Okay, it has been weeks. I bet you thought I was never going to bring up intervals again. Are you still doing them? Are they getting too easy? Did you lose your motivation? Did you never start to begin with? Well, it’s time to get back to it… even for me, but there is one thing missing from my workout blog from weeks ago. I have been putting off writing about this, but it is time that I confront one of my faults.
I will admit that I am addicted to running. I love it. To quote Edward Cullen, it is my own personal brand of heroin. I would run every day if I could. I know what you are thinking… this chick is crazy. I swear, I am not. I don’t have to run long distances, just 3 miles and I feel on top of the world. Last year on Mother’s Day, my husband asked me what I wanted to do for the day and I told him I wanted to go for a 6 mile run. Okay, now I sound crazy.
Here is the problem with running: when you attempt to do it often (i.e. 6 days a week, like I did last week) your body starts to rebel. For me, the rebellion starts in my knees. Yesterday, my knees won and I was forced to stop and admit that running isn’t always what the body needs… even if my mind would say otherwise.
This brings us to my fault. I suck at weight training. It is a VITAL part of physical development and maintenance. In fact, women NEED to do light weight training to help prevent osteoporosis. Even knowing all these things, I still don’t like doing it and if I don’t have to, I won’t. Well, my knee problems finally forced me to look at my workout regime and admit that I need to change.
What did I do? For starters, I went down into my basement and starting looking for the balance ball video I remembered doing a few years ago after I had my first daughter. I was sure we still had it. If my memory served me correctly, there was a pretty good core workout that got a good sweat going. After fishing around in the basement for 15 minutes, I realized the video was gone. Then the vague memory danced across my brain of me looking at the DVD during our last move and saying to myself “oh, be honest, Bek, you never do this video” and tossing it in the garbage.
So, I couldn’t do the video, but I had one last resort. I didn’t want to have to go there, but time was ticking down and my daughters’ naps were going to be over before I knew it. I went and grabbed the most recent issue of Health magazine and started thumbing through it. Every month the magazine outlines workouts. Every month I scoff at them. Who can read a magazine and do a workout at the same time? But as I learned today, I could.
The best way for women to tone their bodies in conjunction with cardio workouts (i.e. your interval routine) is circuit training. What is circuit training? It is a “technique that involves moving from one exercise to another, each exercise working a different muscle group until each muscle has been worked. It can include strength training stations, cardio stations or a mixture of the two.” When I force myself to do something other than running, it is circuit training. The problem is unless you have a trainer telling you what exercises to do, you are probably clueless.
Well, I found the solution. Since I am not an authority on circuit training and can’t post pictures of exercises for you to do, I will point you in the right direction. The workout I did today (which still has my arms shaking) is GREAT and yes, it came from Health magazine. Go out, buy the May issue of Health (it has Mariska Hargitay on the cover), turn to page 54 and do the workout they have outlined. It is not hard to follow, it gets you sweating, it only takes 20 MINUTES and you will feel great afterward… until tomorrow when you are sore.
I know you thought we were stopping at intervals, but the body needs more (even if I don’t want to admit it). Do this workout 2 days a week in conjunction with intervals 3 days a week. Let’s make a pack to build some muscles, if not to look great (which you will), for the protection of our bones. If you don’t want to do this specific workout, join a yoga class, do a weight training video, find something that suits your personality because a little muscle goes a long way.
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