Les Mills Pump: How I'm Making it Work for Me

I posted last week that I started Les Mills Pump. I really like it, but I wanted to find a way to work it into the other things I wanted to be doing.

I want to continue working my legs heavy. I feel like I get the best results doing that. I also really want to keep working on pullups.

Also, I want to to Turbo- either Turbokick, Turbofire or Turbojam, since I'll be recertifying to teach Turbokick at the beginning of next month. (Oh, did I mention this? YAY!)


So, here's what I'm doing:

I aim for 4 lifting workouts each week: 2 upper and 2 lower.

For the lower body workouts, I do heavy legs at the gym.
For the upper body workouts, I do Pump.

Let me explain:

Each Pump workout divides the body parts into songs, or "tracks". For example: A squat track, a biceps track, a shoulder track.

There are two tracks in each Pump workout that focus entirely on lower body: The squat track, and the lunge track. During those tracks, I do pullups. I don't just constantly do them the whole time (good grief, that would be challenging).

But I do 5 pullups (assisted... for now), then walk around for about 60 seconds, and do another set.

There is one track that has back work and deadlifts. I go ahead and do that track, because I don't think it will hurt to do some light deadlifts.

So far, this is working great for me. I still have time to do Turbo and run, and I'm getting the lifting done that I want to do right now.

It just takes a little planning and flexibility (I think I have a theme going on here)...

Loving the Monday!

Okay, that may be a little bit of an exaggeration.

More like this:

Either way, Monday has its benefits:

- Fresh start of a new week!
- A chance to get organized.
- A chance to get back into the routine, if you had a crazy weekend...

So, I'm starting off the week successfully. Here are the things I did to increase my chances that things will go as planned (remember, planning + flexibility...)

1. Prepared my meals for Monday through Friday. Every meal. (I'll do a post on that later, with some tips. Seriously- it's the best thing I do. Besides parent effectively, of course).
2. Planned my workouts.
3. Made my to-do list

Now, I realize (AGAIN) that even the best planned week can change....

How are you making sure your week starts off right?

Blog Hopping..

It's been a while since I blog hopped. I thought it would be a fun Friday thing.

If you're new here, WELCOME! I love you! New people ROCK!

If you're not new, I love you! People who have been here a while ALSO rock!









Comment below and let me know if you're a new follower! And HAPPY FRIDAY!

All it takes is a little planning... and flexibility..

Source

My deep thought for you today: There are two keys to success. 1. Planning. 2. Flexibility to adapt when the plan doesn't work out.

I'm flexible, but not *this* flexible. (Source)

I am a planner. I get really nervous if I don't have a plan.  I plan my workouts. I put them in my calendar. If someone asks me to meet with them during that time, I tell them I'm not available. It's true: I'm not.

Source

I plan my meals in advance. I prepare them as many days in advance as I can. This way, I'm never looking around, wondering what to eat next. I still struggle. I still get tempted, and I have to make the choice one day, one hour (sometimes one minute) at a time. But having the food prepared and ready makes it about 90% easier to stay on track.

I plan my workouts too. I need to have a certain amount of running, a certain amount of lifting, and hopefully some gentle yoga or stretching on a rest day. But things happen. Some days, I oversleep (like I did Wednesday) and miss a planned workout. Or, I'm more sore than I thought I would be, and I no it would probably hurt more than help for me to do a certain workout.

The point is, I'm flexible. I aim to get the workouts I'm supposed to get in during the week. But if I need to rearrange and modify, I'll do it.

Right now, I'm running a Beachbody Challenge Group. There are five members who work out daily, drink Shakeology, and check in at least once a day in our Facebook group. These folks are doing great and are all really committed to seeing some progress! (I can't wait to share their results with you).

Anyway, one of the members posted yesterday that his legs hurt, and he was scheduled to do a leg intensive workout, so he changed his planned workout. He worked some upper body and abs and swam- all still a great workout. He was flexible enough to know that the plan could be changed. He still got a great workout. He'll still see results.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is this:
1. Plan
2. Be flexible

Oh, and come on over to Sarah Fitness. The contest is STILL going on- when we get to 700 fans, I'll do a random drawing and give away a copy of Shaun T.'s "Rockin' Body"...

Have you ever had this day?

Looks a little like me after the trip. (source)

Today is my first day back at work after almost 2 weeks off. Well, "off" as in "traveling, parenting, visiting". I feel a little tired still. In fact...

I had the highest of hopes for this morning. I had done pretty much everything I could do last night: cooked my food for the next few days, gave the kids a bath, fought with children who wanted to put things in the toilet, fished half of a door-childproofing-thing out of the toilet.... so I just set my alarm a little early so I could workout AND get my meals together for the day. 4:15 am.

This morning at 6:45 my husband woke me from a deep sleep: "Don't you need to get up?"

This was me (source)

I kind of wandered around the kitchen for a minute, in a panic, wondering what to do first. Eventually I got it together and got my meals prepped (including breakfast. It was going to have to go with me). I showered and got ready, and managed to leave the house about 10 minutes before I was supposed to be at work.

Just as I was leaving, my son decided to throw a huge, jumping up and down, screaming, spitting tantrum. So that made leaving a little more fun (although I did feel a bit bad for my husband, who would be staying there all day).

Here's my point: My meals are prepped and I'm eating right, so missing the morning workout is not as tragic as it could have been. I'm not counting on it to "burn calories". So, it's no big deal. Later, I'll go to the gym for my heavy workout, as planned.

I'm also planning on consuming more coffee. Yes, even though I'm rested, I still need it.

Hope you have a peaceful, centered day, with few tantrums (although, if you're going to throw one, make it a good one).

Les Mills Pump- (very) early impressions.

I have been so excited about this.

I arrived home from an 11 hour (!!!) car ride with 2 small children, and found my Les Mills Pump set waiting for me!

I remember around 10-11 years ago when "Body Pump" was first super popular, and other formats were popping up like it. Cathe Friedrich's "Power Hour" and Jeri Love's "Get Ripped" series are done in the style: one song per body part/movement. In the fitness world, there was 24 S.E.T. and Rep Reebok, that were both really similar.

I previewed a few of the workouts and decided to do PUMP and SHRED as my first workout. 

Since I've done this style of workout so much, my first PUMP workout seemed really familiar to me.

Now a couple of initial thoughts:

GOOD:
- Many of the coaches have New Zealand accents (this is where Les Mills originated). I enjoy those very much. So classy. And it doesn't at all remind me of "Flight of the Conchords". (Okay, maybe a little bit.)

-The music is GREAT! They really work with the music, which I appreciate a lot. If the music builds, the activity builds. It really helps with the energy. This group ex girl LOVES this kind of thing.

- It is REALLY a challenge! If you are a lifter (like me), you will be surprised at how much less weight you use. For example, I usually bench press 65 pounds. But during the Chest section, I got pretty tired with a 25 pound barbell, and had to go to 15.

Not as good:
- Some of the banter can get old. There are some cute, funny catchphrases they use.. but I can see myself getting tired of them by the 5th or 6th time to do the workout.

- In my Group Exercise days, I led squats that went right alone to the beat of the music. I was taught that you should squat only to parallel- no farther. But then I started lifting and heard the gospel of the full squat. I worked hard to increase my range of motion. But, in these workouts, I find that it's quite impossible to do a full squat in the tempo of the music. So, I'm torn. I'll still work on as much range of motion as I can, but I may have to go elsewhere to get my heavy full squat quota.

The set also comes with a barbell. It is nice. I don't think it weighs anything at all. But, what I found REALLY impressive is that my weight plates fit on it. So, I'm not limited to the 2 10s and 2 5s that came with the set. And that is SO awesome.

So, I'm sure as I do more of the workouts, I'll have more opinions. I may even have different opinions. I reserve that right. But, overall, I really like it. I know I'm going to look forward to doing it.

Anyone else done it and have something to add?

If you want to try it, go HERE.

First Run of the Year, and the Plan for January

I completed my first run of the year on Sunday- a 4 mile run outside. I really did not want to do it. I stalled and stalled. I went to the bathroom about 30 times before finally going outside. I just wasn't excited about doing it at all.

I planned to run 4/walk 1 just because I wasn't feeling my best, and that was the only way I could convince myself to get out there. ("You only have to run 4 minutes at a time! Piece of cake!").

It was quite a challenge. The weather was beautiful and I tried to focus on that. But honestly, every minute of running was a challenge. Even with the walk breaks (and they got way more frequent than every 4 minutes during the last mile), I still only added about 45 seconds a mile to my normal time.

Normally, when I run, and I see other runners, we always wave, smile or somehow acknowledge each other in a friendly way. Well, I saw 3 other runners, and none of them were friendly at all.

This is what the runners looked like. Maybe they were hungover.

I have to admit, when I see other runners, I run a little faster. I try to look a little more like Sydney Bristow running on Alias. It's totally an ego thing, but that isn't always bad- it can help push you a little more.



Anyway, I'm trying not to feel too badly about my run. I think I'm going to make it a goal to run the whole 4 miles by the end of the month. Once a week (probably Saturday, my normal "long" run day)(yes, "long" is back in quotes), I'll run a little longer and by the last Saturday of the month (which is January 28), I'll run the 4 miles without a break and see how I do. Hopefully I'll beat today's 40:32 time.

As for the rest of my workouts, I'll be starting my Pump Hybrid on Tuesday. This first week will be a little different, because I'm traveling on Monday.

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Pump/Run 2
Wednesday: P90X2 Core/Heavy Legs at gym
Thursday: Pump/Run 2-3
Friday: P90X Balance and Power
Saturday: "Long" run (3- 3.25 miles)
Sunday: Rest.

I'll get the other workouts for the month scheduled once I get home.

As I mentioned before, Monday I start working with Amy from Metabolic Mayhem Training for my nutrition. Did I mention I'm excited?

I look like this right now.

So, do you have a plan?