Image courtesy of Naypong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
My new hand weights have arrived! I picked them up from the delivery office yesterday š They are pretty and blue, and also neoprene covered which I really prefer to the shiny rubber stuff my USA Pro weights are covered in – they can get a bit slippy if one has worked up a sweat, or so much as looked at them if it’s summer!
This was my first time going through the Women’s Running Feb 2015 workout with the heavier weights, I’ve tried it with the 1.5kg’s a few times now and they were getting quite comfortable so I wanted to try pushing myself a little further. I got through all three sets of 10 reps/exercise using the 2kg – which I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do. I could really feel the difference on the tricep kickbacks and the shoulder presses, but the other exercises were quite comfortable, and for the squats in particular I could probably go heavier again.
I found the ab crunches much easier on all three sets this time around, so there’s definitely been a noticeable difference there, but I still find the toe taps quite tough – they seem to pull on the front of my thighs which I’m not sure they’re supposed to – hoping I’m doing them right. Next time I do this workout, rather than hitting Amazon now to buy another set of heavier weights, I’m going to continue with 10 reps for the arm exercises, but may try doing 15 reps for the crunches, lunges, squats and leg lifts to try and get the bigger muscles working harder, and possibly do a 4th set with just those exercises – with the arms to follow on a 4th set when they’ve got a bit more used to the heavier weights.
Now if I could just stop constantly snacking on sweets I’d really be onto a winner and my stronger abs might actually eventually put in a visible appearance rather than hiding under my pudding store!
Equipment: 2kg hand weights
Time: 20 mins + warm-up/cool-down
- 10 reps – 3 sets of each
- Dumbbell Bent Over Row
- Dumbbell Lunges
- Dumbbell Triceps Kickback – each side
- Crunches – straight and each side obliques
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Dumbbell Squats
- Kneeling Side Leg Lift – each side
- Toe Taps
The other exciting thing for today, was this was the first workout I’ve done in our new workout room! One day I shall have an in-house gym! It made a nice change to be able to shut the door and open the window so I could workout in an icebox (I get hot really easily…) without having to worry about the cat investigating the windowsill and getting stuck on the porch roof!
When we moved in a few months ago, one of the upstairs rooms was immediately designated ‘The Box Room’ for dumping all the stuff we hadn’t sorted homes out for yet, and today we finally got it cleared.
Before:
After:
I have Plans for this room…so many plans, but for now I am happy with my floor mats and hand weights š It’s also currently where the guitars are living – that’s a guitar chair in the corner, and the guitars are on their rack just around the doorframe, but there’s still plenty of space for me to do what I want to š
Blue Runnings 
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