Week 43: SAY IT WITH SWEAT!

 

 

*If you follow these workout roundups, a note that I’ll be putting them up sometime on Sunday afternoon and evenings starting with this week*

With that in mind, on the Jan. 2, injury and pain-free from all 2013, I got back into the workout mode for 2014.  I don’t think I fattened myself up too much over the holidays but still, I’ve been working hard for the past 40+ weeks, I’m not going to let up now.  So, I decided it was the right time to bring back some discipline with 30 day challenge: 30 Day Ab and Squats Challenge 🙂

Right now, as this goes up, I’d have completed Day 4 this morning.  I’ve already done the Squat Challenge before so that was not the main challenge but having that paired up with various types of crunches ups the intensity and I rarely do sit-ups so this is almost a new thing to me.  When Day 3 came around, I actually started having trouble getting up after 12 or so, but I did make it. Just need to pace myself a tad better.

On the weekend, I went back to one of my absolute fave workouts: The Core Workout.

This one is challenging and awesome.  I use it every few months to gauge whether my core has improved and to what level.  Plus, it also marked my first sweat session.  Pairing it up with the 30 day Abs and Squat challenge did make this a lot harder.  That ripping feeling in my abs happened during the raised plank.

Finally today, I got in my first actual weights sweat session.  Usually, I don’t sweat too much but this time, I figured out a way to get an actual weights workout in with Jinglebells Workout.  Christmas may be passed but its never too late to try out new stuff 🙂

This one was pretty intense.  I did deadlifts with 50lbs barbell; dumbbell thrusters with 16lbs; bench press with 16lbs and goblet squats with 25lbs. Obviously, there was a few modifications.  I had intended on doing bench press with barbell at 50lbs but after 10 reps, I already needed help so I decided to go back and use my dumbbells instead.  For goblet squats, I didn’t use my kettlebells but rather I used a 25lb plate.  The second round started getting tough but by the 3rd one, it was really my willpower that got me through.  Intense, challenging and awesome!

Plus, my boyfriend helped me out to take some pictures and this brings us back to the slogan at the top.  

I’m part of the Tribesports community as you can see the badge on the sidebar.  For me, I work out alone but with the TS community, its nice to find challenges and workouts and read up on advice on how to eat clean (my personal goal this year) and just how to “maybe” not injure myself with good postures and techniques.  Say It With Sweat is something I wanted to get something together to participate in during January.  Here’s the idea:

New Year is the time when we set ourselves big new Challenges – don’t just make a resolution, you’ve got to work to achieve big changes.  We want to see you working your hardest – so share you #SayItWithSweat photos while you train and you could WIN big throughout the entire month of January. –Tribesports

The main issue with this is that working out alone also means I have no one to do those things for me.  So, I kindly found my boyfriend to volunteer to help me out.  Although I’m not completely fond of showing off my sweaty, disgusting self, but I did post up one on Twitter just a bit before.

25lbs Goblet Squats

In fact there are two more from the first round which I am pretty fond of.

Barbell Deadlifts

Dumbbell Thrusters

First post of 2014 seems motivating enough for me! Was it for you? Maybe you’d like to join me  in the Say It With Sweat and possibly win yourself something 😉 Any other awesome workouts or sites you personally enjoy that you’d like to share with me?