“No Excuses” Workouts

I started working on this blog post three months ago, and I’m so grateful I didn’t post it then because a “No Excuses” Workout has taken on a whole new meaning the past few weeks. Somehow, and I have no idea how, I fractured my sesamoid bone in my right foot. Walking became uncomfortable, lunges became very painful (I love lunges!), planks were a definite no-no, and other ball-of-the-foot-bending activities hurt a lot. Interestingly enough, running was not painful, which is odd, since a lot of sesamoid injuries occur from and are irritated further by running. In fact, the week before I went to the podiatrist, I ran several miles three of the days we were in NYC—no pain whatsoever!

I first thought of doing this post when I spent a couple of days in Knoxville meeting our new foster granddaughter—Aria—and celebrating her 2nd birthday with her. There wasn’t a branch of my gym within 30 minutes of Zach and Angela’s house (drive ONE hour round trip to go to the gym? No way!), and since I promised myself on January 1st that I would work out Monday-Friday every week this year, no matter what (unless my body was really telling me it needed a day off, or unless I was injured), I had to get a bit creative with my strength training workout one morning. Zach has some dumbbells, one barbell, and a weight bench, and with my bands that always travel with me, + a bit of creativity, I was able to get in a GREAT workout! (Workout courtesy of the amazing The TRANSFORM App!).

And since I’ve had to get quite creative working out my lower body with this injury, below are some exercises I’ve been doing to keep my lower body as strong as possible. No, the resistance isn’t what it is when I work out “normally,” but I figure it’s way better than doing nothing for several weeks! And I can actually feel the resistance when I’m doing these exercises. Photo creds to my sister for taking these photos for me when we were in Nashville on our first ever sisters’ trip. The hotel gym was a bit lacking equipment-wise, but with my bands I brought with me, I was able to still get in a pretty good workout—walking boot and all. And I’ve added to my repertoire since this workout!

Here are some tips for doing your own “No Excuses” workout while you’re away from home, if you’re short on time, or if you don’t feel like going to the gym or don’t have a gym membership:

Choose a gym close to your house. Bonus: Check to see if there are locations close to where you travel frequently or near out of town relatives’ houses. The reasons I chose my gym are that it’s seriously 5 minutes from my house, there’s one 10 minutes from Kam’s house in Utah, one 10 minutes from my in-law’s house in Kentucky, one 2 minutes from my parents’ house in Idaho, and there will soon be one about 10 minutes from Zach’s house. #NoExcuses And no, my gym doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles, but I really don’t need those for what I want to accomplish, and it’s so close that I really have no excuse not to go.

Invest in some minimal equipment and take it with you when you travel. I have some resistance bands that can be added to to increase the resistance, and they even come in their own little bag with instructions for different ways to use them. And get some slingshot bands to increase the intensity of simple moves too. Plus, these rubber resistance bands have been a lifesaver with this sesamoid injury!

Just do something. Any workout is better that NO workout. You can do a Tabata workout where you choose a few different exercises—many require no equipment and can be done pretty much anywhere. What’s Tabata, you ask? It’s so simple!

1. Do a movement for 20 seconds
2. Rest for 10 seconds
3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 for a total of 4 minutes.
4. Move on to another movement.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 as many times as you’d like. Super simple!

Here are some options to choose from for a quick workout—no equipment needed: burpees, push ups, squats, hip thrusts, high knees, lunges, tricep dips, jumping jacks, run in place, and swing ups. Throw in a plank for that core, and you’re good to go!

It looks like I get to wear this boot for 2 more weeks, and then hopefully I’ll be healed and can get back to working out at the gym like I want to. And back to running. Oh…how I miss running! It’s been a VERY long 8 weeks. And on those mornings…after I’m all healed… when I really don’t want to head to the gym or hit the street, I’m going to remember how much I’ve missed doing all of my workouts since I injured my foot. #perspective And my “No Excuses Workouts” have kept me on track with my January 1st goal, even though I’ve had to skip the Tuesday and Thursday cardio workouts since I’ve been banned from doing cardio by my doctor (what’s a girl to do about that?). But I’ll get right back to 5 days a week as soon as I can!

Happy (no excuses) working out!