A look at my weekly workouts

Today, I will be waking up in the great outdoors away from all things “World Wide Web,” but wanted to share some fitness-related information from afar.

As I’ve said before, how many times you work out a week is really dependent on your own goals and situation. However, I’ve found that never taking off more than three days-in-a-row is the key to making progress faster, especially when you’re trying to improve your fitness, rather than just maintain. We can get into the science behind that in a future post.

For now, let’s take a look at what my week looked like in the working-out department.

Weekly Workouts

• Monday – attended one-hour Ashtanga yoga class, did 30-minute CXWORX at home
• Tuesday – taught one-hour BODYPUMP class, taught 30-minute CXWORX class
• Wednesday – taught one-hour BODYPUMP class
• Thursday – taught one-hour BODYATTACK class, did 10 mins. inclined-treadmill walking
• Friday – attended one-hour Vinyasa yoga class, taught one-hour BODYPUMP class
• Saturday – leisure hiking in the redwoods
• Sunday – rest

Because Dave and I went away camping for the weekend, I missed my Saturday morning BODYATTACK class. That means my week included one less intense-cardio session than usual, but I still maintained my six-days-on and one-day-off routine. Although, I’m not sure if the hiking we’re going to do in the woods will classify as a true “on” day. (I’ll have to report back on that later.)

Once again, let’s dissect.

What’s good about my routine this week?

I did a combination of strength/resistance (Les Mills BODYPUMP), core (Les Mills CXWORX), cardio (Les Mills BODYATTACK) and some mind/body (yoga). As a Les Mills group fitness instructor, I do all the full-out exercises to model for my participants in each class, so I definitely consider teaching as a workout. Every class this week I pushed myself, while also coaching my members how to correctly and safely push themselves. Another major high-point of my week-in-fitness is that I attended not one, but two yoga classes, which is absolutely great stretching for my body and is a good low-impact exercise addition.

What could be improved about my routine this week?

I should have fit in one more session of working out just for me, outside of the group fitness room. As I progress in my fitness career and dig deeper into personal training, I plan to spend a lot more time lifting heavier weights with shorter sets and training in ways that I currently don’t while teaching Les Mills group fitness classes. I’ll always love my group fitness, but it’s good to take on new challenges as well, and for me, one of those challenges will be heavy lifting.

Because of course, when it come to fitness, diversity of the movements you do is essential. That means, even if you’re only able to fit in a few sessions of walking each week, maybe you could incorporate some hand-weights or ankle-weights to kick it up a notch. There’s always a way to make a few little changes to your routine.

Speaking of fitness, I’m very excited to announce I’ve been invited to join the POPSUGAR Fitness SELECT blog community. Check out the A Lady Goes West profile.

I hope you’re weekend is off to a great start. And Happy Mother’s Day Eve to all the wonderful mommas out there, including my own.

Questions of the day

Did you find time to get active this week?

If you’re a regular exercise, how do you plan out your workouts for the week? Do you have any tips for keeping a consistent schedule?