At Home Workouts

For the past week I have been trying to get back into my workout routine after more than a month off. It hasn't been easy. My muscles are sore from things that normally wouldn't phase them. While I am really wanting to get back into the gym and lift heavy, I have managed to create a few challenging workouts that I can do at home. 

I don't have any weights heavier than #25 at home so I have upped the difficulty by performing many of the exercises on my stability ball, or at least in a position that is unstable and requires me to recruit more muscles to stabilize myself. The result is a great workout that leaves me feeling like I did some good hard work.

#1

This was a good workout for my first day. I could have probably done more - heavier weights or an extra set.

10 reps of each, 4 sets

Goblet Squat #15

Pushups with shins on the stability ball

Skullcrushers on ball #10

Overhead presses on ball #10

Pullups, 3 or so per set

30 second plank

Burpees

#2

Holy crap. A leg and back breaker! 

10 reps of each, 4 sets

Single leg Romanian Deadlift #15 (had to downgrade to 10's by the fourth set)

Bicep curl on ball #15 (in a low sit, with lower back resting against the ball)

Rows from Plank #15

Ball Crunch

Push Ups with shins on stability ball

Front and Lateral Raises #10

Burpees

#3

A great all over workout. I'm having fun practicing snatches!

10 reps of each, 4 sets

Ball Bench Press #15

Ball Arm to Leg Pass (for the abs)

Dumbbell Snatch (practicing these) #15

Bicep curl on ball #15 (in a low sit, with lower back resting against the ball)

Goblet Squat #20

Ball Skullcrushers #15

Burpees

I am about to head out to my first day at the new job! Excited, nervous, hoping it is a smooth first day... !

Wow, that was fast!

So I've been in my new house for a couple weeks now. All moved in, our services are set up and house repairs are complete for the most part. That means - time to start job hunting!

This week I spent some time recreating my resume to fit my new profession. I figured since I don't have a job/obligation at the moment, and this is a profession based on putting yourself out there and trying to forge new relationships... why not just go around to some gyms and introduce myself? That's essentially what trainers do all day long - approach strangers, introduce themselves and try to sell their services.

Yesterday I went on my mission around noon. The targets were -

Lifetime Fitness - Very nice gym in my area that has TONS of services. It's a wellness destination really - all the gym amenities, 2 pools, spa, cafe, hair salon, and probably more stuff that I'm forgetting. They are not hiring until January, said they would call me.

Gold's - My second choice because I'm familiar with Golds, worked out there in Augusta and liked the fact that it was "down to business" - it's not flashy or gimmicky, just a good place to go work out. This Gold's was not as nice as Augusta's - smaller, treadmill and elliptical dominated with not much of a free weight area that I could see. Hell, half of the entry way was taken up by tshirt stands and other stuff they were selling, kind of a waste of space in a gym if you ask me. The manager seemed like he was ready to hire me, he said they needed trainers especially a female. He said to go and apply on the website and then he'd get me in for an interview (he was in the middle of a training session otherwise he said he would have done it on the spot) I left feeling pretty good about it.

Anytime Fitness - Found one near me so decided to give it a shot. It was in the lower level of a townhouse complex which was weird to me. Again not hiring until early next year after they complete an expansion. Manager seemed interested but asked if I had a "niche", so maybe he was looking for someone who isn't newly certified like me. Still, very nice and said he'd keep me on file.

At this point I was feeling pretty confident about Gold's being the one for me so I almost didn't even go to my fourth place because it was in another city, but I decided to go anyway just to have more possibilities on the table. The last gym was Fitness 19, a smaller-chain gym I was not really familiar with but I found it during my internet research and it seemed like a good place. Walked in and met the manager, and we instantly hit it off. We sat down at his desk for an "interview" but really we were just talking about stuff. He told me about the packages available to the members and how training works. Asked me a few things about myself and my resume but not anything technical. He said some of the staff would assist me with learning how to sell training. The hours are very flexible too. He invited me to the staff meeting next Saturday and said I could start Monday! I was pretty stunned, only an hour and a half and 4 gyms and here I am with a job? I'm excited, I think I've found the right place for me because everyone there seems like a big family. This was definitely a personality hire, the manager is super friendly and laid back. He said I have the right kind of energy and that is what is important to him.

So on Monday at 3 I'm going in to get started. He penciled me in to work split shifts for now (morning, go hom for a few hours then come back) so I could get an idea of how the gym functions during its peak times. I told him I prefer mornings but wouldn't be opposed to the idea of working evenings since that's prime time.

I'm nervous as this is a whole new type of job in a whole new field. What if I'm bad at it? What if I don't know enough? I keep telling myself that the staff seems supportive and I don't think they'll just throw me into the fire on the first day. They'll probably spend some time showing me how they do things. I shouldn't worry this much!

A new chapter begins for me. This is such an awesome opportunity, for the first time in my life I'll be doing a job that actually helps other people. No more sitting behind a desk helping some corporation make a buck. Yes, I'll be helping a corporation make a buck but in doing so I will be enriching and even transforming the lives of others. I'm really excited to see where this takes me.

Maryland - The Beginning

Well, here I am. Posting from my new home in Columbia Maryland. It hasn't quite been a month since we left our home in Georgia but so much has happened since then. Living in a hotel for 2 weeks while we furiously tried to find a house. It's hard up here. Lost out on 3 houses before we got this one. I'm happy we were able to secure a place after so many failures... and just in time for Thanksgiving, sure as hell didn't want to spend that in a hotel.

We ended up in a pretty nice house and it's in Columbia... So many running trails here! It's definitely not Georgia. But it's not bad, I expected it to be very metropolitan but it's really not. There are alot more large office buildings and huge townhome complexes than I'm used to. I am also not used to having so many amenities around me. Just 2 minutes from my house are 2 shopping centers with pretty much everything I could want (DICKS SPORTING GOODS.) and there's also a huge mall in a nearby city that just blew my mind. One of the biggest malls I've seen, Casino, Medieval Times, Dave and Buster's, a super tasty brewery/restaurant, plus an Egyptian themed movie theater that looks like something you'd see in Vegas. I'm not used to stuff like this, haha. One day I took a trip to Annapolis because my bank was located there - it's very much like my hometown (that's Williamsburg, VA) in the sense that everything is very colonial and historic, except it's on the water and it's way harder to drive there. Yet despite all the "stuff" there are enough areas "without stuff" to appeal to this nature loving girl's heart. My neighborhood is quiet with plenty of mature trees, plus the network of trails throughout Columbia! This is a huge reason why I wanted to live here. I have also heard tell of Patapsco Valley State Park - supposedly it has 170+ miles of hiking trails. Yeah buddy. Only problem is it doesn't open till 9am. Unacceptable, I am out there by at least 7am in the summer. Then again, that was in South Carolina. Praying it doesn't get that hot here.

I already went out to explore the neighborhood trails a couple days ago, for my first run in over a month! The time off has been noticeable. It was not fast or long - somewhere in the 2 mile ballpark, really the purpose of it was just to make a comeback and to explore the trails. There are alot of turn offs that lead into various neighborhoods. I think I found the long segment that will allow me to go for longer runs, so when I go back out tomorrow I will take that path and see where it leads. Running and obstacle racing have made me quite adventurous. These days I don't worry about which path to take, I just kind of say "hey, let's go this way and see what's over here!" and use my memory and sense of direction to find my way back. I do always have my phone just in case of the highly likely event I do end up getting lost. My pepper spray is coming with me at all times. I don't know this area, all I know is it ain't Grovetown Georgia because there are definitely some shady looking characters around these parts.

Today I used my new gym room for my first strength session in over a month.

My beloved weights on the right side... desk is for water/phone/towel/etc, laptop for videos, red chair is mainly for dips, pull up bar, box full of jump ropes, ab wheel, resistance bands, etc. and a balance board! There's also a stability ball not pictured.

I finally have a closet where I can put all my fitness crap! In my old house it was split between several rooms, but now I have all my foam rollers, scale, BMI/BF meter, gym bag, the Camelbacks, pillow, yoga mat/block!

Today was largely a stability strength workout. Best to challenge my neuromuscular system after all the time off instead of trying to lift hard

10 Goblet squats
10 Push ups with feet on the ball
10 Overhead presses on ball
10 Skullcrushers on ball
3 Pullups
30s Plank
10 Burpees

Repeat x4

I also have a sweet space to display all my medals!

There's a big curtain rod that spans the length of our game room, so I used part of it for medal display! The medal rack has some of my more "challenging" pieces

Then on the shelf I have all my foam toys from Spartan Race, Warrior Dash fuzzy helmet, plus all the headbands and other non-medal trinkets I've collected! I have been wanting to display all this for awhile so I'm really happy I was finally able to get this set up.


So that's about where things stand right now. Getting settled in and ready to begin the next crazy adventure..