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The moves you love to hate…
So one of the challenges for the Under Armour challenge was to film the move you “love to hate.”
It was sort of hard to pick one…just kidding…but not really…
There are so many moves that I really don’t like doing, but at the same time I love them because I know that I only hate them because they are super good for me.
Usually the moves I love to hate are moves that never seem to get easier and almost always leave me feeling tired and sore the next day. They are moves that the masochistic me likes.
The Top 10 Moves I Love to Hate!
- “Walking Lunges” – So these are in the video I made for the challenge. I wear a weight vest while doing them, which only really makes them more “lovely.” To do them you jump up and slightly forward as you switch and lunge on the other side. There is something about this plyometric “walking” forward that is torturous. Your legs burn and you get winded. Definitely a move to love to hate.
- Balance Lunges – These are always uncomfortable and painful. Maybe it is just that my balance isn’t awesome but I never have fun doing these. With these, your back foot is up on a bench and you are balancing in a lunge position. Like with the split squat, you just lower the back knee to the ground without going forwards or backwards.
- Dips – These are also in the video. I did them with a weight vest. They suck enough without it though. These for me are just frustrating. There are some days when I can easily bust out ten in a row and other days when one seems impossible. A great upper body and core exercise though!
- Step ups – I can’t explain why I hate these so much, but it might have to do with the cardio aspect of stepping up and down quickly with weights while my legs burn. I like isolating one leg when I do step ups. I don’t alternate legs and I make one leg do all the work while climbing.
- Overhead presses – I think I don’t like these because my shoulders are weak. Also the burnout of such a small muscle group always gets me. Try not to arch your back too much as you press weight straight overhead.
- Planks – I always seem to do planks after I’ve done shoulders, which makes planks extremely un-fun. Plus I hate any exercise where you have to hold a pose…Maybe that is why I “love/hate” yoga….
- Wall sits – Again…I have to sit still why my legs burn and begin to shake. Who doesn’t love/hate that!?!
- Burpees – So if I’ve killed my upper body, my arms hurt a bit during burpees. If I’ve killed my legs, my legs hurt during burpees. If I haven’t killed anything, I get out of breath and my lungs hurt during burpees. Anyway you look at it, burpees are torturous for some reason!
- Rowing – I’m honestly not sure why I hate rowing so much…Maybe it is the fact that my legs feel like they won’t function and I feel like I’m going to puke when I’ve gone all out on the erg…Yea…I think that might be the reason…
- Pull ups – So actually I love pull ups. Sometimes they frustrate me, but I still love them. I feel like this exercise though is definitely one that most women love to hate…or well just hate for that matter!
What moves do you love to hate?
P.S. Foam rolling video coming at the end of this week!!!
Jillian Michaels – I hate running too
So I found out last week that Jillian Michaels hates running and I 100% agree with that sentiment. I run as little as possible and if I have to run, I prefer to do sprints. I just get too freaking bored running long distances.
BUT running is good for you. So I force myself to do it. I usually force myself to run by including it in a workout – like in crossfit workouts like the Murph (1 mile, 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, 1 mile) or the Small (3 rounds of 1,000m rowing, 50 burpees, 50 box jumps and 800m running). But sometimes I do manage to just do a cardio day like yesterday.
Yesterday I actually did what are probably my two least favorite things – running and rowing. I’ve already mentioned I hate running, but rowing is also up there among the things I hate most. BUT unlike running, I force myself to row at least a few times a week. Boredom isn’t a factor when I row – surviving is. Rowing is probably one of the hardest activities for me, which is why I force myself to do it. I’m determined to get better at it.
Anyway, yesterday I did a workout that included both running and rowing and was purely cardio aside from the tough ab circuit before. I’ve included both the abs and the cardio workout below. Even Man Bicepers need to do cardio even if we do like lifting weights more! 🙂
Abs: (Repeat circuit 3 times)
15 Knees to Elbows (Hanging from a pull up bar bring your knees up to your elbows.)
10 each side Cable Cross Rotation with Press (Put the cable as low as it can go. Using the rope attachment pull from low on your right , pull across your body and up toward your shoulder rotating your body so that you can press the cable up and out on the left side.)
15 TRX Knees to Chest (Holding a push up position with your feet in the TRX band, bring your knees in toward you chest without raising your butt up.)
10 each side Russian Twists (Use weight!)
Cardio:
Walk 2 minutes
Run 7 minutes
Row 250m
Repeat twice
On the third round:
Walk 2 minutes
Run 7 minutes
Row 500m
Man Bicep 