I am so inspired by the Olympics! Part of me wishes I had pursued some sport a little more than I did, which was not at all, in my growing up years. I'm not much for team sports or even watching that much but I love individual sports. I think I might have enjoyed and maybe even been good at either swimming, track or gymnastics though not of Olympic caliber of course! Some of the other individual sports I like to watch are diving, syncronized swimming, figure skating, snow skiing, ski jumping and snowboarding. One team sport I enjoy is bobsledding.
So back to being inspired. I've been working really hard this summer to get the bed rest/pregnancy weight off that seems to cling to me like a 2 year old. :) I thought I was doing so well. I could get into more and more of my pants and looked much thinner. I'd been walking about 2 miles with my boys (around 60+ lbs with stroller) 3-4 times a week purposely hitting the hills around here, and unlike Oklahoma, there are some doozies around our neighborhood! Plus my sister had shown me some stretches/exercises that I tried from time to time. However, I was greatly disappointed when I went for my well-woman exam! How could it be that with all that hard work I'd barely lost 7 lbs since my post partum exam?? So, now I'm more instpired.
Also, Eric is going to hike a 14,000 ft mountain in Colorado over Labor day weekend while I'm basking in the rays on the beach with my sister and the rest of the family. :) He's been training for that doing stairs, going for runs and bike rides. So I want to do more of the same.
However, I am finding it more and more difficult even to get the walks in. David sleeps so much!! I am a nap nazi so I don't want to sacrifice his naps for my exercise. Plus, since the weather has been somewhat cooler (95 instead of 105!), I've been walking straight to the school playground in the mornings and letting Wes slide and swing a lot before school starts when we wont be able to use the playground anymore. So my walks are a lot shorter.
So how can I maximize my time and use the inspiration from the Olympics, my hubby and my lack of weight loss? It has been coming to me slowly over the last few days. Stay with me! As I said, this does have a point!
I was in Costco the other day and saw a cook book designed for Paleo diets which I had only vaguely knew about. I came home and googled about it because some of there recipes sounded good. While perusing, one sight had a link to a type of fitness method and business called Crossfit. We just so happen to know someone who has opened a Crossfit gym in Oklahoma. So I knew a little about that. It uses medicine balls, running, squats, pulls up, rings, rope climbing, gymnastics, jump roping, handstands, etc. with lots of variation. (This is a very bad summary!) I like it because it does have so much variation. I googled the links they had and googled some more because I obviously don't have the time to fit in a gym membership! I found lots of Crossfit-like exercises that I can do at home with no weights. Then I googled Calisthenics and came up with lots of good stuff. I wrote down a list of things I could do late last night.
So while I was at the playground with Wes today it came to me. Why don't I do these exercises while I'm out here with Wes. For instance, pull-ups. I don't have a place in my house to do those so I tried to do them on the monkey bars. Ha! In one of the 50 free Crossfit routines that I found, one of the options was something like 50 pull-ups, 50 sit-ups, 50 push-ups, 3 times! Well, I couldn't even do one pull up! How sad! So I decided just to cross the monkey bars. That was hard too but I managed to do it 3 times! I think I could have done more but my hands were rubbing blisters. Then I just tried climbing on the various climbing things on the playground, like up the sliding pole. Then I did some swinging which can really be a leg and arm workout if you do it long enough. However, since I've had David my stomach gets queasy if I swing to hard and high. Then I did some jumping jacks. I strapped the boys in and tried to sprint (while pushing the stroller) for a little ways. Then I did it again, two more times. When I got home I did some ab exercises, attempted some somersaults and I wanted to do some push-ups but David wanted his bottle more. I had a great time!
It gave me the idea that I can do this all the time wherever I am, in the backyard, at the playground, on vacation, etc and most I can do in the house during winter. So I made a list of a lot of exercises that appealed to me below. Maybe I'll see you on the playground! :)
Calisthenics
Push ups
Dips
Pull ups
Arm circles
Crunches
Bridge
Front plank
V sit
Hula hoop
Leg lifts
Sprints
Jumping
Elevated jumping
Squats
Squat jump
Split squat jump
Calf raises
Stairs
Upside down bicycle
Cycling
Swimming
Lunges
Jumping jacks
Hand stands
Somersaults
Jump rope
Back extension
