My workouts this week were really well balanced. Three strength training workouts, two good runs and lots of yoga. Furthermore, I loved the balance of my strength workouts with one big squat day, one deadlift focused day and one all over circuit training day.
As I’ve mentioned before, I try to get in barbell squats and deadlifts at least once a week (on separate days). I LOVE to squat but deadlifting has been something I’ve had to work really hard on the lift to get to the point where I enjoy doing it and feel good. When I first started out my technique wasn’t great and I would feel them in my back more than my butt and hamstrings. I had to really work with my coach on my form and now I can finally perform sets of bodyweight deadlifts for strength training and it feels awesome and empowering!
I think as women many of us are hesitant to deadlift but it’s worth working on. Deadlifts are such an important part of working the legs and when you spend a ton of time squatting (like I love to do), it’s even more important to be mindful of posterior chain strength because you don’t want to become quad dominant. Deadlifts are so great for toning the legs and butt and hit so many other muscle groups.
(source)
Also, they’re just an extremely functional movement. The ability to bend over and pick something up off the ground is something that we have to do our entire lives!
Deadlifts…do you incorporate them into your training?
Now, for this week’s workouts.
Monday
Hot yoga + CrossFit
3 rounds for time…
30 front squats (done at 55#)
30 burpees
50 ab mat sit ups
This took me about 18 minutes to complete. It takes FOREVER to do 50 ab mat sit ups!
Tuesday
Hot yoga
Wednesday
Hot yoga + CrossFit
5 rounds for time
15 deadlifts (done at 85#)
400 meter run
This workout took me about 15 minutes to complete.
Thursday
5 mile run
It was 75 degrees and sunny in Charlotte Thursday so a run was in order. I took Sullie for the first three and then did two more on my own. We were happy girls!
Friday
Yoga (non-heated) + circuit workout
I did a variation of this circuit workout one of our trainers programmed for his circuit training class. I modified it by adding a 500 meter row before each round, using a 35# kettlebell for the plie squats, increasing the push ups to 20, subbing weighted crunches for sit ups, switching the lunges to 20 reverse (10 each leg) and 20 forward stepping and 15 pull ups. No set amount of recovery between rounds, just whenever I was ready to go again. It was a good one! Took about 23ish minutes.
Saturday
Yoga in Mexico! (non-heated)
Sunday
Yoga in Mexico! (non-heated) + 30 minute treadmill run with last 10 minutes of sprint intervals
It’s not hard to run on the treadmill when you have this view! 🙂
Have a great day!
How do you like your blue Ebb to Street tank, compared to your other Lululemon tanks?
Love that view! Are deadlifts okay for someone who has knee problems? I’d love to try them but I have previous ACL and medial meniscus surgeries : (
Deadlifts are my jam! I do really well when they’re included in WODs – probably because theres only so many position points that I can screw up during the lift. 🙂 One of my goals is to hit a 300 pound Deadlift this year! I’m already at 260 so I think it’s in the cards!
Also, so jealous of the weather in Charlotte! It hit 50 degrees here in New York over the weekend and you would have thought it was the first day of summer judging by the number of tanks and shorts I saw during my run in Central Park!
I love deadlifts BUT I still feel them more in my back than I’d like, so I’m afraid to go super heavy with them. I think a lot of it is mobility issues that make it almost impossible for me to reach the ground without rounding my back a little. If I don’t manage to fix it soon I might recruit a trainer to help me out, because I love what DLs do for my legs and I’d like to keep going up in weight.
I haven’t been lifting weights recently, but deadlifts were always a weird exercise for me. When I get back into the weights, I’ll definitely make sure I incorporate them more often.
Looks like a great week of workouts! Hope you’re having an awesome time in Mexico!
Wow I would love to have that view from my run! Beautiful!
I really need to get back into weight lifting but I love deadlifts! I think they are a great workout and I love pushing myself with deadlifts!
What a view! Have fun.
Loving those last few pictures of Mexico!! Have a great rest of trip and great job on the workouts!
In used to be terrified of dead-lifts, but now I incorporate them into my weekly routine.
I’m sitting here at work just continually scrolling through these pictures. Impossible to focus now!! I can’t wait to get down there!
I LOVE deadlifts now, but didn’t always. I also had pain in my back and knees in the beginnning and I think a great coach is the key here. Mine helped me so much with various cues and tweaks to my form.
I would argue that yoga in Mexico is heated 🙂
Have FUN!!!!!
I do deadlifts as part of crossfit workouts. I am still working on my form. I have a tendency to do the move a little disjointed as the weight gets heavier. Work in progress for sure.
I did that circuit training (above) this morning and really liked it – thank you for including that in your post!!
I have a love hate with deadlifts!! I love lifting and I lift heavy, in fact I am doing a powerlifting meet in the spring. BUT for some reason deadlifts are my weak link. I have to work extra hard at them and it feels awesome when I have a good day, but I usually don’t look forward to them.
Great post on deadlifts – thanks Jen! I am trying to add them into my workouts more but I definitely prefer squats. Where do lunges fall in in terms of what you’re working?
Also, I’m wondering about training your upper body? Do you ever do strictly upper body/arms lifting or do you find your yoga + WOD are enough?
Just wanted to say I tried the circuit workout. Trying to do something different to get some strength back after baby #4. My body doesn’t seem to forget how to run no matter how much time away but I’ve never done much for weights or strength training. This was perfect!!! I modified a few things but I just loved doing this! Thanks so much! I’ll keep my eyes open for future workouts! (This is what they call ‘mommy brain’– I was doing the mountain climbers one day and thinking I had to do 60 of them. I got to about 45 and just dropped to the floor. I felt like I was going to die. Then I realized I was only supposed to be doing 20 and felt a little better!) Again, thanks SO much for this!