Tag: exercise

bookmark_borderI Tried Roller Skating for 30 Days! A Fun “End of Summer” Challenge

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Hey earth muffins! If you read my latest collective haul post, you will know that I recently purchased myself some roller skates. I wanted to challenge myself at the end of the summer to try something new – so I attempted to roller skate for a month! In today’s post, I wanted to share the ups and downs of this roller skating challenge with you all. Let’s roll right into it!

Teal roller skates on an outdoor rink

Why Did I Want to Roller Skate? Getting the Challenge Started

I’ve never been a fan of working out, but I was feeling the need to move my body in some way at the end of the summer. While I typically opt for long walks (or trying out a Chloe Ting workout), I decided to try out something different. Roller skating sounded like a fun thing to try! I used to love hitting up the roller rink when I was in middle school. The fun music, good times with friends – what wasn’t to like? There is a park in my city that has an outdoor cemet rink, which I decided was the perfect place for the roller skating adventures to begin. As you saw in my latest haul, I picked out some skates (with outdoor wheels) and placed the order! πŸ›Ό And no, I didn’t pick out roller skates that match the emoji… That was a total happy accident.

How Did It Go?

Once I got my skates, I incorporated roller skating into my morning routine. I didn’t go every single day but tried my best if the weather was nice. By going in the morning, the weather was cooler and I always got the rink all to myself. Outdoor skating is definitely different than indoor skating. Because the rink is made of cemet, there are hazards you don’t need to think about in a smooth indoor rink (such as cracks and loose stones). I have definitely fallen, but more on that in a bit.

Pair of teal roller skates on an outdoor rink

Skating is super fun! Practice makes perfect, so the more I go skating the better I feel. Just like with ice skating, I felt wobbly and unstable when I started – but I definitely have my “roller skating” legs now! Another thing that makes this so much fun in the morning is my roller skating Spotify playlist. I have some total bops that I listen to, including “Proud Mary” by Tina Turner, “Skate” by Bruno Mars, and “Disco Inferno” by The Trammps. Great music makes roller skating even more fun! Once I continue skating and feel even more stable, I hope to move from the rink to the bike trails/roads in my town. 😊

How To Get Up After a Fall

Know in advance that everyone falls when trying to learn to skate! I was a pretty good skater before I started this challenge, but I’ve had my fair share of falls still. The biggest crash happened about two weeks into skating… I was doing my last lap and a flat slate rock made me slip like it was a banana peel. I fell on my butt SO hard; when I got home, I started seeing little prisms of light in my left eye. While those went away after about thirty minutes, I was messed up for the whole weekend with headaches, neckaches, and fatigue. I basically had given myself whiplash for falling so hard. 😬

Once you have a big fall like that, it is difficult to get back to roller skating. Even after taking a week off to fully recover, I was still hesitant to get back on the rink. It is more of a mental game now, with the fear of falling being more present than it was before. But, I got back out there! I watched a few YouTube videos to learn better techniques against rocks and outdoor hazards when skating… Falls are going to happen, it is getting back up that makes you stronger and more resilient!

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Final Thoughts on My Roller Skating Challenge!

Overall, I would recommend you try out roller skating! It was a super fun challenge to do at the end of the summer, and I plan on continuing to skate throughout the fall. Once winter sets in, I’ll have to swap out my skates for some ice skates, as the outdoor rink gets turned into an ice rink when it gets snowy. Even in only 30 days I’ve seen a ton of improvement in my skating, and it is such a fun way to stay active! I am proud that I was able to get back out there after a huge scary fall as well. What have you been doing to stay fit recently? πŸ›Ό Comment below and let me know if you have ever been roller skating before!

Love,
Jenna β™₯

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bookmark_borderChloe Ting Ab Workout Schedule ~ My Inspired Routine to Stay Fit!

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Hey earth muffins! Back in July I did something totally out of the ordinary and tried a 2 week Chloe Ting Ab Challenge. While I didn’t do this to lose quarantine weight or anything like that, I wanted to see if my body would feel better and stronger…. And it did! I loved my experience with the challenge; so much so, I created a whole “Chloe Ting” ab workout schedule for myself inspired by this challenge. 😁

A picture of a girl doing a plank ab exercise

At the end of my post about my experience with the 2 week ab challenge, I mentioned how I might try out another challenge for my legs or arms… And I am currently 13 days into a 21 day Lean Arms Challenge! 😬 As this has been impacting my ab inspired workout, I thought I would talk about this program first.

What Chloe Ting Challenge I Am Doing Now

I used to have super great upper body strength when I participated in athletics growing up. Sadly, this strength has slowly disappeared. After seeing amazing results with Chloe Ting’s ab challenge, I figured it would be fun to see if some of this strength would return. To focus on my arms, I picked out the Lean Arms Challenge. While I thought it would focus mainly on my arms, it also emphasizes abs and toning…. Gives the workouts a lot of variety!

A picture of the Chloe Ting Lean Arms Challenge schedule

If you follow the link to the challenge schedule, you will see that each day there are 2-4 videos to complete. This is a lot more challenging than the ab workouts, as that was only a single video. I am 100% sweating by the time I complete my videos for the day… But I feel SO incredible after! My arms and back muscles are feeling so much stronger than usual; I hope to continue to see results! Once this challenge is over, I will be adding another arms inspired schedule for myself similar to the Chloe Ting ab workout schedule I will be sharing with you all next. πŸŽ‰

My Chloe Ting Inspired Ab Workout Schedule

After doing the 2 week ab challenge, I knew what exercises I liked and what worked best for me. I used this knowledge to make my own ab plan, aimed at keeping the abs Chloe Ting so graciously gave me. πŸ˜‚ If you also create your own workouts, make sure you don’t just pick the “easy” exercises! You obviously will hate certain exercises because they are challenging – so keep them in your workout routine!

So, without further to do, here is my “quick and easy” ab workout routine:

  • 25 crunches
  • 20 Spiderman planks
  • 25 Russian twists
  • 10 In and Outs
  • 40 seconds of plank with hip dips
  • 40 second plank
  • 25 Bicycle crunches
  • 30 Mountain climbers
  • 25 Heel taps
  • 5 Straight leg crunches
  • 50 squats

If you aren’t sure what a certain exercise looks like, I suggest checking out the original video to see:

What About Cardio??

Now after looking at the routine you might be questioning if I do any cardio as well. Fun fact about me: I hate cardio because I HATE sweating. But, I know it is honestly one of the best things you can do in terms of working out. πŸ™„ I try to take long walks as often as possible – my usual walking pace is faster than the average Joe’s, but I try to force myself to walk even faster to keep my heart rate up. I also live on the 7th floor of my apartment building and have decided to take the stairs 90% of the time. This is obviously good for my legs and heart, so I would highly recommend doing this easy thing if you also live on a high floor of your building!

Overall, I am pretty proud of myself for actively working out this year. I never exercised in college, so this is a great change of pace for me. πŸ˜€ Plus, I feel amazing!! What have you been doing to stay fit?

Chloe Ting ab workout schedule
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Love,
Jenna β™₯

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bookmark_borderI Tried a 2 Week Chloe Ting Ab Challenge πŸ˜€

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Hey earth muffins! Mister Corona has, no doubt, impacted everyone’s lives in so many ways. While I have been spending most of quarantine studying for my upcoming CPA exams, I also jumped on board a trend I never would have seen coming: Chloe Ting. When the stay at home orders were first issued, my Instagram and YouTube feeds blew up with people talking about β€œChloe Ting”. I had no idea who she was, but after doing some research I was lowkey inspired. I have always wanted abs, so why not try out a Chloe Ting ab challenge when I was stuck at home?

As someone who never exercises other than taking long walks, I thought a structured workout routine would be beneficial. Even if I wasn’t going to get actual abs, I thought it would be smart to be a bit healthier to ward off any pandemic germs. 😬 So, in my planner I added Chloe Ting to my to-dos for 14 days straight; here are my thoughts on my ab challenge experience!

The Chloe Ting Ab Challenge I Picked

Because I never usually do workouts to build my muscles, I wanted to select a Chloe Ting challenge that wasn’t going to be impossible to complete. The video I used was her ten minute ab challenge. If you are trying to get fully shredded (like Matt the Radar Technician), there are three other videos you can do alongside this one for a two-week shred challenge. But, I just decided to see how an ab workout would work for me. πŸ˜„

Ab Challenge Week 1

For only a 10 minute video, Chloe works you HARD 😰 After doing two different exercises for 30 seconds you only get 10 seconds of rest before moving on to the next – it can be brutal at times! Day 1 wasn’t too challenging; I spent some time making sure I was doing each exercise correctly which made the workout feel shorter. If you decide to try out one of her workouts, I suggest watching it a couple of times before you physically try it out. This will allow you to work out harder on the first day because you will actually know how to complete the different exercises.

I was SO sore on days 2 and 3 because (obviously) I had been working out muscles I didn’t use often. After these days though I never felt sore, only that tight crampy feeling you get during the actual workout. No joke, I had the outline of abs by day 4!! I’m not talking about an outline of each set of abs, but that β€œ11” on your stomach that makes you look hella good. This was definitely motivation to keep going with the challenge!

A picture of a woman in a sports bra with her abs showing

I also loved that Chloe incorporates a lot of different types of exercises into one workout. Because there is a variety, it makes the workout go by much faster as you are doing something new constantly. It also allows people of many different abilities to try out her workouts – which I love! πŸ˜… While there were some exercises that I hated (like up and down planks or plank jacks) I found some new exercises that I actually enjoyed.

Ab Challenge Week 2

Was it hard to keep up the challenge for 14 days straight? Yes and no. The challenge is only 10 minutes, so there isn’t an excuse for being too busy to do it each day. But, there is always that initial time of feeling unmotivated to exercise. To counter this, the fact that I could see the results so early was motivation to keep it up. πŸ’ͺ

By the second week, I had the order of the exercises basically memorized. This was awesome because it enabled me to focus on the best form and push my body to complete more reps of each. I will tell you – the back track of this workout gets pretty repetitive and annoying at times after you have been listening to it for two weeks straight!

A woman doing a crunch on a yoga mat

Overall Thoughts on a Chloe Ting Ab Challenge

Did I see results? Yupp. I don’t think it is necessary to show you all the β€œafter” as I never took before pictures; plus, I wasn’t doing this to share my results with the world. I was doing it to feel better about my body and to make it stronger. 🀩

Will I continue with Chloe Ting? Yes and no! Based on this challenge, I actually made my own workout routine with some of my favorite exercises. I love how strong my body has been feeling, so I have been doing this routine almost every single day after my challenge has ended!! I might try out another one of her challenges to strengthen my legs and arms, but I will most likely just incorporate them into this new routine. Look out for a workout routine post in the near future!

Would I recommend a Chloe Ting ab challenge? YES. It is amazing that she puts her workouts online for free, as many people don’t have access to gyms/trainers. In addition, they actually get results! As these challenges range from low to high commitment, there is no reason to not give one a try. Now I know why so many people have been talking about her workouts, and I totally recommend you try them too! πŸ₯³ What have you been doing to stay fit at home?

A picture of a woman doing crunches with the words I tried the 2 week Chloe Ting Ab Challenge on top
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Love,
Jenna β™₯

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