Day three of boot camp took a pretty good shot at my confidence!
I am becoming increasingly aware that my previous workouts didn’t focus nearly enough on stability.
I felt like a no-talent ass clown (Office Space, anyone?) today as I attempted to do single leg split squats on the stability ball while holding two 15-pound dumbbells.
I wobbled all over the place looking like a looney… and then picked up the stability ball and punted it across the gym in frustration after I completed the final set. Just kidding about the punting (not the looking like a looney).
It was a humbling experience to say the least!
I think I may decrease the weight of the dumbbells I used or do the move with no weight at all as I raise and lower my body slowly to see if that helps me feel more secure next time.
Breakfast
I think I earned a tasty breakfast after this morning’s workout and fixed myself a delicious plate of two Van’s whole grain waffles after Ryan and I arrived home from the gym.
I topped my waffles with ricotta cheese, a sliced nectarine and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice.
I think Ryan was a little jealous of my breakfast this morning. It was a good one fo’ sho’!
Time to get to work! I have an afternoon meeting for my volunteer work with the Taste of Ocala and hope to check a bunch of things off my to-do list before heading out.
Question of the Morning
- What was the last humbling experience you had during a workout?
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
I love Van’s waffles! Have you tried their French Toast sticks?! I have their cinnamon french toast sticks and they are amazing. You just put them in the toaster and your entire house smells like cinnamon. They are even great for a snack 🙂
YES! I have the hardest time finding them in Ocala though! I tried them when we were living in Orlando and loved them. Delicious!
I made my first pass at Turkish Get-ups last week, and that was a humbling experience. I was not anticipating that level of difficulty.
Stability is something I need to work on, too. Yesterday I did lunges with a side twist (holding weights), and it had my wobbling all over the mat!
I recently did split squats on a bench and they were really tough – doing them on a stability ball sounds really intense! My most recent humbling workout experience was taking a boot camp class – I had no idea what I was getting into. The instructor was a male trainer from the gym, and he was TOUGH! I know it was called boot camp so I shouldn’t have been that surprised, but it definitely kicked my butt, and I was sore for a few days!
I feel like every day is a humbling work out experience for me! Ha ha! Burpees and push ups are two of the hardest exercises for me to do no matter how much I work on them. Speed work with running is definitely awakening for me too. I would rather run 5 slower miles than 2 fast 99% of the time!
BURPEES!!!!! AHHH. Yes. Burpees will put anyone in his place.
I’m a group exercise instructor and have had more humbling experiences than I can count!!! Here are the top 3.
1. Accidentally teaching a class while wearing see-through pants (sans-underwear) and having at least five people tell me after class.
2. Falling on my butt while teaching a kickboxing class. Hard. No, I didn’t trip. No, my shoelaces weren’t untied. I simply fell out of nowhere.
3. Yelling out “Take that, pecan pie!” to motivate my boot camp class the day after Thanksgiving. I thought this was *totally* motivating (I had eating a little too much pie the day before)…they all just thought I was cray cray. 🙂
Hahahahah, oh dear. The pecan pie thing has me laughing cause I would totally think you were nuts in class, too 🙂
haha i’m a group ex. instructor too. the things that come out of my mouth are ridiculous sometimes! i don’t know where they come from, but when the mic is on, who knows what’s gonna happen. lol at least it’s entertaining for the participants!
I totally have a humbling experience every time I attempt one-legged burpees…but I love being able to say that I can complete them, even if it’s only like 4 for each side! Those pancakes look so delicious. I should buy some ricotta cheese and try it…ooo or make ricotta pancakes :).
last humbling experience…
running in the Disney Princess Half Marathon
“FOR FUN” not for time, then being so sore the next day!
DUH. 13 miles is still 13 miles I guess…
Every time I do push ups, for sure! Or going out for a run after taking a break from running. It’s crazy how fast you can lose endurance!
wow that looks like a tough one!
And I’m catching up on posts from yesterday but last nights avocado choc mousse sounds so intriguing!!
Awesome breakfast!!
I love stability exercises–always humbling! haha 😉 I was humbled the other day when I was too sore to move my arms….triceps extensions much?!
I’ve only walked into a step class once, as I tended to think they were for sleep older women and men. wow, talk about humbling experiences!! These ladies (and a few gents) rocked out those steps like they were nothing, and I could barely manage to keep up!!
They definitely took me down a peg or two.
When I was a senior in high school, I went to the YMCA with my mom. I did this quite often at that time. Once a week, there was this guy who brought over a group of mentally retarded men for the morning. It was very nice, but they would sometimes unnecessarily stare at you when you did an exercise because they didn’t know any better. When I decided to use the stability ball for some ab work, I had one of them watching me. I couldn’t find any stability. I flipped backwards off the ball! Legs in the air! Backwards somersault! Everything humiliating! Several of the people just stared at me as I fell. My mom started cracking up. I pretty sure I turned three shades of red!
The next week, same thing. Only this time I sat on the ball completely ready to redeem myself. As soon as I sat down, one of the mentally retarded men pointed at me and started laughing! I hadn’t even started the exercise yet! I don’t think I ever used the ball again on when they were at the Y!
Not to be the PC police, because I know I hate it when people get on me for stuff, but saying “special needs” instead of “mentally retarded” is a little more respectful 🙂
Thank you! Sorry about that. I was trying to figure out the other way to say it and I just couldn’t think of the words.
Just so you don’t think I’m an inconsiderate jerk… My brother’s high school girlfriend had a special needs sister. At that time, my brother straighten our whole family out on the context that we use the word “retarded.” Now, whenever any of us say “retarded,” we all say it with the utmost respect. We NEVER use it in name calling anymore!
Thank you for the correction, I just didn’t want you to think I was a jerk 🙂
No, not at all! A lot of people say that word, not trying to be disrespectful, but since so many people use it in a negative way its not the first choice to use. Have a great day 🙂
one of my most recent humbling experiences was your incline walking workout!! i’ve run 2 marathons, but, woah, did those inclines kill me. i’ve never had so much respect for the walk!
My Physique57 workouts. You’re expected to do a full split! What? I haven’t seen those since my dancing days in high school. This is, of course, on top of many exercises that I physically could not stretch myself into. Such a painful reminder to stretch more and work on flexibility.
I just bought a stability ball – haven’t tried Tina’s exercises yet, but I tried a couple others and it was hard! I can imagine Tina’s will be too when I do them tomorrow 🙂
When I started running I found out that I had a tilted pelvis and had to start seeing a physical therapist. I was VERY humbled when he would have me do a one-legged squat. His version involved me sitting down and standing back up with one leg and no hands. After the third or fourth time I fell, I knew a humble attitude was needed!
stablity and balance sure do put a lot more challenge into workouts! the importance of stability is one of the biggest things i learned when getting my NASM cert. the last humbling experience i had was when i went to one of my recent group fitness classes. we did a bunch of abs and core exercises, and i felt so weak! it was then that i realized i’ve been pretty darn lazy with my core work lately.
Definitely my workout just this morning (approximately 2 hours ago). I work night shift as an ICU nurse, and usually work out before I go into work (around 4pm), but today decided to work out AFTER my 12 hour, non-stop running around, crazy shift. I didn’t think it would be a problem, but seriously had to get off of the treadmill after only about 5 minutes because my legs were literally wobbling and getting ready to give out underneath me. I’ll stick to my pre-work runs from now on!
Last humbling experience . . when I had to leave class so I wouldn’t pass out. Staying hydrated is so important!!! This has happened to me more than once (when will I learn??). . one time resulting in me lying on the floor outside of cycling class in the weight room. Embarrassing for sure.
Thank you for sharing that you struggled with one of the movements/exercises.
I must admit that it can be kind of….disheartening? discouraging? or, umm…. causing-thoughts-leading-to-insecuritying to read about work outs every day on blogs of fit people, and then try the same work outs on my own and feel like a major failure when I can’t finish with a smile on my face and a “HOORAY! That was awesome!” comment.
There are many times I try a suggested work out from one of my favorite bloggers and when I’m doing one of the particular movements, I feel like some kind of fraud – can’t complete it on my own, can’t make my body cooperate, can’t compare to what I see everyone else doing. It is frustrating and lends to the very unhealthy comparisson trap.
It’s refreshing to hear that even the most fit of my friends struggle with one exercise or movement from time to time. THANK YOU for keeping it real.
Yoga is always a very humbling experience for me!
I agree, those split squats ARE hard! When I started doing them, I positioned the ball in a corner so that it wouldn’t go flying out from under my back foot. I’m a lot better at them now than I was before, but if I haven’t done them in a while, it feels like the first time all over again!
Learning to swim! After a couple lengths I was short on breath and my legs hurt, but at the same time I have ran a full marathon and thought swimming would be no big deal. Boy, was I wrong!
balancing is really no joke, such a good workout.
I had been doing regular lunges and then decided to do reverse lunges, I for some reason, did not have the coordination to do the reverse lunges. Haha, I felt like such a dork.
Good Morning!
I’m a newer reader to your blog and I am completely addicted! I went from being completely sedentary all the time to working out 2-3 times a week with a personal trainer & eating healthy(20 lbs down already!) and this blog has most definitely influenced this! My advice for the squats is maybe try doing them with the TRX? I recently did something similar to this and boy was it a booty workout! My last humbling experience is that about 6 weeks after I started working out I got a kidney stone and couldn’t work out for 2 weeks…and my first day back at the gym with my trainer was so intense..it was humbling for sure!
I have such a hard time with split squats on a stability ball too! I tried to do them as part of a HIIT workout once and I spent half the time just trying to balance my foot on the ball…oops! haha
I was in a women’s body conditioning class for the first half of the semester, and that was basically a scheduled humbling-experience-during-workout-for-credit hour and a half twice a week haha. The pushups with dumbells to a T-stabilization plank for 45 seconds straight usually got me the worst, although the dot drill jumps on one leg didn’t do much for my self confidence, either haha. I basically looked like a hopping fool.
Can I just say how much I get a kick out of kicking your booty. mwahahahaa!!!
Now you’re not going to want to see me in FL this summer. 😉
Whenever I take some time off running, that first run back is always tough. I always seem to compare myself to where I was the last time I ran, and it’s humbling to say the least.
hahaha, its always a humbling experience when i fall during a run..it usually happens on a main street where people can see me or when someone is walking by. i’m a smooth operator.
This morning. 5am. Kickboxing. Lots of cardio in this one and I felt so out of shape!
OMG… we do that move in my pilates class and I wobble all over the place!! The other move that really humbles me is stability ball planks with added leg movements. You get into plank position on your ball, then pull your knee into your chest. Yep.. definintely have tipped over a time or two.. or 10!
P90x for me. Doesn’t feel bad when I’m doing it but really sore the next day…that and running on trails…so much harder!
The first time that I did windmills with a kettlebell. Dang! I thought that my flexibility and balance would help, but those were so hard at first.
I’ve been seeing lots of bloggers that have signed up to be a part of Tina’s Bootcamp, sounds like a great schedule! I love looking at blogs (especially yours) to get new ideas to try at the gym. I can’t wait to try out the single leg split squats on the stability ball!
The last humbling experience I had was just last week. I am a month into Jamie Eason’s LiveFit Bodybuilding Program and the first time I tried to incorporate cardio in again I was flabbergasted at the fact that I was struggling to run a mile on the treadmill. Yikes!
I avoid stability exercises like the plague, because they’re always very humbling. I know that means I need to do them more, but ughh…
Last humbling gym experience: getting my butt kicked at a yogalates class. I was the youngest person there by 20+ years, and although I can run and swim and bike, I cannot do yogalates.
It sounds like Tina’s Boot Camp is going well 🙂 I need to purchase some Ricotta Cheese on my next grocery shopping trip.. it looks delicious over waffles!
Balance has always been an issue for me. But really it is a core strength issue. I couldn’t even get on a bosu ball by myself at first. But I quickly improved and continue to work on my core strength!
The Kidless Kronicles
Maybe I read the instructions wrong because I didn’t think we were supposed to use weights with the stability ball lunge? I guess I just watched the video and didn’t see weights so I didn’t think to use them! Much easier without weights!
My most humbling workouts are those involving a lot of push ups. I am terrible at them! I can plank the day away, but when it comes to push ups, I look WEAK!
OMG. Just googled “pistol squat.”
Holy cow. Those look hard!
Can’t believe I haven’t seen those!
Whoops, wrong person. Sorry! 🙂
I am trying to do pistol squats like theleangreenbean.com. I have hit a table, the sofa, and a 4 year old. no one was injured but me.
OMG. Just googled “pistol squat.”
Holy cow. Those look hard!
Can’t believe I haven’t seen those!
they’re deadly.
My endurance isn’t too high, so any high intensity cardio work-out humbles me. Still love ’em, though!
That squat looks intense! That breakfast…mmmm good idea!
Running along a country road in Costa Rica and realizing I run for fun while the citizens of the town work hard everyday just to feed their families and do not have the ability or time to enjoy a work out.
Last humbling work out?
Probably Insanity Dvd’s. I usually have to stop the video for a few seconds since I feel my legs can’t hold me up any longer!
Just need those few extra seconds to get back in the groove!
Julie, Have you ever tried mixing cottage cheese w/ splenda and cinnamon instead of ricotta? I usually do my cottage cheese this way w/ on top an english muffin or w/ chopped banana mixed in. Sounds odd, but very good (in my opinion). Plus, more protein!
I can totally feel your pain (and frustration) about really realizing where you are fit-wise during a workout. I took a Body Works class at my gym thinking it was going to be easy and I was shaking and wobbling all over the place because it has been SO long since I’ve done a good stability workout with weights. It’s good to know that I’m in good company 🙂
I never realized how much more difficult exercises were (and how terrible I was) when incorporating stability into my exercise routine. Moves that seem so easy become so difficult when I do them on a BOSU or something similar (like a pilates boat pose!) I teach a class called BOSU, strength and stability, and people always laugh when I tell them to do something like bicep curls when standing on the BOSU. Then when they begin, the laughing stops and the determination sets in, it is so much harder than it sounds! Wonderful workout though!
I hope your loving your boot camp!!!
Burpees crush me. And I’m going to be trying zumba and hot yoga both for the first time in the near future and I’m sure they will be kick my butt.
*they will BOTH kick my butt*