Workin' and Kids and Marriage Wednesdays: Workout Squeeze (in)
There's nothing that gets you through the day better than a workout. Sometimes they are amazing, sometimes not so much. I've only regretted working out two times in my whole life; showing up to your own workout is 98% of the battle. Having a car sucks. I miss walking around the streets of NYC. There wasn't a day that went by where I didn't walk at least two miles every day. Now that we drive everywhere, at least for now, it's that much more important to get a meaningful workout in.
Here are our current constraints:
A newborn and a 2.5-year-old;
My husband is in residency;
We own a business. With staff. But, we still have to run it.
Our 2.5-year-old is up at all hours of the night so we are tired.
Our 2.5-year-old doesn't take naps, so when he gets home from school, he's tired but craves playtime instead.
We live downtown and a great running/biking trail in front of us, but our littlest one is too small for The Bob stroller.
And, we live on the sketchy part of the trail.
Somehow, we need to find time during the day to workout. We've come up with some creative ways to get exercise (running or biking to work, heading to the park while one of us works out while the other plays with the kiddos, going to the gym in our building late, late, late at night)...
The best strategy is to come up with a workout plan. A fun one, so that every day has something different going on. Especially when you're not training for any time of race, where the "fun" is taken out of the job. Here are current workouts that we, well, I am doing:
Monday: Body Pump: This is where 24-hour-fitness is brilliant. No matter where you go, there always seems to be one with this class. The class can very in its level of difficulty, so you don't want to do it every day. It does get the larger muscle groups and if you do it right, you will burn calories. It's a good "Monday" workout. I follow it up with a half hour run at a medium speed. Going outside is better, but if you must do a treadmill work, make sure your incline is at 4.5.
On a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being horribly challenging, Body Pump is a 5.
Tuesday: As per the radio station mentality, it's "two for Tuesday." Ideally workout in the morning and in the evening.
Morning workout:
Bootcamp. They're everywhere. Just go and do it. It's one of those classes where what you put into it determines the rewards you get out of it. My favorite Bootcamp class took place on the Brooklyn Bridge, with work/school bags.
Bootcamp, when done right, should be hard. About a 7 on the easy/difficult scale.
Afternoon workout:
Interval running workouts. Do this for 45 minutes. If you have to, download a running app on your Smartphone to help you change it up.
5 on the easy/difficult scale.
Wednesday:
Fluidity/Bar Workout & Long Run
Fluidity is an incredible workout that openly discusses your pelvic floor, making most first timers totally uncomfortable. I spent many years in the class of the founder, and she mostly talked about her sex life, politics and how utterly beautiful her pelvic floor is. I have the bar at my house with DVDs and I actually do the workout regularly (in the event that both kiddos nap at the same time, which has yet to happen :/). If you visit the Fludity website, you will see "success stories" with five or six women featured. I know almost every one of those ladies from class and their stories are true. This workout gets the smaller muscles and only engages--but does not allow--for the bigger muscles to take over. Where we live now, there are no Fluidity classes, but there is Pure Barre. Both types of classes reach the muscles that ballerinas use to create a long, lean and strong body through using your own body weight and proper body alignment.
Workout easy/difficult scale: 8.5
Long Run:
Just run. Outside if you can.
Thursday:
Get a personal trainer and workout with him/her.
Workout scale: It should be a 10.
Friday:
Loooong run. Then go to a barefoot workout. willPower & grace. Don't knock it until you try it.
Workout scale: 7.0
Saturday:
A Pilates day, followed by Yoga.
Sunday:
A long, steady run, followed by TRX training.
Workout scale: 8.0