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I mentioned the other day that I was going to workout with my intern, Amanda. Though she works out a lot (since she’s on the crew team at her college), she doesn’t have many opportunities to purely weight train.

So I invited her along to workout with me on Sunday. After we talked about our goals, I put together a workout and we set out to kill our workout.

 

 

Now don’t get me wrong, Dan is a great workout partner. But sometimes we don’t really workout together or see eye to eye on what we want to do. We have different plans and routines and most of the time we’ll pass each other during the hour and meet back up at the end.

When we do workout together, he is great at pushing me but I don’t think I really push myself as hard as I want to could.

It was great changing things up and working out with another woman that is at the same fitness level as I am. We were able to do the routine at the same time, side-by-side and when one person wanted to give up and rest, the other was there to say:

“Come on, you can do it.”

There may have been some friendly competition tossed in there as well.

Either way, by the end of the workout we were both dripping with sweat and giving out high fives.

 

 

It was honestly one of the best weight lifting workouts I have had in a while. And my body was reminded of it the next morning when everything from my shoulders down was sore… in a good way (not like last week’s calve episode).

And when those workouts come along, you feel like Wonder woman. It also makes me mad because I wonder why I don’t have workouts like that all the time! I want to have that feeling of accomplishment every time I workout, I mean don’t you too?

So I got to thinking…

How can I make sure to always have the best workout? 

Don’t Change Workouts Plans. This is a big reason why the workout kicked serious butt. I had to commit to the plan. I am guilty of writing a workout down and then changing it when I think it’s getting to difficult. That sucks, I know. But guilty as charged. Since I showed Amanda the workout, there was no backing out of it. I am going to make a conscious effort to make sure I commit to every workout for the rest of the month as I have it laid out!

Try new workouts/Exercises. I love watching Stack.com with Dan. It’s a website that shows off some exercises and training programs that professional athletes do (NFL, NHL, etc). It’s fun to see them challenge themselves and it’s even more fun to take these new exercises to the gym.

Sunday, Amanda and I tackled this one: Bear Mountains! Holy moly, hard! But a lot of fun! If you’re new to weight lifting, don’t do this, work on a body weight squat first. At first I thought I would add some plates, but after 10 reps I quickly realized the bar was plenty enough for me!

Workout when you’re at your best. If you are not a morning person then don’t suddenly trying to wake up at 5 am to hit the gym and then be disappointed when your workout sucks. Look at your day and your energy levels. When are you most pumped up and have the most “fire” in you to exercise? For me, it used to be in the mornings but we’ve changed our schedule up over the past year and now I workout best right after lunch time.

Friendly competition. I know that the reason I had such a killer workout was because Amanda was by my side. Knowing she was doing the same workout pushed me to add just a bit more weight, and pump out just one more rep (or at least try). As long as form is great and you’re concentrated on the workout, there is no reason to avoid a bit of competition. Studies show that people who workout with a partner push harder than if they were by themselves.

Someone is always working out to be better. I love my fellow bloggers and I love reading up on their workouts. I get a bit “frazzled” when I see one of them lifting more weight or doing more intense workouts than I have. I use that as motivation. So if I am by myself, I remind myself that so-and-so is working just as hard or harder to be better. That always helps to push me harder. Again… that’s the competitor in me. There is one blogger friend in particular who is just about the same strength and fitness level as me and I am constantly motivating myself to work harder because of her, and yes, she knows who she is

Get Pumped Up! Get your mind in the right place. If you walk into the gym and you’re just not feeling it, then hop onto the treadmill, elliptical or do some body weight exercises to get your mind focused on having a good workout and get your blood flowing. This should only take around 5-10 minutes and then you’ll suddenly realized your pumped and ready to go! This is something I have just started doing it and it makes a HUGE difference!

Wear kick ass workout attire. Sounds trivial and stupid I know but I promise it works. When you were clothes that you feel confident in then you’re going to be more confident with your workout too! Remember how I said I was going to “invest” in a pair of Lululemon workout pants? Well, I did. And let me tell you, I probably checked my butt out a dozen times.

I know people have mentioned that the luxury workout brand is figure flattering, well I just thought that was their way of trying to justify their expensive purchase. No, they were right! I love my UnderArmour and will stick with them, but gosh I felt like a collegiate athlete in these babies! Lol, of course that made me want to workout like one too!

So there you have it, the most important tips you NEED to follow so that you can have a killer awesome workout. Have a great Tuesday!

• Are you competitive at all?
• What’s the most expensive piece of fitness attire you own? 

Aside from my running shoes, I will admit that those Lululemon leggings are my post expensive piece exercise clothes. I justify it with the fact that it’s my “work clothes”. Some people have to buy suites, I have to buy nice fitness clothes… right?

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