Pregnant and Working Out

Here is a great article about working out while pregnant. I've got 8 kids and while exercising during pregnancy doesn't help much with how much weight I do or don't gain, I did notice a huge different this last pregnancy where I worked out the up to the day of delivery and started anew the day of delivery doing some planks in my hospital room. Planks this time helped me so much, helped my hips and back not hurt like they did with pregnancy's 6 and 7 and I had SUCH an easy delivery, it really didn't seem fair, I know so many women have such difficult labor. I'm super lucky.

I can't really remember much of the detail from my other pregnancies, but will try if anyone's interested in my experience.

Tight Shoulder Relief

Here's a great stretch for tight shoulders and neck (that's me - that's where I carry my stress)

ZWOW #27 - No Girly Workouts

3 Minute "Buy In" of Overhead squats w/weight (get really low)

Then-

10 minute workout: 10 round of walking lunge with 3 Burpees each minute on the minute
Zuzka held two 20 lb dumbbells during her lunges.

Video Here

Kodjo's Planks and Burpees

Just stumbled across this video from the Body Warriors Website and I like Kodjo!  I'm doing this tonight after I put the kids to bed.



Gymboss 10/30

1) Plank & Stand with Burpee
2) Side Plank w/Side Raise & Toe Touch (alternate left and right side in between Stand Burpees)

Do these 3x a week 15 to 20 minutes

I like!  I will be following this guy - quick, simple and effective workouts, love!

Fixed Firm Pose

I had to google a few different things to find the name for this stretch/pose.  So I guess it's called Fixed Firm Pose or "Supta-Vajrasana"



I've been doing this pose everyday - Just lay down backward with my feet both pointed outward or I sit on my heels and lay back.  Feels good to stretch and release tension. I think I'll get a book about Yoga.  Any recommendations?

ZWOW #26

This is a 10 minute workout.  If you have a timer set it for 10 x 30/30.  One round will take you 5 minutes, so complete 2 rounds of the following

1 round =

1. Left - Plank with Leg Lift and Jump Up
2. Left - Side Crunch
3. Right - Plank with Leg Lift and Jump Up 
4. Right - Side Crunch
5. Side to Side Squat
6. Side to Side Push Up
7. Knee Hugs
8. Elbow Plank
9. Pike Press
10. Plank Jump

Here's an online timer if you need one, but if you just follow along in the video then you'll know when to change exercises.  :)

Fruit Fast

"All of the vitality and energy I have comes to me because my body is purified by fasting."

-Ghandi

I've been fasting today.  I'm still nursing my 10 month old baby girl, so I usually eat something to make sure she's got some milk if she wants it (for my fast today I ate apples and watermelon and drank water). 

But she's also old enough that she's eating enough other foods to keep her little chubby legs nice and fed. :)

Everytime I fast I am once again amazed at how wonderful it feels to say "no" to all the foods that call out "YES!" to me during the normal day.  It feels great to be in control of my mouth.  It also once again teaches me that I can do it, I can be in control.  If I can be in control while I'm fasting, why don't I just stay in control even when I'm not fasting?  Maybe that's what it means to LIVE the law of the fast. - and, for my own personal reference, here's a blog with stuff about fasting that looked interesting.

Side Plank Lift Challenge

I haven't been doing much cardio lately, I've been enjoying doing lots of stretching and resistance holds AND I fasted for the first time for a long time yesterday so I really feel lighter and better, amazing how just one day of fasting makes you feel so much in control of your body - spiritually stronger.  I'm grateful for the spiritual benefits that come with fasting along with the physical aspect. 

I'm upping the intensity of my side planks.  Last week I was able to hold the side plank on my elbow for 3 minutes.  This week I'm doing side planks for 1 minute on my hand two times for each side.  That is a lot more intense, I can barely do the minute!  So here's our challenge:

200 reps of the Side Plank Lift - 100 on each side



I'm guessing this will be a 10-12 minute workout, but not sure... let's go find out!

---

Ok, my time was 12:22 but I just did 100 total reps, 50 each side, and that was enough to make me sweat and get a good workout.   I did 10 at a time for each side, then took a breather.  On my 61-80 reps I did the elbow to plank lifts 10 in a row then followed by the 10 side plank lifts right side, then 10 elbow to planks again with 10 plank lifts left.

ZWOW #25

This ones on the list for tonight's workout

First, do 30 burpees (competition burpees or regular burpees) to "buy in" to the workout :)

Then complete 3 rounds for time of the 4 exercises listed below

1 round =

1. Ply Fly - 20 reps
2. Squat Overhead Press - 15 reps
3. Lateral Jump Touch w/knee up Jump - 10 reps
4. Abs Splitter (toes, straddle, ankles) - 5 reps

Zuzka's time (including her burpees): 13:21
Video Here

Quick 600 Challenge

I've been taking it a little easy this week exercise-wise, but doing lots of stretching for my personal year long challenge.  But I did do this good workout yesterday and my glutes are just a little sore, so that's good to know they got hit hard but also nice that I can walk without a lot of soreness.

Here's a quick 600 challenge I did last night - 500 mountain climbers and 100 jump lunges.

1 round =

• 100 mountain climbers
• 20 jump lunges

Do 5 rounds as fast as possible.

My time was 8 minutes and 20 seconds

ZWOW - Sweet and Simple

This is Zuzka's simple and sweet ZWOW for us this week :)  I watched the video quickly then ran upstairs to do it, my time was 4:27 and knew that was too fast, came down to the computer and watched the video again to discover I only did 2 low jacks not three. Going to go do the whole thing over again right as repentance.



Complete 50 sets as fast as you can

1 set =

• 3 low jacks
• 1 pike press
• 1 jump up

see video at :19 for her demonstration of the exercise

My time: 5:11 (not too shabby!)

Mini Tabata Workout

Here's one of my favorite pics of Zuzka - look at that toned core, that's incredible to me, inspirational.

For today's workout... let's do some tabatas!

Tabata training involves working as hard as you can on any given exercise for 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds of rest, usually repeated for 8 rounds. (That's only four minutes of work!) Tabata is a type of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) - a study from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Japan found that the 20 seconds on/10 off training method improves cardiovascular fitness by working both aerobic and anaerobic systems (read: major calorie blast).

For this workout there are four exercises.  Complete each exercise individually four times (do four 20 seconds on 10 sec rest intervals) then move on to the next execises 4x, etc, to equal a total workout time of 8 minutes:

1. Air Squats or Jump Squats
2. Half Burpees (Burpees w/o pushup)
3. Reptile Pushups (Pushups w/ Knees to Elbows)
4. Footloose (Run in place as fast as your feet will move for 20 seconds)

*Again, perform all four rounds of each exercise before moving onto the next one.

Better Side of Bodyrock

I haven't been going to Bodyrock that much this year, but did visit their site last night and was encouraged by this video and that they are listening to people's suggestion/request that they not be so provocative with their videos and picture.  I still don't recommend you to visit their site, as they still have pictures on the side bar that are inappropriate and make me have to shield the computer screen from myself and my kids, but I was glad that the picture of this youtube video was modest enough that I could post it here without feeling embarrassed, although I still won't post most of them because of the titles of the videos.  Don't care for "booty" either tho.  So, here's a good Bodyrock workout, follow along in real time - (starts at 2:08)



Gymboss 10/50
6 exercises in around, complete 2 rounds for 12 minutes

1 round =

1. Switch Lunges and 2 Low Jack
2. elevated push ups
3. Side lunge touchdowns
4. Jump Squats
5. Dive bombers
6. Tricep Dips or Half Burpee w/back row

Fun Run

Well, the big race was today.  I had a dream that I came in 25th place.  Not sure what place I came in overall, but in the women's division I came in 3rd.

I was doing pretty good and got passed up by a girl after minute 10 and I gave up and walked a little to catch my breath, then jogged to see if there was a 2nd wind somewhere inside of me, but it didn't come, so I walked again, then waited for Joseph and he and I finished it together, he got 13:47, I got 13:48.  The girl that won got 12:48 (she's in the red shirt behind Ethan's head in the first pic above).  That is better than my best time of 13:11, so reason #1 why I lost is: she was faster than me, a worthy opponent.  Not ashamed to lose to her.  I don't know her name, I think it was a daughter in law of someone in the neighborhood, a young wipper snapper.  That's reason #2 why I lost.  I saw her and thought "Oh, blast!  These college young'uns!" So, I didn't get to teach the kids my preferred lesson of setting a goal, working for it, and achieving it.  Instead the lesson is how to be a gracious loser and not have our hearts set on things that of the world that at times are out of our control.  (7:35 - oh that elusive Golden Ticket!!!)

After I finished I ran back to see where my children were, saw Ethan doing great, he was running with his friend Brox and they got 16:43, great job Eth!

I ran further and found Hyrum pushing along, he ran the whole time.  He did great, he told me he got "17:something".

After finding Hyrum, I kept going back to find our little family caboose Wesley.  Wesley woke me up at 3:00 in the morning telling me that his legs were hurting him and it kept waking him up.  We went downstairs and I had him lay on the couch while I rubbed his legs.  He said it felt better when I rubbed them, then he said his arms hurt too, so I'd rub them.  I basically massaged him with my eyes closed and with my body half asleep the rest of the morning - reason #3 why I lost.  But it's a good reason and a good sacrifice to make (see 5:45-6:05)  Around 6:00 a.m. we ate a little bit of food and googled his Asthma medicine to see if it was a side effect from that, but it wasn't.  After a bit more googling I think we found the diagnosis: growing pains!  None of my other kids have had this, so this is new to me, I didn't know that was an actual disease, I thought "growing pains" was a little saying for the emotional pain caused by growing up and by change.  Anyway, after suffering through the night we got up and after breakfast he was feeling better and wanted to go on the run, so we gave him Corey's bib and we were off for the race!

You can tell from the mountains in the distance in the picture above, that the air quality wasn't the best... there was a big fire in Alpine yesterday, I was having a really hard time keeping my breath during the race.  My throat is still really hurting and I've been coughing, maybe I've got asthma too.  So I'll add that as reason #4 why I didn't win.  I know, excuses excuses.

Anyway, Wes did great.  He was so proud of himself, cause at the end of the race he got some pressure put on him when Julia (who was walking) passed him up, and you could tell by his body language that he was like "Oh no you don't!" and then he pushed it, baby!  And the rest of the morning he was bragging how he beat a 6th grader!

 

It was cute.  Little Wes is taking a nap now, I think I'll go do the same...

Did ZWOW #23 this morning.  On 2nd/last round, I did 20 air squats and then swapped out the other 80 airsquats for 50 jump lunges.  Rather push harder and get it over with than doing 100 air squats.  My time was 21:57.