Creative Meanderings

One of our NYRs is to lose our holiday weight by getting ourselves back to the gym. Later, I will write about my health/fitness NYR, but for this post I will focus on sharing my workouts this week. My aim is to do a regular weekly update on what I managed to do during the week to track progress for myself as well as share with whomever might care. 😉

For a while I toiled with the idea of starting Crossfit as it is becoming quite the trend and it does seem like something I should like. Mostly, I like the idea of the short timings, but overall body workout. Well, I decided I would try our first day with a beginner’s Crossfit workout that I found on Pinterest.

Omg! I thought I was going to die and the amount of soreness I felt from it the next two days was rather shocking. It also gave me a bit of a reality check in that not only do I have extra weight to lose, but I am very much out of shape! Me?! I usually take some pride in my body and fitness regime, but wow…there’s always a bigger fish, eh?

So, the workout is to do As Many Reps As Possible (AMRAP) in a 10 minute period of 10 burpees, 10 push-ups and 10 situps. That is it.

Well, Day 1, I started with a walk/jog on the treadmill for 20minutes. I jogged (and when I say jogged, I mean fast walk) for 10 minutes and then walked fast the rest of the time, I felt pretty good about this as a start. I also tried to listen to a podcast while on the treadmill instead of reading as I thought I would see if I can focus that way. After that, I thought I would try the beginner Crossfit workout and managed to last just about 2 minutes and 24 seconds doing a mere 14 burpees, 10 push-ups and 10 situps. After that I gave up…. 🙁 I added in 10 bar squats, an attempt at a pull-up or hang, and then to feel better about myself I did 20 crunches with 20kg and 10 half crunches on the machine. It was a bit of a shocker I must say.

Day 2 was a focus on cardio as I would like to get to doing 5km in a 30minute workout. So, I managed 2.62km in 25’07”. This was not a bad start and I did return to reading as I just find it easier to do on the treadmill. However, I will keep working on being able to listen to something so that perhaps one day I can enjoy running outside – for now I only enjoy it on the ‘mill.

Day 3 was a short warm up on the elliptical to get the body flowing. Then, I mostly focused on the upper body. I attempted the same beginner Crossfit workout from the first day and managed to last 4’20” and did 20 burpees, 20 sit-ups and 16 push ups. Not too bad after just a few days. Afterwards, I did the following:

• 50 ball sit-ups
• 30 15kg wide arm pulls
• 25 25kg crunches x2
• 15 bar squats
• 20 half crunches x2
• Bar hang…
• 15 back crunch
• 10 side crunch each side
• 20 bicep curls
• 12 10kg shoulder press
• 10 10kg pectoral press

So, not too shabby. The bar hang was the biggest challenge, though I did not feel as sore from it as I had expected to be. I heard a podcast the other day about what exercise to add in if one already does quite a bit of yoga. The speaker said that doing pull-ups is the best one because there is nothing in yoga that works those muscles. Boy was he right! Therefore, I will be adding those in and hopefully be writing soon about how I managed my first pull-up! 😛

Day 4 was a return to the yoga mat. I did a Wednesday Vijnana manual practice for 30 minutes with a 15 minute meditation. Although we thought maybe we would make it to the gym later in the afternoon, our schedule was altered slightly so we ended up not doing that.

Thursday morning workout was delayed to the evening since M felt that it would give us something to do since we are not drinking for the month. 🤣 In the morning, I did a Thursday Vijnana manual practice with a 10 minute meditation. Then, we did make it to the gym where I ran/walked 2.7km in 30 minutes. I ran for about 12 minutes. 

Friday morning we got up and headed to the gym. I focused on lower body and stomach after a 5 minute warm up. 

• 4’50” – 26 burpees, 20 push-ups, 20 sit-ups
• 30 25kg crunch x3
• 20 25kg adductor press x2
• 20 1.25kg ab crunch (half crunch) x2
• 20 50kg leg press
• 20 bar squats
• 20 back crunch
• 10 side crunch each side 
• 30″ plank x2

Saturday is meant to be a rest day, but will see. Might be another cardio day in the end. 😜

~T 😀