The Inchworm Kicked My Ass

If you go to Dictionary.com and look up "Rest" here is what you get:

1. The refreshing quiet or repose of sleep: a good night's rest.

2. Refreshing ease or inactivity after exertion or labor: to allow an hour for rest. 

3. Relief or freedom, especially from anything that wearies, troubles, or disturbs.

4. A period or interval of inactivity, repose, solitude, or tranquillity: to go away for a rest. 

5. Mental or spiritual calm; tranquillity

 

Monday is constantly my "Rest" day, but for some reason I find no "calmness" in "inactivity", in fact it's physical activity that gives me "Relief or freedom, especially from things that worry, trouble, or disturb me".....Anybody else with me??

For this reason, I frequently take part in what I call "Active" rest days. On these days, I do no-impact activities, but still DO something. This week, I decided to continue with Pilates....my core has never burned so good. Keep this up and I'll have 6 pack abs a stronger core in no time. :-)

One thing in particular that I loved from this class was a new Quad stretch that the teacher showed us. Personally, I always find it hard to get a reallllly stretch in my quads, until now that is. I can't find a picture of it online though. It is done by lying on your back.....if you have any idea what I'm talking about please help me out.

I did find this one while searching for it.....it's called a "Half Frog". I don't even know how her leg is bending like that!! Who tells people to go dislocate their knee to get a good stretch!

 

Source

 

Moving on from Gumby up there....After Pilates I felt like I wanted to pump a little iron.

 

I took this workout from Women's Health.

 

I did 15 of each move instead of 12. I used 8 lbs weights for moves 2 & 4, a 10 pounder for move 3.

 

 

The Inchworm started off being terribly easy, so I decided to do a push up at the bottom. That lasted 1.5 circuits, then things got tough! But not in my arms as expected! My core, tired from Pilates, was feeling these! My hamstrings were buuuuurning baby.....I'm not sore if that was supposed to happen with this move or if they were just sore from trail running the day before. I know that just touching the floor with my palms was giving them a nice stretch!

Pilates for Cross-Training

Monday morning I decided to try something new to me. Pilates!!

I needed a day of cross training and my core is probably the weakest
part of my body (I would rather run 10 miles than do 10 minutes of ab
work. Real talk.) so I thought it'd be a good idea.

The class was completely non-impact. We started by warming up our
muscles and then going straight into ab work for about 20 minutes.
After that we went to some leg (glutes, hamstrings, inner and outer
thigh) work which mostly consisted of pulses and small, controlled
movements that seriously caused my muscles to buuuuurn. I'm not going
to lie. I looked like a turd. I'm positive of it. I was out of my
element, my flexibility has diminished as my miles have recently
increased (Bad!) and I have absolutely zero grace and the ability to
flow through movements.

Point in case. Sit up with your feet flat on the ground and sloooowly
roll done one.vertebrate.at.a.time. Sounds simple?? I lower for about
all of 3 seconds and then drop my shoulder blades onto the mat. I
don't think that's what she was asking me to do.

The verdict?? Like most any form of exercise I had a great time and
have sworn to make it part of my weekly routine.....we'll see how it works out!

 

I did end up doing the elliptical for 30 minutes after the class, just to up the cardio a bit, and I'll probably keep that routine.

 

I've got a heavy running load this week. Wish me luck:-)