I started my counting of work-out days yesterday since it was the first Monday of the month, I figured it would be a good day to “officially” start. Honestly, after working out at least every other day since the beginning of June, it wasn’t some magical or painful thing to do :).
My favorite workout to do at the moment is kickboxing. Honestly, it probably is because it makes me feel no-nonsense, tough, strong and powerful. Another bonus, for me in particular, is that kickboxing is supposed to be done in an upright position and doesn’t involve twisting of the spine (something completely impossible for me).
Okay, this may be annoying, but it’s time for a commercial…well kind of, it’s really more of a recommendation…
My favorite kickboxing workout is on the Kathy Smith Cardio Knockout. It’s the second workout on the DVD (the first workout which is aero-boxing, is, at the moment, rendered impossible for me to do because it takes a pretty high level of aerobic fitness and jump-roping for over 75% of the workout…I’m just not quite there yet).
Anyway, the kickboxing workout on this DVD is awesome… At least I feel awesome when I do it.
I love that they go over proper form with the punches and the kicks in the intro and have reminders during the workout of what good form is. Another nice thing is that they go over each move slowly before they speed it up. There’s also a great leg section at the end of the workout that I really like where you practice the kicks slowly. I love that each day I do this, I can actually see my legs shaping into something more sleek and powerful looking than they ever did before. It’s pretty encouraging! There’s also a great ab workout on this DVD that does not have any crunches! Hurray for me!!! (I have a full spinal fusion for those of you who don’t know so no bending for me)….besides, who really likes to do crunches?! My baby belly has stopped doing that hang-over thing and is starting to look just poochy instead of poochy and flabby.
The point is, I love these workouts. It’s a good thing to love what you do…especially if you have goals to do whatever thing a lot. If you haven’t tried kickboxing, I highly recommend it. Besides, it works more muscles than running thus burning more calories. Plus, it’s fun (especially once your kicks start getting higher).
On a similar note, I’ve decided that though it can be a little hard to motivate myself to do workouts at home (or in general), it’s probably a pretty important thing for my children to see me exercising.
When I was growing up I thought exercise was just for people who want to lose weight. I didn’t realize that fitness was actually a part of being a healthy whole person. I do want to lose weight, but I also want to be a whole, healthy person. Exercise really is part of being a whole healthy person.
I hope that my children seeing me exercises will help them learn and understand that exercise is just a part of a healthy lifestyle. Something that is important to do consistently throughout life and with a moderate level of enjoyment.
Values are the most easily taught through examples. Just talking about something doesn’t do much to influence others—it’s actions that inspire. Talking helps but no one takes anyone seriously who just talks the talk and can’t walk the walk.
One of the things I like about this whole working out at home is that Christian has made it his goal to remind me everyday that I need to exercise. He also joins me in the cool downs and the ab exercises and then tells me what a great job I did that day. How’s that for motivation?! I love my boy.
So, hopefully in conjunction with my own improvements, I’ll help my children with their own out-looks on exercise and health…that’s one reason to smile during a workout!
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