Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts

Friday, June 22, 2012

Fun Friday!

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great week. Mine was fine but not over. I have to be up at 5 am for a day wedding tomorrow then I have another wedding on Sunday. Fun times!

So for today's Fun Friday post I figured I'd do a workout post :) Some of you asked me to talk about workouts so I figured I'd start broad and narrow a bit as the weeks go on. I think it is important to include variety in your workouts so you don't get bored. I have tried tons of different workouts in my life and some have stuck and some haven't.

Check out the workouts that I'm loving the most right now!


You all know I'm a big fan of the Tone It Up girls. This is one of my favorite workout videos that they've put on Youtube. I love how they all have a beachy theme too :)


You all knew kickboxing would show up sooner rather than later. This is Gina Carano training with an amazing view. That normally doesn't happen though. I recommend it because it is a great stress relief, teaches you a lot of skills you can use in self defense (which you would hopefully never need!) and it really just feels good to kick ass! I'm going to miss it during this break but hopefully when I get back to it I'll be back to normal!


I have practiced Bikram yoga for two periods of about 4 months each. The first session is absolutely miserable but after that it feels amazing. It is cleansing, your flexibility improves exponentially, you learn how to deal with the heat and it is such a feeling of accomplishment every class. This is what I have been thinking about doing for the next month while I have to eliminate impact training. I think it will help my neck a lot. If I remember correctly, it helped the last time I picked up the practice... about a year and a half ago. I'm going to run it by the physical therapist before I start.


I have mentioned it a million times on here but don't know if I explained it well. This is the arc trainer. I love this cardio machine and it is one of the only things that doesn't aggravate my shoulder/arm. I usually describe it as a cross between a stair climber and an elliptical. Love it.


This is actually something that I've always wanted to try! Have any of you ever been mountain biking before? It sounds like a great challenge and like so much fun! I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

Sorry if this post is boring but these are some of the general workouts that I either love or am interested in trying. I will be getting more specific in future Fun Friday posts :) I'd love suggestions for specific things you'd like to see and also workouts that you love that you think I should try! I'd love to try some new things :)

This isn't a workout but it is something that my mom emailed me and had to share because it is so cute!


Haha I love it! So perfect for the heat wave we just had. Today we had a monsoon like storm that naturally started while I was driving and ended just after I got soaked getting out of the car ;) Gotta love that! At least it won't be a million degrees over the weekend when I have to work.

Hope you all had a great week! Do something fun over the weekend for me! :) I'll have to live vicariously through all of you!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Monday Madness!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a really lovely Father's Day! We had a great day yesterday :) We went to my brother's house and had a family BBQ (well they BBQ'd and I had a big ol' salad) and had a really fun time. Delilah is a little chatter box. She LOVES dogs and freaks out and screams "puppy!" every time she sees one! She loves animals in general :) The two of us spent some quality time together too which was so nice. Definitely a great day!

Today I started a new workout routine as well! I woke up at 6:30 am and got ready for my first 2 a day workout! My morning workout was 2 miles of intervals on the treadmill. Then I went back to the gym in the evening for my second workout: Intervals on the arc trainer and a 45 minute training session. I'll be doing 2 a days on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays and one workout on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.  My running will be done on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and I will be doing non-impact cardio on Saturdays and Sundays. I don't like doing impact workouts on days that I have weddings. It sounds like a solid plan and I'll be paying attention to my how my body reacts over the next week or two and adjust accordingly. Nutrition is going to play a major factor in this!

Before I get to today's food I have a mini grocery haul to share with you! A new Fairway opened up close to my house and I've been told I HAVE to go there because it is amazing so I headed over there. I was so overwhelmed! They had so much stuff, a huge gluten free section, tons of organic food and lots of health and wellness items. It was crazy! I was going to do my grocery shopping there this week but the produce was even more expensive than Whole Foods! I picked up a few things but I'll get my produce at Whole Foods later this week. Check out the mini haul!


Kale, brown rice cakes (banana walnut butter anyone?!), 3 avocados (on sale 3/$5), 2 packages of sesame seaweed snacks and some medjool dates.

More groceries later in the week!

Now on to today's food!


Post workout recovery smoothie. Banana, blueberries, pineapple, almond milk and Vega vanilla powder. So good!


Late morning snack was a Gluten Free Carrot Spice Muffin. These are really amazing. If you want a healthy muffin to snack on or enjoy for breakfast I really recommend trying these.

Lunch was a hummus plate with tons of veggies and some stuffed grape leaves. I was so hungry I forgot to take a photo!

Vita Coco coconut water after my workout.

I haven't eaten dinner yet. I'm still cooling off after my workout. Even after I shower I'm still warm. It takes me a while to get my body temperature down sometimes. Does that happen to anyone else? I have a feeling I'll be making a big salad for dinner then maybe I'll have a rice cake with some walnut butter.

Now that I'm doing workouts twice a day a few days during the week I really need to be on point with my nutrition so I'll have the energy to keep up my exercise routine while working the 6-7 days a week that I'm working now! I have two weddings this weekend so I'll be working twelve hour days Saturday and Sunday. If anyone has any tips on how to fuel my body correctly after that much activity I'd greatly appreciate it!

Oh and as a little teaser, I did another dehydrator test and it came out so good! I'll post it on Wednesday or Thursday most likely :)

Have a great evening! I'll photograph more of my meals tomorrow I promise! Just adjusting to the new schedule :)

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse Take 2: Day 8

Hey everyone! I'm officially in my second week of this cleanse! I think I'm further in this time than last time? I don't remember how long it was before I got sick with bronchitis but I know it wasn't long. I'm so happy I did it again because I feel so much better and more successful this time around. Tomorrow will be a challenge though as I'm working a wedding but I'm going to make sure to pack plenty of raw snacks and I will definitely be hitting up the raw fruits and veggies at cocktail hour (that's usually my best bet for getting fed on a long day).

I've also began my running for Tough Mudder. Today and yesterday I did 2 miles worth of intervals. I did 2 minutes jogging 2 minutes brisk walking. I'm going to start with 2 weeks of intervals then start going for distance. I'm also starting a new training schedule with my trainer in June where one day is still devoted to my fight training and one is devoted to running and strength training. Then I'll continue to run on my own as well as strength train and train on the heavy bag on my own time. Baby steps. That's the only way I'll get through it!

Anyway, I had some great food today!


Breakfast was not surprisingly another smoothie. This one is frozen banana and strawberries, almond milk, Vega Choc-a-lot Shake & Go powder and spinach.


Mango for snack!


Check out this yummy salad! Spinach, roasted portobello mushroom, 1/2 of an avocado and 1 tbsp of raw sunflower seeds. Balsamic vinaigrette. So delicious!


Dinner was another Mexican Quinoa Bowl. I took a proper photo with a real camera this time. Just as good this time around!

I won't be posting tomorrow since I'll be out for about 12 hours but I assure you it'll be more of the same. I'm very excited to have Monday off though! Of course my family is getting together tomorrow. Go figure. It'll be nice to relax though.

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend! I'll be back on Monday with more clean eats!

Friday, May 25, 2012

Fun Friday! Stuff I'm Into!

Hey everyone! I hope that you've had a great week! I wish I could say that my week is over but sadly I'll be working through Sunday. At least I only have to go in for a few hours tomorrow.

I wasn't sure if I should skip fun Friday and keep my cleanse posts going but I kind of feel like the food is pretty much the same. Lots of raw today but it was a smoothie, a mango, a hummus plate and dinner will be a big ol' salad. See, nothing new.

So, let's begin Fun Friday!


You didn't think I'd actually post this fun Friday without mentioning the book though, did you? How could I, it has consumed my week! In the best possible way though. I figured I'd do a first week cleanse wrap up. Overall, I feel really good right now. I hit a few bumps in the road as I documented earlier in the week, especially Day 3. Now that I've overcome the hardest part of the detox I have more energy, my appetite seems to have leveled off (I have the tendency of either having zero appetite or being a ravenous beast... now I feel like I have a normal person appetite), my skin is glowing and I've dropped a few pounds. I feel a bit more relaxed after my morning meditations as well. Overall, I feel much better on the cleanse this time around. I have a feeling that this will turn into a lifestyle instead of a cleanse. Stay tuned for another week!

As I've mentioned, I was in desperate need of a proper pair of running shoes, especially since I'm starting my training for Tough Mudder. I have to be careful with my spending so I was planning on saving up from the weddings I work to buy a good pair. I got an e-mail advertising a 20% Memorial Day online sale from Sports Authority and figured I'd check it out and see if I could find anything. I found these and loved them and the price so I ordered them! I've heard great things about New Balance for running so I can't wait to try them out. The list price was $74.99 and the total price I paid after taxes (I got free shipping too!) was $50. Not bad! Hopefully they are as good as I hear they are :) I had saved up already for a dehydrator (I was going to do a dehydrator then the sneakers) but I just switched up the order a little bit ;)

And on the same note, I'm going to start up my running today! I'm heading over to the gym in a little bit to get some interval running in. Wish me luck! 




I have never actually watched the music video for this song but every time it comes on when I'm in the car I find myself bopping around and doing a little car dance. It's Calvin Harris ft. Ne-Yo and it's called "Let's Go." I have a feeling it will find it's way onto my cooking/baking dance party playlist pretty soon.


I found this workout and have made it a goal. It doesn't seem that hard but it is. My goal is to make it through without dying.

Finally, I'm so honored that Gabby over at Veggie Nook nominated me for...


the Food Stories Award for Excellence in Storytelling!

Here’s how it works:
1. The nominee should visit the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/food-stories-award/) and leave a comment indicating that they have been nominated and by whom. (This step is so important because it’s the only way our judges will know who is being considered for the monthly presentation).
2. The Nominee should thank the person that nominated them by posting & including a link to their blog.
3. Share one random thing about yourself in your blog post.
4. Select at least five other bloggers that you enjoy reading their stories and nominate them for the award.
5. Notify your  nominees by leaving a comment on their blog, including a link to the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/food-stories-award/).
Random Fact: My initials are SAS so my family and our family friends call me "Sassy" or "Sas" as a nickname. They are even teaching my niece to call me "Aunt Sassy." I think it fits :)
It is so hard to only choose 5 people because I love all of my readers and their blogs! I'm going to try and nominate people I haven't nominated before to be fair! 
1. Caralyn from GlutenFreeHappyTummy! Such an inspiring story, you are a warrior girl!
2. Allysia from The Real Meal! Beautiful posts with beautiful food :)
3. Ashlae from Oh, ladycakes! You are a rock star! I LOVE your recipes and your stories always make me smile!
4. Ingrid from Ingrid Improves! I always look forward to reading your posts and to "chatting" with you. You are awesome!
5. Sophie from Fresh Air & Fashion! I love reading your food and fitness posts! Inspiration from your impeccable style is a great bonus!
Thanks again Gabby! I always look forward to reading your blog as well, your recipes have inspired me so much! 
That's all for me today. I am going to get ready for the gym then after I get back I'm going to enjoy a quiet evening watching The Ultimate Fighter Live and the last installment of UFC Primetime. Those Heavyweights are no joke!
Have a great night everyone!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Fun Friday! Stuff I'm Into

Hey everyone! I decided to keep Fun Friday on Friday because my I like Fun Friday AND because my food is boring. Tomorrow though. I promise!

So lets see what's been occupying my mind this week.


I've decided that I'm going to try the Crazy Sexy Diet 21 Day cleanse again to kick start my training. I think I'll probably start it on Monday. These are the books that I will get most of my recipes from. I plan on re-reading Crazy Sexy Diet and Thrive again this weekend. I read fast. 


My home exercise stuff. My yoga mat, ankle weights (the black things), MMA gloves, Boxing gloves, jump rope and 2 sets of light hand weights. These will get lots of use in my training as well!


Now it's getting personal. I'm only sharing this with you because I love my readers. I find music to be a very personal thing and I only mention music once in a while. I find that a lot of people judge based on music and it drives me nuts but I figured I'd share this anyway. This is the first 8 songs of my Tough Mudder running playlist. I'm sure it'll change over the next 5 months but this is how it's starting out. As you can see, I've been listening to a lot of Deftones lately.


I've been on a bit of a Jesse Eisenberg kick lately. I saw The Social Network for the first time about a month ago and I actually really liked it and I really liked his portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg. I had heard mixed reviews about it and finally saw it (thanks On Demand!) and liked it and became an instant Jesse Eisenberg fan. I also ended up watching 30 Minutes or Less on demand and while it wasn't a cultural masterpiece, it was a fun movie. Then I read that he likes fostering animals, is involved with Farm Sanctuary and is supposedly a vegetarian. I think I have a bit of a nerdy boy crush on him ;)


I chose this photo to represent SUMMER!! Summer is coming and I'm so excited. I used to hate summer. I didn't like the heat at all and it is a busy time for me but I've grown to love it over the past year or two. I think my 4 month stint of Bikram yoga really helped me get used to existing in heat and it doesn't bother me as much anymore. I also love fresh, cooling produce, swimming, the beach early on a summer morning and fun summer street fairs and carnivals. It is almost here and I couldn't be happier! And I think this photo is just stunning!

So that is my fun Friday post! I hope you all enjoyed it! Food tomorrow. I promise. Have a great Friday night!!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Things Are Changing!

Hey everyone! I hope you are all well. So, as of last night I'm officially signed up for Tough Mudder.


See, I got my badge and all ;) I won't lie, I had a mini panic attack when I clicked the submit button. I'm so not ready for this. But I'm determined to be ready for it in 160 days. That means more running, more strength training and eating for fuel. I am planning on starting off running on the rebounder, going to the treadmill, then hitting the streets and adding hills. For strength training I need to definitely just strengthen everywhere, but especially by upper body and shoulders. I have Brendan Brazier's book Thrive which I plan to read again this weekend so I can try and figure out how to properly fuel my body for increased training. I didn't waste any time and started with a 90 minute workout this morning :)


For my workout I did two routines from this Beach Babe DVD from the ladies at Tone It Up. I love their workouts so decided to get the DVD and definitely have not been disappointed! These workouts are tough!! I did the 20 minute HIIT the Beach workout (high intensity interval training workout) and the 40 minute Bikini Sculpt workout (full body toning) followed by 30 minutes of running on my rebounder. It was really tough on my shoulder and I'm really uncomfortable now so I'll have to figure out how to adjust but it felt good to get a great workout in to start the day!


I hydrated myself during the workout with this Vita Coco pineapple coconut water. This is the only brand of coconut water that I like so I grabbed a few when they were on sale.


After my workout I had a Blueberry Muffin Smoothie with protein powder.


My late morning snack was some of the best watermelon I've had in a long time! So sweet, yum!


For lunch I enjoyed some unfried rice. This one has peas and carrots, 1/2 cup brown rice, zucchini, onions and tofu. It is simply seasoned with a little tamari. It is SO delicious. It's even better than the first one I made because I got to eat it fresh which is always better than having to bring it with me and eat it room temp. So good!


My afternoon snack will be one of the raw cookies I got from One Lucky Duck! Can't wait to try this!

For dinner I'm going to pick up a chopped salad. I have VERY limited produce in my fridge, not even enough for a salad and can't get to the store until Thursday so I'm scraping things together until then. I'm planning on having some greens, carrots, cucumber, portobello mushrooms, sundried tomato and chickpeas in the salad :)

Working til nine tonight and I'm sure I'll be exhausted when I get home. I hope that you all have a great day today! 

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Ready for the Weekend

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well :) Business as usual here, worked then had a training session. I decided that I'm going to do the Tough Mudder run. I'm scared as hell but I think it'll be a really amazing experience and a huge confidence booster. I spoke to my trainer and starting at the end of May we are going to devote one of my sessions each week to running and strength training. I'll keep doing my fight training the other day. This will be great because I will work on increasing my strength and stamina, AND it'll be a good way to rest my shoulder from the impact of hitting the heavy bag or pads. I'll also obviously be running and doing strength training on my own to try and get ready for this beast of a challenge. I'm really excited and will be taking my training very seriously these next 165 days (but who's counting!).

I took photos at the beginning of the day but somehow missed out on photographing lunch. If you are interested please check out my Mediterranean Bento Box from yesterday's post. It was the exact same thing!


Breakfast was a "banana split" with all natural peanut butter, raisins and cinnamon.


My mangoes are finally ripe! Late morning snack!

As I mentioned, lunch was a Mediterranean Bento box.


After my workout I had half of this Chocolate Coconut Water. It is a great way to satisfy a sweet tooth. This is the only flavor of Zico that I actually enjoy, it tastes like chocolate milk with no guilt!

No dinner yet but I'll probably have quinoa with veggies.

I am almost finished making my mom's Mother's Day gift. I wanted to show you all and get your opinion before I adhere the photo to the wood plaques. Do you think I should distress the edges a bit or leave them? 


This is one of my favorite photos of Delilah :)


And here's the one of me.

I also made one of my bro and sister in law but didn't know how they'd feel about it being on here so I decided to leave it off. The plaque for theirs is actually painted white and the photo is in color because it is one of their wedding photos on the beach so it was bright and pretty blue and it would be silly to make it black and white. I figured theirs would go in the middle. So anyway, what do you think, distressed the edges or no?

Hope you are all well. Glad it is Friday tomorrow but I have my first wedding of the season on Saturday so I have another long day before my day off. Oh well, at least my day off will be spent with my family having a nice time for Mother's Day :)

Have a great night and a Happy Friday tomorrow!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

A Pretty Great Food Day!

Hey everyone! As you can see recently, I've been focusing on eating more often, with the goal of keeping my metabolism revved up throughout the day. It also balances hunger, eliminates cravings (at least for me) and keeps me energized. I highly recommend eating this way. Plus, you get to eat a wider variety of food every day! Who doesn't love that!

I started off my morning with an early workout on my own at the gym. I did 30 minutes on the arc trainer (I wanted to try intervals on the treadmill but my legs were like lead) and then followed it with this arm workout:


I only did 2 sets because my shoulders were at failure and I couldn't lift my arms. I then realized that I'm clearly in the middle of a massive flare up and I should take my anti inflammatory meds. I don't like to but sometimes you just have to suck it up and do what you have to do to feel better. I can't believe I didn't realize it was just flared up and not necessarily permanently worse. I can be pretty dense sometimes :)

Anyway, after the arm circuit (wish I was on the beach!) I did some ab exercises too. It felt like a great, well rounded workout.

Then I got to grubbin ;) Check out my Tuesday meals. Some are packed for work, but you know the deal for Tuesdays.


For my post workout breakfast I needed a big protein boost so I made a protein shake with Unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze, Chocolate Vega Performance Protein Powder, 1/2 banana and ice.


Late morning I had the other half of my banana with some all natural peanut butter, raisins, cinnamon and a cup of the amazing Orange Carrot tea I had tried a month or two ago and the coffee house. Finally got a tea ball strainer thingy ;)


I won't lie to you, this lunch was pretty stellar. I was craving pizza so I decided to do it up my way ;) GF brown rice tortilla crisped up then topped with some sauce, steamed zucchini and spinach. I popped it back in the oven to heat it through then topped it off with some garlic powder and nooch. Who needs cheese?!


My afternoon snack is going to be kind of random. I need to go to the store desperately but probably won't be able to get there until Friday afternoon so I'll be throwing meals together the next few days. Anyway, for snack I'm finally going to try So Delicious Greek Style yogurt (chocolate flavor) and the other half of my carrot from...


My gorgeous salad for dinner! Greens, carrots, cucumber, grape tomatoes, chickpeas and some avocado on top. Dressed with balsamic vinaigrette. This is going to be awesome!

I hope you all have a great day! I'll be home after nine, looking forward to relaxing after work. So far the anti inflammatory med seems to be taking away some discomfort I've been having so that is good. I may ask my trainer to skip the boxing/kickboxing (I know, shocking right?) on Thursday and maybe I'll just focus on cardio and lower body this week. Once I get through the flare up I'll be ok so I'm glad I figured it out.

Catch up with you later :)

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Weekend Wrap Up

Hey everyone! Sorry I didn't post yesterday, this weekend turned into absolute craziness! I woke up at the crack of dawn yesterday and got in an hour of cardio before work. I ended up working late because clients showed up 5 minutes after I was supposed to leave (instead of a half hour before like they said) and then locked my keys in my car after running errands. Yeah it was that kind of day! I ended up babysitting Delilah last night (sorry no pics, she went to bed like 15 minutes after I showed up) so I was out and about all day.

I spent most of the day cleaning, doing laundry and cooking (spaghetti squash hell yeah!). I haven't photographed all of my meals but here is a little bit of what I've eaten.


GF Multigrain Puffins with *cough Chocolate cough* unsweetened Almond Breeze. Don't judge me for using chocolate milk in my cereal, it was awesome! ;)


Hummus plate.

There was also avocado toast and salad and whatnot. Same old.

After I got home from the key locked in the car situation my mood was brightened after finding my package of goodies I ordered from Pangea! Check out the treats!


Gluten free german chocolate cake cookies (it comes in a 2 pack!).


Alternative Baking Company brand gluten free pumpkin spice cookie!

All cookies were cut in half and put in the freezer for an occasional treat. I like to have small treats on hand for dessert on a special occasion and I saw these and decided to get them!


This was the actual reason I placed the order. This is vegan "egg yolk" that I saw on Bianca's awesome blog, Vegan Crunk. This stuff is supposed to be good for things like French Toast and tofu scrambles. I can't wait to try a tofu scramble with it! The cookies were actually added on to the order to justify the $7 shipping charge. 

Today I also did my nails, check them out!


I was inspired by Sophie who always has the coolest nails! I saw her use this glittery polish and was obsessed with it :)

So the last major thing that happened this weekend was that I re-evaluated my fitness goals. I had to cut my Monday double sessions to singles because it was getting too expensive to use 3 sessions a week. I've also realized that as much as I hate to think this way, it will be really hard for me to really compete in a legit fight situation if my shoulder continues to weaken. I am still going to use my sessions as fight training, and I'll continue to train hard and be the best I can be, but I think that realistically my body has different plans than my heart in this case.

However, I find that I perform better when I set specific goals so I wanted to set more goals. I've been really interested in biking lately (even though I haven't started yet, ha!) and I really want to get back into running, so I've decided that I want to train for a 5k in the form of either the Warrior Dash or Run For Your Lives (the Warrior Dash was also inspired by Sophie!). I think the obstacles and mud and zombies will help keep my mind off of the whole running thing ;) I also am debating whether or not to maybe start training for a Duathlon (well a duathlon spint to start with) in the future. I'm going to talk to a trainer at the gym who is really into cycling and ask him how to go about training for that leg of it. We'll see though, these are just thoughts :) I also need to get back in the game with weight training. My session from Thursday really made me realize I need to get back into that. It's all about balance!

So, all in all it has been an eventful weekend. After dinner I'm going to go with my sister in law to get my massage :) I'm very excited, it's my first one!

I hope you all had a great weekend and enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Workout Glossary Part 1

Hey everyone! My meals are boring today (nothing new and exciting, sorry!) so I figured I'd try some new out. Miss Rachel's comment on yesterday's post actually inspired this because I realize I talk about my training a lot but a lot of the things I do may not be known since I do a lot of specific training. I thought maybe I'd take a little time to illustrate some of the workouts I do. If you like this I was thinking maybe I'd make it a series and post some workouts you can do at home or on the road and other things like that :)

So, this is how I work out. This is only a very broad view of my training.


When I say I do a round of "ground and pound," this is what I mean. I basically go to town on a 90 lb heavy bag on the floor with punches, hammer fists, elbows and knees. You can go from either side or sit on it with one leg on each side.


This is what I mean when I say I'm "hitting pads." My trainer will physically hold pads for me and call out offensive and defensive combos. Combos include punches, kicks, knees and occasionally elbows. The pads you see in the picture above are Thai pads, which we use but we also use punch mitts. Those are smaller and require more accuracy.


In my last post when I said "the rope," which I'm sure isn't even close to the proper name, this is what I meant. Your goal is to keep the rope moving using your arms. She is lucky that a lot of the rope is coiled around the pole. I usually have to go the full length. I am not going to lie, if I had to choose my least favorite workout this would be it. It hurts!!


Since I showed my least fav, I figured it is only fair to show one of my favorite workouts (if we aren't including actual striking in that). This is a sledgehammer strike. We used to have one of those ginormous 600ish pound tires in our back parking lot which was left behind by the MMA gym that used to be next door to my gym. They switched locations and left the tire. Unfortunately they came back for it a few weeks ago so my sledgehammer days are over for now. Basically you raise the sledgehammer above your head and strike with full power alternating sides. I felt extremely powerful when I did this exercise and I think I was the only girl that did it :)

This is a diagram of a burpee. This is a very common drill. I included it because a sprawl is very similar to this and I know I mentioned sprawls yesterday. The only difference between a sprawl and a burpee is that the hips go down a little closer to the ground (it is used as a takedown defense in fighting) and instead of a jump at the end you just stand up and start over. Imagine doing that for your minute "rest" between 3 minute rounds!

That's a very quick overview of the very basics of my training. I do a lot of striking, switching between the pads (thai pads and punch mitts), the hanging heavy bag and ground and pound. The others I included mainly because there have been questions about them. There's a lot of other stuff (I can do another full post on abs alone if you want) I do but I figured I'd clarify the basics first :)

Hope this didn't totally bore you! I hope you all have a lovely Friday and a great weekend! I'll hopefully be back with some yummy food tomorrow!

PS. Ingrid, I thought of you when I saw this pic! I can't even deal, it is so cute and funny!