Fitness

Yoga Challenge – Day 7

Day #7

Today is just some easy yoga practice on the mat at home [following a short walk/run/hike!]. We practiced the first six poses from the maxresdefault Instagram #IndependenceArmy challenge and attempted today’s pose, pendant [lolasana]. Pendant is an advanced posed, often practiced last in Ashtanga so we are just putting a dent in it ~ mastery someday!

Kino Yoga has a great video how-to for beginner’s to get started and build up strength for pendant. That’s Kino —————->

The #IndependenceArmy challenge is hosted by Laura Sykora [@laurasykora and @twofitmoms], Kino MacGregor [@kinoyoga] and Kerri Verna [@beachyogagirl]. All three have fabulous Instagram accounts, online tutorials and much more, so check them out some time when looking for inspiration.

Inspirational quote of the day…

Have you visited your fitness goals lately?

Happy Monday 🙂

Water, water, water!

Summer = heat = DRINK YOUR WATER!

The traditional advice was to “Drink your 8 glasses a day!” ~ a glass being 8 oz, so 64 oz a day. This doesn’t seem like enough compared to more recent research, as other experts follow their own rules…

Whitney Carlson, fitness trainer, health & wellness coach & blogger [author of HeandSheEatClean.com] tells her followers to drink a gallon per day.

Heidi Powell, famous fitness guru & wife of Chris Powell from Extreme Makeover Weightloss Edition states, “Drink water! Aim for half your body weight in ounces per day (150 lbs = 75 ounces). Not only is drinking water super healthy and extremely low-cost, but it also helps you feel fuller longer.”

This ClassPass blog post claims 2/3 of your body weight! (150 lbs = 100 ounces)

Whatever rule you choose to follow, make sure you add in more if you are sweating it up outside, doing some HOT yoga or indulging in dehydrating beverages like coffee [or yikes – alcohol!].

TIPS for getting in your daily dose…

buy a large water container and fill it, then make yourself finish it before bedtime. The pink one is from Amazon (Bluewave water bottles) and the blue one is from good ‘ol Walmart (Arrow – made in the USA!) Make sure they are BPA free.
use a cute water bottle or glass – you’ll be more willing to carry these around and drink from them all day (and you may get an occasional compliment… ‘cute cup!’)
Set a timer and drink a glass every hour or two… sip, chug, whatever your style! Check out Lori Crock’s article… Are you a chugger or a sipper?

Add berries, lemon, cucumber or a splash of cranberry juice if you need a little flavor. Research shows that lemon water has many added benefits…

Some great lululemon manifesto quotes include water…

Drink fresh water and as much water as you can. Fresh water flushes toxins from the body and keeps your brain sharp.

Observe a plant before and after watering and relate these benefits to your body and brain.

So drink up! Really, we mean it… go drink a glass NOW! 🙂

What water rules do you follow? How do you get your ‘eight a day?’ Let us know!!!

Yoga Challenge – Day 6

Day #6

Today we will tackle Jillian Michaels: Yoga Meltdown

Jillian’s yoga uses traditional yoga poses (chair, up & down dog, mountain, lunge, crescent, plank, forward fold, chaturanga, camel), but also works in cardio to get that heart rate elevated… this is no slow flow!

She does go through the moves rather quickly, so even though there is a ‘Level 1’ – it does seem more appropriate for those who have practiced before.

We LOVE it!

After we were warmed up with Jillian, we were ready to tackle Day #6 of the #IndependenceArmy yoga challenge on Instagram ~ CRANE [bakasana]. This one is challenging so we’ll do some practice with a video clip from VentunoYoga.

We’ll also practice crow (similar to crane) ~ this video clip from Sarah Beth yoga explains the differences and practices both. Lastly, we’ll do a few minutes of boat from day #4 because we didn’t practice that long… and runners need a solid core!

Here is Teresa’s best effort as of today…

Inspirational quote of the day…

Many yoga poses take practice and determination. Running a race takes training and determination. But set your eyes on the goal and you CAN achieve it! So we leave you with this,

Happy end of the weekend!

Independence FIT Celebration[s]

[tgellenbeck]

Today’s exercise…

We got in our workout today ~ an Independence 3 mile run or 2 mile walk [choice]. Lots of neighbors, strollers and fitness fun! And of course, we got coffee afterwards @ Winans Dublin.

30 day Yoga challenge…

We are taking a yoga REST today (can’t quite tackle the fallen angel pose from #independencearmy anyhow) but will double up and do at least 20 minutes tomorrow. Don’t EVER feel guilty if you need to adjust your training plans every now and then and ALWAYS give your body a chance to rest! We did do some stretching after our run, so you can count that if you must 🙂

Instagram challenge… Get DOWN dog!

Today’s post request was your favorite yoga pose. Although we didn’t do a full yoga session today, we did make time to bust out our favorite pose! Teresa chose DOWNWARD DOG. Not only is this move a relaxing stretch of the lower back and hamstrings (great for runners), it is also one of JPs favorite things to do. Call it downward dog or Londong bridge… he loves to do it, watch it, climb on it! A few photos for your viewing pleasure…

Downward dog – climbing on Gigi

Downward dog – watching momma

Downward dog – LS & her yoga mini

Yoga @ home – his favorite pose!

Living Fit on the beach

And last but not least, today’s inspirational quote…

See you tomorrow!

Yoga Challenge – Day 4

Day #4 – Happy July 4th!!

Did another Yoga with Adriene video today – FREEDOM Flow

Seemed appropriate 🙂 Let freedom ring!

Day #4 of the #IndependenceArmy yoga challenge on Instagram is boat.

Did a few boats at the conclusion of Adriene’s video, but will focus more on it tomorrow. Today was a quick session, allowing time for friends, family and fireworks 🙂

Lastly, today’s inspirational quote…

We have family in the military so we want to give them a shout out. We love & appreciate you!

Night night!

Yoga Challenge – Day 3

Today continues our yoga challenge! We had our 3 mile group run, so just a short 10 minutes of yoga today.

Here is what we did…

Yoga with Adriene video – we did the first ten minutes of her Yoga for runners – cool down video.

Adriene is a yoga instructor in Texas and has a lot of great free videos. A fellow runner friend, Chelsea, told us about her and we love her site and yoga tips!

Day #3 of the #IndependenceArmy yoga challenge on Instagram is chaturanga pose, so we focused on this after the running cool down yoga. We did 5 flows of prayer-chaturanga-upward dog-downward dog-forward fold-prayer, holding each pose for 3 seconds.

We also checked out lulu’s article called how to cha-cha-chaturanga which includes a one minute video by ambassador Michelle Wong.

Lastly, today’s inspirational quote… we sent out our July newsletter today and we used this quote;

Tomorrow is July 4th, so spend some time with family, friends, etc… and make sure you set aside 10 minutes [or more] for yoga!

See you soon.

Yoga Challenge – Day 2

Day #2

Probably won’t be posting every day during this 30 day challenge, but may as well start off strong!

If you missed yesterday’s challenge, check that first. We are doing a 30 day yoga challenge to work on flexibility, strength, poses and mental clarity.

Yoga can be a great cross-training activity for runners, check it out!

Wednesdays are our REST days around here, so just a short yoga sequence will do.

Today we did the following;

Morning Yoga via @fitapproach

We will also add day #2’s PLANK into the sequence… Plank could be a whole challenge all on its own!

A short 2 mile walk to round out the morning.

Lastly, today’s inspirational quote… an appropriate one about breathing, from lululemon’s manifesto…

Have a great Wednesday!

July FIT challenges – join us!!

We LOVE a good fitness challenge. Being that it is summer, we have a bit more time to focus on our fitness goals, so why not participate in a couple!

Here are the two we chose…
1. #sweatpinksummer Instagram challenge [10 days]

Teresa recently became a Sweat Pink ambassador, so this seemed like a great challenge to begin the summer with.

Challenge yourself ~ you can do ANYTHING for 10 days!

2. Yoga challenge [30 days]

No strict rules here but we will follow some guidelines from yogachallenge.org and attempt to…

Commit to at least 10 minutes of yoga per day for the entire month of July
Find [and post when possible] an inspirational quote each day
Choose a pose to work on [likely following the #independencearmy challenge – see below]

We will also be following a few challenges on Instagram including @baileyactive’s #standonthosehands challenge and @glyderapparel’s #independencearmy challenge (see below). If you’re feeling up for it, feel free to practice these each day… we will be practicing, but won’t necessarily take photos each time. Some of these poses are really challenging, so push yourself to try them!

Day #1’s pose is downward dog and here are some awesome down dog images…

Yoga @ home – his favorite pose!

Living Fit on the beach

Remember, there is strength in numbers so find a buddy or email us @ LivingFitColumbus@gmail.com for support.

Good luck!

Join us tomorrow for a WOD, music & refreshments

Join us tomorrow for the Fitness & Freedom event @ the lululemon polaris store!

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Keith Simon is a nutrition & CrossFit enthusiast and trainer/coach at Crossfit Polaris. We like what he had to say about ‘building your community.’

From Keith’s blog…

“The great thing about CrossFit isn’t the advertised result (although that is pretty sweet).

It’s the community.

Finding your community is hugely important to growing yourself as a person, athlete, parent, husband & wife, leader, participant etc. It keeps you level, and makes you strive for more. To be successful in any environment, you need to surround yourself with both like minded people, and successful people in that arena. CrossFit, business, church, anything.

At the end of the day: it’s only a workout. You go home afterwards, and have more important things, with more important people & more important reasons. We all want to do our best. For ourselves, and our community.

Which community are you striving for?”

Hope to see you tomorrow!

Photo credits to: lululemon polaris, CrossFit Polaris

Why I Yoga

Yoga is big in Columbus and trending all over the world. There are a lot of studios, styles, apparel stores and lovers of this fitness option. I love yoga for so many reasons. It complements my running perfectly, allowing me to stretch and strengthen parts of my body that distance running doesn’t reach (hello pigeon pose!) It is fun to do solo, with friends or just with my little guy. There are so many options to meet your preference or your #mood including hot, vinyasa, restorative, deep stretch and more.

I have to give credit for my latest love to my sister-in-law, Carrie.

Carrie is a former gymnast and one of my yoga crushes – she can kick up into a handstand in the middle of a crowded room without a thought! Almost two years ago she started talking about lululemon and I was like ‘lulu who?’ Now I save all my pennies to buy an item from lulu here and there. Prior to 2014, I thought of yoga as a slow, low-calorie-burning (almost boring) workout that I made myself do to stretch and compliment running every now and then. After Carrie talked me into trying Harbor Yoga this year, I was hooked.

Carrie has pushed me to set new fitness goals – trying yoga in at least ten states – and trying new fitness activities like beach yoga, paddle board yoga and hopefully more adventures to come!

She continues to amaze me, inspire me and teach me [and my son!]. I hope that someday, when I grow up, I can be just like her 🙂

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