Today, I wanted to kick some butt in the gym. I had that pumped up and motivated feeling, along with a restful weekend to top off my energy. Life always likes to have different plans, though. As you can imagine, a sick kid meant a no go at the gym for me today. What to do? What to do?

I don’t mind skipping workouts when I either physically or mentally need the rest. I also will skip if certain priorities come into play and I just cannot make a workout happen. I can’t stress myself over those situations.

But today didn’t really fit any of those scenarios. I felt good. Makenzie’s cough is hardly life alert status. And I wanted to workout!

So, I did. When there’s a will, there’s a way. Sometimes you have to keep determined and make things happen. I looked at my options and determined that I could still fit in a great at-home workout with the kids.I just had to keep it short and sweet…and make sure to have an arsenal of entertainment for them.

Monday’s plan was a legs and shoulders workout plus some cardio. For the first part of the workout, I opted to go with a bunch of supersets completed with little rest (15-30 seconds between exercises) to keep my heart rate up through the workout. Then, I added a plyometric circuit to top it all off with a cardio super burst.

It ended up being a great thirty-ish minute workout! And it’s completely versatile too. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t get a good workout at home. Basic moves and body weight exercises can challenge you quite nicely. My legs and sweaty clothes can tell you that.

• What’s the last healthy act you made happen, despite roadblocks?

Guess what I did the other night????

Guess what I did tonight? FINISHED my personal training reading. Now I just have to review and study, study, study!

September 26, 2011 7:58 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@TinaFFF

Tina Reale

That’s right, baby! I finished reading up all the material for my personal training certification. This calls for a celebration!

I feel like I learned a lot through the material, but certainly need to go back and refresh myself on everything. I foresee lots of nights going over my flashcards and  the practice exams in my future. Looks like I may reach that goal of taking the test and getting certified by November. Woo!

Even though I need to study in the traditional ways, I can still practice in the truest sense of the word and train myself. Which is exactly what I did this week with two fantabulous strength training sessions I plan to share with you now.

First up – leg work!

Right now, with half marathon training, I want to focus on endurance, stability, and power. That means less focus on heavy lifting, but still keeping my legs in top form.

For this workout, I kept the weights light and went through the moves in a circuit format – moving from one move to the next only allowing 30 seconds rest between each set. I completed three sets of this circuit.

Now onto the upper body work! Since I can have more rest and recovery for my upper body training, I feel good pushing it a bit. I alternate between strength focused and endurance focused work. This week focused on endurance and stability.

I completed each set of exercises grouped by color as a superset for 3 sets of each exercise with as much weight as possible. The challenge comes in doing supersets with one basic strength training move immediately followed by a stability move for the same body part. Killer! I had to pay close attention to my form because this workout was such a challenge.

If you have any questions about any of the moves or how I laid these out, feel free to ask. You can also check out my guest post for Laura on how I got started with strength training, if interested. Obviously – I love talking weights!

• What do you like training more – upper or lower body?

Workout Disclaimer: I am not a certified trainer and simply share my personal workout ideas. If you choose to use these workouts in your own training, you do so at your own risk.

Also, thank you for all the comments, tweets, “stumbles”, emails, etc on my earlier post looking into my first binge. I am toying with the idea of continuing this as a series expressing key moments in my journey through binge eating. If I do, it would span many weeks because it is certainly a touchy topic that I wish to expose, but also I do not want to overwhelm the blog. Your support of this topic is immeasurable to me.