Holiday Fitness and other Randomness

I love this time of year! Everyone is so festive and there are lights and decorations all around. We even manage to put up a tree here in Hong Kong. It's that whole what you can way of decorating!

The week leading up to the big day is always filled with hustle and bustle, so I signed up for the 12 Days of "Fit-mas" presented by Fit Mom Strong Mom (which totally looked like a great program) and then promptly failed to participate. It was a combo of being busy with other activities, being tired, being lazy...you've heard me say all this before.

I was ACTIVE though. Here's a quick look at last week's highlights:

Monday - Mountain Monday - Lookout Point Loop hike in my new North Face Litewave Explore hiking shoes. I've worn them a couple of times now and they do the trick, but on longer hikes I might need a gel insert.

Tuesday - Hong Kong Trail hike with my friends from SWIC (recap here). One of my favorite parts of hiking is looking back to see where we started. In the photo below, our starting point was back by the large apartment buildings and we weren't even halfway yet.

Wednesday - We took a Christmas lights walk around the neighborhood after dinner.

Thursday - IMI treatment for my pesky heel ---> but the osteopath is working wonders and thinks yoga is in my future. That led me to sign up for the 31 Day Yoga Revolution hosted by Yoga with Adriene. I love, love, love her challenges. It starts January 1. You can join here.

Friday - Bodypump. I really need to learn my body's weight limits. I was really sore from this class.

Saturday - Christmas Eve sprint workout at the fitness center. After Mass and dinner in Central we enjoyed as much of Winterfest as we could.

Sunday - Took my new bike on 2 mile Christmas Day ride to the grocery. It's a really nice bike! Then I made some more protein bars because I already ate the first batch!

Today - Another Mountain Monday hike on Lookout Point Loop. Tonight we are meeting mrC's friend, who is in Hong Kong for work, for dinner.

Have you ever signed up for something and then completely dropped the ball?
Do you go Christmas light peeping?
Any holiday workouts for you?

Bodypump, Active Recovery, and Planking

On Tuesday I joined some of my new friends and went to my first Les Mills Bodypump class at The HIT Room. Bodypump is an interval barbell workout and it is definitely high intensity! I think Wesley (the instructor) said we did 800+ reps of squats, lunges, rows, and lifts. CrA-ZY!

After class I was given a try-to-forget-we-tortured-you welcome gift which I thought was a nice touch.

From class I stopped into IMI, Integrated Medicine Institute, to see an Osteopath. Osteopathy can "correct a wide variety of muscular and skeletal complaints and offer excellent nerve-balancing support" and I am hoping it can cure my heel stinger. My first visit was pretty standard with lots of questions and a thorough body assessment followed by my first treatment. Diagnosis: a pinched nerve. The nerve could be pinched in my ankle, behind my knee, under my gluteus or in my sciatica. My first treatment was a combination of adjustments, stretching, and trigger point release. 

After yesterday's strength session, my osteopath treatment plus a big hike I have coming up tomorrow, I decided to take it easy today with some active recovery. It was a perfect day for LISS, so I laced up my walking shoes and set out to explore the marina side of DB. Some residents live on the boats (the big ones).

It was a beautiful walk and fun to see a different view from the island. 3.5 miles later I was at the beach enjoying a little break and soaking up the beautiful day.

My favorite Athleta pants

When I got back to the apartment, I did my plank workout. I am still loving the intervals app that I found. 1) It is so easy to personalize my workouts and 2) I can use my phone or my watch to start a workout.

It was good to get my legs moving on the walk, but I started feeling some DOMS sneaking up on me from Bodypump. My stretch session was a little bit relief and a little bit painful. (side note - my goal is to get my bum down on the floor)

Just for fun I thought I'd share my new blogging spot ---> the view, the natural light, a smoothie, Netflix...I don't know how I'm able to finish this post! 

Have you tried Les Mills classes? 

Ever been to an Osteopath?

If you blog, what does your work space look like?