Tag: working out

Working Out Week 5 of 2014

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Five weeks into 2014 and this is my fourth week of completing P90X3.  The past week was called a Transition week and the schedule was a little different than the previous three weeks – some new dvd’s replaced a couple of the other ones.  The schedule the past week was:

  • Monday – Isometrix
  • Tuesday – Dynamix
  • Wednesday – Accelerator
  • Thursday – Pilates X
  • Friday – Agility X
  • Saturday – X3 Yoga

The workouts were a nice change and I really like Dynamix and the Pilates workouts a lot.  Below are my photos from those two sessions:

P90X3 Dynamix  www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

P90X3 Pilates  www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

The Pilates workout was a great challenge for the core.  I really felt this one in my abs while doing the actual workout and that evening and the day after I could feel a change in my hips and legs.  One of my favorite moves in this workout is the pretzel – shown in the above middle photo.  I am familiar with the move as they do this in one of my Exhale Core Fusion dvd’s.  This is an awesome move to tone up the legs, glutes and hips.  It looks easy but looks can be deceiving with this one.

Results so far with the program are:

  1. Overall feeling really good and healthy (I considered myself healthy when I started but feel even better)
  2. Increased energy and positive mood
  3. Seeing a lot more definition of lean muscle in my arms, shoulders and back;  loss of inches in hip and thigh area

The exact amount of inches I have lost so far are 1/2 inch in my waist, 1/2 inch in my upper hip area, 1 inch in my lower hip area, 1/2 in. in each of my upper thighs.  My lower thigh and calf have actually increased about 1/4 inch but I think it is the muscles definition because it doesn’t look any bigger to me.  My upper arms have stayed about 1/4 inch within my day 1 measurements, too but there again I am noticing a lot more defined lean muscle so I am okay with that.

Do Something Different   www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

 

Above are some motivational words I posted for myself this week.  I thought it appropriate since we were in a “transition” week and doing some new things, like the PIlates workout.  That workout will take anyone who has never done Pilates way out of their comfort zone and work muscles you didn’t know you had.   I also think these words can apply to anything in life really.  If things aren’t working it is time to try something else or do something about it.

My challenge group on facebook is a great support group for all of us that are doing the P90X3 program.  I think there are about 30+ of us in the group and we are all keeping each other accountable and motivated on a daily basis.  I think being in a dedicated group makes all the difference in the world of completing a 90 day program like this and I am so glad to be a part of it.

Next week we are on to our new group of exercises called Block 2 – Days 29 to 56 of the program.  I am looking forward to some of the new dvd’s we will be using – especially MMX – the kickboxing workout.  I have not done it yet but I watched a little of it to see what it was about.  Another new one is called Incinerator – I have not looked at that one but the name alone kind of scares me.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!


-Kimberlee

Working Out Week 4 of 2014

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The end of this week marks the 4th week of 2014 and the 3rd week of doing the P90X3 challenge with my facebook group.  The exercises this week were the same schedule as the past two weeks.  You can read my post on Week 1 of P90X3 here to see the complete schedule for weeks 1 – 3.  

My favorite workouts from the first three weeks were CVX and Isometrix.  I love how CVX uses a light dumbbell throughout most of the 30 minute workout.   It is a great combination of cardio and weight training.  My shy cat decided to get in one of the photos for this workout – see if you can find her below…

CVX workout week 3 P90X3  www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

Below in the photo I was getting ready to start CVX – listening to the beginning instructions and here is my cat doing his downdog pose.  I thought that was funny.

Cat doing downdog   www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

Isometrix is unlike any type of yoga I have ever done.  In this workout you have to hold the poses for about 45 seconds each.  The downdog with one hand on your ankle is one of the hardest for me to hold that long as well as standing on one foot with your eyes closed and other foot raised up two or three inches off the floor.  It is harder than it sounds – try it.  The day I did this workout it was cold that morning and I was freezing when I woke up so I dressed in my fleece pants to keep warm.  I may not look very fashionable but I was warm.  My black cat decided to participate and get in these photos.  He is quite the workout cat.

wk 3 of P90X3  Isometrix  www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

I have started reading a new book – along with about 2 other books I am reading (I read a lot) called Success Principles.  In the book I found this great quote and wanted to share it:

Change Yourself   www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

I have written this down and posted it on the wall behind my computer.  I think this is a great reminder that there are certain things we can not change in life and that we have no control over but I believe that our health and fitness is something that each and every one of us can choose to control and take responsibility for.

Overall I am still really enjoying P90X3 and my fun challenge group.  Next week is called the “Transition” week and the schedule changes some.  We are going to be doing some of the same workouts along with two or three new ones.  I will update the end of next week on that schedule.

I am not affiliated with this workout program.  I am just participating with a group and like to share my workouts and hope to inspire others to exercise.

Have a great weekend!

Kimberlee

Working Out Week 3 of 2014

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This week is my second week of my P90X3 challenge with my facebook group.  The exercises this week were the same schedule as last week.  You can see this post on Working Out Week 2 of 2014 for the complete schedule list.  The first 3 weeks of the program you do the same schedule.  Each day you do a different workout for 30 minutes 6 days a week.  There is an option to workout on Sunday or take a rest.  I usually take the rest day.

I think CVX is still my favorite in this rotation so far.  I love how you use a dumbbell throughout most of the workout.  I use 5 pounds which sounds like nothing but when you are doing cardio with that in your hands it feels heavy.   There is also an option to not use any weight or just use a basketball.  Tony says you could even grab a cat but I don’t think my cat would like that.  Although my one cat was present for most of this workout – he sat on the ottoman supervising my form.  Tony is funny throughout this whole workout with his comments.  I enjoy having a laugh or two while I am working out.

P90X3   CVX  week 2  www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

This week I switched Agility X and the Isometix workout days.  I did the Agility X on Friday and the Isometrix on Saturday.  I had a busy day Saturday with my one son and his schedule for Orchestra so I wanted a workout on Saturday morning that was not a hard cardio session where I get drenched in sweat.  Isometrix is not easy by any means but I do not tend to work up a huge sweat doing that one.

Agility X  P90X3  www.kimberleeskorner.com

Last week I did not care for Agility X but I liked it a little better this week.  You have to have tape on the floor to mark where you stand, step, jump, etc.  It is a hard workout in my opinion and takes some coordination with the footwork.  You also really get the heart rate up and sweat a lot.

My other favorite workout in this three week rotation is called Isometrix.  It is a yoga based workout where you hold each pose for 45 seconds.  The poses are challenging and to hold them for almost a minute is very hard.  It is a great total body workout that you can really feel in your core.

I was able to do one of the moves in Isometrix better this week called bound downdog split.  You have one hand on the mat and the other on your opposite ankle and the leg that doesn’t have a hand on the ankle in the air.  Last week my hand on the mat would sweat and slip a lot so this week I remembered that I had some yoga gloves that have grips on them.  The gloves were a gift last year from my husband – they go with my yoga grip socks that I use in the winter.  I had not ever used the gloves and decided today was the day to try them out.  They worked really well for the bound downdog split and for doing the crane pose.

Isometrix  P90X3  www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and keeping up with their workouts.  I will post again next weekend on the results of week 3 of P90X3.  Also, just to let you know I am not affiliated with the workout I am just posting my thoughts and sharing my own opinions.

Kimberlee

Workouts Week 52 of 2013

This is the final full week of 2013.  My workouts this year have been a variety of different activities and dvd’s.  I think that is what keeps me motivated to wake up and workout every day, well – at least five days a week.  Variety is the key.  I also think finding an awesome and friendly facebook fitness group has helped.  I really enjoy my little group on there.  Sometimes I just log onto facebook to see my group and their posts and skip my personal page of posts.  There are some really positive and dedicated fitness people in our Team Krazy Fit.

This past week I worked out most every day except Christmas day and on Sunday.  I usually take Sunday as a rest day.  My schedule this past week was:

  • Monday 12-23 – P90X3 Pilates – 30 minutes
  • Tuesday 12-24 – Cathe Party Rockin Step #2, premix 1 – 33 minutes
  • Wednesday 12-25 – off, rest day
  • Thursday 12-26 – Cathe X10, Cardio Blast – 25 minutes, also walked 1.5 miles
  • Friday 12-27 – P90X3 Yoga – 30 minutes
  • Saturday 12-28 – Exhale Core Fusion, Energy Flow Yoga – Energy Flow & Chi Gong + Hip Opener Stretches – 20 minutesWorkouts week 52 of 2013  www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

Last week I got my new P90X3 in the mail.  I had to try out a couple of the dvd’s this week.  They were awesome – to put it in one word.  The Pilates was a challenging 30 minute workout that worked muscles in my glutes I didn’t know existed.  My back side was sore for two days afterwards.  I love that dvd!  The yoga dvd was really great too.  Not the same as I am used to with my Shiva Rea dvd’s but it was nice to do a different type of yoga workout.

P90X3 Pilates Workout  www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

 

This past week I also did my Cathe dvd’s mixed in with the P90X3.  I can’t wait for my fitness challenge group to start on January 6, 2014 for the P90X3.  Right now I am just trying out a few of the workouts, there are 16 of them, before the challenge group starts.

I hope everyone has had a great week and a wonderful Christmas!  I am ready to get back into the normal routine of things but that will probably have to wait at least another week until my kids go back to school in 2014.

Have a great weekend and a Happy New Year! photo dbaf2cd4-dd2b-49d6-8838-f9aff3fe3cbb_zpsca4b926e.jpg

Fitness Friday Week 49 of 2013

Fitness Friday this week – should be called Freezing Fitness Friday!  It has gotten very cold here in Texas in the last 24 to 36 hours.  It was a beautiful day on Wednesday – 79 degrees and yesterday it was 34.  Today it is 27 and suppose to go down to 16 tonight.  On top of the cold temperatures we also had some freezing rain and sleet early this morning.  A lot of people are without power.  So far our power has not been affected and I am hoping it stays that way.  Praying for all those without power for it to be restored to them soon.

Well – on to the fitness post.  Below are the workouts I used this week:

Workouts wk 49 of 2013  www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

This week I chose to to a schedule of cardio, weights and then yoga.  So my workouts were:

  • Monday – Cathe – Rockout Knockout
  • Tuesday – Cathe – Lean Legs & Abs
  • Wednesday – Shiva Rea Yoga – More Daily Energy
  • Thursday – Cathe X10 Hi-Lo workout
  • Friday – Cathe Flex Train
  • Saturday – Shiva Rea Yoga – More Daily Energy

I really like Rockout Knockout.  It is a kickboxing workout that uses weighted gloves for part of the workout.  Lots of sweating in this cardio session.

rockout knockout workout  www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

My yoga session on Wednesday was accompanied by my two faithful workout friends – my cats.  They like yoga workouts much better than cardio.  The More Daily Energy dvd has several workouts to choose from in the yoga matrix.  I chose to do Evolution Standing Flow and the shavasana which took about 27 minutes.

workouts cats   www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

Shiva Rea More Daily Energy yoga   www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

Today’s workout, Flex Train, took a little motivation to get out of bed and get it done since it was so cold.  Once I got moving around everything was good.  I was just glad to wake up and have power and a warm house.  This workout has lots of different chapters to mix and match.  Today I chose to do the warm up, legs & shoulders, disc lunges, legs-firewalkers, core-abs and the stretch.  Lots of variety in this workout and the shoulder section gives you a real burn as well as the ab work.

Flex Train workout   www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

I also created a new smoothie recipe earlier this week.  I used some leftover cranberry sauce I made on Thanksgiving in the recipe.  I am calling it Cranberry Christmas Smoothie.  I thought it was really good!  Recipe is below:

Cranberry Smoothie  from www.kimberleeskorner.com/blog

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:12]

This time of year is busy so it seems more difficult to fit workouts in every day.  I usually try and schedule something even if it is only a 20 or 25 minute session.  It keeps me on track and starts my day off better if I find time to workout even for just a few minutes. I have not decided yet what I am going to schedule for next week.  I might do the cardio, weights and yoga routine again.  I am also considering ordering the new P90X3 that is coming out next week.  My fitness group on facebook will be starting a challenge for 90 days with the new dvd’s and I would like to participate.  Changing my workouts regularly keeps me interested and offers me new challenges.  What workouts are you currently doing?  Click on Leave a Reply to tell me about them.

Have a great day!

 photo dbaf2cd4-dd2b-49d6-8838-f9aff3fe3cbb_zpsca4b926e.jpg

Workout – Week 5 of Focus T25 Challenge

Today marks the end of the Alpha round for Focus T25.  I have completed the first 5 weeks of the challenge.  Now we are on to the Beta round.  I am excited and looking forward to the new workouts in this round and the challenges they will bring.

The following are some photo collages of the past week – week 5:

Week 5 Day 1 of Focus T25 Challenge group - KimberleesKorner
Week 5 Day 1 of Focus T25 Challenge group – KimberleesKorner

My cat is in the above collage because he had the grumpy cat face.  My workout schedule had to change the past week because of the kids starting school and early marching band practice for my oldest son.  The cat hangs out with me every day when I workout and he seemed upset about the time change – cats seem to be creatures of habit.

Week 5 Day 2 Ab Intervals KimberleesKorner
Week 5 Day 2 Ab Intervals KimberleesKorner

 

Last day of Alpha round - this was a double workout day doing Total Body Circuit and Lower Focus - very sweaty at the end of this  KimberleesKorner
Last day of Alpha round – this was a double workout day doing Total Body Circuit and Lower Focus – very sweaty at the end of this KimberleesKorner

This past week we had to do Total Body Circuit three times – it was tough!  I was pretty strong on Monday getting through most of those push ups on the toes but by Wednesday and Friday I had to do some of them on the knees toward the end of the workout.  Tons of sweat on those three days!

Also, I got a new fitness watch at the beginning of the past week.  It is a Timex Health Touch watch.  It has a heart rate monitor, stop watch, timer and and activity setting to see your calories burned.  It also has 2 time zone settings.  The instructions it came with are kind of vague.  It is easy enough to set the time and operate I just was not sure how the calories burned – activity setting and heart monitor setting worked until I used it for a couple of days.  I don’t think it measures the calories you burn per workout but rather for the entire duration of a day.  For example I set it on Thursday in active mode and it ran for 17 hours, from 6 am to 11 pm (it was a long day!) and it said I burned 2700 calories.  I kind of like the fact it calculates overall daily calories burned not just during your workout.  This is the first health watch with a heart rate montior I have had so I have nothing to compare it to.  Also, you do not have a chest strap to wear with this watch.  In the photo below it shows the activity setting for 6 hours and 8 minutes – I have burned 957 calories – this was my double workout day (Friday) so I really burned a lot of calories that day – it was amazing!

Health Watch has a heart rate monitor, stop watch, timer and calories burned setting KimberleesKorner
Health Watch has a heart rate monitor, stop watch, timer and calories burned setting
KimberleesKorner

I created another smoothie recipe this week using the Spectrum Decadent Blend with chia, flax seed, cocoa and coconut.  This one also has spinach in it for added greens and vitamins along with chocolate almond milk and peanut butter.  If you click on the below link it will take you to the ziplist link for the recipe or I have added it below the photo.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Protein Smoothie with Greens

peanut butter & chocolate protein smoothie with greens from KimberleesKorner
peanut butter & chocolate protein smoothie with greens from KimberleesKorner

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Protein Smoothie with Greens

  • Handful Spinach
  • 2 Tbls Spectrum Decadent Blend – chia, flax seed, cocoa, and coconut
  • 1 Tbls peanut butter
  • 1/4 c. peanuts
  • 1 scoop whey protein powder
  • 1 c. chocolate almond milk
  • 1/2 c. crushed ice

Place all of the above ingredients in blender or nutribullet and blend 1 to 2 minutes or until smooth.   Sometimes I forget to add the crushed ice so I just serve it over ice as seen in photo.

I hope everyone had a great week of working out.  Click on the Leave a Reply to let me know what workouts you are currently doing.  To receive future updates please subscribe via bloglovin, by email or RSS fee by clicking on any of the icons in the side bar.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!  photo 6cf2f16b-878e-4b05-bc30-12064a57b997_zpsa7a5e8ef.jpg