Finding balance in my weekly workouts

It’s Monday again! I hope you had a lovely weekend. Mine was good, especially with a lovely day outside enjoying San Francisco Fleet Week yesterday. And even though I love the time I get to spend playing with Dave on Saturdays and Sundays (especially since the basketball season is quickly approaching and our time together will be much less), I also like the restart that Monday brings. I tend to indulge in a little dessert and wine on Sunday and Saturday, and so it feels nice to wake up Monday back on the clean-eating train for the week. But that’s the 80/20 life, my friends.

Trying some new workouts at home

Last week, a gal from Crunch gym reached out to introduce me to the gym chain’s subscription online database of popular workout classes called Crunch Live. I’ve been to one Crunch gym before and know that people are pretty enthused about the classes on the schedule there. (For my take on Crunch, see this post: “Could Crunch gym be your third place?) Always up for learning about new workouts, I decided to take the Crunch folks up on their kind offer to let me use the service for a couple weeks. And it came at a perfect time, because I really needed some yoga and stretching in the comfort of my own home.  

I browsed the database, and it looks like there are just over 40 workouts, ranging from dance to Pilates to yoga to workouts targeting individual body parts. You can search by workout duration or format, and there are even workouts shorter than 15 minutes in case you’re in a time crunch (pun very much intended). Because I get plenty of cardio and plyometrics workouts in the classes that I teach on a weekly basis, I chose to try out the less intense options and dabbled in “Yoga Body Sculpt” and “Bendable Body.” Both of which were absolutely perfect for doing at home in a small city apartment.

All you need is bare feet, a mat and an internet connection for Crunch Live at home.

Apparently Crunch Live is only $9.99 a month, so it’s definitely an affordable option for someone looking for workouts at home (and rumor has it you can try it for free for three days if you want to look into it). Not to mention, you can access the workouts on your phone too, so it would be good for travel. I’m hoping to try out a few of the abs classes this week, so I’ll let you know what else I discover about the service.

And now, let’s look at how I got moving last week …

Weekly Workouts

• Monday – Taught one-hour BODYATTACK class, foam rolling
• Tuesday – Dynamic warm-up, 30 minutes of upper-body weight training, did 30 minutes of flow yoga at home via Crunch Live
• Wednesday – Taught one-hour BODYATTACK and one-hour BODYPUMP classes, foam rolling
• Thursday – Attended 45-minute Orangetheory Fitness class, did 30 minutes of stretching at home via Crunch Live
• Friday – Taught one-hour BODYPUMP class, foam rolling
• Saturday – Taught one-hour BODYATTACK class, foam rolling
• Sunday – Rest day

What was good about my week of workouts?

Believe it or not, this was a lighter week for me. Outside of teaching a double-header of BODYATTACK and BODYPUMP on Wednesday night, which I will be doing from here on out, every other day included only one workout and some stretching. I’ve been known to fit in more than one, so this was my version of taking it easy. Thanks to Crunch Live, I did a lot of stretching at home on a yoga mat in my kitchen/living room straight from my laptop, which was great. With four sessions of cardio, four sessions of resistance training, some leisure lengthening and a full rest day, I’d say this was a good week for me. I found balance, and I felt good.

What could have been better in my week of workouts?

I’ve definitely been slacking in the heavy weight-training department lately, and that trend continued this week. I love the post-weight-training feeling, so I haven’t given up totally on getting back to it. But for now, most of the resistance work I’ve been doing is with lighter weights for muscle endurance, such as in the one-hour BODYPUMP classes that I teach. No week is perfect, and this one could have used some extra lbs. on the barbell for sure, but then again, an extra session would have messed up the balance — so oh well.

Last day to enter to win an Athleta gift card

Ladies and gentlemen, you guys are excited about the chance to win some spending-money at Athleta. This giveaway is by far the most popular I’ve ever hosted. And there’s still time to win. So head on over to the fitmob post to enter the giveaway. I’d love it if you could share this one with your friends who may also be interested. Spread good karma and maybe it will come back to ya!

Questions of the day

How was your weekend? Have you tried any new workouts lately? How do you feel about Mondays?