Princess of Planks

Having a group fitness instructor for a mom comes with its perks.  For instance, your own in-house personal trainer starting at the tender age of 2 or unlimited motivational slogans for all the mundane household tasks ("You can do it - just five, four, three, two, one spoons to put away!").  You also get the benefit of comprehensive high intensity interval training classes - all completely gratis!
And I think all of this early exposure is starting to rub off on Wren (which I must admit makes me one proud mama!).  Just this past week, I invited Wren and Judson to join me for some fun exercise.  (For the record, I consider burpees and mountain climbers fun...)  I turned up my fitness music, and we started moving.  Jump squats, burpees, plank jacks, high knees, jumping jacks - we did it all.  And my girl hung with me the entire time, and she was actually doing the exercises (more or less)!  I've never seen a three-year-old so proficient at burpees and donkey kicks - she's a natural!  Judson hung with us too...well, actually he just crawled underneath me while I was doing plank jacks and donkey kicks.
Here are some of the cute things that came from their mouths as we worked out:
W:  "This is fun!"
W:  "Give me a high five!"
J:  "I'm hungry."
W:  "This is fun!"
W (as Judson stood up from crouching under me, which Wren must have interpreted as a jump squat):  "You did it, Juddy!  Woo!"
W (referring to tuck jumps):  "These are like tights!" [?]
J (as he was sitting under me):  "You smell like fruit snacks." [I guess there are worse things to smell like.]
As the session got closer to its end:
W:  "When's water break?" [Even the toughest athletes need to hydrate.]
W:  "You get more thirsty when you exercise."
W:  "This is fun!"
When we finished the last jumping jack and high fives were given all around, Judson summed it up best when he said:  "Do I get a special treat for that?"  Yes, he did...fruit snacks, in fact.
As for Wren, I see a bright future in the fitness industry up ahead!

March 2019

Upper Chest, Upper Back, Shoulders

Supersets 

Week 1 & 2:  3 sets of 10-12 reps

Week 3 & 4:  3 sets of 8-10 reps

25 dumbbell rows (1 set)
15 lateral raise & front raise (1 set)
30 push ups (1 set)

Low Row (1: 30lbs per side)

Shoulder Triset (lateral raise, upright row, military press) (1: 12 lbs)

Incline Press (1: 25 lb dumbbells)

Reverse Fly (1: 12 lb dumbbells)

Behind Back Upright Row (1: 12 lb dumbbells)

Front Raise (1: 12 lb. dumbbells)

High Cable Crossover (1 12.5 lb per side)

Bent Over Cable Lateral Raise (5 lbs)

30 minute long interval training

Legs & Core 

Speedskater (hold each landing 3-5 seconds) - 3 sets of 10 each leg

Single Leg Calf Raise (Straight) - 3 sets of 15-20 each leg

Jump Rope Jog - 3 sets of 1 minute

Lateral Eccentric Touchdown (4-6 counts down, 1-2 counts up) - 3 sets of 6-8 each leg

Singe Leg Calf Raise (internally rotated) - 3 sets of 15-20 per leg

Jump Rope Double Under - 3 sets of 10-20

Bar Sissy Squat - 3 sets of 15-20

Single Leg Calf Raise (externally rotated) - 3 sets of 15-20 per leg

Jump Rope - 3 sets of 1 minute

Three Way Lunge (forward, side, back) - 3 sets of 6-8 per leg

Modified L-sit - hold as long as possible

Core:

20 seconds on/10 seconds off, 4 times (or 2 times each side)

Plank Up/Down

Side Plank Knee to Elbow (top side)

Gliding Mountain Climber

Anti-Rotational Band Hold

Twister

Steady State Cardio

Arms, Chest, Back

30 Second Intervals (6 times through)

Pull Up

Bicep Curl

Push Up

Overhead Tricep Press

Renegade Row

Hammer Curl

Chest Fly

Tricep Kickbacks

Dumbbell Skiers

Internal & External Rotation Bicep Curls

Chest Press

Nosebreakers

Sprint HIIT:  5 min. jog/run, 2 minutes sprint, 1 minute active recovery, Repeat Sprint/Recovery for a total of 6 times, 5 min. jog/run

Glutes & Core

Landmine Squat Hold - 3 sets 10-12 (1: 35)

Barbell Narrow Stance Stiff Legged Deadlift - 3 sets 10-12 (1: 60)
Decline V-Twist - 3 sets of 15-20 (per side) (1: 10)

Plate Goblet Squat - 3 sets of 10-12 (1: 25)
Wide Stance Stiff Legged Deadlift - 3 sets of 10-12 (1: 70)
Pikes on Ball - 3 sets of 15-20

Banded Squat with Kickback - 3 sets of 10-20 (each leg)
Banded Hex Bar Deadlift - 3 sets of 10-12 (1: 25 on each side)
Side Plank Lower Knee to Top Elbow - 3 sets of 10 per side

Steady State Cardio

AMRAP

AMRAP 20 minutes:

10 each of:  Box Jumps, Burpees, Jump Squats, Plank Jacks, Jumping Jacks, Tuck Jumps, Donkey Kicks, High Knees, Frog Lunge Jumps, Jumping Jacks

Master on Main and Monsters in the Attic

It was sold to us as a huge plus when we bought our house, and we could certainly see the advantages of having the master bedroom on the main floor of the house.  At the time, Caleb was our only child, and he was still in a crib.  It was hard to foresee any problems that having the master bedroom on the main floor of the house could cause.  Fast forward almost five years, and while we love our master bedroom, there are a few disadvantages.
For instance, let's say it's exactly 2:37 a.m., and you're out cold.  All of a sudden, you are awakened by a loud thump from the floor above.  "Maybe that was just a large squirrel jumping on the roof," you tell yourself, and drift back into sleep.  A short time later, your subconscious stirs you awake to find a dark (albeit short) shadow standing over you while you slumber.  After you remove your heart from your throat, you realize that it is not in fact a nefarious evil spirit coming to taunt you in your sleep but just your oldest son.  As it turns out, it wasn't a squirrel on the roof moments earlier after all but actually Caleb's feet hitting the floor above you, and he has now come all the way down the stairs to inform you that he can't find his blankie (which, incidentally, you discover was laying in the floor by his bed).
Now imagine that it is 3:46 a.m. (possibly of the same night), and you are once again dead to the world.  All of a sudden, you hear a loud bang, similar to earlier but coming from a different location above you.  The bang is quickly followed by multiple bangs in short succession.  "Maybe it's a raccoon and her babies playing dodge ball in the attic?," you ponder to your sleep-dazed self.  Alas, you soon learn that it is not when your bedroom door slams open to let enter a shrieking demon...or rather your frantic daughter who is distraught over her rumpled covers.
You straighten out her covers, calm her down, and settle yourself back in bed.  This time, try as you may, you can't seem to fall back to sleep - what with all the excitement so far the adrenaline is pumping.  So you drag yourself out of bed again to try some milk to help you get back to sleep.  Once in the living room, you are startled to hear panicking and crying coming from the stairs at an ever-increasing level of anxiety.  This time it's your youngest son, and he quickly tells you that there are monsters in his room.  Back upstairs you go, with heavy legs and eyelids, to search for monsters.  Said monsters having not been found (and only after repeatedly assuring your son that no additional monsters would be entering his room), you trudge back downstairs, have your cup of milk, and collapse on the couch (why even bother going back to the bed at this point?).
You manage to sleep this time, though with strange dreams of monsters, blankies, and raccoons in the attic, when all of a sudden, before you know that you're even awake yet, you're flying up the stairs to the screaming at the top of the stairs.  It's Wren again.  She's shrieking, "I don't want my alarm!"  Some prankster (aka Caleb) has set her alarm to go off in the middle of the night.  You turn off the alarm and assure her that it will not be going off again that night.  Then you try for one more hour of sleep, which passes like the blink of an eye, and before you know it, Caleb's alarm has gone off and he's coming down the stairs ready for breakfast...So much for a good night's sleep.
I always thought that once your babies slept through the night, you were pretty much done with the middle of the night awakenings.  Oh, how I was once again wrong!  I'm assuming that eventually (like when they're in middle and high school) they will not want to wake Mom and Dad with whatever they're doing in the middle of the night and that maybe they will at least be a little quieter so we don't have to hear the pitter-patter of their feet from above.  Until then, we're stuck with listening to (and sometimes having to deal with) the midnight escapades of our little monsters in the attic.
(Though all of the above has not (yet) happened all in one night (though we have had multiple incidents in one night), these are all real excuses for which our children have awakened Tony or me recently.  Maybe we should take some advice from Wren and start wearing headphones at night.)