Summer Bodies are Made in the Winter
Winter is my favorite time of year. Not only is the scenery beautiful, but it's also so cold that I have an excuse to not leave my room. Winter is usually my offseason in terms of running, so I become a sloth throughout the snowy months of December through March.
Today, Penn State declared a snow day!!!! All of the buildings on campus were closed, including the gym. To me, this meant that I was going to sit in bed in my pajamas and drink hot chocolate all day. However, I knew this was not conducive to my "fit lifestyle." The grind does not stop solely because of a closed gym. So, I dragged myself out of my warm bed, put on workout clothes, and started googling at home workouts.
I was able to find a decent workout online and modified it in order to fit my level of endurance. It is called a "Full-Body Circuit for Women." This type of workout includes small bursts of different movements with minimal breaks. But before I started the interval type of workout, I did a 10-minute warmup. Usually, I would have gone outside and run a bit, however, there were 3 inches of snow. So, I chose the next best thing: the stairs of Atherton Hall.
I started up the grimy stairs and prayed that I didn't run into anyone. How embarrassing would it be to see my neighbors down the hall and have to explain to them that the stairs are just a warmup, while I'm sweating like a pig? Luckily, I didn't see anyone, but if I did, I would have just lied and told them that I was doing stairs for an hour.
After my warmup, I walked into my room, rolled up the carpet, and told my roommate and best friend, Caitlin, that I was sorry for the disappointing display she was about to witness. The order of the moves I had to do was as follows:
I did each of these moves for 45 seconds, with a 15-second break in between. When I started the squat jumps, I went extremely slow in order to get proper form. Then I proceeded to do pushups. Like a lot of people, pushups are not my strong suit. The weight of my upper body makes it really difficult for me to lift myself up and down. The 45 seconds of pushups seemed to last 10 minutes and once I was finished I let myself drop onto the hardwood. However, I had to get up quickly and go right into jumping rope. After jumping rope, I did the tricep dips. For those of you who aren't familiar with tricep dips, they require a chair and you have to lift your body weight up and down using only your arms.
As you could probably guess, doing this move was extremely confusing. I had 15 seconds to grab my roommate's chair and assume the tricep dip position. Basically, everything the woman in the video said not to do, I found myself doing, unable to find the time in the interval to do it. I continued on in the set and got to the burpees. I HATE burpees. I don't think it had any purpose in this workout because I had already done pushups. So, I modified them. After the set was over, I felt pretty close to death. Then I realized I had to do the whole compilation of moves TWO MORE TIMES.
I laid on the floor with my arms and legs spread wide, making Caitlin look down on me from her bed.
"You good?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm thriving!!!" I replied with a smile. However, my insides felt like this.
The second and third sets were jokes. It was laughable watching myself try to hop by the end. I could barely get my body to do the exercises without collapsing onto myself or gasping for air. By the end of the third set, I succumbed to my fatigue and laid fetal position on my dorm room floor. I thought circuit workouts were fun, but in all honesty, THEY SUCK. I crawled over to my water bottle and chugged the whole thing. My roommate looked at me with wide, scared eyes. I'm pretty sure she thought I was having a meltdown, and she was right.
I did this workout earlier today, and I can already feel the soreness in my muscles; not only in my legs, but also in my arms, chest, and back. If you really want a laugh, catch me trying to sit in my chair tomorrow morning. Yikes!!!!
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| Sloth Picture from Google |
Today, Penn State declared a snow day!!!! All of the buildings on campus were closed, including the gym. To me, this meant that I was going to sit in bed in my pajamas and drink hot chocolate all day. However, I knew this was not conducive to my "fit lifestyle." The grind does not stop solely because of a closed gym. So, I dragged myself out of my warm bed, put on workout clothes, and started googling at home workouts.I was able to find a decent workout online and modified it in order to fit my level of endurance. It is called a "Full-Body Circuit for Women." This type of workout includes small bursts of different movements with minimal breaks. But before I started the interval type of workout, I did a 10-minute warmup. Usually, I would have gone outside and run a bit, however, there were 3 inches of snow. So, I chose the next best thing: the stairs of Atherton Hall.
I started up the grimy stairs and prayed that I didn't run into anyone. How embarrassing would it be to see my neighbors down the hall and have to explain to them that the stairs are just a warmup, while I'm sweating like a pig? Luckily, I didn't see anyone, but if I did, I would have just lied and told them that I was doing stairs for an hour.
After my warmup, I walked into my room, rolled up the carpet, and told my roommate and best friend, Caitlin, that I was sorry for the disappointing display she was about to witness. The order of the moves I had to do was as follows:
- squat jumps
- Pushups
- (imaginary) jumping rope
- Tricep Dips
- Lunges
- Jumping jacks
- Abdominal crunches
- Burpees
I did each of these moves for 45 seconds, with a 15-second break in between. When I started the squat jumps, I went extremely slow in order to get proper form. Then I proceeded to do pushups. Like a lot of people, pushups are not my strong suit. The weight of my upper body makes it really difficult for me to lift myself up and down. The 45 seconds of pushups seemed to last 10 minutes and once I was finished I let myself drop onto the hardwood. However, I had to get up quickly and go right into jumping rope. After jumping rope, I did the tricep dips. For those of you who aren't familiar with tricep dips, they require a chair and you have to lift your body weight up and down using only your arms.
I laid on the floor with my arms and legs spread wide, making Caitlin look down on me from her bed.
"You good?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm thriving!!!" I replied with a smile. However, my insides felt like this.
 |
| Picture of Baby Crying from Google |
The second and third sets were jokes. It was laughable watching myself try to hop by the end. I could barely get my body to do the exercises without collapsing onto myself or gasping for air. By the end of the third set, I succumbed to my fatigue and laid fetal position on my dorm room floor. I thought circuit workouts were fun, but in all honesty, THEY SUCK. I crawled over to my water bottle and chugged the whole thing. My roommate looked at me with wide, scared eyes. I'm pretty sure she thought I was having a meltdown, and she was right.
I did this workout earlier today, and I can already feel the soreness in my muscles; not only in my legs, but also in my arms, chest, and back. If you really want a laugh, catch me trying to sit in my chair tomorrow morning. Yikes!!!!
I give you so much credit for working out on the snow day, while I just worked out yesterday for the first time in forever). A group of people on my hall were doing a workout session in the hallway (which is big enough in Earle). I didn't joined them though, I slept in like the fitness girl I am.
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