I hate when the sides don’t match, but my right hip has been “annoyed”
Suitcase Deadlift Burpee (2 x 20kg) (12, 11, 11)
Dynamic Push Ups (16, 15, 13) – DEATH!
Bent Over Alternating Row (20kg) (15, 14, 12) – feel free to do doubles btw 😉
Alternating Swing (20kg) (30, 29, 30) – think I need to upgrade – not as taxing anymore.
Great workout! Loved being outside, and really loved that it was only 18 mins!! After the workout, the sun came out and I got to read Kindle and sunbathe a while 8)
Hope you enjoy it too.
Cheers
Marianne
Just to make you all smile, I saw this picture and it cracked me up! When I was younger, people used to always ask me “what’s wrong Marianne?” or “are you ok?”, saying I always looked so serious/grumpy. And I could never understand, because I felt just fine inside. And I used to respond with “This is just my relaxed face, I can’t help it!”. I feel this bird’s pain! What’s even funnier, is the other bird in the background! LOL Anyway, I thought it was funny … it takes very little to amuse me … 😛
Today’s workout felt great … afterwards of course. It’s only 21 minutes long and there was a lot of sweat! Great for full body conditioning and a quick workout when your are short for time.
Other news: I have now launched the FULL array of my Online Coaching Services. While I was away in the US, many of you will know I got to spend some invaluable time with Bret Contreras who taught me his Programming System. So I am very privileged to have this knowledge to apply to my programs. Anyway, feel free to check it out and ask any questions.
The Workout
Set your Gymboss miniMAX Interval Timer for 21 cycles of 15 seconds rest and 45 seconds effort and complete 3 rounds of the following 7 exercises. Remember there is no pressure to do the same as me. You can split the rounds up and have a longer break in between, or you can increase the rest interval to 20, or even 30 seconds if you need to. We are all different and we need to tailor our training to reflect that!
As usual my reps per exercise and weights used are noted inn brackets.
Goblet Squat to Press (20kg) (11, 10, 11) – I did this variation to reduce stress on my low back and pelvis, as other variations would be more increase the need for stability.
Renegade Row (2 x16kg) (18, 17, 18 )
Roundabout Swing (changed to 2H Swing in 3rd round, due to blood blister on my hand) (20kg) (29, 29, 31)
2 Jump Squat Burpee (11, 10, 10)
Stand-Kneel-Stand (right) (16kg) (13, 11, 10) – took my time with these, due to a little pain 🙁
The I did 2 sets of RKC Planks – SET 1: x about 30 seconds, SET 2: 40 seconds (below is a tutorial from Bret).
The only slight difference that has evolved from this variation is that Bret taught me to bend my knees slightly, rather than squeeze the legs together, to allow for greater contraction of the glutes and creating more of a posterior pelvic tilt … which is what I need. Give it a try, and remember to stop once your form starts to suck. The handy thing about this exercise is that you get a really great assessment of just how active your glutes really are. They should be solid and switched on throughout. You might feel one or both glutes starting to twitch or tremble as you try to contract it or as they tire. This is a sign you need to do more glute activation/strengthening drills, Hip mobility drills and more importantly – THINK ABOUT CONTRACTING YOUR GLUTES. Get your mind linked to those muscles and really focus on that movement. Once you do that, your RKC Plank endurance and lumbopelvic stability will sky-rocket!
Hope you enjoy today’s workout and will leave your feedback below.
PS – If you buy a gymboss through text or banner links on my pages, I will earn a wee bit of money for that. I have been a gymboss affiliate since 2010 because I loved them then and I love them now. Especially because it one more thing I can operate that’s not on my phone.
