Baffled, OMG the older ladies in the pool are a hoot! I love to watch them go.. and yeesh, do they put me to shame! You'll be able to do it soon enough

Lisamarie, my girlfriend doesn't know how to swim either, I keep telling her I'm going to have to teach her this summer. She insists that I can *try* but no one has been able to successfully teach her yet I highly recommend taking lessons as well! It's a fun thing to do, and great exercise of course.

Tonight I did 35 min elliptical and 25 min high incline treadmill. I'm surprised I lasted even that long.. I had a crappy time from the second I got there and couldn't just zone out like I usually do. It really dragged tonight! Oh well.

baffled -- don't be so hard on yourself and swimming... Took me 2 years to get the hang of it, now I can do lap after lap... Before I could only do 1 and half lap and then die ... Keep at it it's like anything else, practice makes perfect... I took triathlon swimming lessons ( basically it was just doing lap, after lap, after lap, after lap ) last year, I'm 50 BTW, I was the worse one in the class, but I had a great time... So Baffled and Lisa Marie you should both take lessons... I feel sooooo relaxed after swimming, I sleep like a baby... My g/f and I discovered that if we run just before swimming we have a much better swimming session, we both find that our lungs feel open and we seem to breath better, maybe that's something to try ...

Speaking of swimming, I swam for 30 mins tonight, ran for 20 mins on the before hand and weight trained 45 mins this morning .... It's all good ...

60 min elliptical

March 7th-30 minutes on treadmill
11 min SI6-pack abs routine
8 min of squats/arm work/lunges

10 min treadmill walk; 30 min elliptical; 60 min bodysculpting class

60 min elliptical

wow, lisa, that's a lot! good for you!

30 mins of yoga today

60 min elliptical

Recognizing that I haven't had enough time to fit in 3 strength workouts a week, I designed a new program this work to do entire body strength with combo movements. i figure if I do this twice a week, it won't be quite as good as two UBs and a LB, but it will be as close as I can commit to right now...also, I can do the whole thing at home, which means I can squeeze it in twice on my lunch breaks and don't have to be at the gym until 9.

4 Sets of Each, except ballet kick series:

1. Squats with Hammer Curls (12x)
2. Lunges with Shoulder Raises (10x per side)
3. Deadlifts with Standing Row (12x)
4. One Leg Balance with Tricep Kickback (10x per side)
5. Ballet Kick Series (Yoga Booty Ballet) (entire series, 2 sets only)
6. Crunches with ball (20x)
7. Bicycle Crunches (15x)
8. Plank (30sec)

That looks like a great plan, mandalinn! The instructor of the bodysculpting class I attend is all about the squat/curl combo.

Tonight: 2 mile run and 1 mile walk on the treadmill (speed intervals in the run)

I've never really done the combo movements before but I feel like it did something, and its better than not getting in any arm workouts at all during the week (bad!).

Any feedback on it (other than that from the lovely LisaMarie) is appreciated.

Looks good Mandalinn. Those planks are killer!! the first time my trainer showed me I thought he was nuts, and then I almost died.

What's a deadlift? I can't picture it.

How long does the whole set take you? Great new avatar btw.


60 min DDR tonight (i never know how the heck to log that in fitday.. so i put low impact aerobic... sounds about right. i'm definitely not working as hard as i would be on the treadmill or elliptical and the calories burned according to fitday reflects that)

7k run
back and biceps

Great workout Mandalinn, keep up the great work...

Yesterday it took me almost an hour to get through the whole thing, and BOY, am I sore today.

I found the straight leg deadlift/standing row on About.com, actually, while searching for compound moves. http://exercise.about.com/library/blholidaystrength.htm Deadlifts with Row
Stand with feet hip-width apart holding weights in front of thighs. Keeping abs in and back straight, tip from the hips and lower the weight down (skimming the legs) as low as your flexibility allows (bend knees a bit if you need to). Squeeze glutes and hamstrings to come up and then lower back down until torso is parallel to the floor, turn the hands so that they're parallel and pull the weights up in a row contracting the lats. Repeat, alternating deadlifts and rows for all reps.

When my trainer first introduced me to the plank, he had me do it on a bosu. I think I lasted about 10 seconds. Then he said "ok, you can't hold it there...just do as many pushups as you can". I did one, went down for the second, and face-planted right on the corner of the bosu. My trainer is a NUT for planks and plank-variations - planks to work your chest, planks to work your triceps, planks on a bosu, planks on a medicine ball, plank/pushup on bosu supersets....

Forgot to add - 60 min elliptical yesterday. Today is rest.