Slacker!

Whoops I totally forgot that I hadn't blogged yet about boot camp Friday, for some reason I thought I had, then NOT blogging about TRX Saturday today reminded me. So Yea, I've been slacking here, sorry!

I didn't get to go to TRX Saturday today, the hubs work schedule changed last minute and supposedly he told me (he didn't). If he did, I wouldn't have signed up for TRX, dur.

Anyway. Thursday finished up the week at Rock Star.. we went out with a bang. I think I was ready to just about collapse but I knew if I did that, I might not be able to get back up. It was such a tough workout for me. Probably because it included TRX pull ups. I hate pull ups. I can't do them. I tried and tried and tried and maybe I didn't have my footing right or something but I seriously struggled. I mean obviously pull ups are hard for anyone, but maybe having so much weight on myself makes it even harder for me. I didn't enjoy them at all. I guess I should probably ask Curtis about my form just to make sure it's a lack of strength thing.

On top of that we did some Squat Jacks. When Curtis was explaining them I swear he sounded like an infomercial lol! "It's like a Squat, plus a Jumping Jack, ALL IN ONE!!" Oh goodie. We all know any kind of Jack sucks for the girls. He also said for some people, if they're up to it, to try the knew variation that another camper came up with, which included a heal click at the top of the jack instead of just bringing your feet together. I just laughed at that option...maybe someday.

Going back to the beginning of the night, we "warmed up". Warm up usually is a run down of each exercise we'll be doing during the session.. usually like 30s to a minute each, lots of running in place.. etc. Well this warm up was much more than that. It was full of some lovely Isometric Holds. I wrote about those the first time I did them here. Then the next day we did some more of them, with pictures added here. Anyway, It went like this:

10s work, 3s (YES ONLY THREE!) of rest, 6 rounds each before moving to the next station.

1. Mountain Climbers, yes you're not really holding still, but still holding a pillar and moving your legs.
2. Side Pillar Left
3. Side Pillar Right
4. Lateral Lunges, alternating sides each round
5. Double Leg Hip extensions.

May I remind you, this was the WARM UP!

Then we really got busy.

40s work, 20s rest.. visit each station 2x

1. TRX Pull ups
2. Side-by-side w/ pivot medicine ball slams
3. Push Ups elevators.. going from push up pillar on your hands, down to your elbows, back up to your hands, lather rinse repeat.
4. Lateral Lunges
5. Squat Jacks

Oh wait, we're not even done yet. For the finisher, Curtis gave us a wonderful 2 minutes of non-stop BURPEES. I think I should name this week Burpee Week. I feel like we've done a billion burpees this week. Oh well, they're delicious.

What an amazing week. Don't eat too much candy everyone! Happy Halloween!

Ninja Status

I'm a little late on my blog post, I usually write at night after I get my kids in bed but by the time I had a minute to sit down last night it was almost 11pm and I needed to go to sleep before delirium set in.

So last night's boot camp was FUN. We did a lot of kicking KA-CHOW! lol I did feel like a ninja a few times. We were jumping over fire (imaginary of course) to train for the Spartan Race, that I'm not doing, side kicking, front kicking, speed skating.

It kind of reminded me of Tae Bo, but way cooler. I'm definitely feeling the sore-ness in my legs. My hips were on fire last night from all the thrust kicking. Near the end I had to picture someone coming at me and I had to defend myself by kicking them away, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to finish the round!!

I've met lots of new people lately now that more people have started. I really love the group environment of Rock Star, seeing the same people every night. You make friends that support you and that is so important to be successful, at least for me. I find that surrounding myself with positive people with similar goals makes me feel more confident in my ability to succeed.  Curtis always writes the best quotes and inspiration on the Rock Star Facebook page. It's usually exactly what I need to hear in the moment. One that really stuck with me is:

"Share your goals with the RIGHT people - the ones who will encourage you, motivate you, and connect you with others who will move you forward towards your goals and dreams. And constantly take action - one step (baby or giant, doesn't matter) every day closer to your goals and dreams."

More fun stuff: Curtis was going on about what food is good for you, and not good for you. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups eaten frequently are NOT going to get the fat off your booty. BEER is also not a friend to fat-loss. They're enemies, and in a battle, the beer gut will win. He gets all riled up, "NO BEER!!!" And then another camper, Elizabeth, totally called out her friend that she brought along to "Kill-a-Friend Wednesday" and had Curtis come take a look. He had on some awesome socks. What do you think Curtis thought about them?

Pretty funny. Last night I made this awesome cucumber concoction. I posted it about it on the Honey, I Shrunk My Butt Facebook page, check it out. The "recipe" is in the description. It's healthy, quick, and an amazing topper to just about anything.

Today is boot camp Friday, can't wait for tonight's session!

Rock Star Gun Show

Ahhhh the rain felt sooo nice tonight didn't it? Too bad I couldn't enjoy too much of it since we had to move the camp indoors again. It wasn't as hot as Bikram Boot Camp, maybe a little more crowded, but still delicious.

Tuesdays of course are strength days, my favorite. They almost always result in SWS and/or TSS.  Because of the lightning and rain and having to move indoors, we had a little bit of a spacial issue so we had to modify what was planned. No TRX rows, booooo I love TRX. I did a few rows since I happened to be at one of the stations but only one round since no one else was doing them, I felt awkward. We also couldn't break into groups like usual since we were all split up into two different warehouse rooms. Thankfully Rachelle, our other super cool TRX certified trainer ;) was present at camp tonight so she could lead the separated group ;)

45s of work, 15s of rest
4 cycles x 5 exercises

1. High-pulls with dumb bells (DB) (would've been the TRX rows)
2. Squats holding DB tucked in at the waist, DB under the chin (like a microphone), left hand.
3. Same as above, but DB in the right hand.
4. Push ups
5. Walking Lunges

mmmmm Delicious.

Next was the Rock Star Gun Show. I laughed a few times at Curtis doing his gun show impression, asking if we had our tickets to the show saying "UH! Look at those GUNS! Yea baby, GUN SHOW, UH!" All while flexing his arms (guns) old school style.  ha ha ha.. It was hilarious. Anyways

We did some pivot curls, the "skull crusher", then stationary sprints.

The skull crusher was frightening when I read it on the white board itinerary.  It's not suppose to be literal but I guess a morning camper bonked herself in the head with her DB. Basically on your back in a double leg hip extension, raise a DB over and behind your head, down and up. I felt it buuurrrnnn in my triceps and of course the hip extension works wonders on your core. We repeated that set of 3 stations 4 times for a total of 12 rounds.

Glorious day. Surprisly it's relaxing. Not during the actual session, that'd make no sense. But after we finish I feel like I've totally lightened my load of all the stresses throughout the day that pile up. I can breathe, I'm calm... it's like therapy!

Then I go back home to the madness that is the life of a mommy. Both kids demanding to be fed, held, tickled, etc. I ate probably the best cucumber I've ever had in my life dipped in some Greek yogurt. Teriyaki marinated chicken breast, steamed spinach... so good.

I love what I am doing for myself and my family. They need me to be healthy so I can play with them, run with them on the beach on vacation, swim with them in the summer and not sit out because I'm too fat to get into a suit, jump on a trampoline with them without catapulting them into space, you know.. the good stuff.

Cheers to health, and a small[er] booty.

Burpee Hell and Fire Hoses

Say What? Fire hose? yep... more on that later.

TGIM! I guess a bajillion people must've signed up to start camp today because it was PACKED. I couldn't even get into the parking lot without waiting in line and I thought I'd end up being late so I parked out front and jogged around. It's amazing to see so many people interested in what Rock Star is all about.

Today's session was called "Game Day Cardio." I grunted right away since I don't like football lol. There was a lot of writing on the white board so I just waited for Curtis to do the good ole warmup run-down. It was juicy. The menu for tonight was all types of stuffs:

Station 1-- 30 seconds work/ 30 seconds rest 
-side shuffles holding a jelly-rolled up fire hose.

Station 2-- 30 seconds work/ 20 seconds rest
-false start sprints
Station 3-- 30 seconds work/ 15 seconds rest
-3pt touches with a medicine ball

Each station was 8-10 rounds.

There were 3 different groups doing the rotations so MY Stations 1,2 &3 are different from others. My rotations are what's listed above, the order will be different for others.

First note: Fire hoses should always be accompanied by hot firemen. It makes them more appealing :) Curtis had us bear hug these monstrosities while we did the side shuffles. I stole one from Jessica and said "it's not even heavy!" Yeah well I should've done some shuffles with it before I said that. After 2 back and forths with the bear hugged hose I put it down. I went for another round of shuffles and OF COURSE, like ALWAYS, Curtis looked over and asked why I didn't have one. But I just DID have one! "Too bad, pick it back up." It's like a beeper goes off every single time I take it down a level. I really actually love this. I didn't think I'd be able to continue my rotation holding that rope. I didn't dare put it down again, not even during the rests! I held the dang thing the entire rotation.

I'll have to thank the fireman camper in person next time I see him for bringing these in. AND thanks, again, to Curtis for pushing me to do my best.

Took this pic from Rock Star's page:

After that loveliness came BURPEE HELL!!       RAWWRRRR. Not sure why I needed to rawr on that one, but it was pretty intense.

These were done in a ladder format.

1 burpee, run 10yards and back
2 burpees, repeat^^
3 burpees, repeat^^
etc, etc, etc... for 5 minutes. How kind of Curtis, huh?

You know what really makes burpee hell, sprints, spartan screamers and so on all the better? He plays awesome music during them. Basically all the music from the Rocky sound track is probably on his playlist and you feel like such a badass while performing. It's hard to get through it so I just picture Sylvester getting back in the ring time and time again until the end of the match where he wins.

Everyone can do this, just like Rocky Balboa, just get back in the ring, take a few more punches and come out victorious.

That's what I feel after tonight. VICTORIOUS! Perfect cardio Monday and the perfect way to start off week 7 at Rock Star Boot Camp. Come get some!

CORE WARS! Boot Camp Friday

Not too much longer that I can call Thursdays boot camp Friday since starting November 4th there actually will be a REAL boot camp Friday session!

This week was awesome. I wont lie, I'm so ready for a relaxing day to recuperate before TRX Saturday. I'm absolutely addicted to Rock Star. What Curtis had planned for us was the perfect way to end the week off right.
During warm-up as we were getting a little taste of what the rest of the session entailed, I started to think that Curtis chose all of the hardest exercises and put them all into one.

Today we experienced the real Mad Minute.

60 seconds of work, 60 seconds of rest. Each minute of work was broken into 3, 20 second intervals. So 20/20/20, then rest for 60. I shouldn't say "rest" actually because we were doing more of an "active recovery". Jogging in place or down the alley, tire step ups, walking lunges etc. Then we'd move on to the next group of 3. The groups were:

1. Walk outs/ T-ups/ Push-ups
2. Sumo Squats/ Sumo low pulses (basically bobbing up and down in the sumo squat position) / Sumo Jumps
3. Pivot Lunges left/ Pivot Lunges right/ Burpees
4. Bent over rows/ Dead Lifts/ bent over rows
5. Arnold press right/ Arnold press left/ Arnold press -both arms

2 cycles of that....dude. That's not even the end. First I'll explain a few things. Walk outs are bending over, walking forward and backward on your hands, feet planted. T-Ups are one of my new favorite moves. A total abdominal cruncher. In a push-up plank, you raise one arm up to the sky, at the top you're in the upper body part of a side pillar, and your body looks like a 'T'. Then you alternate hands. During warm-up I thought there was no way in hell I'd be able to do those, I can't do push-ups yet without being on my knees so I tried these on my knees and it hurt so bad and was super hard. Once we started the actual rotation I decided to give it a try after walking out on my hands and surprisingly enough I was able to do them! On all fours, the way they should be done!! Not only that, the version on my knees was actually a lot more painful, and not in a good way. So there is an example of a modification that did NOT work in my favor. YAY. Lastly, since the rest are pretty self-explanatory, are the Arnold Presses. I guess that term is something the governator coined as a signature move way back in the day when he was pumping iron for a living.

It goes like this:

So like I said before, those sets were not the whole regime. There was more....

We partnered up and geared up for some side pillar with tension band rows. Holy Heck.. While in a side pillar position with the tension band in your hand, your partner is pulling away from you, hence to create tension, while you are rowing it into your side. They are moving all over the place, holding the band high, low, hard, harder, shuffling sideways, up, down.. you get the picture. We switched sides and places I think 4 times for a total of 8 rounds.

I'm seriously going to have some major ab muscles if this type of workout continues..I'm not complaining though! With Curtis' lower body routines that'll give anyone that Kim K booty, upper body strengthening, and just some total body CORE WARS, I'm on the road to a hot bod. It's pretty serious.

Again, awesome boot camp week. I have TRX to look forward to on Saturday, and then we'll start all over again.

Cardio Slam Bam Wednesday

I! AM! SO! SORE!

Holy cow, today was awesome. I haven't sweat so much since Bikram Boot Camp! Yesterday's camp sessions left me with a serious case of TSS (toilet seat syndrome-- hurt so bad you can't sit down on the toilet or chair without gravity taking over and making you fall = no leg control) so I was a little nervous that I might totally collapse tonight (I didn't, phew). Here is the break down:

Battle rope slams
Sled dragging
Medicine ball shot putting
Mountain climbers, inclined mountain climbers or tire climbers. 

Repeat those rotations for a few cycles.


First-- I LOVE the battle ropes. Maybe I just feel like such a bad-ass when I'm doing them, IDK but they're fun to me. Killer, but fun. The ones I happened to grab when it was my turn at that station ended up being gigantor. Curtis called them python anaconda monster snake ropes. Uh huh, I got me some of that. Definitely a BAMF! We weren't just whipping the ropes around either, we're picking them up and slamming them down as hard as possible. It was pretty intense.

Second-- Tire Climbers: um.. not for me, yet. So basically in the traditional mountain climber (MS) position, you're in a push-up stance, inclined you can raise your upper body on a tire or wall... Tire Climbers is just the opposite. Instead of inclining your upper body, you raise your lower body. So your feet are now planked to a tire, and continue the MCs as usual. Definitely an advanced move, the rush of blood to the brain probably doesn't feel that great lol!.

I chose to use the tire for my MCs, inclined of course but instead of doing the regular knee to chest, I did the criss-cross version. I posted about those a long time ago here. I doubt I could do these on the ground but I think that inclined really made it more possible for me to get the full benefit of the exercise. On the ground I could only go so far before dropping down to my knees.

I ate amazingly today, and by the way, the yogurt ranch dip I made last night was delish. I highly recommend it. I can't believe tomorrow is already boot camp Friday. At least we have TRX on Saturday, WOOT!

2x Tuesday

What a day! It's almost 10pm and this is the first chance I've had a chance to sit down and "relax."

I missed camp last night. My daughters are both sick and one decided that she needed some extra beauty sleep (4 hour nap!) and refused to wake up so I can go to camp. You would think it shouldn't be so hard to get a 2 year old out of her crib but she went totally limp noodle on me and then scooted to the far corner where I couldn't reach her. Even if I went around to the other side, she'd scoot over again and refuse to cooperate. I thought I'd give her a minute and check back on her... she fell back asleep. So yea.. she didn't even wake up until 6:45!

To make up for missing another day I thought I'd double up on today's sessions. Tuesdays are usually my favorites anyway since I prefer strength over cardio so I knew it was going to be a good one. This morning I went to the 9:15 session for my first time and got to me a new friend, Stephanie. I've seen her a bunch on Rock Star's Facebook page so it was nice to finally meet her in person.

We did a bunch of different things today. It'll probably be easiest if I just list them:

3 minutes of work, 1 minute of rest
6 different exercises per cycle, no transition rest
-single leg dead lifts {1&2}
-seal jacks (like a jumping jack, but clapping your hands in front of you (like a seal lol) instead of overhead){3}
-staggered squats {4}
-split stance alternating dumbell overhead presses {5&6}

repeat 5x

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So that was about 20 minutes down. That was followed by (after a generous minute of transition rest) not one but TWO screamers. Those were:

8 seconds of work, 25 seconds of rest

Screamer 1

-dead lifts to a row/pull with a DB (or body weight)
-walking lunges (LOVE!)

repeat 4x

Screamer 2
-Sprints
repeat 10x

DELICIOUS. And tiring since I did it twice today. This type of HIIT will DEFINITELY shrink my butt, no doubt.

A few notes about today:
-The first time I ever did single leg dead lifts I had NO balance, was falling all over the place. Today I was able to actually lift my leg probably 99% of the time and do the routine fully. YAY! I'm not sure if these were suppose to, but my butt muscles got a work out!

-Seal Jacks + boobs = .............Ladies, do I even HAVE to say? I know you know what I'm thinking.

On to some more deliciousness, literally. I saw this awesome idea online somewhere and I knew I had just had to try it. I've been eating more veggies lately and want to eat more raw veggies. I can eat the shiznit out of a broccoli head... if I had some ranch. I know, I know... it totally defeats the purpose of eating healthy if you're going to drown it mayo fat sauce. So when I saw this recipe online, you can say I was a little (a lot) excited. I ran it by Curtis and got the thumbs-up.

(Whole Foods has an organic ranch dip herb mix that I would've preferred, but I couldn't get up there, so this was next best.)
Mix 8oz together with the package, refrigerate for a few minutes (30) and then you'll have this:

Obviously the green onions were added, the onion fairy didn't visit while it was in the fridge.

Chop up a variety of yummy veggies:

And you end up with an awesome veggie & protein snack (this is for me for tomorrow, but being prepared is half of the work for eating healthy) to munch on. Now don't go an eat the whole bowl of dip, unless you're sharing with your greedy husband... I think the serving size is a half a cup, I'd need to double check on that.

Again, this is for tomorrow, although I did have to eat the cucumber pictured above. Total party foul if I didn't, so I packed it all away and have an awesome prepared snack. No excuses for not having time to eat. Even walking in and out of the kitchen, I can grab a spear of bell pepper, give it a dunk and continue to chase the kiddos.

For dinner:

Salad with Romaine, bell pepper, green onion, tomato, slow cooked left over chicken and a sun dried tomato balsamic vinegrette dressing. YUMMO.

Thanks Curtis for the awesome day!

5K Walk for Cancer

Today I participated in the 5K Run to Fight Children's Cancer. It was a huge turnout, I'm assuming. I've never been to one before but there were well over a thousand people.

My only goal for today was to finish the race. And I couldn't :( Here is what happened today.

The race started at about 7:40. A few of my friends, Carmen and Jessica, were also there with me. They promised no matter how long it took me, they'd be waiting for me at the end, just get through it. I started off running. Btw, I HATE running. It's not my thing. It bores me to no end, and I don't even have an mp3 player to keep me company. I ran all the way to the 1k marker. I was pretty proud of myself. It wasn't a fast run but nonetheless I was running. I took it town a notch probably to a slow job/trot all the way to the 2k marker. By that point I had been noticing my right foot tingling for quite some time. Weird... It was as if I was sitting on my leg on the couch and my foot fell asleep and was waking up. It was very bizarre. So at that point I started a fast walk. I slowed way way down when my foot basically had NO feeling. A lady passing by stopped to make sure I was okay since I'd stopped to shake my foot a little, probably looked like a dog lol. She wondered if my shoe was too tight, they're not.. They're actually slightly looser than they should, I like some wiggle room. Then she said I might've pinched a nerve or something. Then she said I might have arch support problems. All good ideas, and I honestly have no clue what the right answer is. I'm puzzled. When sitting on thecouch or a chair and my foot falls asleep, I moved it around to get the blood flow going and feeling back in my foot. But I WAS moving, and the blood WAS flowing, so nothing makes sense.

I made it to the 3k marker when I decided to take a break and decide what to do. Do I keep going with no feeling in my foot? I was practically limping, looked injured, but wasn't in pain (besides the burning shins and calves but that's normal). Lots of people kept asking me if I was alright, which was really nice. After I'd rested for a few minutes the feeling returned to my foot. Ahh good, I can keep going. After about 20-30 yards it started getting tingly and then once again had no feeling. I could wiggle my toes but not feel a thing.

Cue another break, at this point I'm just so confused. Feeling comes back again and then around another 20 yards, it's gone. Again. At this rate I wasn't going to get anywhere.

I started getting a little freaked out. I probably could've kept going and finished by 6pm tonight. I was pretty worried though about why I would be losing feeling in my foot. I cut through the parking lot through the university to where the race began and ended.

In total I went about 4K. I'll be honest... it wasn't very fun. I was kind of bored and in the end pretty disappointed that I didn't finish. It was way more than I would've done a month ago though before boot camp. I'm doing another 5k November 6th with a friend because I promised. I plan on just walking that one with her. I think I'll stick to exercising at Rock Star Boot Camp though.

Curtis gave me the name of a sports shop that will help me get the right shoe for my stride. I'm going to check them out, maybe they can tell me what the H is wrong with me. It's never happened before, never during boot camp.. I've never been much of a runner, obviously, and when we sprint at camp it's for short periods of time. So maybe it's an endurance thing. Who knows.

So I didn't reach my goal, but I tried. Here we are before the race.

Sister, Sister

Last night I brought my baby sister with me to Rock Star Boot Camp for "Kill--I mean Bring a friend Wednesday." I was excited for her to see what it is I really do when I talk about working out. A few minutes in, actually it was still during the WARM UP, she said "You do this every day!!!??" Well, Monday through Thursday yes. I felt a little pride rising inside me... little background on my sister:

Every woman in my entire family is overweight. My little sister was the only one that was healthy, fit and exercised regularly. At one point she was maybe too skinny, but still she was always the small one. Once she got pregnant with my niece, she gained a bunch of weight and joined the rest of the family. She's trying to get motivated to lose her baby weight though. Last night while working out, I have to say I felt pretty awesome that I was doing this boot camp, like I have been for the past 5 weeks, and she thought it was hard at first. I did too in the beginning, it still IS hard, but the little competitive bone in my body was doing a little happy dance. A few quotes from her:

"I think I'm going to pass out"
"I can't believe you do this every day"
"We have to do that AGAIN?"
"Wait....and AGAIN?!!"
--end of round--[Curtis--"That's not all, don't worry you'll be doing sprints for the next 10 minutes.. actually make that shuffle sprints"]
her response: "That can't be good"

There was quite a bit more complaining lol but I drowned most of it out ha ha! At the very end after she finally got into it, she said "That's it? It's over?"

On to the good stuff.

I'm not sure on the time intervals, I missed it in the demonstration, but my neighbor said she thought we were doing 30-60-90 seconds of work for the 3 different exercises. So that would be dead lifts--overhand stationary sprints-- burpees. The hardest by FAR was the running in place with our arms in the air. That really got me winded. We did a few rounds of those then moved on to the shuffle sprints. There we'd side shuffle 10 or so yards, then pivot and sprint back.12 rounds x2 cycles!!!! My shins were en fuego.

The next exercise in our high intensity interval training was using the Tabata Method. Here we did 2 different exercises, 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest for 8 rounds (4 minutes). First we did some speed skating jumps:

The second move was squat jumping forward and back... I was able to jump for like 2.5 rounds, then I did more of a skip/jump/step..

 It was pretty intense, like always. When I got home I had to put whatever frozen veggies on my shins to stop them from falling apart. I gotta say I'm so looking forward to having a day off tomorrow. This sickness is getting worse and I just want to rest. It didn't help that last night my daughters decided to alternate when they would randomly wake up. Yea both of my girls, that sleep through the night, were in cahoots to drive me bonkers. Elika woke up at 4 am and slept for probably 20 minutes in my bed before startling awake and kicking me in the face. Lovely.

I need to get better before the 5K on Saturday.. I could really use some coffee. I think I'll end this post before I really start complaining.

SWS, I hate you.

"SWS is a dreadful affliction, 'Steering Wheel Syndrome' is commonly spread at Rock Star and can affect your ability to operate heavy machinery or control the steering wheel with wobbly arms/shoulders while driving home from boot camp - there is no immediate cure, we're sorry ;)"--Curtis

This morning a fellow camper posted on the Rock Star Facebook page that she had SWS after this morning's work out. I asked what it was, and the answer is the quote above. I already had a name for this: "hurt-so-bad-I-need-help-snapping/unsnapping-my-own-bra syndrome." Never mind getting in and out of a sports bra, that's near impossible with this syndrome. SWS is much shorter, and easier to remember though.


Well after tonight, I have SWS. A serious case too. I kind of like it though because I know after this pain will come some major strength, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel!


We did a partner series for tonight that included Sumo Squats, Courtsey Lunges, Double-leg hip extensions, and Split lunge all of which included some time of dumb-bell press/pull/row. I had 15lb-ers tonight and by the end of each round I was really struggling. I loved it! I really felt challenged today. 

After those sets repeated a few times we moved on to the "Spartan Screamer 2.0"... I'm not sure I remember the 1.0, maybe that was last weeks? Whatever it was, it was delicious. I know I wont be doing the Spartan Race this year, but it is a goal of mine to do it eventually. Maybe the next one. I still do enjoy the Spartan Screamers that Curtis puts us ALL through as if we are all training for the event. This time we did some dumb-bell clean presses, then cross-jacks, other arm for the dumb-bell presses, then finished the round off with mountain climbers.. I'm getting good at those suckers!


Tonight was glorious. My body is really feeling it right now even as I type this. I'm going to be moaning tomorrow about how sore I am and I look forward to it. I haven't felt this sore since probably week 1. A successful day, lots of sweat, no tears or puke... Thanks again Curtis!

What.The.EFF. Monday

Today is the beginning of week 5 for me (yay!) and Curtis is back from Hawaii. I was realllllly looking forward to tonight because I have a little cold and I was hoping working out would make me feel a little better. Tonight definitely got my lungs working aka gasping/gulping/begging for air.

First things first though. During warm-up, probably doing jumping jacks, my pants started to feel a little loose. I tried to tighten the drawstring but I had double knotted it 2-3 years ago when I had first bought them, all the way at the tip of the strings. I wanted room to stretch I guess... Thinking about that, why the hell would I want room to stretch LARGER than my already plus sized stretchy fat pants?? Whatever, anyway... I had to act quick and get that damn knot out or my neighbor campers wind up singing this:

Where I had them before, they fit comfortably, sometimes snug around my waist. I measured how much I'd shortened them when I got home and it was 8 inches! SUCCESS!

As for the rest of the night, we did 2 different Super Sets that consisted of TRX Jump Squats, and TRX Push-ups. We could've done those at our mats with a dumbell, and regular push-ups, but I've become a TRX junky so that wasn't an option for me. The second Super Set was burpees and forward/reverse sprints. Do you remember what a burpee is?

During the first round at the TRX station, I was actually jumping off the ground during the jump squats. Well sounds like a no brainer, but when we'd done these before I couldn't get my fat booty to leave the earth, so I'd just pop up onto my toes. This time, I could jump. A few inches even. We repeated each set twice and on the second cycle, round 4 or so, Curtis happened to look over at me during my FIRST break where I'd gone to popping up on my toes instead of jumping. My bloody luck, huh? Of course he yelled at me to jump up off the ground, which I did. But just so you all know, my calves are on freakin' FIRE from how much jumping I was doing!

After the Super Sets, we partnered up. One of us would hold a push-up pillar/plank while the other sprinted 30 or so yards. When they came back, we switched places. This went on for 4 minutes and it was hell the entire time. I suppose I loved it after the fact, but during... eff that noise.

It was extremely hard to breathe tonight from the very beginning. I also have a chest cold which made breathing even more of a challenge. I was okay though, I think I needed to slow down on one of the sprinting rounds. I needed a super hard workout tonight and I certainly got one! I actually said "What the *insert expletive* Curtis!?" It was probably the most intense boot camp session I've been to since I've started 5 weeks ago.

I also have some major love for the 6:30pm Rock Star campers. Several times, by several different people I was getting "Come on Erika!", "You've got this!", "Push Harder!", "You're doing great!", "Only 2 more minutes, you can do it!". There is nothing more motivating than people around you rooting for you and cheering you on. It's an amazing feeling and just when I felt like slowing it down, someone would give me a holler and I got a quick shot of energy, a desire to do even better.

Thank you to everyone that supports me and loves me. It makes this journey even more enjoyable. My goals WILL be reached with the team I have surrounding me. You ROCK!

Catching Up

I've fallen behind on my blogging! It's been a crazy busy few days for me and I finally have a few minutes to update.

After Bikram Boot Camp last Tuesday, I'd gone home feeling great after my sweat-fest. That night I got a horrible pain in my back. I figured it was muscle soreness from Rachelle's awesome workout. So I slept with a heating pad for most of the night hoping it'd do the trick. It didn't, and I was worse off. I decided it was probably best to rest my back, just so I didn't injure it worse and then really be in trouble. It might've been more psychological than physical, but it's better safer than sorry. So I missed Wednesday, my very first time missing a day of camp since I started a month ago. I was sad and refused to miss the next day. I was going on Thursday, even if I just had to lay on the ground and stretch.

Thursday, I managed to do most of the workout okay until we started doing side pillars... that REALLY hurt my back. I took a little break and rolled my back on one of the foam rollers Curtis has and I felt a !*POP*! It felt amazing and I sat up and said "I think I just healed myself!" I felt great, and finished the workout with more energy than I had before.

Friday, my back was still feeling good. I was pumped for TRX Saturday! I was going to the 6am workout session and photographing the 7:30 session. Friday night though, the back pain started again in the middle of the night. I again laid on a heating pad until it was time to get up but it didn't work, again. Oh well, it actually wasn't too bad the next day, but I was tired as hell from no sleep because of it.

TRX Saturday was AWESOME. I especially loved it this week because Rachelle managed to choose a track with Christmas music in the background HA! I really love TRX exercises and I seriously can not WAIT to do some more. This time we did a lot of upper-body strengthening (which I need very much). Wall slides, a bear hug/clutch variation, squats with our arms held straight overhead, medicine ball slams, then some outdoor stuff with tension bands and rings.

Rachelle did a seriously awesome job leading camp this week. I really enjoyed getting to know you Rachelle, and look forward to seeing your more at camp!

Saturday night we had a Rock Star girls night out, hosted by Becki and Tyler. They are some nice folks! Food was great, drinks were great. I didn't indulge too much but what I did have was delicious. I really enjoyed meeting a few new ladies!

I decided to step on the scale yesterday, even though I know it's finicky. My broken scale says that I've lost 7lbs. So either that is true, and I'm finally starting to shed some fat, or my scale is just playing mind games with me again. I'm not going to worry about it though, I'll have a real weight check next month at my doctors appt. I need to update my picture, suppose to do that last Friday, but like I said I've been so busy so hopefully I can get one today. I've lost 7 inches around my waist so far... wait, is that the magic number? 7lbs/7inches??

I'll take it.

Oh btw, I have a new goal: dead lift THIS sucker!

Here are a few pics from TRX Saturday :)

Bikram Boot Camp

Ever heard of Bikram Yoga? I've personally never done yoga before, but I heard and read that it's basically yoga done in an extremely hot room. People also call it Hot Yoga. I imagine it to be somewhat like the experience we had a Rock Star Boot Camp tonight.

The weather outside was amazing! Yummy smelling rain, gorgeous lightning, an awesome breeze. All ingredients for and unsafe workout on slippery concrete surrounded by metal warehouse structures. So inside we went. We had to shut the "garage door" to keep the sound system from getting soaked. Being shut in a warehouse, with however many people were there tonight (30-40?) busting their asses, while I'm also busting my ass... IT!WAS!HOT!

I was literally dripping sweat. My hair was soaked like I was standing out in the rain. My glasses were foggy. Clothes sticking to my body in uncomfortable places...ahem.. I whined and moaned and grunted about how damn hot it was the entire time and then at the end I realized I LOVED IT! Maybe because it looked like I worked even harder than I did? Or maybe because I probably dropped at least 5lbs in sweat alone!

So lets see... tonight was delicious like usual. Rachelle was amazing once again. We did a lot of dumb-bell presses/lifts. I grabbed some 8-ers thinking we were doing some see-saws again but we didn't and I felt that the 8lbs were waaay too easy. I grabbed my neighbors extra pair of 12s and continued the workout. The 12s were a big improvement and I struggled a tinsy bit more. I think from now on I'll grab a lighter weight and a heavier one so I'm prepared for next time. I can see-saw the shiznit out of some 8s and not have to stop, even though it's still hard.. but pressing 8's is not enough. I should probably at least shoot for 15s.. My baby girl is about 15lbs and I know I can lift her, I do it all day!

I can't wait to go back for some more tomorrow, I think I have a few friends that want to come with me and experience the torture.. err.. I mean awesome-sauce.

I have a PSA to make. Last night I had experienced some major negativity from another camper.. I almost blogged about it, but I copied and cut it out to review for later, then forgot to paste it and so lost it all. Maybe it was a sign. So I just want to say how LUCKY and FORTUNATE I(WE) are to have the ability and opportunity to work out every night. Rock Star is an amazing place full of amazing people and amazing trainers. I feel VERY blessed to be able to come 5 days a week. To be able to wake up, move my legs, and get in shape.

Just remember that no one is forcing you to go to camp or workout in general. Everyone has a choice. Whether or not you choose to be positive and optimistic about that is up to you. I only ask is that if you are going to be negative and terd-y, keep it to yourself. I can only do so much to ignore it and once it starts distracting me and other campers from what we came do it, then that's just really crappy.

"Tearin' up your Tiki" Boot Camp Monday

TGIM.

It's pretty typical to hear "ugh.. the weekend is over, it's Monday already?!boooo" from the regular M-F 9-5ers. Not many times do you hear TGIM, "thank God it's Monday!" That was what I've been saying today. This whole entire weekend, starting Friday I've been a complete unmotivated bum. Tired, lazy, no energy, bored, etc. Since Friday, I was counting down the days until I returned to boot camp and got my blood flowing and booty shakin' again. I think I could do camp 7 days a week. Is that too much? Is that crazy? Last week there was no TRX Saturday so I didn't even have that tasty treat to tide me over until today. FINALLY!

Rachelle, leader of TRX Saturdays, is our trainer for an entire week! Curtis is off on some beach in Hawaii, probably eating some amazing freshly caught-2 hours-ago fish and local island veggies...mmm I can't wait for day that I return to the islands, where I belong....
...
I got distracted.. Anyway. Rachelle was great today. I sweat a ton and my muscles are already getting a little sore. Success! We did some more of those 60 second deals, with a short rest of 15 seconds in between. 8 rounds, 3 cycles. Something new I did today for my first time since being at boot camp (I'm in week 4) was TRX curtsey lunges. Those are pretty hard. Man do I love TRX, I'm sooo looking forward to Saturday!

***extra, extra!!!***
I held my pillar today ON ALL FOURS... (for like 12 seconds, but still). We did these things, I didn't catch the name of it, I'm not sure she gave it an a name during the demo, but I'll call them push-up pillar jacks. Get down in push-up position and proceed to jump your feet out wide then back in like you would during a jumping jack. I, of course, couldn't quite do that, I tried, but I had to modify to side stepping, instead of 'jumping'.

Another camper earned some major points in my book too, she said I looked slimmer. HOLLA! Thank you thank you thank you! (Why can't I place your name? I'll get it tomorrow, I know I know it. I feel stoopid now)

Tonight was great, again TGIM! Fo Sho.