Happy Friday all! Today’s post was going to be a recipe for a pumpkin curry I made. However I think I’ve deleted my photo accidentally. Devastating! It was such a good meal that it really deserves a photo to go alongside the recipe so I will have to park this for the moment. I was planning on making it again at the weekend so it will be here soon!
This week has been chilly. The first five minutes driving to work/home are horrible. The car is freezing so I spend the first bit of the journey huddled over the steering wheel like an old woman. But by the time I finally arrive at work it’s positively roasting. Lovely 
Despite how cold it’s been I’ve still been loving my lunchtime runs. On Wednesday I ran with the usual running crew and we did another 6 mile route but this time off-road.
I can’t tell you much I love off-road routes. It’s just so much fun. The more mud you’ve got flicked onto your legs the better! I’ve been running in my usual trainers and this isn’t so good as it can be very slippy in the mud. Sooo I have purchased a pair of (fairly inexpensive) off-road trainers. They have grips and everything. You may think I’m incredibly sad (I won’t be offended) but I am so excited about them! [Can you tell??] Hopefully they should be with me soon.
So instead of my beloved pumpkin curry recipe I will do a post about my latest fitness update. I alluded in other posts that I’ve changed my previous strength routines to something a bit more…explosive shall we say?
I’ve been creating some plyometric routines to do twice a week alongside a more ‘general’ strength routine. It’s only been recently that I’ve found out about plyometric exercises. I’ve seen on a lot of other blogs about routines involving burpees and plank jacks etc. but never really paid it much mind. But after finding my current routines were getting a bit samey I decided to explore it a bit.
I ambitiously made this really lengthy routine to repeat like three times and honestly it killed me. I couldn’t even complete it it was that tough.
So I scaled it back a bit… let’s not aim too high, Anna.
I’ve made three workout routines: one is a full body (ish) strength training routine and the other two are plyometric-style routines.
With this routine I tried to get in some core, some glutes, legs and arms. It’s approximately a 20 minute workout and you can add dumbbells in where it makes sense.
See it doesn’t look so difficult does it? Hop on one leg, pfffttt! That’s easy. Yeah, that’s what I thought. Now maybe it is easy for you, but I really struggled. It’s tough to maintain these jumping movements for an entire minute – three times! I was a sweaty mess with this.
This is moderately easier because at least you can rest a bit with the press ups <—did I seriously just write that sentence??
I’ve been trying to do these three workouts a week. The first one is fairly easy (in terms of you don’t need a huge amount of energy to do it; you’re stationary and you can take your time), but the other two are quite tough if you’re tired. With my regular 6 mile runs I’ve been finding that the next day (when I plan to do these routines) I ache too much to attempt both of the plyometric ones in a week. But I’m working on it. If I don’t do both of the plyometric ones I do some Pilates instead for 20 mins.
So that’ my update on what I’ve been doing in terms of working out.
Let me know if you do anything like the above and if you have any tips of advice!
Are you a burpee lover or hater?
Hahaha my drive to work is the same way! (Freezing and then roasting!)
I love workouts like the ones you posted, because they keep me from getting bored!!
Yeah they’re definitely not something you can just mindlessly slog away at! I need to concentrate fully lol.
LOVE plyometric workouts!! That’s what the Insanity videos I do are all about!! Each DVD has three circuits (one warmup and two plyometric circuits) and you repeat each of them three times. It’s so intense and I’m always so sweaty and exhausted at the end. Phew!! You have to let us know how you like the plyometrics!
Oh wow, no wonder it’s called Insansity! They’re so tough!
I didn’t know what burpees were until I started reading blogs – and then I wished I hadn’t found out! Much respeck to you for doing these workouts 🙂
And at least deleting the curry picture gives you a good reason to make it again…!
Haha same here, ignorance is bliss!!
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