Feb 112017
 

This week started off well with the gym workouts but doing more yoga teaching made me a bit tired toward the end of the week. Need to perhaps focus on the cardio aspect or just remind myself it is only for 30 minutes – which is not difficult to find the time…. Anyway, it is ok. I am moving each day. πŸ’ͺ🏽😜

Feb 5 Sunday

  • 30′ 3.42km treadmill (walk 1km/run 1km/walk 1.42km)
  • 30 35kg total abdominal 
  • 40 5kg ab crunch 
  • 20 floor leg lifts
  • 60′ Sunday Wellness Yoga session 1/6 (teaching) 

Feb 6 Monday

  • 3′ elliptical warmup 
  • 50 15kg wide bar pull down (20 behind neck)
  • 30 35kg total abdominal x2 
  • 6″ arm hang x2
  • 30 5kg ab crunch x2
  • 30 4kg tricep halfbend to straight (each side)
  • 20 4kg back crunch 
  • 12 4kg side crunch each side 
  • 20 25kg low row
  • 15 15kg shoulder press
  • 20 15kg chest press
  • 1’12” full plank 
  • 6-7″ headstand on wall
  • 4″ handstand off wall
  • 75′ yoga practice session 

Feb 7 Tuesday

  • 55’14” 4.74km walk with Corniche MRTTAD
  • 75′ Tuesday Wellness Yoga session 1/6 (teaching) 

Feb 8 Wednesday

  • 5′ elliptical warmup 
  • 35 35kg total abdominal x2
  • 20 20kg wide bar pull down front
  • 10 20kg wide bar pull down back
  • 100 jumping jacks 
  • 15 15kg shoulder press
  • 40 5kg ab crunch x2 
  • 15 10kg pectoral machine 
  • 30 25kg low row
  • 1’03” elbow plank
  • 24 4kg tricep bend to straight back
  • 25 floor leg lifts 

Feb 8 Thursday 

  • Needed a rest day
  • 60′ yoga session (teaching) 

Feb 9 Friday 

  • 65′ Friday Wellness Yoga session (teaching) 

Feb 10 Saturday 

  • 60′ yoga session (teaching) 
  • Had a very quick swim in the cold cold sea….
Feb 042017
 

Jan 29 Sunday

  • Recovery from the weekend

Jan 30 Monday 

  • 5′ elliptical warmup 
  • 5″ v- arm hang
  • 12 burpees
  • 30 35kg total abdominal x2
  • 20 10kg shoulder press 
  • 20 4kg back crunch
  • 15 4kg side crunch each
  • 20 10kg pectoral machine 
  • 40 5kg ab crunch x2 
  • 20 10kg chest press
  • 40 15kg pull down bar
  • 40 15kg low row machine
  • 100 jumping jacks 

Jan 31 Tuesday

  • 58’20” 5.75km with MRTTAD on Corniche

Feb 1 & 2 Wednesday & Thursday

  • Too busy commuting to Dubai for training….πŸ˜₯

Feb 3 Friday 

  • Lazy….couldn’t get out bed with the stormy weather πŸ˜”

Feb 4 Saturday 

  • 5′ elliptical warmup
  • 5″ v-arm hang x2
  • 30 35kg total abdominal x2
  • 15 burpees 
  • 20 bench bridge leg lifts
  • 25 15kg wide bar pull down x2 (front &a back)
  • 30 5kg ab crunch
  • 30 4kg tricep halfbend to straight (each side)
  • 15 10kg pectoral press 
  • Headstand
  • 4″ off wall Handstand 
Jan 282017
 

This week definitely went better as far as getting to the gym goes. I tried to get in a bit more weights, abs, etc since the first weekend of yoga training finished off the week. There was some progress in the running/walking, but a little bit of the same for weights, etc. Still, progress is being made for sure! πŸ˜€

Jan 22 (Sunday)

  • 5′ elliptical warm up
  • 40 30kg total abdominal x2
  • 20 10kg shoulder press
  • 30 2.5kg ab crunch x2
  • 20 10kg chest press
  • 20 4kg back crunch
  • 12 4kg side crunch (each side)
  • 20 10kg pectoral machine
  • 5″ armhang/ 7″hang-pull-up
  • 30 bar squats
  • 1′ full plank
  • 40″ elbow plank

Jan 23 (Monday)

  • 30’04” 3.07km
  • 40 30kg total abdominal
  • 20 5kg ab crunch
  • 1’05” elbow plank
  • 3″ handstand
  • Headstand

Jan 24 (Tuesday)

  • 62′ 6.01km with MRTTAD group

Jan 25 (Wednesday)

  • 5’24” elliptical warmup
  • 1’02” full plank
  • 40″ elbow plank
  • 20″ side plank each side
  • 35 30kg total abdominal x2
  • 20 30kg adductor
  • 20 5kg ab crunch
  • 20 10kg chest press
  • 25 60kg leg press
  • 20 15kg wide bar pull down front
  • 10 15kg wide bar pull down back
  • 20 4kg back crunch
  • 10 4kg side crunch each
  • 20 3kg tricep pumps
  • Head/handstand prep

Jan 26 – 28 (Thursday – Saturday)

  • Weekend 1 of 200-hr Yoga Teacher Training course, which means yoga training from 8:30am to 6:00pm. Of course, not all is actually doing yoga, but a lot of it is. I will probably write a post on it next week. πŸ˜€

~T πŸ˜€

Jan 212017
 

Well, this week was sadly very spotty in my workouts. I blame it on my Aunt Flo visit, and also the instability of my life lately. However, I vow to get back to it properly next week!

Jan 15 (Sunday) πŸ’ͺ🏽

  • 5′ elliptical warmup
  • 4’21” 20/20/20
  • 20 3kg bar squats
  • 3 10″ arm hangs
  • 25 2kg tricep curls
  • 30 30kg total abdominal x2
  • 20:10″:20 1.25kg ab crunch x2
  • 25 25kg low row
  • 15 15kg should press
  • 20 4kg back crunch
  • 10 4kg side crunch x2
  • 15 15 pectoral press
  • 20 leg lifts
  • 100 jump rope
  • 25 sun salutation A

Jan 16 (Monday)

  • 3.26km 30’24” πŸ‘πŸ½πŸƒπŸ½β€β™€οΈ

Jan 17 (Tuesday)

  • Rest day 😜

Jan 18 (Wednesday)

  • Lazy day πŸ˜³πŸ˜¬πŸ˜”

Jan 19 (Thursday)

  • 1.07km 10′ warm up 5’walk/5run(8)
  • 35 30kg total abdominal
  • 20 10kg shoulder press
  • 125 ball sit-ups
  • 20 10kg pectoral machine
  • 25 back crunches
  • 12 side crunch each side
  • 25 10kg chest press
  • 60 jump rope
  • 30 2kg tricep reps
  • 20 1.25kg ab crunch
  • 1’02” forearm plank
  • 45″ full plank
  • 3″ handstand hold off wall
  • 23′ yoga Thursday practice

Jan 20 (Friday)

  • Was supposed to have a yoga session and then do a workout, but my car would not start, so I gave up…. 😫

Jan 21 (Saturday)

  • 37’04” 4.02km (barely made it to the treadmill, but glad I did!) πŸ‘πŸ½πŸƒπŸ½β€β™€οΈ
Jan 142017
 

With the exception of one day, I managed to keep up with my workout schedule. Since I took an early rest day, I shall make up for it on Saturday; therefore, I’ll post what I did next week or if I manage to get to the gym before this post comes out, then I’ll update it then. πŸ˜‰

Here it is:

Jan 8 (Sunday)
25′ 2.6km
28’42” yoga Sunday practice
23′ meditation

 

Jan 9 (Monday)
5′ elliptical warmup
4’08”- 20 burpees, 20 push-ups, 20 sit-ups
30 30kg total abdominal (crunch) x2
12 10kg pectoral pressΒ machine
20 1.25kg ab crunch x2
15 10kg shoulder press
100 ball sit-ups
5 sec arm hang/pull up x2
20 bar squats
20 free bar pulls
20 free bar push

 

Jan 10 (Tuesday)
6.99km 1hr10′ [3km walking with my MRTTAD ladies and then I ran 1.7km, walking the remainder home]

 

Jan 11 (Wednesday)
5′ Elliptical warmup
30 30kg total abdominal
30 20kg adductor
20 back crunch
10 side crunch (each side)
30 50kg leg press
20 bench leg lifts
30 ab crunch
11 burpees in 1′
100 ball sit-ups
1′ plank

 

Jan 12 (Thursday)
Rest day – I got up to go to the gym, but it was cold and dark out. My mind convinced my body to snuggle back into the warm bed and relax. It turned out to be an excellent choice at the end of the day. πŸ˜‰

 

Jan 13 (Friday)
30 30kg total abdominal
100 ball sit-ups
2.5km in 23’11”

 

Jan 14 (Saturday)
Skipped….
Jan 072017
 

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. πŸ˜‰

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…. πŸ™ 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! πŸ˜›

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 πŸ˜€

Nov 072016
 

As the weather is cooling down now in the UAE, more and more activities are happening outside.

I have written before about my running group I joined filled mostly with moms, but they accept this non-child lady. πŸ˜‰ Anyway, a while back one of them asked me why I do not sign up for a 5k or 10k run now that more and more of them are coming up here and in other locations around the world. I smiled and said, “no thanks”.

One of the reasons is that I am extremely competitive. I always want to win. However, I also know my limits. I am not willing to train to be the fastest or best runner at any distance. Therefore, I will not find it enjoyable to run for fun at a ‘race’. πŸ˜›

Instead, I enjoy running a short time on the treadmill or meeting the ladies for a gab once a week with intervals of running/walking. It is enough for me.

It has been about a month since we stopped going to the gym. M had a brain turn and so we both stopped going because I generally exercise every day anyway. However, I have a new fitness goal for myself that is simple and mostly just motivates me to get to the gym. If I am only competing against myself, then I can manage. πŸ˜€ So, I was back in the gym this morning instead of making the long trip to Yas mall for walking. I just wanted a quick workout so I could some other things done. It was good to get back in to it and it has now hopefully sparked my motivation again to get to it even if M doesn’t.

So, even though I am overly competitive with others, which keeps me from races or fun-runs, I am still enjoying staying fit and moving the body regularly. πŸ˜‰

~T πŸ˜€

Oct 182016
 

whatsapp-image-2016-10-18-at-9-18-06-am

Ah, do not let the title mislead you. I am by no means setting ‘real’ workout goals. However, that does not mean that I do not think about challenges. Given that my car is in the shop and M needed the car for morning appointments, it was most convenient to have him drop me off at our Tuesday morning meeting point on the Corniche.

I think I mentioned that I have joined a running group that is mostly made up of moms (Moms Run This Town – MRTT), but has the subtitle of She Runs This Town. While I have been wanting to get out more, I have only managed to keep the Tuesday morning in my schedule.

Anyway, due to the car situation, I decided today was a good day to try the full length of the Corniche and see how long it would take me. I had company for the first 3.2km where we mostly power walked. Then, we parted ways and I carried on for the remaining 3.3km.

Although I wanted to run more, the heat and humidity is still a bit too much at 8:30-9am. So, I did short intervals of running and then the rest walked. I guess my pace is not bad considering.

While I have no intentions of running any races anytime soon, if ever, I do hope to be able to run more consistently. So, I am glad to have found a group of ladies who get me out. Maybe I can even start more often when I feel as if life is settled….

Thus, no workout goal per se, but at least there is progress happening. πŸ˜€

~T πŸ˜€

Oct 112016
 

I have recently joined a group calledΒ Moms/She Run(s) This Town, which is a running group that has chapters all over the States and world. πŸ˜€

Although I am not particularly a runner, nor do I plan to join any races any time soon, it has been quite fun to meet some ladies who like exercise from fast walking to running.

It all started when I decided to go to the free Yas Mall Ladies Walking activity which started as once a week with alternating weeks of mall walking and yoga. There has been so much interest, that now they have it twice a week with Mondays for walking and Thursdays for yoga. The Thursdays are a little difficult for me to get to regularly, but it is good fun. However, I have consistently been getting to the Monday walking. So, I have made friends.

One of my friends is the founder of the Abu Dhabi chapter of MRTT, who also happens to be a Korean adoptee from the States. So, through coffee chats post-walking and lots of Facebooking, we have a regular group of ladies running on Tuesday mornings on the Corniche.

At the moment, we start on the other end from where I am, but we are going to try changing up the starting point now and then.

Today we went nearly 6km of 2/2 split intervals of running and walking, though I walked most of the way back due to conversing with some new ‘friends’. While some of the member of MRTTAD are runners for races, most of us are just happy to be getting out to socialize and exercise! That’s good enough for me! πŸ˜€

~T πŸ˜€

Oct 122012
 

Just before the summer holidays one of my colleagues was wearing these amazing shoes and I asked about it. It was also just around the time that I was reading _Born to Run_ to motivate myself to really get into running. Since I love toe socks (pictured in the _Born to Run_ post), I was totally fascinated by these shoes!

Before my summer accident I had great plans of running outside in Thailand and really getting myself off the treadmill….Then, I was put out of commission for most of the summer, so I decided it was a good time to get these Vibram FiveFinger shoes to retrain my running once I was all healed up.

Therefore, as I was rebuilding up my ankle, I would walk barefoot on the sand along the beach to build up strength in my feet. I tried running barefoot as well for the short distances that I could.

Once we returned to AD, my plans for outside running were put aside as the weather just isn’t great for it. But, I had my new shoes and began using them on the treadmill.

Close
26-Aug-2012 18:29, Apple iPhone 4S, 2.4, 4.28mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 400
Close
26-Aug-2012 18:29, Apple iPhone 4S, 2.4, 4.28mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 400
 
Close
26-Aug-2012 18:29, Apple iPhone 4S, 2.4, 4.28mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 500
Close
26-Aug-2012 18:30, Apple iPhone 4S, 2.4, 4.28mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 800
 

I have two pairs. One (the purple ones) I use only for running. The other (black ones) I use around the house or for the yoga and pilates classes I have just started taking (well, have had one class each as they cancelled classes last week, but I AM going back!). πŸ˜€ I LOVE THEM!

They not only make my feet happy, but running is so smooth and relaxed. Although I haven’t really gained a love for running (especially as I’ve recently gotten bored with the treadmill…though I still don’t mind walking forever…), I am at least feeling good with my new running shoes! πŸ˜€

-T

error

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)