Pinterest in a Pinch

Photo: Kurhan

There are the occasional days when I honestly don’t have the time. I know, I know that is the worst excuse ever and I need to make time, but it happens! Sometimes the whole act of getting ready, driving to the gym, working out, driving home, showering and getting ready is just too time consuming. Knowing that a non-exercised Em is a cranky and unhappy Em, I know that if I want to be the best me, I have to get a good workout in six days a week or risk that Em, the Queen Bitch, will be making dinner that night.

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To help me with my at-home fitness, my dear sweet husband bought me a Wii Fit one year… I look at it fondly as it continues to sleep unused under the couch... oops! I will use it one day, maybe when we have kids. I played around with it a few times, but the games were too slow and I got bored. But, I wanted it, I got it, so I will use it… one day.

I invested in a weighted boxing bag so I could turn my garage into a mini studio. That worked for awhile, but as with anything I do at home, I start to get distracted. The OCD comes out and everything around me is suddenly talking to me. The pictures aren’t straight, the curtain has a kink, something needs to be organized… I am always being interrupted by inanimate objects! I tried something else: ripping out workouts in my favorite magazines like, Shape, Self and Fitness. I thought if I had all these cool workouts, I could pull them out and use them during the week to do different strength training activities at home. I stored them in a workout binder and pulled them out when I was in a pinch. I now keep a vintage suitcase filled with my weights, bands and you guessed it - my home workout binder.

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While these things do help, they are kind of a hassle. Flipping through that binder became a chore and as usual, I became distracted. I knew I needed some help, even better someone and something to help. BAM! Then came Pinterest, my workout binder gone tech savvy. Where has this little gem been all my life? I finally had great workouts to do at home at my fingertips. No more binder flipping, just a quick tap and I was out the gates! While this was one step in the right direction, I needed just one more thing to help me meet my quick, easy and at home fitness goals… my TH, aka timer extraordinaire!

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With the music blaring and my TH telling me when it is time to change an activity, I am a Pinterest home workout pro! I am able to do those 1 minute jumping jacks followed by 30 seconds of burpees no problem! All I needed was a little support. Don’t have a TH? No worries, grab a digital timer and put it where you can see it! Even better, create a playlist that changes songs each interval segment. For example, if you are doing 2 minutes of jumping jacks with a 10 second recovery, make the playlist match the workout. With so many great at home power workouts on Pinterest, those non-gym days are no longer filled with dread, but excitement as I can knock one out on the fly when I get home after a long day filled with after school meetings.

Thank you Pinterest and thank you OCD for staying away long enough for me to finish my workouts! What are your favorite Pinterest workouts? We'd love to add them to our {Sweat} board! Don't forget to follow us to get all the workouts listed here plus MUCH MORE!!