My Minutes Get Interrupted

Why is there always a five alarm fire every time I try to take a minute to myself?

It’s like the magic trick of getting on your phone just to get your kids’ attentions because they weren’t listening to you.

In fairness, I remember doing this to my mom. Bugging her like crazy when she was on the phone to really ANYONE. A landline mind you but still…

I might have been frustrated that I didn’t have her undivided attention but she was probably frustrated AF. When you’re already organizing chaos and you have such a short amount of time to grab your workout, having that little time interrupted is crazy making.

The last thing you need is a kid screaming for a sandwich when you just asked them if they were hungry.

Alas, these are the aspects of mom life we might not enjoy but are part of our reality.

That’s why I’m into the HIIT workouts. They don’t take long, they’re worth the burn, and you might just end up with 30 seconds to put out that fire.

It’s the attempt of being as efficient as possible with the little time you have available.

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EMOM

10 minutes

10 Squat Thrusters

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It's Lower Body Day! (I'm only kidding...)

Back in the day, I used to organize my workouts by body parts. 

Do you remember those days? Come on, you know you did this too. Leg day, arms and shoulders, back and abs, I don’t know I’m just spit balling here but rarely ever did I do a full body workout.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with this organization of your workouts. It can actually be beneficial from the standpoint of keeping you focused and on track when you’re in your workout, instead of meandering around a gym, clueless as to what to do, or just wasting time in your home gym.

Now full body workouts are my jam. I think a lot of that came from a result of getting certified to teach Pilates. Pilates is always a full body workout. We adhere to that standard whenever we teach. Granted, we might put a slightly higher focus on working one part of the body as opposed to the other, especially if we’re progressing into a harder exercise, but you will for sure work your whole body in a Pilates workout.

Part of the reason for this focus on the full body, through low impact exercises, is to train the body as an integrated whole. The focus on flexibility as well as strength, along with posture, helps the individual understand how their body moves as a single unit. Having that increased understanding helps individuals create symmetrical muscles groups, strengthen their core, and ultimately, mitigate the risk of injury.

That influence translated into every other aspect of exercise. I want to work as many different muscle groups as I possibly can so I can create strength through my body as a whole.

But occasionally I still toss it back to those old school days of having body specific workouts. 

My favorite body specific workout is lower body. Legs and glutes. Hands down.

But not for the reason you might think. I mean sure we all want those booties to look good in the leggings, BUT (haha) development of lower body muscles can lead to a healthier back, as well as less hip pain. In addition, while every exercise you do has a core component to it, for me, that component is increased when I do lower body work because I can go heavier on the weights I’m using.

I also like that even if I’m working resistance, I can feel a heart rate increase much faster with lower body focused work than upper body focused work. The majority of your muscle mass is in the lower half of your body. So when you do work that’s lower body related, your body is going to send more blood and oxygen to that area to help facilitate the work. As a result, your heart works harder, to the point where you might even feel your heart rate increasing.

That’s why I like lower body workouts. It’s like a trick that I’m doing cardio when I’m really not and that makes me feel like I’m multi-tasking, which always makes me happy.

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today’s workout

4 Rounds

5 deadlifts

5 single leg deadlifts each leg

5 sumo squats

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