In fact, during a yoga class I took this evening, my instructor pointed out that doing even just a little bit of work each day is far better than doing one marathon session a week.

Yes!  She gets it!!

Earlier in the day I also drove past a car with a bumper sticker that read, “Children learn what they live.”  Which brings me to the main part of my post.  Why do you workout?

I personally workout so that I am healthier and have less of the common disease and disorder found in the sedentary population.  I also workout to keep my body strong so that I’m able to do a good number of daily tasks on my own.  This is the short version of course, and I’d be more than happy to expand at a later date in the future.

If I had kids, I’d work out just to keep them active, not sitting in front of the television, not spaced out on some new game system, but to show them the fun behind working out and all the creative things you can do to be active.

So, why do you workout?

The video below is a challenging workout that combines the kettlebell two hands anyhow, kettlebell racked bulgarian split squats, and TRX pikes.

All three of these exercises are challenging, so there is no need to complete the workout quickly, focus on your form, and work with weights that are appropriate for you.

3/3 Kettlebell Two Hands Anyhow (Windmill Variation)
6/6 Kettlebell Racked Bulgarian Split Squat
6 TRX Pikes

Below is a short video that briefly shows three different barbell exercises, in a more untraditional way than most people are used to. I’m using the landmine with the barbell.  If you don’t have access to a landmine it is very easy to use just the barbell in the corner, which I’ll show you tomorrow.

Try completing 10-12 reps of each exercise on both sides for several rounds based on your fitness ability.

I’d love to hear yours…

I’ll share mine with you as well.

As a kid, we played outside. Never were we allowed to sit a watch TV for hours on end. We also had chores that needed to be done. From about 11 to 17 I played sports. My favorite sport was swimming, I would swim lap after lap after lap until I had to get out of the pool. I was awesome at the backstroke, then one meet didn’t go so well, I counted the flags wrong I crashed head first into the wall, practically knocked myself out in the water, and well mentally couldn’t get over it, and never swam quite so well again.

I also played soccer, but we didn’t always have a girls team, a group of us got to play on the boys team for a year, but in terms of degrading us, they made a special period for us (that didn’t really count toward the game) That didn’t go over too well, and didn’t last more than a season. We finally got a girls team my senior year, we weren’t great but we were good enough for a first year team. That was a memorable experience, a charter member. After college I was a bartender for a bit, it was always strange mixing up a drink for my high school soccer coach.

Lastly, I was on the track and field team all through high school. I threw discus and ran 110 hurdles, that’s a combination of two events for sure. I wasn’t awesome but I was good enough.

When I got to college, swimming was always on my mind, but I never went after it, looking back I probably should have. Instead, I got a little lazy, and the most exercise I ever did was the 3 whole classes I had to take to fulfill my PE requirements. Reassuring I know, coming from someone who wants every woman to feel confident and empowered by their fitness capabilities.

After college, I battled with myself for about a year over some minor eating disorders, and my new addiction to running (perhaps this is why I dislike it so much now.) At my 5’10″ frame I was a whopping 155, anorexic and almost frail. I encountered some other problems along the way, but slowly and thankfully shifted out of that mindset and into a much healthier lifestyle. There were a lot of ups and downs to overcome and conquer, but once I realized the importance I knew I had to stick with it, that and I wanted to.

Enter real strength training for the first time in my life. (Because all the strength training I did in high school was bogus at best, with no program to follow and no goals in mind, I wasn’t educated at the time.)

I love this stuff, I would give up strength training for anything at this point in my life. When I finally started training the right way, I saw amazing transformations. I was strong, I was lean, I was realizing what it was really like to be fit as an adult. It wasn’t about crazy fad diets and long cardio.

Combination full body movements, paired with other combination full body movements, for effective and quick workouts that not only make me stronger and leaner, but also allow me to skip traditional cardio workouts. Have I mentioned that I love this stuff! (You will too if you don’t already, I promise.)

I didn’t get in to every detail but I will as time moves along, you’ll hear about all of my mistakes, what my workouts are like now, they crazy fad diets I’ve tried, the success of well balanced nutrition, the confidence that strength training brings to you, and so much more.

Tell me what your fitness story has been like.

What do you struggle with?

What has been the key to your current success?

Where do you want to improve?

Together, we’ll get there and stay there.