Monday, April 14, 2014

Exercise excuses....seven minutes???

My exercise had been sporadic of late. I have grand plans but then they fall apart. The only thing I am consistently doing is Zumba.   Zumba on Monday and Tuesday is a habit!  Habits are a good thing.

I have dreams and goals.  I have a dream of beating my PR at my next 5k....I have a goal of a possible half marathon later this year.  I need to be working out if I want to see these goals and dreams come to fruition.  I struggle.   It's not really even excuses.  It's time. It's learning how to fit it in to my lifestyle and around my husbands whims.  



So when I saw the seven minute workout I was quite interested.  Do I think it's a substitute for a full body cardio, blood pumping workout?  No!   But would it be a quick easy addition to my day?  Yes!  

I headed into this short workout with very minimal upper body strength.  Strength training had been spotty at best.  Yes, I know I need to fix that....thus my decision to try out this mini workout!!!

This morning I prepared myself to get down to business for 7 minutes.  Basically the picture above shows each of the moves you do.   Simply do each move for 30 seconds and voila...7 minutes!    I don't know if it's important to move through the exercises in the exact order.  I can only assume so in order to let certain muscles rest whilst still moving.   

I started.....Jumping jacks!   Easy, no problem.  I was feeling quite cocky with myself at this point, thinking it was going to all be a piece of cake!   30 seconds down and I moved on to the wall sit.  15 seconds in and my legs were burning!!!  Wowzers.  

Next up, push ups.  I hit my first snag.  Have I mentioned that my upper body strength is lame at best?  Yeah, sissy push ups for me.  On wobbly arms I made my thirty seconds.  

Thirty abdominal crunches later...they weren't too bad (thank you Zumba instructor Anita for all of the an work we do).  Step ups.....and here is where I noticed it.  2 minutes of actual exercise and I was starting to get a little heated.  The squats were next, I could feel my muscles quivering a bit.  By the time the tricep dips came around it was official!  I was breathing hard and sweating!    Was totally not expecting that!  Not at all!

I finished up the rest of the twelve moves.  I could feel it.  My muscles were worked.  

I really struggled with the two push-ups.  Yikes!  At least I figured out where my issues are!!!  I do think that his workout would be one that if done consistently would be quickly outgrown.  Then I would simply need to become a 14 minute workout I guess. 

I think that this workout will be something I try to incorporate into my daily life.    Who can't find seven minutes???   

4 comments:

LuckyMama said...

Exercise??? On Monday??

Do you have a link? Seven minutes I might be up for.

My upper body strength is a joke!

Michelle said...

Good job!!! 7 minutes is far more than I've been doing lately. I was thinking I had to get back into Zumba too. I have to wait for the spring /summer schedule to be posted before i purchase classes though. I hate when a schedule changes and doesn't work for you and you're stuck with a bunch of classes that expire. Boooooo.

Fran said...

Great job! We all can find 7 minutes in a day. In my opinion on most days 30 minutes is totally doable.

I still suck at push ups, I just can't do them. My upper body is weak so that might explain partly why I suck at them.

Melissa said...

This is really great MF...I looked this up last night when I wanted something quick and simple and ran through it twice. Thanks for sharing this!