When Life Gives you Lemons...

Hi Taylors-Greer Folks! In my introductory post , I told you a little bit about me and my "gym crew," what we do, and what I'll be covering in this series of blog posts: health, fitness, nutrition, and generally living a better quality life.

What I didn't tell you is that we've already encountered a little “hiccup” here recently. It was back about a week ago that I came into the gym to find my workout partner-in-crime, Grace, stumbling towards me. One look down told me everything I needed to know: she’d rolled her ankle while warming up and just minutes later, it had swollen up with a bump the size of a tennis ball. Not good! A quick trip down the road to a well-respected Greenville orthopedic clinic confirmed: fractured in FOUR places!

Perhaps everyone else was shocked to see her back two days later, with a cast and boot attached – but not me! The docs advised her to steer clear of any lower body or weight-bearing exercise until she was cleared, and also no cardio – since that almost always uses the lower body in some way. Looks like it will be several weeks of upper body and abs for my dear friend. No biggie, but it's one of those things that requires, as my mom would say, "backing up and regrouping." In her usual fashion, Grace immediately wanted to get to work designing workouts that would still challenge her while taking the injury into account. And I think that's how it should always be in life - design your workouts to work for YOUR life, not the other way around!

There are SO many resources out there for finding exercises that work for your fitness level and/or to accommodate injuries, joint problems, even pregnant tummies! Especially in our day and age with the internet and tons of information (both good and bad) at our fingertips, it’s always worth a little investigation to find activities that will work for you and where you are in life. From YouTube to crazy-popular website Pinterest, you can always get ideas on where to go next to learn about weight lifting, cardio routines, or even Crossfit (that intense thing Grace, our other gym buddies, and I put ourselves through at least twice a week).

Yesterday was a day of accommodating real life in our workouts, including Grace’s injury, and our newcomer, Russell. Russell, a Navy and National Guard veteran, husband, and father of two is just returning to the intensity of these workouts after a few years out of the service. But he was a total champ at his inaugural session yesterday! His form was on-point, and he went at a challenging (but sustainable) pace. Sure, he thinks we’re a little crazy…but maybe we like it that way. (*smile* *wink*)

Here's the workout we did, with Grace's substitutions in italics:

"Buy-In" (i.e. - do this before you start!): 1/4 mile sprint/run

 AMRAP 1 - 12 minutes, as many rounds as possible

Pull-Up Burpees                               x5 (Grace: pull-ups only)

Squats                                            x12     (push-press)

Side-to-Side Box Shuffles                 x12 per side (Medicine ball sit-up)

Plank                                               45 sec.

3 minutes rest in between rounds!

AMRAP 2 - 12 minutes, as many rounds as possible

Deadlifts                                        x7                 (Biceps curl)

Pushups                                         x12

Box Jumps                                     x12               (Cable crunch)

Russian Twists                               x10 per side

Finish: 1/4 mile sprint/run...and lots of water! 

For those of you who want to learn more about any of the exercises we do regularly, a great resource can be found here for exercises and video/photo demonstrations. Or just submit a comment/question, and I’ll be glad to answer!

With tomorrow being the first of many 29th birthdays I'll celebrate (or so I'm told - haha!), my husband Jonathan and I made a point to have a little time for ourselves last night. And to be quite honest: We're not big diet people. We work out big because we love food and don't want to live a life of restricted dieting all the time. I know different things work for different people, but to me, there's just too much good food in Greenville to miss out! We hit up one of our favorite places, Chicora Alley, for some tapas-style appetizers and margaritas, and later stopped by one of the best sweets destinations in all of Greenville County, Brick Street Cafe. Rather than making an entire cake, we love to stop there for a slice or two of the really, really good stuff. While they don't make a bad slice of cake or pie at Brick Street, I have to say I have a new-found adoration for their Sweet Potato Cake - you have GOT to go try it out, if you haven't yet! 

From fitness to diet, life isn't all cut-and-dry. I've found that flexibility is key. Whether you're 75 and struggling with a hip joint that gives you trouble, or 30 weeks pregnant and just trying to stay in motion until the most uncomfortable stages of pregnancy are behind you, it's okay to struggle! It's okay to change and transform your workouts to suit YOU! And the same goes for diet and nutrition. Yeah, I love a good kale salad with some avocado and other veggies. But sometimes a girl's just gotta live it up! Birthday cake and margaritas included!

Health, like life, is about consistency - not militance. 

And here lately, we’ve made simple substitutions to accommodate Grace’s injury. For example, instead of doing the squats and deadlifts in our AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) workout yesterday, she did push-press and medicine ball sit-ups. Sure, it doesn’t work the same muscles – but it’s not always about that. Sometimes, it’s just about getting moving. Until next time, everyone have a great week and get moving!

P.S. Pardon the crummy quality of my pictures - I'll be moving to a different camera hopefully soon, but for now, the Android pics will have to do!