The 12 Days of Fitmas day 4!

 The 12 Days of Fitmas day 4!

Yoga, Yoga, Yoga. 

Why should you be doing yoga?

How Yoga Saved My Life

Yoga is what started me on my health and fitness journey. 

I will never forget the night I decided I should try yoga. 

I was living with my bf and his brother and going to college. It was the Sunday before midterms. It was also our neighbor's birthday. I couldn't find the book, or the materials, or whatever that I needed to finish a take home test that was due the next morning. The boys were watching a movie for the neighbor's birthday. I think it was Green Lantern. I don't remember. All I know is that it was a superhero movie and there lots of guns and fighting. This is when I had my first, and only true, panic attack. Heart racing, felt like I was being held under water, couldn't breath, crying. It was horrible. The next day I signed up for a yoga class and fell in love. I did it on and off for the next year until I got pregnant. 

After I had my son, I developed restless leg syndrome. It was horrible. I was surviving on three hours of sleep a night. It wasn't healthy. I cried to my doctors. The only way to give me the real medicine for restless leg syndrome, I had to do a 3 day sleep study. Meaning, I had to go to the hospital and sit in a room for three days. I was a working mother and student. Nobody has time for that shit! They gave me sleeping pills, which worked sometimes, but I hated them. I wouldn't wake up if my son cried, I was a monster in the mornings, it didn't work for me. I was at my wits end when I found Tara Stiles on youtube. Her night time yoga was absolutely amazing. Three years later, I have no trouble sleeping. 

My yoga schedule

I do yoga at least 14 times a week; a morning routine to wake me up & a bed time routine so I fall asleep quickly, every day. I will never give those up. I also do one cardio yoga workout a week, as well as a half hour stretch session weekly. Here are some links to the Tara Stiles workouts that I can not live without. There are also a lot of other ideas for a good yoga workout on there. 

Click here for all sorts of ideas on how you can get your sweat on today with a good stretch session. 

Yoga that I love

The 12 Days of Fitmas!

Hey Internet universe, I’ve posted on my social media accounts about celebrating something I’m calling, “The 12 Days of Fitmas”.  

Last week, I had a horrible stomach ache. Thought it was the worst menstrual cramps ever and that it would pass. Long story short, it didn’t. I had an emergency appendectomy. The surgery wasn’t too bad, and I am recovering well. While I’m enjoying a little rest, I am not happy that I still have another 12 DAYS UNTIL I CAN PICK UP ANY WEIGHTS. I am going a little stir crazy about it, so I thought I’d share workouts I would want to be doing.  

The 12 Days of Fitmas is like a sneak peak into what the programs I plan for my clients are like. 

I do most of my workouts at home. I have a full set of dumbells that I use, but they can be adapted for the gym as well. 

Plan organization  

3 days cardio 

2 days of yoga 

3 workouts/week that are a mixture of full body, weighted and body weight exercises. 

They are done in circuits. 

I don’t focus on arms, abs, or legs, like most people do. Instead, I focus each of these workouts on one of the three planes of movement; transverse, sagittal, and frontal.  I’ll go into detail about why I do it this way in a later blog post. 

The schedule will look like this:

These workouts for The 12 Days of Fitmas are general. For myself and clients, the workouts are more tailored to meet specific goals. 

There will be a blog post to accompany each picture containing insights on to how exercise affects the body, explaining the workout, and maybe including some recipes. 

My fitness journey, so far. 

A little information before you start:  

If you are a beginner exerciser, have any health precautions/worries, or are just unsure, PLEASE CONTACT ME. Exercise is good for your health, but like all activity, there is a potential of injury. Without assessments and medical history, I will not take responsibility for any injuries that occur while doing these workouts.