Homemade Booty

I fought back and forth with whether or not to share about my divorce, however, I knew I had to share because I couldn't continue blogging the way I had before when my blog had a focus on marriage. I put it out there and the response I got warmed my heart so much! This week is a rough week (I'm going to be signing divorce paperwork for filing this week) and hearing your supportive words was exactly what I needed to get through my day. I am actually on the road back up to the Florida Panhandle to get the rest of my things and to sign the paperwork. It is going to be a miserable trip since my biggest fear is that this would be the last time I see my husband ever again. . . :-(

But, let's not dwell on sad things! Fitness makes me happy and fulfills me so much so I am so excited to be able to share anything I learn or find with you. :-)

If there is a fitness website I am obsessed with it most definitely is FitnessRX for Women! I learn so much about fitness and clean eating along with learning new exercises and strategies for working out. I used to have access to the base gym for free when I lived with my husband. Now that I live with my parents, I live in an active town with many gyms, but, alas, I have no money yet (working on that!) to pay for membership. I'm sad that I don't have the equipment anymore to build muscle, but that doesn't mean I can't still tone and shape my body! I know it is a common issue women have of getting to a gym  so I am excited to be forced to workout at home for a while and get creative with it.

So of course, I found this article from FitnessRX titled Strong & Shapely Glutes: The Ultimate Butt Lift Program and automatically wanted to use it since my lower half is my number one goal to whip into shape. (Follow the link to the article and they also have a chart of the exercises you can print out)

Source: fitnessrxwomen.com via Melina on Pinterest

The workout can be done at home as it only calls for simple equipment:

Dumbbells

Stability Ball

Bench

A Mat if you are working out on a hard floor

Jump Rope

I say simple but I know maybe not all of this equipment is in your home. I personally don't have a bench and I left my stability ball back at my husband's house so I had to modify a bit.

This is what I use:

8 pound and 15 pound dumbbells (I'd recommend 3lbs & 8lbs or 5lbs & 10lbs whatever you can handle at doing 10 reps where the last two are hard)

A stable chair

Come to find out that my mom just bought a stability ball, but I'm going to stick with a chair for now. I'll explain in a bit. You can find details of the exercises and their explanations in the article. I'll share below my version of the plan.

Monday: Lower Body & Cardio
Tuesday: Upper Body/Abs & Cardio
Wednesday: Cardio
Thursday: Upper Body/Abs & Cardio
Friday: Lower Body & Cardio
Saturday: Cardio
Sunday: Rest

Lower Body Exercises as listed with a few mods:
~ I use my 15 pound dumbbells for all the leg exercises
~ 1-Leg Squat done with a sturdy chair instead of a bench or box
~ Rope Skipping done without a jump rope, I just mock the motion of jumping and moving my arms
~ Step-Ups done on a sturdy chair instead of a bench or step
~ It says for intermediate and advanced to do the circuit 2-3 times. I would say I am in shape with the exception that I started this after 3 1/2 weeks off of training. Starting this week, I could only do it twice and was sore for days. So if you are new to exercise, I would recommend 1 circuit if you want to try this. It really is a challenging workout!
~ I am also adding to the circuit since I felt that the workout does a good job working the glutes, quads, inner thighs and calves, but my hamstrings felt left out. I'll be adding this: Dumbbell Deadlift 15 reps followed by High Knees (just cuz I like those!)

Upper Body Exercises as listed with a few mods:
~ Seated Dumbbell Press done with the heavier weight and the Shoulder Sunrise Rotations & Side Lateral Raises done with the lighter weight. I use 8 and 15 pounds but as I said before, use what you can do for 10 reps of the exercise.
~ I know that my core isn't as strong for me to do the stability ball knee-ins, thanks to my loathing of ab exercises and therefore hardly doing them! So instead I planked with my legs elevated on the chair (extra challenge for the shoulders), beginners can just plank on your hands and feet on floor, and then bring each knee up towards your shoulder for a good core and oblique workout. The trade off in the exercise doesn't necessarily work the exact muscles but it still strengthens the core and I have a primary focus on my obliques anyway.
~ I do V-Ups on the floor since my chair has a back and gets in the way.
~ It says 1-3 reps of each exercise, I'd definitely shoot for 3.
~ I did all 3 reps of an exercise with a 1 minute rest period before moving on to the next exercise doing the same.

Cardio is pretty much my own thing:
~ Cardio on Lower Body days is a moderate intensity, steady state jog around the neighborhood for about 30 minutes.
~ Cardio on Upper Body days is the interval training as laid out by FitnessRX in the plan for running but outside instead of a treadmill since I don't have one (and I hate the treadmill anyway).
~ For the days that are just Cardio, I'll either do a moderate intensity 30 minute jog or a Bodyrock.tv workout depending on my mood or the weather.


Always know your limits and always listen to your body. Read the article for proper technique and be sure to ask me if you'd like a suggestion for an alternative exercise to one of the ones listed in the program or a modified version of an exercise to make it easier.

I plan to do this routine for the rest of October, maybe perhaps even through November with a different upper body/abs circuit. If you end up trying this workout, let me know what you thought of it! It's a toughie for sure!

Any programs you are doing this month? Do share because I love expanding my library of workouts to try out. :-) And be sure to Like The STRONG Life on Facebook to get more inspiration and fitness related findings that I only share on Facebook!