Being Your Best You: Strength

Welcome back for week 3 of the July Challenge link-up! 

Today we're hitting one of the more important pieces of your training plan - Strength. 

So you've been wanting to get strong, you've been wanting to get lean and you've been wanting to see muscles, right? 

You want it, but you may just not know how to get there.

You don't know what to do with the weights in the gym, you don't want to be the only girl in the weight room, you don't want to invest in your own equipment at home and you really just don't know where to start! Believe me, I didn't know either. 

I switched my focus from running myself into the ground to a strength, conditioning and lover-of-trying-new-things  attitude and I've never been happier.

Being a short on time 20-something I've been hot on the search for workouts that I can do quickly and efficiently. Last week Brooke sent me a note and said that I should download the 12 Minute Athlete App and I am seriously hooked. 

You open the app, select what equipment you have (or don't have) and it puts together a list of exercises for you to do. 

The format is 12 minutes total - 30 seconds on, 10 seconds rest, and on to the next 30 seconds of work in a circuit form. 

If you like what you've been given - awesome you're going to rock it! 

If you don't like it, shake your phone and it will give you a new set of exercises. 

If you're comfortable with some and not others, all good - you can modify it to fit your needs. 

For example - if I can't do "Reptile Push-Ups", I do a modified regular push-up version instead! 

No time? It's only 12 minutes.

No equipment? There's a "no equipment" option.

No experience? Modify. Practice. Improve.

Want to use a kettlebell? It lets you select that in your options.

Loved a workout and want to save it? You can do that too!

Plus, there's this great animation and there's example videos for every. single. exercise. 

 

From experience, my health, confidence, fitness and overall strength have completely improved once I decided to focus on my muscles.

Go get after it and find out for yourself!

Chelsea, Rebecca and I would love to hear what you do to make yourself stronger, both inside and out! 

30 Dumbbell Moves to Add to Your Routine

With a busier work schedule the past two months it's been necessary to make my gym workouts a little more efficient. 

This means less selfies, less music switching, less chatting. 

More lifting, more sweating and more adventure in my workouts. 

I'm a creature of habit when it comes to working out in a gym. I don't often try anything new because there's the small bit of fear to do something and fail while others are potentially watching me do it. Box jumps? Pull ups? More than 90lbs on the squat rack without a spotter? It's all a little scary for me. 

It's essential that you have a few key moves in your repertoire that you can feel comfortable doing in any gym setting. 

Hello - Dumbbells! 

There's so many different things that you can do with dumbbells and the great thing is that they're not just for your arms. You can do squats, lunges, rows, curls, presses - there's really no limit AND it's a standard piece of gym equipment that you can vary to your individual strength. 

Overall, a pretty low investment for high resistance potential.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out this article with 30 new (or familiar) moves you can do with the dumbbell set you feel most comfortable with. 

30 Dumbbell Exercises for your next workout

Some of my immediate favorites:

Get after it! What are your favorite dumbbell moves?

Being Your Best You: Balance

Balance is such a tricky thing, isn't it?

If you're anything like me, you want a mixture of the following things in your life:

:: Do well in your job and make all the money

:: Have great relationships with friends/family/significant others/pets

:: Eat right and get/stay in good shape

:: Make people laugh everyday

:: Perfect hair / nails / wardrobe / accessories

:: Indulgence and entertainment

:: Relaxation and binge-watching Netflix sessions

:: Blog & read all the blogs.

:: Happiness

There's more, but I think you see my point. 

You want it all. 

But doesn't having it all sound a little bit exhausting? 

I've always been a do-it-all-or-die lonely kind of person. I sit on the Type-A side of the fence, but I think you knew that about me from my tales of running 100 miles a month for 4 years, three college degrees in 4 years, writing two blogs, working a high-profile job, stressing over things I can't control. 

Those are all sad examples of the way I've always been hungry for "more". 

Over the past year I've learned the valuable lesson that doing "more" doesn't make me a better person. It makes me tired. It makes me a worse friend. It empties my tank and takes away the opportunities that I have in front of me to become my BEST me. 

The important lesson I've learned is that balance makes me the best me.

Balance is different for everyone, but for me it boils down to filling my world with the things that I feel are important to my overall physical, mental and spiritual health and happiness. 

:: Filling the tank

:: Laughing

:: Making time for myself

:: Working smarter

:: Asking for help when I need it

:: Finding the good

:: Exercising

:: Connecting

:: Dancing

:: Smiling

:: Saying "No" and meaning it. 

I feel that last one is the most important to me in terms of achieving balance - with the amazing part about saying "no" is that I've mostly only had to say it to myself. Not so scary after all. 

Pretty awesome concept isn't it?

What do you do to create some normalcy and balance in your healthy and beautiful life? 

Chelsea, Rebecca and I would love to hear from you both in the comments and the July Challenge link-up!

Don't forget, there's more opportunities to join the link-up each Thursday in July!

July 17: Energy 

What gets you going when the tank is running on empty? Share what kicks your energy levels into high gear. 

July 24: Strength

This week is all about health and fitness. Share your favorite workouts, tips, tricks, and ways to reach your peak strength. 

July 31: Total Package 

With this being the end of the month and the last day of the link-up, share with us how you define being the BEST version of you. Get creative; anything is fair game here! 

Stand Up For Yourself

You read that right. Stand up for yourself. 

I’m not talking about picking a fight with a bully. I’m talking about getting out of your chair and not living the daily sedentary office lifestyle many of us have been forced into.

There’s serious research behind how sitting for long durations each day is slowly killing us. 

Isn’t it obvious? 

Full infographic (Worth a look!) here

I'm forced to sit up to two hours already at a minimum just from my cross-city car commute, the last thing I need is to get to my desk and continue to flatten my ass on the chair leather. 

Long ago at work I requested an elevated desk and an elevated chair so that I can commit to standing half of the day at my desk at a minimum! This has led to improved flexibility. I also try to take a walk around our beautiful campus with co-workers every opportunity I get - which sometimes even just means tagging along for a walk to the cafeteria even though I've packed my lunch. 

Recently I’ve been having more meetings at work which for me has meant more sitting. In the four walls of the conference room there’s no other option than to sit at the table and take notes while nodding your head in agreement (and trying to ignore the snapchat notifications that keep rolling in). You bet I'm also taking notes on the time that I'm sitting and combatting it every way I can. 

Are you still sitting?

You Never Know Until You Try

This weekend while I was sitting outside reading a book I got the sudden urge to see IF I could do a pull-up. It’s always something I’ve said that I can’t do (yet), but never really allowed myself the chance to see if I could. I threw my running shoes on and headed to the park to see what I didn’t know yet about myself.

This post is a little misleading because now you’re probably thinking I grabbed the bar and knocked out ten reps in a row. Well you’re wrong.

I got to the park and shamelessly worked for about five minutes on holding myself up and trying to see what the “kipping” motion is all about.

At the end of it all, I was able to jump up, pull-up, lower down a few inches, then pull my chin back up over the bar before my arms gave out. I am only going to count that as one rep because the jump-up shouldn’t count - but it made me proud to try.

It was a challenge, but I decided to not be ashamed of being such a beginner even though there were several spectators who could see my weakness right through my tough-girl attitude.

This trial and somewhat-success really makes me want to get better. To be able to do one confidently. To be able to do two. Hell to be able to do five! I’m a seeker of constant improvement and can see this being one of my new adventures to tackle as I introduce myself to new workouts and different ways to challenge my body.

And no, the workout didn’t stop there - I stayed and did a circuit with squats, lunges, burpees, planks and sprints that got me sweaty and satisfied on a beautiful Portland summer afternoon.