This morning I decided to pull out my yoga mat and have a pilates and yoga session, to kick start myself into getting back into a fitness routine. My Osteopath very correctly told me I should get back into pilates and yoga, and to stay at the beginner level for a long time. My muscles are built up well, but they are too stiff, so I need to really work on leaning them out, stretching, posture and balance.

Though I’m not necessarily a beginner, after breaking a few bones, two surgeries and four (five, six?!) months out of the gym – at my age, you have to start from the beginning and wow, do I need it. This week I’ll be doing two Yoga sessions during my lunch breaks thanks to my work having a Winter Wellness push, and my activities today reiterated how much I need to make it a regular activity.

I found these two videos on YouTube and did a 15 minute yoga session and a 30 minute pilates session – and by the time I was done, I was definitely feeling it. If you too are looking to get into pilates and yoga, either for the first time or it’s been a while, I can recommend these videos:

• 20-Minute Strength Yoga Class for Moms – CafeMom Yoga Studio
• POP Pilates for beginners (featured above)

Good luck!

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20 Fitness Years in Review: The challenge and conclusion Fitness review: Jan – April 2012 workout update

Inspiring on so many levels.

Keeping with my new tradition, here are my workout stats from January through April, 2012 and while I don’t find using notes on my iPhone the most ideal template, it’s been invaluable for my sessions – being able to keep track of my reps & weight has come in handy on more than one occasion. This also helps you to ensure you workouts are somewhat streamlined - and also a great way to notice if you’re improving.

Due to some injury issues I haven’t  been as much this month as I would have liked – I took two weeks off – but in other news – I’ve gotten back in the pool! It’s been almost a year since I participated in the Virgin London Triathlon on behalf o Belron and I’ve finally gotten back in the water (beacuse of certain injuries, I needed a break from machines & weights).

It’s actually quite interesting and funny in a way, that each time I’m injured, including the actual break , the one thing I turn to is the pool.

Below is my updated workout lists, post boozy Christmas, a holiday to New York and New Years parties. My goals:

• To rebuild my back muscles
• Tone my legs, bum & tum
• Reduce fat

Jan – April 2012 Gym sessions

*Notes for Gym workouts – machine definitions:
Upper:
#20 – lat pulldown (lays & biceps)
#23 – chest press (shoulders, pecks & triceps)
#14 – abs
#19: Seated Row (lats – upper & lower, biceps & shoulders)
#6: lower back: settings #2 on both
#33: Arm pulldown

Lower:
#18: squat (glutes & hamstrings)
#22: seated leg curl (hamstrings)
#21: seated leg extension (quads)
#4: Lying down squat machine (glutes, Hamstrings, Quads)
#3: Glues & hamstrings
#1: Abductor
#2: Adductor

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20 Fitness Years in Review: The challenge and conclusion Post tri workouts – August/September #Metal2Medal update: June/July 2011

At the start of 2011 I hadn’t yet decided to participate in the Belron Triathlon, nor was I yet back to being a member of the gym. Now, 12 months later, here I am writing about my gym sessions like a dork and have a open water swim race under my belt.

I remember when going to the gym was just something I did, daily. Maybe more than once, like eating. As a competitive swimmer, waking up, burning 1000 calories and then starting my day was normal. I didn’t think about it, I just did it.

When you have the momentum, it’s easy to keep it going. It’s when you lose that momentum, when the cycle stops, that’s where it gets difficult.

My momentum stopped in 1997, maybe it was 1996. My first injury. Only someone like me could start a sentence with ‘my first’! I tore two ligaments in my ankle right before my sophomore year in high school. This meant I wasn’t able to try out for the Swim Team and I spent a semester riding a stationary bike and freezing my ankle off in an Ice bath.

From there I decided to join cross country to stay in shape – I was over swimming after 13 years of it. If you know me, I’m not a runner. That lasted a semester, 6 miles a day – 2 miles at 6:00 every morning and then 4-5 after school. I actually hated it so much that I didn’t want to go to sleep at night because I had to wake up & run. I did it though. Every day.

Off to university I go – gym included in tuition. Win. Pool – meh. So to the gym as I felt like it – decided to try the pool second semester. Joined the Swimming Club – great group of friends, great work out, fell in love with the coach – ahhh… fell out with the coach; stopped swimming – back to the gym.

Around 2000 I went to the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans, LA. So much fun. Ended the evening by crowd surfing to 311 – did such a decent job on my first try – that I got near the stage and dropped about 6ft onto dirt ground that had been stomped on all day – felt like cement. Injury number 2: Separated shoulder, cracked my shoulder bone & fractured my shoulder blade… Ahhhhh…

Needless to say, once I got out of the sling months later and did physical therapy I had lost all the muscle in my shoulder & arm I had built up over the years.

What is my point and why am I going on about all this?! Well, I’m making excuses – or am I? Ankle, shoulder in 3 places, 2 spinal surgeries… Getting fit again is hard! Injuries never fully heal and new injuries shake up old injuries. It is a pain in the ass.

So with my injuries, scar tissue, asthma, crooked knee caps and whatever the hell the pain is shooting down my hip and I look back and think (in fact have to remind myself a few times a day) – considering everything – I’m doing a pretty damn good job.

… so what I didn’t go to the gym all of December – nor have I swam since the triathlon

Sept – Dec 2011 Gym sessions 

*Notes for Gym workouts – machine definitions:

Upper:
#20 – lat pulldown (lays & biceps)
#23 – chest press (shoulders, pecks & triceps)
#14 – abs
#19: Seated Row (lats – upper & lower, biceps & shoulders)
#6: lower back: settings #2 on both

Lower:
#18: squat (glutes & hamstrings)
#22: seated leg curl (hamstrings)
#21: seated leg extension (quads)
#4: Lying down squat machine (glutes, Hamstrings, Quads)

*photo via Courtesy- http://www.medicalbillingandcoding.org/ 

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Post tri workouts – August/September #Metal2Medal update: June/July 2011 #Metal2Medal: Update May/June 2011

The Triathlon happened. It was amazing and while I was thinking during the end “I’m never doing this again…”, every time I think back I think I want to do it again!

I really need to dedicate an entire post to how it made me feel, the emotions and how I feel it brought me full circle and I could and should actually be proud of myself.

Though I don’t have a particular goal now, such as a mega event, I have continued to track my workouts – trying to stick with at least two a week – surprisingly thought, I haven’t swam since the event…

How’s that going? Well I’m still between 8.8 – 9 stone – which I’m happy with. I’m focusing a lot on toning in some areas over muscle build. I’m having difficulty concentrating, which means I often need to switch activities every 20 minutes, but I’m working on building up stamina and power on the cardio machines. My workouts consist of 30-40 minutes of cardio followed by 20 mins of muscle focus.

There is definitely a difference in my tone, which is good and I’m getting compliments, which is great – I just have to keep at it because it takes only a few days of doing nothing to start seeing negative results and a couple of weeks to get back into shape! My goal is to not take any backwards steps.

Upper:*Notes for Gym workouts – machine definitions:

#20 – lat pulldown (lays & biceps)
#23 – chest press (shoulders, pecks & triceps)
#14 – abs
#19: Seated Row (lats – upper & lower, biceps & shoulders)
#6: lower back: settings #2 on both

Lower:
#18: squat (glutes & hamstrings)
#22: seated leg curl (hamstrings)
#21: seated leg extension (quads)
#4: Lying down squat machine (glutes, Hamstrings, Quads)

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#Metal2Medal: Update May/June 2011 #Metal2Medal update: June/July 2011 #Metal2Medal: July – Final Update

The Belron Triathlon takes place this Saturday and am I ready for it? I have no idea to be honest!

Over the past almost two weeks I’ve kept at my training and even attempted my first outdoor, open water swim. During the summer months, the Tri Centre in Edinburgh takes a bunch of gear out to the Threipmuir Reservoir where swimmers join in (free wetsuits provided) to swim the course, chat and eat some burgers (<– if I had known that earlier I would have gone more often!)

What I wasn’t anticipating, this being my first experience of this, was the fact that open water swimming means you’re technically swimming blind. When your head is in the water, you can see absolutely nothing.

Add this to the temperatures of the water in the Pentlands, well, needless to say, I went into a bit of a shock! But I shook it off and completed the course. This was also my first swim in a wetsuit – which is actually not too bad.

Learnings from this experience that I will take with me to the event this Saturday (and with some kind advice from Ex-Triathlon Champ Liv Williams (@iLivExtreme) are:

• Don’t forget to kick
• Look for 3 strokes for every 10
• Breath!
• Scoop water in in you suit as you leave the water (to enable quicker removal for handover to cyclist)
• I can swim the distance

See the last of my triathlon training workouts below:

Current weight (22nd July 2011): 9 Stone

10 July 2011
Bike L8
30 mins
9.5km
200cal
#4: 20×50

Notes: no food; inhaler

11 July 3011
Swim
750m 13.5mins
100m cool down

16 July 2011
Swim
750m 14mins

19 July 2011
Bike
Level 7 & 8
30 mins
12.15 km
239 cal
#4: 30 x 75 quick glutes
30 x 20 calves
#17: 5 3x10ea
#19: 4 3x10ea
#6: 10, 10, 10 x10

23 July 2011
850 meter swim – not timed

25 July 20ll
900 metre swim – last 100 sprint
~19 minutes

Possibly one more swim on Thursday…. we shall see.

*Notes for Gym workouts – machine definitions:
Upper:
#20 – lat pulldown (lays & biceps)
#23 – chest press (shoulders, pecks & triceps)
#14 – abs
#19: Seated Row (lats – upper & lower, biceps & shoulders)
#6: lower back: settings #2 on both

Lower:
#18: squat (glutes & hamstrings)
#22: seated leg curl (hamstrings)
#21: seated leg extension (quads)
#4: Lying down squat machine (glutes, Hamstrings, Quads)

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#Metal2Medal update: June/July 2011 #Metal2Medal: Update May/June 2011 #Metal2Medal: update 11th April

Afrika Tikkun is a charitable organisation based in South Africa whose approach is to transform and uplift impoverished communities by focussing on orphans and vulnerable children and equipping them with the skills needed to succeed in life.  They do this through a broad range of child development programmes run from community centres in the townships.

By working with leaders within the communities and training local community members to deliver the programmes Afrika Tikkun ensures that ownership and skills remain in the community thereby ensuring long-term impact and stability.

These children are living in the slums, in danger, with drugs being pushed to them on a regular basis and being encouraged to participate in criminal activities. Afrika Tikkun provides them with a safe place to go after school while they wait for their parents or siblings to get off of work; an education and helps to build the confidence to encourage and enable children to be the first generation that makes it out.

Belron, who are the sponsors of the triathlon, have raised over £2 Million for Afrika Tikkun, with the goal for this year’s Triathlon to raise €1 Million. Not only do Belron sponsor the Triathlon each year, but they also hold tryouts, coach and train a group of athletes to come an participate in the Triathlon each year. These athletes may have never left their village, much less the country, and might never have the opportunity again.

I truly believe in this charity that gives so much to people with so little and focuses on Education  and positive participation in activities as a way to get out of the lives they’ve been given.

The two bigmouthmedia triathlon teams have raised over £1100 as of today, and I am very touched. My friends and family have been hugely supportive over the past few years and to donate this much money as well, well, it’s just the icing on the cake!

If you would like to donate you can do so on our Virgin Money donation page.

There will be activities happening to follow online on the day of the event – just follow #BelronTri or @belrontri2011 for more info – there should be some exciting things happening!

Related posts:

#Metal2Medal update: June/July 2011 #Metal2Medal: Update May/June 2011 #Metal2Medal: The history & the goal