I am often asked to share my fitness routine and what kinds of exercise I like to do. While I am a creature of habit and love to follow routines, I do switch up my fitness regimen every few months or so. I cut back on the frequency with which I exercised from 6 days a week to every other day after I completed the Wine & Dine Half Marathon at Disney World in early November 2013, because I was looking for something a little more lax for awhile. After the new year I started to crave a bit more activity and have been following this new fitness regimen for the past month now with great results (i.e. no injuries):
Right now I’m following a 5-day weekday only workout plan that combines running with toning and yoga. I love waking up on a weekday and hopping right on the treadmill! I lay my workout clothes out the night before, so I don’t even have to think about anything other than brushing my teeth and heading downstairs to our in-home gym after I get up in the morning. As much as I truly prefer running outside, the winter weather this year has kept me on the treadmill as I do not want to risk injury with all of the snow and ice out there. As soon as it’s safe, I’ll head out for fresh air runs once again. In the meantime, however, the treadmill is treating me well and I’m enjoying listening to music during my indoor runs, which is not something I ever do when I run outside (for safety reasons). Since I am not training for anything right now, I’m keeping my runs low and slow, with my mileage alternating between 2 and 3 miles at a 10 minute/mile pace. It’s just enough to make me feel good without risking injury, which I seem to be especially prone to when it comes to running! I just love it too much to let it go, so I’ve found ways to compromise that work for me and my body.
Right now I’m focusing on targeted toning three days a week with my current favorite workout DVDs by Tone It Up. The Beach Babe 1 DVD Set includes seven workouts. I follow the Summer Arms routine on Mondays, the Bikini Booty workout on Wednesdays, and Bikini Abs on Fridays. I alternate the Beach Babe 1 set with the Beach Babe 2 DVD Set every other week, where I follow Bikini Arms on Mondays, Hula Booty on Wednesdays, and Sunkissed Abs on Fridays. I’ve been pretty much exclusively using these DVD sets for months now as my toning workouts of choice and have yet to grow bored with them. I love the TIU girls with their kick-booty workouts and their California sunshine hearts and positivity! I always end my Monday/Wednesday/Friday workouts with a 10 minute full body stretch, which is important for me to stay loose and prevent injury.
I go in and out of phases with not only my cardio and toning workouts of choice, but also my yoga practice. Over the last couple of years as I’ve focused more on running and training for half marathons, I’ve drifted away from yoga. As much as I love the weekly Yin Yoga class I attend, which is a restorative practice that is basically a deep stretch for both your body and mind, I’ve been craving getting back into a more active, regular practice. Enter Tara Stiles and her amazing DVDs! I’ve been a fan of her Jane Fonda’s Workout: Daily Yoga DVD, which is a 60 minute easy flow practice, for a few years now. My sister-in-law gave me her This Is Yoga DVD set for Christmas in 2012 and although I only sporadically used it for awhile, I’ve really been enjoying it as a means to ease back into a regular practice over the past month. This 4-disc set includes 10 practices as well as a comprehensive pose guide, which is an especially helpful place for a beginner to start. While I am certainly not a yoga newbie, I find Tara’s style (pun intended!) to be both grounding and invigorating. I also find her voice particularly soothing, which is always a nice bonus with a yoga instructor. The practices I’ve been following on Tuesdays and Thursdays after a 2 mile run range from 15 to 30 minutes and satisfy my yoga itch (at least for now). I might someday want to return once again to the world of intermediate and advanced yoga classes that have me really working up a sweat and expanding my boundaries with new poses, but for now I am content with the ease of my at-home practice.
If you’d like to learn more about my current fitness routine, check out the video below:
If you’re interested in trying out my current favorite toning trainers and yoga instructor, you can without spending a penny as both Tone It Up and Tara Stiles offer free routines and practices through YouTube. There is an excellent resource of Tone It Up’s free workouts available on their website. Tara Stiles offers a wide variety of yoga videos on her YouTube channel.
I’d love to know what your current fitness regimen is and/or your favorite workouts if you care to share!
* Post contains affiliate links. This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are genuinely my own. *
