Vegan Momma

Yesterday I worked out alone D had an appointment. I’m definitely reaping the benefits of having someone who is as serious about working out as I am, but occasionally it’s nice working out alone also. For one thing, workouts precede a lot faster. I’m finished in 45 minutes. I haven’t been a fan of two to three-hour workouts for years, and I’ve found that I can fulfill the same results working out a lot less.

My Exercise Workout: Abs, Calves, Glutes, and Back

Yesterday’s workout focused on Abs, glutes, calves, and back. I was still feeling sore from my biceps and triceps workout a few days ago and thought I would take it easy on those muscles.

Ab Workout

I worked out on the ab isolator machine and I did stomach crunches.

Glutes Isolator Machine

This is an excellent exercise for your glutes. During your exercise focus on what you are doing once you extend your leg contract your glute muscles slowly return to the starting position. I usually go light on this machine anywhere from 40 - 75 pounds. It depends on what I’m trying to accomplish. I did 6 sets of these 15 reps each set. With my last set, I worked to muscle failure. I upped the weight, squeezed out as many reps as I could, lowered the weight by five pounds worked to failure, and so on.

Pull Up

This is an excellent exercise for you back. I used to consider this one of my most challenging exercises. When I was a child, I had a sport accident. The result was I couldn’t straighten my left arm completely. It was only noticeable during some type of workouts, like this one. I found it challenging to do these exercises. It was partially due to my arm injury also due to the fact that I told myself I couldn’t do them because of this injury. Your mind is powerful remember. You can convince yourself of a lot of things that aren’t necessarily true. Occasionally we need to change our thought process. I did. I could do this exercise.

Crosstrainer - Calves

I began and ended my exercise workout with time on the crosstrainer. I usually don’t stay on it long, no more than fifteen minutes. It bores me, and I would much prefer running outside however with the colder months I mix it up. I run track and use the crosstrainer.

Since I was focusing on my calves yesterday, I ran on tiptoe the entire time that I was on the cross trainer. I actually held onto the bars. The only time I hold onto the bars is when I’m focusing on my calves. I leaned my body forward to increase the intensity of my calves workout. My incline was set at the highest (it’s always at this level) 20. I did interval training on this machine. It didn’t take me long to start sweating.

Since I wanted to receive the maximum benefit from this exercise, I focused on what I was doing contracting my calf muscles as my leg was in the down position. I’ve been focusing on what I do as I exercise for several years so now it’s a habit. I’ve noticed improvements since doing this. I always mix it up and run forwards and backwards on this machine. It’s an excellent cardio workout. I choose manual when I’m on the machine simply because I like creating my personalized exercise workout when I’m on this machine.

Time To Pull Out The Tape Measure

I rarely hop on the scale or take measurements, but looking in the mirror (something I rarely do) I notice that my waist looks smaller. The last time I measured, about a year ago, I had a 24″ waist. It will be interesting to see what the tape reveals. Also, my legs are starting to look different. I’m thinking that maybe I should start measuring myself and keeping a file. I’ve been wanting to start taking pictures of the various areas I’m targeting during my workout training. I’ll put that on my “to do” list.

Cayenne: A Natural Pain Reliever?

What did I do about the muscle pain I was receiving? I added cayenne to my juice. Cayenne contains capsaicn which is a natural pain reliever. Cayenne has been used for centuries for a variety of different ailments such as poor circulation, heart disease, infertility, headaches, sore throats, muscle pain.

If you were to come to my house you wouldn’t find any over the counter medication in medicine cabinet ” the medicines” I use are natural and can be found in the whole foods I eat, the variety of essential oils I use, and the herbs I have growing in planters throughout my house and the dried herbs I have stored in glass containers to heal myself naturally. I haven’t taken an over the counter drug in years. In our society I have found that many people take over the counter medications without really researching the ingredients that go into the product. I research everything.

Exercise: Finding The Time

Is it hard for me to squeeze an exercise workout into my weekly schedule? Yes. I’m as busy as the next person. I’m a business owner (I easily work seventy hours per week), I’m in school full-time working on my Masters; I’m a single homeschooling parent with one daughter. It can be challenging however knowing the importance of exercise and how it can improve my overall health I make it a point to add it into my weekly routine. I exercise at least five times weekly. It’s not always at the gym I can receive an excellent workout at home.

I’ll be working out alone again today. I mainly workout out with D, Monday - Wednesday. Today’s exercise workout will focus on legs, biceps, and triceps. I’ll need a spotter for my squats, but there is always someone around in the free weights room that is more than willing to help out.

Question: What exercises have you been doing?

[tags]exercise, interval training[/tags]