Hey, hello, hi m’fitties! How are ya’ll doing?
Back in the second week of May, I took a week of lighter exercise, much similar to the 10 days I gave up exercise except incorporating some aerobic activity/weight training here and there. I still incorporated my usual Monday PUSH DAY(<–a must read!) but took the rest of the week lighter. And because I did this intentionally and planned it, I didn’t have workout guilt about it at all.
Here was my week of workouts:
Monday: {PUSH DAY!}
- Insanity pure cardio
- Run 60 min.
- 45 min elliptical
- 5 x 25:
- lunges (25 each side) 25 lbs
- leg press ~75lbs
- hip abduction ~35 lbs
- deadlifts 40lbs
- squats 40lbs
- bench hip thrusts 40lbs
Tuesday: {Super Mellow, no sweat day}
- 20 min super duper slow jog
- 20 min easy elliptical
- 20 min stroll
- 23 min abs
Wednesday: {Light weight and aerobics}
- 30 min jog
- 50 min easy arm workout
- 60 min elliptical easy
- 5 x 25:
- Skull crusher 20lbs
- Squats 25lbs
- Chest barbell press 25lbs
- Bicep curls 20 lbs
- Triceps: 1 round, 20 reps at 10 lbs
- Inverted row: 1 round, 20 lbs 25 reps
Thursday: {Some randomness I did}
- 46 min jog
- 24 min arms easy
- 10 minutes random hula hooping
- 30 min meditation/yoga
Friday: {Randomness I did}
- 30 min jog
- 15 min yoga
- 65 min easy elliptical
- 23 min easy pilates
Saturday:
- 26 min pilates
- 30 min meditation/yoga
- 30 min jog
Sunday: {Ahh…}
- 45 min jog
- 7 min HIIT (<–after consecutive days without something intense, this felt so refreshing)
- meditate/yoga 30 min
What I incorporated to destress:
I spent most of my evenings journaling, listening to podcasts, and also reading! I’m so into this book called The 5 Love Languages. I’m learning so much; and even though it was a book made for couples, it still teaches me about how different people receive/communicate their love language. I’ve always been passionate about human psychology and this’ll help me become a better coach for my clients as well.
I also start writing in this little guy:
I love little questionnaires so much! It gives me something mindless and mellow to do on lonely nights in bed.
And gratitude journaling:
Of course, planning out my agenda for the next day in my EC planner is always a must. Just because I’m deloading on exercise doesn’t mean I let myself slack on other areas of my life.
I’ve also been drinking lots of tea, eating lots of good food:
A salad with egg yolks, pecan butter, sugar free syrup, mustard, parsley and sauerkraut.
DO. NOT. THROW. OUT. THE. YOLKS.
GIVE THEM TO ME.
Mood + Energy:
My mood has been pretty stable and happy and energized as the weeks went along! There was an evening I went on the elliptical, then did 1 set of 20 inverted dumbbells rows and felt so good I had to stop myself from doing more because I promised myself I would take it easy this week. But man oh man, did I ever feel the pump in my arms–I felt so elated!
Why take a de-load week?
I needed a mental refresher. So often I felt my workouts getting tasteless and monotone. They said every 8-12 weeks you should try switching it up, and I’ve been following my general workout routine for about 4 months (that’s 16 weeks!), seeing the same scene, feeling the same in each workout.
When I finally did go back to my original workouts, it felt so good returning to gym mental recharge. I felt renewed energy and motivation.
I stopped and smelled the flowers.
Along with the mental refresher, there’s always a physical refresher! My body sure felt sore the first day after I got back into working out, but I can’t tell you how good it felt. I was on fire, feeling 10/10 after my workout 😀 and that got me excited all over again and boosted my confidence. It also resets the metabolism so it doesn’t get used to the exertion. Surprise your metabolism and you can kick through a weight loss plateau!
When was the last time you took a deload week? Are you on a workout program right now? What’s your routine like?
