Self Magazine Workout-Gimmick or Not?

I've realized in my foraging across cyberspace that there are a lot of "Lose 10 pounds in 1 week!", "5 minutes for a Better Butt", and "Easiest Weight Loss Plan Ever" things out there. Most of them I look at and think "Sh*t 10 pounds in 1 week is super unhealthy, what the heck are these people thinking?" or "If it really only took 5 minutes a day to have an amazing butt, I would already be styling Beyonce's booty." In a quest to find some diamonds in the rough, I decided to give a promising workout regime a try, and post my thoughts here.

Questionable? I think so... [Image]

I must admit, I didn't go very far out on a limb with the first workout regime I want to try. I found it on Self Magazine's website, called The One-Hit-Wonder Workout, by Jessica Smith. I think it's the name that caught my attention, I read One Hit Wonder and I'm thinking of that old movie, "That Thing You Do." If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check it out-pretty sweet movie if I remember correctly. 

Glancing through the workout, I saw some cool exercises that definitely looked like they would challenge my flexibility and coordination, but I wasn't too sure about pushing my strength. Overall, I deemed it worthy of a try. I'm not going to write down the exercises or how to do them, because the website already does a way better job of it than I could ever do.

Here's my analysis:

Overall, I liked the workout today. So far, Ms. Smith at Self has my vote-it does not look like she is pulling our leg.

It was WAY more difficult than I imagined. Though it did not directly challenge my strength, the exercises asked my body to do things it wasn't used to-and my muscles weren't exactly jumping for joy at the prospect. Smith suggests doing 3 sets of the circuit-I did only 2 today and am already starting to feel it especially in my back, inner thighs, and calves. I often neglect these muscle groups, so it's nice to finally be making them work.

 [Vanessa Rogers Photography]

If you do this workout, you'll need a decent amount of space. I live in a small apartment where it's difficult to not stick an arm out and hit a wall or piece of furniture. Some of these exercises require kicking or reaching out, and left me scrambling to find a way not to accidentally kick through a wall. I had to stop and reset for the exercise in the photo or else I would have put my foot through a glass door every time.

11/2/2012 Workout

[Image]

TGIF people! I'm running out of cool names for my workouts, so I think I'm just gonna go with the date. Feels awesome to get back into it though.


Yoga

3X through 10 reps each
Military Press
Upright Rows
3-Way Lift
Pushups
Bicep Curls
Superman
Spinal Balance Opposite Arm/Leg

Where has Summer Gone??

I know its November now, but I'm used to my nice mild Southern weather. Not this cloudy, raining, cold stuff. My ears are still defrosting from my run. Wishing for those hot summer days...

Workout:

3 mile run-this is my new thing, though I run less, I'm running at a faster pace

Yoga
towel slides (10)
toe touches (10)
crazy Ivans (10)
plank (30 sec)
side plank (30 sec each)
Spinal balance (10 each)

Happy Halloween!!

Trick or Treat!!! Hope everyone is having a wonderful Halloween! Here it is:

Yoga

3X through 10 reps each
Military Press
Upright Rows
3-Way Lift
Pushups
Bicep Curls
Superman
Spinal Balance Opposite Arm/Leg

Time to Catch Up!

So now that Hurricane Sandy has blown through, I can sit down without fear of sudden power outage or falling trees and catch up on my workouts. To say I feel blessed that DC didn't suffer too much is an understatement. I spent half my day trying to help my parents in CT find a place to stay with power. Here's a picture of one of the trees that went down on their property: luckily none of the trees hit the house!

This evergreen took 2 apple trees with it too.

Sandy was my first hurricane. I've spent the last several days operating under this weird combination of anticipation, excitement, and fear. But I somewhat managed to keep up the exercise! Considering that there were people out running along the Hudson River in NYC Monday, the least I can do is get up off the couch.

I've broken down my exercise by the day to better keep track of what I do. It's an arms kind of week: my hamstrings feel like they are about to snap they are so tight for some reason.

Frankenstorm

So I got one last run in yesterday before Hurricane Sandy hits us. Did a nice 5 mile run. Halfway through felt awful-you really do start losing muscle and conditioning after 72 hours-but I kept going anyways. Followed by yoga was clutch: I feel way less sore than I expected today.

Frankenstorm!!! [Image]

Anyways, I have my water, I have my nonperishable food, I have candles and flashlights. Going through everything one more time. This is my first hurricane so I have no idea what to expect, but my Florida friend has been badgering me since Friday to prepare. Good luck to everyone else in the path of the storm.

Travel Day!

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” -Tim Cahill

Today I am being picked up at 1:00. I haven't packed at all, or returned movies to library, or cleaned, or basically anything that I am supposed to do by then. I have baked cookies for my college friends-that's an accomplishment. So in this hectic day, I am going to do a shortened workout (aka no run today)

Yoga

3X Through:
Squats (30)
Lunge Wheel (10/leg)
3-Way calf raises (10 each)
Hamstring Kickbacks (15/leg)
Leg Climbers (10/leg)
Russian Twists (30)
Opposite Arm-Leg Situp (10/leg)
Toe Touches (15)
Supermans (15)

One more day!

 "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." -Aristotle

One more day until I'm on my way back to college. Every time I think about it I'm bouncing off the walls with excitement. I might not come back at all. I mean who would? All that free time, no bills, food whenever you want it, parties, friends.

My school is one of the most beautiful campuses in the US [Image]

Containing my excitement, here's my plan for the day.

5 mile run
(Insert, taking a break to go to work today)

Yoga

3X Through:
Plie Squats (10)

Eye opening type of day

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." -Oscar Wilde

So when I finished up my run and yoga, I had a text from my best friend asking if I was on the metro this morning and if I was ok. At my home station, on the line that I take to work, some one jumped in front of the metro train. Such a tragedy happening so close to home is shocking and depressing, but also reminds me that I better make my time on this little blue planet worth it. My thoughts go out to the individual this morning, and all of his/her friends and family.

Workout today:

5 mile run

Finding a way around set-backs

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." -Confucius

So once again, I find myself with a problem. My wonderful wrist is still nonfunctional, which leaves me with a big questions. How will I work out today?

Injuries happen: they are an unfortunate fact of life. Some people may see injury as a reason for quitting: working out made this happen, so that means I shouldn't exercise at all. This is a super negative way to think. Instead, injury means you have to limit or change what you are doing, not stop.

So today, and probably for the rest of the week I have to do only exercises that don't stress my wrist. Which means no upper body workouts. My legs are going to be jacked.

Day 7

 "Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement." -Matt Biondi

I woke up at 3:30 AM last night in the most pain I've felt in months. I still have no idea what I did yesterday, but it really aggravated my bad wrist. Unfortunately, that means I have to change around my exercise plan today, because I won't be able to bear weight.

5 mile run

3X through

30 burpees
50 squats
50 situps
50 lunges
50 russian twists
50 jumping jacks

Day 6

 "Fall 7 times, stand up 8."-Japanese Proverb

Back to work today, and I'm going to up the ante. The 10 min run will help me prep for next week which will be mostly anaerobic.

10 min run

Repeat 3X (15 sec break between exercises):

Pushups (10)
Rocca Press (4)
Dips (10)
Bicep curls (15)
Military Press (10)

Day 5: Unload

"The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle."-Unknown

Today is my recovery day. I choose this awkward day because I had to go to the DMV. And a trip to the DMV is hard enough. Good news is that I finally got a driver's license: bad news is it looks like a mug shot. I need to work on being more photogenic.

Recovery does not equal sitting on my bum all day. I went on a 4 mile walk, nice low intensity exercise that gets the blood pumping.

Day 4

 "If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you." -Fred Devito

In the spirit of healthy eating, I decided to double check my bread ingredients for my sandwich.  No trans fat, no simple sugars, or high fructose corn syrup. It did mention that the whole wheat was unbromated, which sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. So of course I googled it, and was dissappointed with the lack of resources.

From what I gathered, flour gets bromated to speed up the required aging process of the wheat, which can normally take up to 2 months. It is also used to improve dough elasticity/make it easier to work with while baking. Bromated flour is also outlawed in the U.K., is a carcinogen, and has been implicated in thyroid problems.  Bad things...

Anyways back to workouts:

Day 3

"It is not the mountain we must conquer, but ourselves." -Edmund Hillary

Getting pretty sore, especially in my legs, right in the butt region. I put in some extra time stretching what hurts in between the workouts to try to help things get moving.

When I was a sophomore in college, I went to Europe for a month, and had my wisdom teeth removed. I had lost about 10 lbs of muscle by the time I showed up for off season. It was the first and last time I have ever broken down and cried during a workout. Probably one of the more embarrassing moments in my life as football players and such are squatting like 500 lbs around me, who is just standing there crying. I couldn't dress or undress myself for about 2 weeks because my arms were so sore I couldn't lift them above my head. Needless to say, after that life experience, soreness is not a big deal anymore.

Mini Boot Camp: Day 2

"Of course it's hard. It's supposed to be hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. Hard is what makes it great."-A League of Their Own

Feeling decently sore, but good to go for day 2. Day 2 is a long one...here's the plan:

First...THE WEIGHTS:

15 second breaks between reps and sets.

100 jumpropes
30 mountain climbers
30 jumping jacks
Plie squats (3x20)

What I wish I was doing

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."-Thoreau

Still feeling rough today, so I'm curling up in my bed with Netflix. No judging but I'm watching 90210 and it's the episode where people are getting asked to Homecoming dance. I'm quite disappointed in the creativity. When I was in high school, asking people to dances was a huge production, totally nerdy and cheesy stuff, but it was awesome. Kids these days really need to pick up the slack.

Anyways, it is a leg day, if I had the strength to actually exercise. I think the most activity I will be doing today is walking a block to the store to get soup.

Repeat 3x (15 sec rest between sets)

Working Out Indoors Has It's Benefits

"Pain is simply weakness leaving the body." -Unknown

This is the mantra of like every sports team-and they wonder why we get injured so much! 

So glad my workout is indoors today, considering it looks freezing and wet outside. Meanwhile I'm nice and warm in my apartment.

I'm thinking about joining a yoga class. I need a little more challenge to press my yoga skills, if I want to be learning new poses and such. I'm going to look into it, because I would prefer if I didn't have to go elsewhere to exercise.

15 second breaks between reps and sets.

Arm and Cardio Workout

"At one point in your life you either have the thing you want or the reasons why you don't." -Andy Roddick 

Week 2 of this workout. I thought about shortening the breaks but I think any shorter and my arms wouldn't recover properly. Working out is definitely doing its job though-I'm not that sore from my full day of digging.


Repeat 3X (15 sec break between exercises):

Pushups (10)
Rocca Press (4)
Dips (10)
Bicep curls (15)

Gardening is Great Exercise

"Victory is in having done your best. If you've done your best, you've won."-Bill Bowerman

How do I know this post title is true? Because I just spent my Sunday planting new beds for my parents. My back is especially sore from all the digging. But it looks amazing-I wish I had a picture to post so I can brag some more.

I made this garden bed. It's looking pretty good. Sorry, I'm bragging a little bit:)

Now that I'm finally home, I'm getting around to adding all my gloriously important thoughts that have been wasting away on my hard drive this weekend. I like to pretend my workout life is riveting stuff.