Weekly Workouts {Finding alternatives}

This weekend was the perfect mix of fun, catch-up, and relaxation.  It was the first weekend I’ve had in a long time without a wedding or a wedding/baby related activity, and I must say it was quite nice to just go with the flow.

On Friday night I got to reunite with my long-lost college roommate, Karla, who is living in Boston for two months!  Since I haven’t seen Karla since our college days (ugh we’re old), we had a TON to catch up on and spent a lot of time talking over wine and dinner.  So much time that I  forgot to snap a picture of us, but here’s a visual from college:

This is one of my all time favorite gems from PC.  Karla is the one in glasses in the back, and true to form, is probably laughing AT the rest of us as we stumbled down the street.  Anyways, it was so nice to see Karla, and I hope to see her again before she has to head back to New York.

Saturday morning I woke up to take a super sweaty kickboxing class with Monique.  These tweets pretty much sum it up:

After kickboxing, it was just too hot to do anything!  I didn’t feel like going to the beach, I didn’t feel like walking around anywhere, so I just got caught up around the apartment.  Tim and I also decided to do our meal plan and grocery shopping a day early so we could enjoy the better day outside on Sunday.  Saturday night we took Katie, Tim’s sister, out for a belated birthday dinner.  Will share food pics later!

Finally, Sunday was a gorgeous day out.  We relaxed in the morning, had pancakes for breakfast, went kayaking for the afternoon, and splurged on an ice cream cone for National Ice Cream day.  The evening was spent doing our food prep for the week and unwinding.  All in all, it was a great weekend!

Time to get back into the swing of things though.  Weekly Workouts time!

Last Week’s Workouts

As you know, last week I was still feeling the effects of the pulled muscle in my back.  On Monday it was still sore, but I wasn’t experiencing spasms to the extent I had been the week before.  I didn’t want to push it too soon and risk re-injuring myself, so I had to come up with some alternative ways to ease back into things while still feeling like I got decent workouts in.  I decided to go easy on the weights last week, and filled my workouts with cardio and lighter strength work for endurance training.  It’s crazy how movement and exercise actually helped my back feel better, but TOO much would risk injuring it again.  It honestly wasn’t until I went back to the gym for light cardio on Monday that I started feeling improvements!

Sunday
Rest day

Monday
40 minutes of steady state cardio on the elliptical, followed by some plank work.  Planks were the only core exercise at the beginning of the week that weren’t bothering my back.  Isometric for the win!

Tuesday
Subbed at the last minute for a 6am spin class, then taught my Interval class that night without actually doing the moves with them.  I taught a stations workout and was so proud of my class for how hard they worked with all the crazy equipment I set up around the room!

Wednesday
Took Christine’s Cardio Cutz class.  This is when I started adding in weights back into my repertoire.  I figured since this class uses three pound weights because it is so high impact and high rep, they would be okay.  And they were!

Thursday
Taught my 6am class with a barre inspired theme.  I used lighter weights again when necessary.

Friday
Rest day

Saturday
Monique’s sweaty kickboxing class, as mentioned above!

This Week’s Workouts

This week my back is feeling better, so we’ll see how it goes about how much weight I use.  I want to have an extra good workout week in preparation for vacation week next week!  Here’s what’s on the agenda:

• Sunday:  Active rest – kayaking
• Monday:  Plyo and core strength with cardio mixed in
• Tuesday:  Cycle and core, teaching interval
• Wednesday:  Off OR TBD
• Thursday:  Teaching my 6am
• Friday:  Cycle and core
• Saturday:  Off OR Kickboxing

How have you been successful in finding alternative workouts through injury before?

Attention Maine readers:  I would love any suggestions for activities, fun things to do, places to eat, etc. in the Portland area next week.  We’re open to day trip ideas too!