• slowed my use when I started Body Rock workouts in July
• stopped going for weeks when my foot injury flared up
• Chris was working a lot of long hours and didn’t have time
• only having one car, which is occupied for 10-12hrs each day

So right now, I’m making things work at home.  We don’t have much space and don’t have much equipment, but I’m not letting that stop me.

The equipment you see below was purchased over the past 3+ years.  Nothing cost more than $30 [minus the bike trainer], and we’re slowly starting to make a decent at-home gym.

Weights – Chris bought these a few years back.  Nothing special about them.  Right now we have 10’s, 15’s, 20’s and 25’s.  I would love to add a set of 8’s, 12’s, 27.5’s and 30’s to the lineup at some point soon.  I am really careful with them on our wood floor, which also makes it a bit frustrating.  I can’t just drop the weights on the floor if a set becomes too hard to complete.  Because of this, I feel that I’m not always lifting quite as heavy as I could.  I have my eye on an interlocking rubber floor [$20 at Target] but am holding off for now.

Bike Trainer – This was also a Chris purchase that we both use all of the time, when it’s not possible to ride outdoors.  We have this CycleOps trainer.  Works great for us but is definitely on the noisy side.

We are thinking of training for a metric century ride this spring but aren’t 100% sure.  The rides in Colorado are quite intense!

Yoga Mat – I just bought this, after not having a yoga mat for the past year.  My old Jade mat wore out, and I finally replaced it after getting really annoyed with a cheap Reebok workout mat.  I scored this Prana Eco mat 40% off for $28.  It doesn’t get the best reviews, but I thought it was the best bang for the buck.  I’m not doing any intense studio yoga, so for home purposes it should be fine.  It’s not the stickiest mat but it will do.

Foam Roller – A life saver.  It hurts so good.

Ab Roller – The latest addition to our home gym, that cost a whopping $8.  This is the most intense ab workout ever and it works your lower back and upper body as well.

Seat –  Our dining chairs fold, so they’re not stable enough to use for working out.  This little bench/seat was $20, and recently purchased for Chris to play his Mandolin on.  I end up using it in almost all of my workouts. 

Hard Surface – I use the concrete desk surface [salvaged from our first concrete counters that had a defect with the sealer] with the stool for bench dips, which works the triceps.

Stability Ball – Such a versatile piece of equipment to have in your home gym.  This does much more than just working your abs.  Make sure to get the right size ball for your height.

Pull Up Bar – This was purchased 2 years ago from Target.  No fastening to the wall is needed!  I think you can put it on the floor and use it for different types of pushups as well.

There are multiple grips, which work all different muscles.  I place the stool under the pull-up bar and push up minimally with my feet for “assisted” pull ups.

I can only do about 2 without the assist!

Dog Trainers – I walk the dogs almost everyday for an hour!

Woof.

If you’re also doing Jamie Eason’s 12 week program at home and looking for modifications, click on each exercise link, then click “ view full details,”  which will usually have 1-3 modifications.  Typically, one is with free weights.  But if not, I just head to google and type in something like, “leg extensions free weights.” 

How To Do Leg Extensions With Free Weights [video]

I can’t always find an at-home match, but about 90% of the time I do.  Sometimes you just have to get a little creative! 

Hope you enjoyed the peek into our home gym!  It can be frustrating at times, but gets the job done!

Ashley

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Over the next few weeks, you may see some guest posts popping up.  The fabulous Lori + Michelle, from pure2raw, are starting things off today.  They are twin sisters that not only write an amazing blog, but also run Twin Cakes Bakery, a gluten free, vegan, raw bakery!  They are a true inspiration not only in the kitchen, but with fitness as well.  A huge thanks to the unstoppable duo, L + M!!   

Hello Edible Perspective readers! We are so thrilled and honored that Ashley asked us to do a guest post for her. I had the pleasure of meeting my dear friend Ashley at last year’s FoodBuzz festival. Plus Lori and I have learned some really great photography tips from her! I write a blog with my twin sister, Lori over at pure2raw.com. Today we are sharing our top 5 favorite workout moves as well as our favorite 5 ingredients along with some recipe ideas! Lori and I do all of our workouts at home, which it is going on about 2 years now. We are not personal trainers; we are just two girls that just love fitness and love to sweat! We love short, intense at home workouts, Insanity started this love and now we love our HIIT workouts (mainly from bodyrock tv which we have been doing now for over 1 year and they have changed our life forever) . Since we do not have a lot of time to workout these HIIT workouts are great! Also we love to jump rope, do some yoga, and now getting into Physique 57. Here are our 5 workout moves we are loving lately. We love how they are full body and great at getting the heart pumping. 1) Star-Jump: we love this exercise because we grew up playing volleyball and this was one exercise we loved. it really works the lower body and great for a little cardio.

[I played volleyball too!!  Love the Vibrams, ladies!!] 2) Jump rope: we have been really getting into jump roping lately, the main thing we do for cardio. 3) Knee Hug for abs: love this one for our abs and helps strengthen our core 4) push-ups: we do these almost everyday. we feel push-ups are great especially on those days when we don’t have much time to workout.

[I am also a huge fan of pushups!] 5) Monkey push-ups: great for the whole body! plus fun to say the name now time to share our favorite ingredients. it was hard to pick our top 5 ingredients as we love so many. 1) avocado: we eat these daily so satisfying and good for you too! avocados are great for making mint chocolate layered cakes and great for making savory avocado donut with avocado frosting

2) chia seeds: we our obsessed with making chia seed puddings, they are perfect for our pre-workout meals  mint chip chia seed pudding

chia seeds are also great for baking like our soft gluten-free low sugar carob chia cookies

3) coconut: our go to fat! we use coconut oil for so many things from making raw desserts.. baking with…to cleaning our faces. just love this stuff! we also love coconut milk , coconut flakes and coconut butter! coconut milk used in donuts and coconut oil used in cashew frosting of our beet donuts coconut butter is great for making smooth and rich cremes like in our homemade mallomars

[oh how I love coconut butter]

4) pumpkin: we love using pumpkin all season long newest creation is our grain free pumpkin muffins loved making pumpkin cookies from sprouted flours

5) hemp seeds: one of our main sources of protein and we just love the nutty flavor it provides recipes. artichoke sauce made with hemp seeds

[hemp oil, hemp seeds, hemp protein…love them all!] hemp seeds are usually in our post workout smoothies like this cilantro apple hemp smoothie and of course we love all types of legumes and buckwheat to make ourselves socca which we know Ashley loves as well! these are just some of our favorites that we enjoy! we hope you learned something new or inspired to try something new! Thanks again Ashley for letting us do this guest post for you and thanks to Ashley’s amazing readers. We hope you stop over to pure2raw sometime to say hi! xoxo Lori and Michelle

Thanks again ladies!! ~Ashley

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