Steps, superbowl and upcoming events

Well, I won last week’s step challenge…barely! These ladies are really “stepping up” their game.  And I had two days where steps weren’t quite to 10,000.  When you’re in a car for 7 hours it’s tough to get steps! So far for this week I’m in 3^rd place so I gotta get moving.  My 17,633 steps yesterday should’ve helped but I will have to keep my numbers high all week.  Only 3000 steps separate the three of us so it’s anybody’s game. 

Sunday night a bunch of our friends and kiddos came over to the watch the Superbowl.  Since that was a boring blowout we ended up talking in the dining room with the TV merely on for background noise. I had went to the gym in the morning because I knew it was going to be a crazy day. So thankful I did.  I barely cleared my 10,000 steps for the day.  And we spent part of our time walking back and forth in the kitchen to get our steps together.  Ha! I love my friends.  They are awesome.  Everyone else was looking at us like we were lunatics but, hey, that’s not breaking news at all.  Snacks and tempting food were abundant at the party.  I tried to be as good as I could but I did find myself grazing time and again.  Grr.  Although, it appears I could’ve just licked a salt block all night because man, was I swollen on Monday.  Still retaining some serious water today yet.  Yikes! At least all the birthday cake is finally out of the house! That should help.  Oh how I love me some Costco sheet cake.

I’m hoping the snow storm that has begun doesn’t end up cancelling pool class tonight.  Looking forward to some tabata in the pool and then kickboxing tabata when I get home.  A friend sent me an at home workout she tried that looks really interesting.  She did it up the ladder and back down.  1-12 and 12-1. Props to you, AW!! That’s awesome! I’m going to give it a try soon and thought I would share it in case anyone else is looking to shake things up a bit. 

Only 20 weeks until we go to Vegas and I will definitely be rocking a swimsuit at the pool at the end of June. Plus, my 20 year, no, that’s not a typo, my 20 year class reunion is this year as well.  Gulp.  When the hell did I get so old?  Anyway, two big events to keep me on track to my goals. Let’s shock the crap out of some people I haven’t seen in a while.  

At home kickboxing

Sunday my husband and his buddies finished our mancave in the basement and spent the entire afternoon and evening watching the football playoffs on the new flat screen.  I stayed upstairs and got some more unpacking done, watched football without the bickering of what calls the coaches should've made and played on Pinterest.  I was searching for Tabata workouts and found a fun one for boxing.  Who got super excited? This girl! The original was only the first two sets (crosses/jabs and upper cuts) but when I did it last night, I added 2 more sets of kicks.  The total workouts was 20 minutes and I did it while watching Biggest Loser in my living room.  It doesn't get much easier than that, does it?  Also, I found a great app called Tabata+ Lite which does your countdown timer for you and even keeps track of the rounds.  This is great for me because I can barely count to 8 when I'm not doing anything, let alone kicking and watching a timer and keeping track of how many rounds I've done.  That's just not happening without a little help from technology. So here's my at home kickboxing tabata workout if you want to try it.  I love it.  It's simple, quick and effective.  What more can I ask for?

Quick Tabata boxing workout

5-10 minute cardio warmup (I had just done 60 minutes of pool class so I skipped this but you could do any kind of walking in place, jump rope, squats, lunges, stairs, etc.)

1^st set- Repeat for 8 cycles

20 secs of jabs & crosses (high speed and power)

10 secs of rest or squats

Rest 1 minute

2^nd set- Repeat for 8 cycles

20 seconds of upper cuts (high speed and power)

10 secs of rest or lunges

Rest 1 minute

3^rd set- Repeat for 8 cycles

20 seconds of side kicks (alternate legs per round)

10 secs of running in place

Rest 1 minute

4^th set- Repeat for 8 cycles

20 seconds of front kicks (alternate legs per round)

10 secs of running in place

Cool down and stretch

Tabata

Have you heard of Tabata training? It’s not a new idea in the world of fitness but it’s new to me.  We’ve been doing it in pool class and I love it.  The Tabata workout only lasts four minutes per segment, but it is grueling! The structure of the program is: Workout hard for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds.  

Doesn’t sound bad, right? Except you do it for 8 rounds.  And then you start again with 8 rounds of a different exercise.  For example in pool class we do 20 seconds of push-throughs, jumping jacks or running (in the deep end of the pool).  Our 10 second “rest” is a flutter kick and then right back at it.  We do multiple sets of 8 with different exercises and rest movements each time.  It’s awesome.  When you’re sweating in the pool, you know that you are working it in a great way. I’ve heard they are starting to use the same theory in some of the spin and body pump classes too but I haven’t tried those lately.  For now I’m just enjoying having burning abs and legs every time I leave pool class. 

I’m closing the gap on Kara and Melody on steps.  I was nine shy of 16,000 on Monday night which was 7.5 miles according to my fitbit. Yesterday I had 12,300.  I’ve gotta keep busting my booty so that I can take the #1 spot this week.  Lyndee loves a little friendly competition!