Today was a fairly easy day for me – an Active rest day. I usually do cross training for my cardio to give my knees a break from running. It depends on how I’m feeling and today my knees were a little achy so I decided to keep my workouts low impact. Started with Tone It Up’s Under the Sea workout – 10reps X3 sets. You’ll see me doing this one a lot during the Bikini Series :-)

I had another quiet morning to myself after dropping the boys off to school. Ben is still on his alternate work schedule while we wait for his medical to be cleared so he wasn’t home either.  The workout challenge for the Bikini Series today was to do the Bikini Strap workout from last year’s series :-) I was more than happy to do it because it is my favorite workout from last year.  I still do it a lot for bootycalls. I did 15reps X 3sets. I added a 6lb. medicine ball to the Thigh Slimming Squats for some resistance. I also used the medicine ball for the Waistline V-Sit Twists. I’ve improved since last year. I was able to keep my feet off the ground during the Upper Chest and Shoulder Press and during the V-Sit Twists :-) I also started the Ultimate Arm and Back Toner with 5 regular pushups. Doing regular pushups instead of modified ones really makes a difference! I’m hoping that I’ll be able to do 10-15 all regular pushups one day :-) Then it was time for some Turbo Fire.

Turbo Fire Day 60 – It was HIIT15 and Tone 30 today.  I followed the low impact moves but  modified the tuck jumps. I wanted to push myself but take it easy on my knees at the same time. I did modified jacks the first set but realized that I could do regular jacks fine without my knees hurting too badly so I stuck with normal jacks for the rest of the workout.  I also modified the Star Jacks because those were harder on my knees. My favorite is the last combo – even modifying all the tuck jumps at the end got my heart racing. Tone30 was tough on my shoulders today – probably because they were already worked from the Bikini Strap workout.

For my afternoon workout I did the Bikini Series workout challenge from yesterday – the Drop10 Engine Revver.  This one would have been perfect to do on the treadmill but I went with the elliptical to keep it low impact.  I make sure that during the work interval – I’m working.  I used a different machine than I normally do because the one I like to use was already in use when I got to the gym… don’t you hate when that happens? lol.  I put the resistance and incline at 10 for the work and lowered them to 5 for the rest intervals. I was sweaty mess afterwards and loved it.

Another reason I took it easy today is because I decided to do my first 10K with a friend of mine this weekend. I haven’t been specifically training for it because I’ve been so focused on Big Sur.  But I figure if I can run 9miles, I can run 6miles.  Since I did a super long run yesterday, I know that I have to give my legs and knees a break so I can do have a decent run on Sunday.

Did something different for my PlankADay. My TIU sister Emma (@Roxyfull) posted her plank routine for BeachBabe Abs on twitter: 1min plank, 1min tummy tuck alternating for 5 minutes. I consider myself a fairly fit person and I’ve done 5min planks alternating but usually with more than 2 positions. This routine sounded pretty good and I figured it’d be a great way to end my night.  I was not prepared to sweat as much as I did. Lol. My shoulders were killing me the whole time but I pushed through. Doing tummy tucks for a minute after holding plank for a minute – burns!! My whole body was shaking at the end. Thanks for a great ab workout Emma! I’m going to be doing it a lot :-)

Meals – Completely obsessed with mangos today :-)

M1: Egg white Scramble w/ spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms.

M2: A whole mango :-) I was so excited that they were ripe and ready to eat.

M3: Salad w/ left over Panko Chicken, spinach, cucumbers, carrots and tomatoes with a side of mango.  I only used part of the mango for the salad but I would have eaten another whole one :-)

M4: Almond Coconut Kind bar and a Zico.

M5: Salmon Burger patty on top of Spinach, bell peppers, and mushrooms topped with fresh pineapple. This was sooooo good. Salmon and pineapple taste great together :-)

80 oz. of water, 1 Zico and 1c. of Green tea.

Sign up for the Bikini Series at ToneItUp.com

You can also still sign up for Self Magazine’s Drop10 Challenge

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