Fitspiration: Misty Copeland and those legs!!

I have about 4 girl crushes; Michelle Obama (although I'm not a fan of her new bangs), Jane "FitKenyanGirl" Mukami, India Paulino and Misty Copeland.  Wait let me back up, girl crushes, for me are women who have already achieved the levels of success or fitness, that I hope to one day achieve as well, for the purposes of this blog I'm focusing on my 4 fitness girl crushes. My biggest girl crush at the moment is Misty Copeland.  Her physique is AMAZING, she's gorgeous and she's a professional ballerina, with a never ending cache of amazing photos showcasing her talent, as a ballerina, and her physique, like these. Additionally, her story is amazing. she started dancing at 13 at the recommendation of one of  (non-ballet) school teachers.  Within 3 months, she was dancing en-pointe, and 4 years after she ever started dancing, she was dancing at the American Ballet Theater. 

Obviously, as a ballerina her legs are amazing. Those legs are a definite source of envy for me. As I've stated before, that's where I carry most of my weight, and, sadly, seems to be the hardest area for me to get definition.

Loving her quads and hams in this pic! Werk boo!!

I've been taking ballet classes, in addition to trying to lift heavier on leg days in the gym., and have made great progress but still lack definition in my legs.  Again that's my problem area, there's still a lot of fat down there, that will probably benefit greatly from a good cardio day or 2.  However, if you already have great legs and just want to tone or add a little definition.   You can either do my leg day work out,

Exercise	Weight in lbs	Sets	Repitions
Leg press	270	1	15
	320	1	12
	360	2	11
V-squats	75	1	15
	90	2	12
Leg ext	35	3	12
Ham curls	35	3	12
Circuit
Lunges	20lb dumb bells	3	15
Step ups	n/a	3	15/each leg

or if weights aren't your thing yet (although if you're reading this blog you should already know I'm a strong advocate of weight lifting), but I understand how scary the weights section of the gym can be, so you can always try this ballet work out video until you're ready to find a ballet class or start lifting with weights.  However, if you're already gym rat and not afraid of the weights feel free to use this video to supplement your regular leg work out.

Day dreaming of professional ballerina legs,
Candydiva04

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Fitness Alternatives part 1

I can't be the only one who gets bored in the gym? I can only do so many bicep curls or squats before I start thinking isn't there a better way to get fit without doing this!?!?!?  By now I know the answer, more or less, is not really.  At least not for the type of results I want.  


So to help combat that boredom, I've been exploring alternative workout options for the past year or so and listed below are some of my favorites. As this is a never ending pursit with me, I'll keep chronicaling them for you all.  I should probably point out that the goal here is to supplement my current workouts not replace them, although RR will tell you I occasionally get that backwards....  So the most recent supplemental exercise was a boot camp class that I found on Groupon.com.  

1. Fit Body Boot Camp  -     An hour-long, high intensity workout.  This particular boot camp was very much like doing an Insanity with a group of friends, in a gym.  Which I prefer to the actual Insanity workouts.  When I do workout videos, I generally get tired or fatigued and either sit down and watch them, or meander into the kitchen for a glass of water, and then stand in the doorway to kitchen watching the video.  In class, there's an actual person, who will get in my face (in a nice way) and motivate me to keep going.  Apparently, if done correctly, I can expect to burn about 1,000 calories during the hour, with a good amount of after burn.  The workout is mostly things like burpees, planks, sprints,squats, etc.  but done in short bursts, with even shorter breaks in between, which IMO made it a great cardio workout.  So far I don't feel sore, I feel really good, however  I did feel like I ran a marathon afterwards.  The next day my lats my were sore, but that was the only soreness I experienced. 

2. Circus Aerials - Hands down my favorite workout, its a AMAZING full body workout.  However, its also a *GREAT* and girlie way to develop upper body strength.  I took an 8 week session of classes last summer, thinking "I lift 5 days a week, this will be cake!"  I soon realized that my current workout had some serious holes in it, and knew that if I didn't start to address those holes, I'd not only continue being insanely sore, but also not be able to do all the cool tricks I wanted to do.  Unfortunately, the only place near Delaware that teaches Circus Aerials is about an hour and a half from me and that's not a commute I want to make during the winter, so this is currently a spring-fall workout for me... well obsession is probably a better word for it.  I am obsessed with Aerials, and recommend it to anyone looking for a fun and unique workout that will actually help you to get stronger.

3. Ballet - inspired by my love of Circus Aerials.  The good Aerialists look like ballerinas who've learned to defy the laws of gravity.  So in the interest of being a better aerialist when I begin classes again, I've begun taking ballet classes.  So far ballet has never made me sore, or even feel like I'm getting a serious workout, but I'm pretty sure, my legs are starting to look better and more defined.  Either that or running around in tights and a leotard has made me more comfortable with my body, especially my legs.  Before ballet class, I was staunchly anti-tights and leggings unless I was going to Ballet or Aerials.  Then I started wearing leggings to workout, now I've started wearing them out in the world as part of an outfit.  I'm clearly  starting to enjoy the way I look in and out of clothes.   

I've found that now that I'm starting to like the way I look,  I  take more pride in how I look. During the "fat" years,  I found that I focused a lot on just my hair and shoes, everything in between kinda got left up to chance.  Now,  I've started painting my nails again, accessorizing, and putting more time and thought into wearing a COMPLETE (head to toe) look, which occasionally includes leggings, lol.  But I've noticed similar changes in some of the my colleagues at the gym.  Everyone starts off working out in baggy (sometimes ratty) sweats and t-shirts,  and as they lose weight their work out clothes become nicer, more fitted, and better coordinated.

Besides lifting and cardio what other activities do you do? Also, have you noticed that you pay more attention to your appearance as you begin (and hopefully continue)  to make progress, or is that just me?
Fighting the war on boredom, one activity at a time,

Candydiva04

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