Giving it a Go!

And here I am. After being a huge fan of countless other health & fitness blogs out there, I’m taking a stab at it myself. I’ve had a couple other online journals and blogs in the past, but none of them had a real focus. I’m hoping this one will be different, since I’ve chosen to focus on something I feel so passionate about.

My name is Athena, and I am 25 years old. I live in the Boston area with three roommates who happen to be some of my best friends. I have an awesome boyfriend who has been very supportive in my endeavor to start blogging regularly about how to live a happy and healthy life. I work a 9-5 Marketing job for a medical software company, but it’s my part time job as a fitness instructor that brings me here. I love to exercise and teach fitness. I love eating healthy as much as I can, but I am also the first to admit that I am human. We all have cravings, we all like to splurge, and we all have days where we just quite frankly don’t feel like getting off the couch to go to the gym. But maintaining a good, realistic sense of balance is what keeps me going. My hope is to eventually grow a solid following of readers that want to keep coming back for more of my personal tips on how to live an active life full of energy and happiness.

So! This past weekend I had three birthdays to celebrate. Birthday festivities = celebratory drinks, birthday cake, and dinners out; so my boot camp class tonight definitely paid for my weekend. I tried to make up for the extra calorie intake by pushing them just a little bit harder tonight. (Sidenote – when I’m not snapping pictures, I actually DO do the workouts with them).

Tonight was actually the last class of this session, which I’m totally bummed about. I taught the session for my coworkers at a field near one of our facilities. I did it last fall and I did it again this year starting in May and it’s gone really well. Definitely a good extra chunk of under the table change in my pocket, so I am planning on doing another session this coming fall.

Here’s what we did tonight:

Warmup in Place – Jog, High Knees, Butt Kicks, Jumping Jacks. Stretch lower body. Repeat, this time with football runs and jump rope. Stretch upper body.

Combination 1 (Cardio / Leg Progressions) – Run for 1 minute, add 10 jumping jacks. Repeat, add 10 squat jumps. Repeat, add 10 regular squats. Repeat, then hold the squat. Last round repeating, pulse the squat out at the end.

Combination 2 (Chest / Shoulders) – I divided the class into two groups. Group A started with overhead shoulder presses as the other group began with pushups. We started with 1 of each move, then would switch. Then 2, 3, etc all the way up to 8. They were definitely feeling the burn after so many alternating rounds!

Combination 3 (Cardio / Legs) – I set up 4 cones in a square and had the class shuffle around the cones, then stop and do squats with feet together. Then we repeated the shuffle in the other direction, finishing with one legged squats with the opposite leg lifting to either the front or side. Balance challenger!

After this we repeated Combination 2 to fatigue the shoulders and chest. This time we started with 8 overhead presses & pushups and worked our way back down to 1.

Combination 4 (Biceps / Triceps) – Bicep Curl up, flip hands so palms are facing front, then lower forearms down. We did 15. One arm at a time for triceps, lowering overhead straight down and up for 10 reps, then pulsing it out for 10.

Combination 5 (Cardio / Legs ) – Back to the cones! Traveling forward lunges down one side, sprint the second side, traveling forward lunge the third side, then sprint the last. Jog it out until everyone is back, then single lunges on each leg to finish it off. I was getting glares at this point!

After combo 5 we repeated biceps/triceps this time with the bicep curl starting with palms front for the curl, then flipping the hands so the palms faced them before lowering down. For the tricep dips, we switched it up and did the single arm work on the diagonal instead of straight back. Then repeated the lunging and sprinting.

Finally, I ended class with some glute presses and ab work. Mountain climbers, side planks, regular plank hop ins, crunches with a weight, sitting twists with a weight, and finally hugging the knees into the chest and extending legs out and arms overhead. And stretching of course!