The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘workout’

Happy Friday friends! Hope you’ve had a great week! This week was spring break at Marshall University, so the Rec Center had limited hours and no classes. BUMMER! But I did some fun stuff. Got in a great interval workout on the treadmill and two other days of getting in quick mile runs and arm workouts. I feel like I am getting guns. Get your tickets ladies and gentlemen!

Now we all know that even though we really want to work out and find and make the time to do it, we don’t always have time to get in a long workout. As much as I love to run, I don’t always have time for 45 consecutive minutes to work out. Sometimes I just have a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes in the evening. So it’s always nice to have those quick workouts.

My favorite quick workout is the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. It’s a 20 minute workout that mixes up cardio, abs and strength. As many times as I do it (which is 2-3 times a week), it still kicks my butt.

But even as much as I love it, I have to change my workouts up.

Some things that I do every night, no matter how much time I have, I always do 50 squats, a little bit of abs (whatever I feel like that day…. sometimes they are crunches, and reverse crunches, and the bicycle, or whatever else sounds fun), and some pushups (these vary from 10-45 depending on how my arms feel). I can get that done in 5-10 minutes and always feel great after it.

So where is the best place to find a quick workout? Where’s the best place to find anything? Pinterest! Duh!

Here are some quick workouts I’ve found recently… hope they help you out. I plan to add them in on days when I don’t feel like doing much, but know I need to.

Tight Cheeks Workout

Brazilian Butt Lift

10 Minute CrossFit

Tone Arms Fast

 Kettle Bell Workout

Soooo there’s a few for you to choose from. Click on the picture and it will take you to a link with more info (if it’s not on the picture) or the website where it came from. Enjoy! Let me know if you try any!!

Soooo Happy Friday! Hope you are having a great week. This Friday’s post is going to be short and sweet, like my workouts and my mood this week. Yesterday I compared myself to grumpy cat.

This has been a week of ups and downs for me. I did Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred Saturday, Sunday and Monday. By Monday, I felt like it was getting easier. Normally I do it only once or twice a week. I think if I did it for 30 straight days, I would definitely feel it.

Tuesday I got sick and couldn’t work out. I was in bed for 12 hours.

Wednesday…. well Wednesday we tried something different. We tried a Yoga Body Burn class. It was the first yoga class my workout bud and I took at the rec center at Marshall. We had hoped that Body Burn meant Power Yoga. We were wrong. This was very mind, body and soul, but it was a good workout. We focused on balance. Here are some poses (click on the photo to check out where it came from originally):

While it wasn’t what we expected, the class actually went very well. I have done a couple of DVDs and online videos, but nothing in a real class setting. I was nervous at first, but by the time the class was over, I felt very comfortable and relaxed. Now that it’s been a couple of days, I’m still having a love/hate relationship with this class. I felt great, but I am not sure if this calm and collected suits my personality. I normally do high impact exercises that boost my mood. I was calm, but then felt like I fell into a well and couldn’t get out of it. I am absolutely not throwing yoga out the door, but will need to mix in some other workouts if I stick with it in the future. And the class is only offered on Wednesdays, which I normally spend with my friend and here babe, so we may have to change our schedules a little to work yoga in a little more.

Thursday, I was super lazy. I got in some steps at the mall, then all I wanted to do was sit in bed and watch Psych and knit and work on my blog. So this week Tuesday and Thursday are my days off. I have to work late tonight, so I will either get in a late workout when I get home, or a double long workout Saturday morning.

I think the thing I learned this week was that I definitely like high impact, high calorie burning exercises. I love the feeling after a yoga workout, but can’t rely on that for a mood boost, which I count on after workouts. I am too high energy for my own good.

I also think when I’m in the need for yoga, I may work in the Jillian Michaels yoga DVD. It was one of the first workouts I did when I decided to get fit this year and love, love, loved it. Do you guys have any yoga suggestions for me?

Happy Friday! I don’t know about you, but it’s been a rough week for me! Saturday and Sunday, I had pretty good workouts at home. Monday I went to a class and Tuesday I ran 3 miles on the treadmill. But then it all went downhill. Wednesday, I couldn’t get full. I was starving. Maybe it was because I had 900 calories left over on Tuesday, or maybe I just love food too much. Thursday, I took the night off to get my hair done (I’m a blonde now). And tonight I will be on the road all evening, so no workout again. Hopefully I can get back on track tomorrow. Maybe a little something will be better than nothing.

But when you have bad weeks like these, we all need some motivation. I have found a lot of motivation the past couple of months on instagram. I am constantly saving pictures and making them my background. This is my current phone background:

I absolutely love this shirt and will have it soon!

Today I wanted to share some other motivations I have found lately. Save them on your computer, or phone, print them out, just keep at it! Happy Friday!

Happy Friday! Hope you’ve been getting physical the past couple of weeks. It’s been an interesting two weeks at the gym for me. A coworker and I are testing the waters in different classes. We took a spin class…. wasn’t for us. We found a Zumba class we loved… and the instructor no longer works there. We tried a different Zumba class… and it just wasn’t the same. We tried a new circuit training class and holy cow, I had to sit with a heat pack to make the soreness less intense. Needless to say, these two weeks have been about learning what works and what doesn’t for us.

I am definitely the kind of workout gal that needs motivation. I need to change up my workouts so I don’t get bored. I need to see a nice quote on the lock screen of my phone. I need new workout gear to make me want to go to the gym to wear it. I also need to read what others are doing. I have been blogging for four years now. I’ve always blogged about books, but my blog also changes with my interests. Same goes for the blogs I follow. Lately, I’ve been looking for motivation from other bloggers. We all have different goals, but we all have the same ultimate goal: be healthy, be fit.

I was talking to a co-worker this week about working out. He mentioned something to me and my was response was, “I know I’m skinny.” His was response was that he wished more women would be able to recognize that. Listen guys, I know I’m skinny. I’m not here, working my butt off 5 days a week, to try to lose weight. I want to be healthy, I want to be happy. I’ve been going pretty hardcore for two months now and have lost one pound. No matter your weight, or how fit you are, the criticism doesn’t stop. Someone is always going to find something wrong with what you are doing if they don’t understand it. That’s why it’s important to put yourself into a community of people who do understand. And that’s my goal today. I want to share some of my favorite fitness blogs with you that I have found over the past couple of months.

My first two are easy. They are my favorite! Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to Brandi and Meg AKA Mama Laughlin and SkinnyMeg:

These two ladies are my favorite to follow online. I follow their blogs, I follow them on Instagram. I feel like I know them and love them. They both have amazing weight loss stories and are true inspirations. Their blogs are real, their stories are real. And let’s face it, these ladies are REAL BADASS! They work their butts off and it shows!

I’ve become a smidge obsessed with following workout and weight loss blogs. Here are some of my other favorites that I look forward to on my feed daily:

Erin over at Live Life Active: Erin is a former emotional eater who has taken her health into her own hands. She has lost 30 pounds (and looks great). She shares stories from others and some great workouts for specific problem areas.

Gina at Fitnessista: Gina provides quick and effective workouts as well as healthy recipes.

Fit Bottomed Girls: GREAT website for women. They have everything from reviews on products to personal weight loss accounts on their blog. I love this blog because, let’s face it, after a while all of our posts start to sound the same when we are taking about one topic. There are several ladies who participate in this blog. I love hearing from all of them. They all offer different perspectives and aspects to healthy living.

Yoga Dork: Yoga was the first “real” workout I did when I decided to get fit this year. I’ve done a few different yoga exercises, but power yoga is definitely my favorite. This blog has yoga everything and I’ve really learned a lot about the art from his blog.

Ashley at Coffee Cake and Cardio: I have just recently started following her blog and I only have one thing to say: She. Plays. Football. Like full contact. Enough said. Follow her!

Monica at Run Eat Repeat: I love this girl because she loves to eat as much as she loves to workout. I have always loved to run, but took a few years (too many) off after having knee surgery. I started again last summer and am still trying to get back to where I was when I was super fit in high school (is that even possible?). Follow Monica’s blog for all kinds of running goodness.

Karri at Babe Before Baby: Karri and her husband are talking about having kids and she wants to get healthy before the baby comes into the picture. Yes, she knows that she will gain weight while being pregnant, but if she doesn’t do it now, when will she? This is a great blog and great perspective for women before they have a child.

Elle Noel: I just stumbled across this blog this week and am loving it. Remember I mentioned I need little motivational messages? Well she puts them on all of her posts. She also has posted some really yummy looking recipes!

What’s awesome about almost all of the above bloggers? Not only are they sharing their stories on their websites, they are also sharing them on Instagram. I am truly obsessed with Instagram right now. I have been for a while, but I love finding new people to follow and become “friends” with. I am not a stalker….but I will pretend that we are real life friends when I talk about their blogs or feeds. Don’t we all? So click on the links above to follow their blogs and check them out on Instagram. If you can’t find them, leave a comment and I’ll get you their IG names.

And, I know there are TONS of other fitness blogs that I have not found yet. What are your favorites? Leave a comment with a link and I’ll add them at the bottom of this feed for others!

Have a great weekend.

Happy late Friday friends. Like every evening this week, I’m getting a late start at dinner and my evening routine. I had two late evenings at the gym, followed by a motel stay and random snow, dinner with a good friend, and watching the nation’s top high school basketball recruit in the country. My earliest night home was this evening, at 8 p.m. Needless to say, the blog has taken the brunt of my late evenings.

Tonight I am here to talk about one of the things in my previous paragraph: THE GYM.

Growing up and playing sports, I spent quite a bit of time in the weight room. I learned the ins and outs of the weight machines, and was a master at holding a chin up. But other than some weights to bulk up my 90 pound frame, that was all.

The summer before my senior year I won a pageant and part of my winnings was 3 months at our local physical therapy center AKA gym. There were a couple of treadmills and some weight machines, but once my free time ran out, I was done.

In college, our gym membership was part of our tuition. I was spoiled by Ohio University’s rec center AKA Ping. They had several basketball courts where I played intramural ball, class cage rooms for racket sports, a free weight room, a machine room, a climbing rock, and an indoor track on the third flood that overlooked it all. My love for the gym came and went. But now that I am an adult, I wish I would have taken better advantage of it.

As an adult, I’ve done some pilates DVDs (gifts from my dad for my college graduation) and some random online workouts when I felt like the winter was getting the best of me. The only regular exercise I had was walking with mom, or a friend during the warm months. So for about 3.5 years, I had sporadic exercise at best.

Last summer, my cousin and I decided to sign up for the Color Me Rad run in Columbus. Problem was, neither of us had run a 5K in years. I was afraid to run after tearing my ACL in high school, concerned that I would tweak it once again and I did NOT want to go through that pain EVER AGAIN. But we both used the Couch 2 5K program, got in shape and did our race. Luckily, it was nice out, so all of our training took place outside. It was months of work for a 30 minute race (30 minute’ish). I didn’t want to lose all my progress, so I continued to run outdoors until it was too cold and I didn’t have daylight when I got home. I don’t get home until after 7:30 every evening, so for several months, I only see sunlight on my drive in and through the window at work. I am too big of a chicken to run at dark.

So I asked my parents and brother and husband for money for my birthday so I could get a membership at the gym at our hospital. Unfortunately, it was right around the holidays and I only went four times in that month. Not worth the $40.

I did nothing the entire month of December, then turned over a new leaf in January when I got my FitBit. I did some Jillian Michaels yoga in my bedroom and found some Wii Just Dance videos on YouTube and saved them to my favorites. But I wanted to continue to expand. I did a little research into some classes that were offered in the town I worked. There were some yoga classes and some Zumba classes… but not many I could take with my work schedule. It all goes back to me getting off work late.

Then I had the bright idea that I should check out Marshall University’s rec center. A friend ended up giving me and a coworker two free weeks to test it out and we are loving it so far. We started on the treadmill, did a little biking and elliptical work, did the arms and legs machines and this past week did a Zumba class. The gym is very similar to OU’s with lots of options. They even have a pool. After two weeks, I am in love.

But, I’m a cheap skate. I don’t like to spend money. I just want to run and I will be happy. I can do several workouts at home and have found a lot on YouTube. So, we will continue to go to the gym for the next few chilly months, then I’ll get back to running outdoors when the chill breaks.

Pros of the Gym:
*Workout options
*Encouragement from the hundreds of others working out at the same time
*Being able to watch others and learn new workouts
*Having a workout partner (I think this is easier to do at the gym because you can both do the machines at your own pace and strength and not worry about running in public and leaving the other behind)
*Working out with a TV (I so love the TVs on the treadmills, bikes and ellipticals)

Cons of the Gym:
*Price
*Finding the time  – I feel like since I pay for it, I need to get my money’s worth
*Working out late = Eating late
*Worrying that you look like a fool (this doesn’t bother me too much, but I think it takes time to work up the courage to try new things)

My pros and cons kind of weigh each other out I think. I always feel great after leaving the gym, but hate not getting home and eating until 9. I also hate having to pay for things, that because of my schedule, I can’t do for free – like running.

What are your opinions? Gym or no gym?