Juneathon 2016 – Week 1

So it’s that time of year again and my second Juneathon! Can’t believe we’re already halfway through 2016!!! Where is the time going!?! Anyway, I digress, back to Juneathon – this time, though, we don’t have to do a daily blog post, but I think a weekly round-up of the exercise I’ve been up to would be good (it’ll help me remember what I’ve been up to – my memory is appalling, I blame the kids ;-P)! So here we go…

Day 1
20 Squats
20 Bicep Curls (under own body weight)
Fitness Blender workout – HIIT Cardio Butt and Thigh Workout 5 Day Challenge to Burn Fat and Build Lean Muscle Day 5 – I did this at my mum and dad’s house and unfortunately didn’t bring my weights with me, but it was still an intense workout!
Finished with a 30-second plank and 30-second side plank repeated twice.

Day 2
20 Squats
Then an arm workout with 1.5kg weights (20 bicep curls, 20 upright rows, 20 tricep kickbacks, 20 overhead shoulder presses and 15 bent over reverse fly) repeated 3 times
30-second plank and 30-second side plank twice

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The Blue Ones Football Skills

My Blue One loves his football! His first words (after the obligatory ‘mama’ and ‘dada’) were ball and goal – so we knew early on! Think it’s in his genetics as his daddy is a pretty good player himself! The Blue One has been attending football sessions with AW Football Coaching since he was two years old! He’s now four – so he’s been playing for half his life!!! :-He adores his Coach Alex and really looks up to him – and Alex is great with the kids. How he remembers all their names is a mystery to me!

The Blue One loves it and actually attends four sessions a week (that’s 3.5 hours of football a week, occasionally a bit more if he goes to a Friday session too!) – we’re enjoying the ability to do this as much as we can as he starts school in September and this will obviously all change. It’s amazing watching someone so young, who actually has a talent, but thoroughly enjoying himself at the same time as well as getting lots of exercise and keeping fit! I love that my kids love being so active! It’s wonderful!

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Ducking Boxercise!

By this I mean we did lots of ducking and diving, not that I tried to get out of it! As if I would, my Boxercise is my weekly sanity lifeline – this is one of things that really helps with my anxiety! Multiple benefits of exercise, not being able to think of anything else and possibly the fun of getting to hit things!!! A good stress reliever!

Kitted Out - Making it look glam! ;-P
Kitted Out – Making it look glam! ;-P

So for the warm up, there were slow jabs to one side, then fast jabs, then repeated on the other side. Skipping, skipping from one side to the other. A skip back, then skip forward touch the ground – this needed coordination which I seem to be slightly lacking in! High legs jogging on the spot and various other things – whew, we were well and truly warmed up!Read More »

Boxercise to the Beat

It’s been a crappy week since my last Boxercise session, the Blue One has been really poorly with an evil virus, he’s had scarily high temperatures (kept spiking to 40).  So there were trips to the walk in clinic at our doctors, the Urgent Care Unit at Queen Mary’s and even rung my friend’s husband who is a doctor.  All agreed it was an upper respiratory tract viral infection, so it was a case of sit it out and wait, dosing him up on Calpol and Nurofen and just keeping a close eye on him (I checked him so many time for rashes).  So I’ve been stuck in the house, and as much as I love my home, staring at the same four walls, you do begin to develop cabin fever. So with the little man finally seeming to be on the mend, I definitely wanted to get out to my Boxercise session, even though I can feel my son has kindly shared his germs with me (this morning I had even lost my voice – which I am sure some people were quite happy about!!! haha!!!).

Poorly Boy
Poorly Boy

So, warm up session tonight was alternating between the orthodox and southpaw stance, bouncing from foot to foot, then with a jab, then with the back leg kick your bum, then lift the front leg up.  We then, to the beat, went backwards to the back of the hall and then we came forward again whilst also doing jabs. Then general jog/run round the hall, then on the spot, elbow and then arm strike, then we were all thoroughly warmed up!

Time to glove and pad up! In our pairs, we started off in southpaw, and then just punching with the right hand worked our way across the room, then once on the other side of the room, did five jabs, then five jumps for the person in the gloves and five jumping jacks for the person in the pads, then do 10 jabs – with ten jumps or jumping jacks, and do the same again for 15 and 20.  Once complete, boxer’s bounce so facing the other way, now in orthodox stance, this time making the way back across the room jabbing with the left hand.  Repeating the five, 10, 15 and 20 jab and jump routine again.  I must admit, when I was in the gloves I didn’t manage all the jumps and did do some squats instead, blaming the cold I’m getting…

Once we’d both had a go in the gloves and pads, it was onto the next routine. Again in our pairs, two cones on the floor between us, then both in a squat position, we did step and hooks for a count of 3o, then in between swapping hands, we had to do 20 skaters.  Then swap pads/gloves.  This was a thigh burner for both the glove and pad wearer!!!

Squat Hooks

Skaters

For the last section we did some work with resistance bands. First move was the band under the foot and then into the lunge position with knee on the floor, lifting up – so 20 dips and pulling the bands up as you come up. Hold at the end and then pulses. repeat on the other leg.
Next interval was for the arms, so the resistance band is held under the ball of the foot, again in the lunge position and pulling the arm straight back, again hold at the end and pulsing for eight, hold again and another pulse for eight.  Could definitely feel the burn! Repeated again on the other arm.

Now holding the resistance band in both hands, squat down and then come up and put the band up and over your head and stretch the arms out for a count of 30 – ouch!

Finally sixteen stretches in front of your chest and then sixteen behind – then it was cool down time!

Really good session, hard work, but after a pants week – perfect for releasing some stress and hopefully this week I don’t have any dodgy bruises on my knees!!!

Come and join us – you know you want to – see our instructor Michelle’s Facebook page for all the details! 🙂 xxx

 

Birthdays and Boxercise!

Today was the Blue One’s fourth birthday therefore I was feeling rather emotional, my baby is growing up – so really needed my Boxercise tonight, so will write about that first!

Had a good warm up, jogging, some fast jabbing, side running, fast hooks – getting our heart rates up.

Then with three ropes placed across the hall we had to go across, under the rope flat on our fronts, get up run to the next rope, again flat on your front back up and the same with the third rope – get to your partner who has the pads, do ten jabs and then go back and repeat until you’ve done four lot of ten jabs – swap with your partner.
Once in the pads, whilst the other person was negotiating the ropes, we were doing cross jacks!

I must confess though I didn’t go flat on my front under the ropes – the floor is hard and it hurts my knees, and I just didn’t need questionable bruises on my knees! haha! So I did go low, but not completely flat.

Swapped again, repeated the process but this time with ten hooks, again repeated four times. The person on the pads had to do high leg jogging whilst waiting.

Next up was weaving under the ropes, touching with your shoulder each side, bending the knees not the back – repeating on each of the three ropes, then jog back to the beginning to then weave under and swing yourself round and put your back to the rope, working your way along and to be done on each of the three ropes.  Then alternate between shoulder touch and back to the rope on each of the ropes.
This was harder than you realised, and it was only once I’d stopped I realised how much I was sweating, but really enjoyed this section!
WeavingWe then paired up, initial set was four jabs and then the person with the pads had to strike. Starting in orthodox stance and therefore the right hand, repeated ten times.  Then swap and do the same starting with the left hand – then swap.

In between another interval, we did some deep squats – my left thigh is still not happy from last week and could really feel it! Maybe I need a massage!?

Then it was back to pads and gloves work, this time just strikes by the person in the pads, 20 to the right and 20 to the left meaning the person in the gloves had to duck. Swap and repeat – then swap back and do 30 strikes and again swap!

Then it was cold down – it was a fab session, thoroughly enjoyed it! Boxercise photos courtesy of Michelle Fox our wonderful Boxercise instructor – check out Foxlee Fitness!
IMG_9019As I said at the beginning, it was the Blue One’s birthday and he had a fab day, we gave him an Iron Man figure as one of his presents and he had to come with us on the school run! As hubby had the day off, we then walked to the Café for a cooked brekkie – where Iron Man had to join us!
Iron ManWhen we collected the boy, we were able to sit with him whilst he sat on the nursery birthday throne to hand out his sweets. He loved it.
IMG_8993His birthday treat was a trip to soft play with two of his nursery friends and they had a phenomenal time! He loved his new Rescue Bots Blades toy.

Once home, both sets of grandparents came to visit – he got his first football goal (lots of fun in the garden to be had!), a Darth Vadar costume and an Optimus Prime figure. His uncles bought him a Captain American costume!
IMG_9025He has an Omnitrix birthday cake as made by mummy (a further post to follow on the making of this cake), but we’re saving that for the family birthday celebration on Sunday, so my wonderful sister of Caking it fame – made him a lightsaber cakelet, complete with lights and sound effects!
Cake

Also, I recorded a little a video of the Blue One at his football session with AW Football Coaching on Tuesday – which I shared on Instagram and Tekkers TV asked that I load it to their website (all about showcasing grass roots players) and they’d tweet it out and they have 33k followers – and they did that today, so that was a bonus!

All in all a great day! :-)xxx

What do your small people like doing to keep active?

Benefits of Boxercise

Even though Janathon is over I’ve still got my weekly Boxercise class, so thought I do a weekly round up of the class anyway! It’s such a good mood booster it deserves sharing!

I really wasn’t sure if I’d go tonight as my tummy was feeling a bit sore (stupid IBS), but Thursday is my OU study day so getting out for my exercise class is much needed after a whole day in front of my computer and not really talking with anyone!
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So to warm up tonight we played a game of catch – whilst wearing pads or gloves, running around and avoiding the cones on the floor! If you dropped what was thrown to you or trod on a cone, then you had to do high leg jogging on the spot until someone freed you!

Next warm up exercise was a game of ‘Oi, you!’
Those in pads line up on one side and those in gloves on the other – the one in the pads had to point at someone wearing gloves and say, you guessed it, ‘Oi, you!’.  To which you had to run over and do 20 jabs run back and wait till you’re yelled at again!

Next was an interesting exercise set, you had to walk in the squat position – which basically made you look like you’d crapped yourself, you then had to do five high leg overs the person holding the pad out, using the right leg, and go along the line – then repeat the squat walk and do the high leg overs with the left leg!

Next up was the pyramid of pain as I like to affectionately refer to it which entailed:
10 Alternative Jabs – 10 Push Ups
20 Uppercuts – 20 Squats
30 Alternative Jabs – 30 Push Ups
40 Uppercuts – 40 Squats
30 Alternative Jabs – 30 Push Ups
20 Uppercut – 20 squats
10 Alternative Jabs – 10 Push Ups
The squats seriously burned!!!  The person in the pads had to do squats or jumping jacks when the one in the gloves was doing their push ups or squats.

Final exercise session for the evening was those in pads lining up again, those in gloves having to run up and five kicks with your right leg, then five knee kicks and continue down the line then run back round and repeat with the left leg! My arms ached a lot when wearing the pads – holding them up for the knee kick!
ActivityThen it was cool down time – phew!!! Think my arms and thighs are going to be feeling it tomorrow!

If you’re in the Sidcup/Blackfen/Bexley area come along! It’s an awesome session, details – here – and below…
12523121_10154142194903352_4730529488048025759_nWhat’s your favourite exercise class? Share with me in the comments below! :-)xxx

Janathon Day 29 – Walkies

After yesterdays exertions at my beloved Boxercise, and the fact this virus still seems to be hanging around, I thought I’d take it very easy today so it was a very gentle walk!
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I very excitingly had prescriptions to pick up anyway, so a walk in the wind and the drizzle it was! I did actually do slightly more than 1.53km, but I turned MapMyWalk off in the pharmacists and forgot to put it back on for my amble home – but it wasn’t exactly far!!!
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There is light at the end of the Janathon tunnel – nearly there! 🙂 xxx

Janathon Day 28 – Boxercise is the Best!

Even though I’m still feeling a bit ropey with this cold/virus I really wanted to go to my Boxercise class in the evening! After a slight anxiety break this morning – a spilt bowl of cereal was the straw that broke the camel’s back – I also really NEEDED my Boxercise!!!

Tonight’s session was hard going – after warming up we had ropes going across the hall – we had to weave under and jab, then high knee run back – repeated three times!
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Then we had to weave and hook – moving back using lunges – repeated again three times!
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After these we did a leg session – there was leg lifts, leg kicks and then side leg lifts, slow then really fast – I found this section very hard going, after a few days of no exercise and my cold!

Next up was an arm session – two jabs with each hand, two hooks with each hand, two uppers with each hand and two lower uppers with each hand, followed by a one with each had and this was repeated five times! Then a boxers bounce and do it again – so four lots of five!!! Swap – repeat! Woo!!!
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Then paired up again for ten fast jabs – sprint to the end of the hall, kneel down, and then punch the punch pad on the floor or, and I quote “punch the shit out of it!” – repeat three times and then do again with ten hooks!

Finally some upper work, roll down into a push up position and lower for a count of eight (I managed to four), they repeated for five times, but I managed two as when getting back up it hurt my knees!

Roll down to a push up position and then twist to the side and up to the count of ten, roll back up, and then repeated three times!

Time for a cool down! It’s was a good session – much needed and did improve my mood – just hope this virus buggers off!!! Hate feeling so achy!

Yay for Boxercise!!! 🙂 xxx

Photos courtesy of Michelle Fox – our fab fitness instructor!

Janathon Day 27 – The Lemsip Lift!

Feeling so rough this morning I had to cancel the swimming session I’d organised with my friend. Felt so disappointed, as if I was letting myself down, though I knew it would be silly to go and I would have ended up putting my confidence back, so it was a sensible decision but just wish I’d felt well enough to go.

I even got the hubby to do the school and nursery drop off this morning, so my minimal exercise today was walking to collect the Blue One from nursery and then another walk to collect the Pink One from school!

I also did the Lemsip Lift!!! A kettle full of water is heavy (didn’t waste water, as doing the kids pasta at the same time)
Lemsip Lift1. Filled and put the kettle on
2. Get sachet of Lemsip
3. Open sachet and pour contents into mug
4. Lemsip powder in the mug
5. Add boiled water
6. Stir
7. Add cold water and get ready to drink
8. Down it as quickly as possible
There was a 9th image of the compulsory grimace but no one needed to see that ‘delightful’ image of me!

Really hoping I feel better tomorrow as I want to go to my Boxercise class – but we’ll have to see what the day brings! 🙂 xxx