My Favorite Things

Have y'all seen the Oprah shows where she gives away her favorite things? And by favorite things, I don't mean she gives her audience members her favorite $10 pair of slippers from Target....she gives them RIDICULOUS things....I'm sure people leave there with a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff at the very least! Dane Cook's reenactment of Oprah is so hilarious that I just had to share!

I thought I would do a blog post about some of my favorite things, workout related of course. Unfortunately, I will not be giving out free things! But... I am always interested in what products/workouts other people enjoy so I am taking it upon myself to share mine...enjoy :)
Nike Free 2

Ok, I admit....I have a shoe problem. But the first step is admitting you have a problem, right? I have probably bought 6 pair of tennis shoes in the past year and LOVE every pair, but my Nike Free are probably the most comfortable pair I own.
Vibrams

Undoubtedly, Amanda will not appreciate this part of my post because she HATES the way these look. I admit, I was a hater. I still think they look incredibly silly but once I bought a pair and worked out in them, let me tell you....love 'em! I definitely do not condone wearing them around with a normal outfit....but I can appreciate someone who works out in them. They are awesome and you will work muscles in your lower legs that you NEVER knew existed. Advice from personal experience....wear them around the house for a little while and maybe just walk in them first. You will HURT if you go buy them and go run a few miles in them. Your feet definitely have to get used to them.


Burpees!!!

I hated these when I first started doing them in training. They were hard! I have grown to be very fond of burpees....and I have read many articles citing that a burpee is one of the best things you can do in a workout! In case you are unsure of what a burpee is, YouTube it or check out the picture above. You can do them on the ground or on an exercise step....maybe use the step to begin with because it is easier when you don't have to go all the way to the ground. You can also do them on a medicine ball, just have to make sure you have some balance going on before you go jumping your legs back!
Spinning
I am not a lover of cardio. And by cardio I mean running, walking on treadmill, getting on elliptical and just going for an hour. BORING!! I enjoy workouts that include cardio and strength (such as burpees and mountain climbers and such) but I have no attention span when it comes to "traditional" cardio. Until I started spinning. The gym I go to uses the Les Mills classes and their spin class is called RPM. Finally worked up enough courage to go and was hooked. It's 50 minutes of intense cycling and they say you can burn 600-900 calories. Now of course, the calorie burn is not a definite. I wear my Polar HR monitor and have burned anywhere from 450-550 calories. I love it because it is a group setting so you get the motivation of having other people struggling with you but it is personal enough that you don't feel like everyone is watching you and you can go at your own pace. You turn up the tension/resistance on the bike and so if you aren't feeling it that day or are new, you don't have to turn it that much. On the flip side, if you are looking for a challenge, you can really crank it up and push! And no one else will even have to know. Try one if you haven't yet.

My Spinning Shoes

Since we are talking about spinning.....my Giro spinning shoes are one of my newest favorite things. Now you can wear your regular tennis shoes to spin class (not your Vibrams though...ouch!) but if you are really into spinning and plan on continuing, I would recommend buying some shoes. They have clips that you have to buy and have installed on the bottom that fit specifically for the pedals on the bike you use. My shoes have  Shimano SPD clips because that is what works for the bikes at my gym. I am not an expert on these so I don't know if these specific clips work for a lot of different bikes....so I would check before you buy! But you can turn up more resistance when you are actually clipped to the pedal and it is much easier to sprint while you are standing/climbing on the bike. You can actually "pull" the pedal around (if you think about pedaling as a push down/pull up movement) and it makes for a totally different ride in my opinion.

My Heart Rate Monitor

I have a Polar FT4 that I got for Christmas. Polar makes many different ones and there are lots of other brands but this is just what I know about mine. If you are like me, you like seeing that what you are doing is working. This shows your heart rate (and at the end your max and average heart rate) and calories burned. I love seeing how many calories I have burned. I will look at it constantly during my workout and at the end of my workout be amazed at what I have accomplished. It will really make you push yourself harder. It's also cool to see what exercises really get my heart rate up (Pushups do it for me!) and also how fast my heart rate recovers while doing interval training.



There are so many more things I could share with you and maybe I will do another post at another time with some more! I am always trying new workout clothes and shoes and always learning new things at the gym (and improving on old things enough so that they can move from my "I hate it" list to my "favorite things" list).

What are some of your favorite things? Favorite work out clothes? Workout? Please share!!

Keep spinnin', spinnin' and spinnin', spinnin'

Have you ever caught yourself doing something incredibly embarrassing, and you realize that right at that moment about every other person in the room caught you too?

Well it happens to me often. Like the one time when I was doing my first couch-to-5k day, and I found myself singing aloud with my music. That doesn't even take into account the wonderful air drums that I was playing then, too.

I don't really have a point to my posting, except to say "Do what you've gotta do." If you need to sing, do it. If you need to dance, go right on ahead. Or if you're a bit more quiet than me and need to just think to yourself, go for it. To me, working out is insufferable if I'm not having fun or have some pretty heavy structure. So when I workout by myself, I need something to amp me up to keep me going. It is very easy for me to get on that treadmill and get off way before I should. How do I stay on? I found that distracting myself with music and dancing works.

Now with all that being said, don't annoy your fellow workout-ers. I can only imagine being by someone like who I was the other day. I would not have been entertained by them at all. Just do it in your head--I promise it works just as well. Today, I did my second day of the C25K, and that's what I did this time. It's like I said in my spinning post before--if you've got a mantra, shout it out (just in your head)!

MG #1 was pretty successful this week. Below, I've got a picture of my 4 workouts. Here are the details:

• Sunday - spin class with Molly (50 minutes)
• Tuesday - first day C25K (30 minutes)
• Thursday - spin class with Molly (40 minutes)
• Saturday - second day C25K (30 minutes)

--A