WHAT ARE: isometrics

all of last month I posted about plyometric exercises and why they are important. this month we are changing it up and doing the opposite. Isometrics!!

so what are isometric exercises?

they are a contraction of a particular muscle or muscle group. during isometric exercises you won't be noticeably moving the muscles and the joints are not moving at all. you are holding in a static position while contracting your muscles.  this is a change from typical exercises where you are going through eccentric and concentric muscle contractions.

you are essentially, making your muscles work against an immovable object (a wall, your own body, the ground, etc).

holding positions sounds easy enough, but you are not just holding still, you're contracting your muscles to full tension. which gets real tough, real fast!

why should I do isometrics?

through isometrics you can increase strength and can rebuild strength in injured muscle groups with less of a chance of further injuring a muscle. 

isometric exercises are also great for beginners and elderly people. isometric exercises are low impact so just about anyone can do them.

and not to mention, they are so convenient. zero equipment (usually) and minimal space. no excuse workouts!

isometrics are also a great compliment to HIIT workouts, because you're moving (or holding, rather) your muscles in a different way.

so what are some of these isometric exercises?

think of some yoga moves, where you're holding a position. or planks!
 

even better, you can follow me on Instagram and facebook cause I will be posting new isometric exercises all throughout the month of May! personally, I don't incorporate a wide variety of isometrics in my workout routine so I am looking forward to adding some diversity in my routine! join me this month and tag me in your attempts of the moves this month. or if you need some more guidance, you can shoot me an email at tiffnessfitness@gmail.com and we can discuss getting you set up on a personalized program!

my first half marathon!

my first half marathon... and my very first race! yeah, i went for it straight out the gate. 

i signed up for a half marathon because i had been running a lot, and running further and further with no real goals... just running to run. which was a lot of fun, but having something to work to is more fun! so i was looking into races and i saw an ad for the Title 9 Mermaid Run. And it was on sale. And it was months out. So why not!? so i signed up for it! 

here's how i trained for it: 

i signed up for it at the beginning of November. At that point I had gotten up to about 9.5 miles. So from that point, my plan was to increase my mileage by about 10% each week. And throughout November I kept up with that, mostly. I was running just over 10 miles by the beginning of December. 

But December was a rough month. I was sick on and off throughout the entire month which really threw off my training schedule for the race. By the end of December, I still hadn't broke 10 miles. It was a tough month of training. 

So come January, I had to fit in A LOT of runs that I was planning on spreading out a lot further apart.January had my first 11 mile run, the next week was 12 mile run, then the 13.1 mile run, which put me 3 weeks out from the race. Let me tell you, those runs were not fun. It was a lot, and it was really tough on my body and honestly, it wasn't a lot of recovery time so my body was exhausted AF. My first half marathon run through was at a 2:13:36 and most of it felt pretty terrible. All of run times had gotten much slower than they had been in November, which was pretty frustrating, but i figured just finishing the half marathon race would be success enough. 

But I did make myself have a goal of a sub- 2 hour half marathon. which meant cutting off 13 and a half minutes off my first run through.

I figured I could definitely beat the original time because my outside training load would be significantly lighter than it was during the other weeks, but cutting 13 mins off was a long shot. i had to cut off over a minute each mile for it to be possible. 

the weeks leading up to the race i tapered off my runs. 10 miles 3 weeks out, 8 miles 2 weeks out, and not much the week of. 

the week of the race, Monday was fairly average workout wise and after that everything was really, really light. the farthest i ran the week of the race was 3 miles. and i did only one HIIT run session for 25 mins, and that was on Wednesday (my last real workout [minus kettlebell sport] of the week). I rested Thursday (minus KB sport) and Friday. 

Then on Saturday it was race day!

the days leading up to the race I was drinking over 150 oz of water every day. 

the day before the race, i ate a lot of fruits and easy tasty carbs. all of the foods I knew my body could process easily so i wouldn't feel terrible while running. so dinner was hashbrowns, canadian bacon, and eggs. 

Race day: 

woke up early AF, drank a cup of coffee, and headed out to the race site! on the way i snacked on welch's fruit snacks, which is basically the only thing i eat before/during runs. 

got there and sipped on water and had a really nice extended warm up. i was ready to go pretty early on so I had to keep on moving to keep warm. 

FINALLY the race started and once i got going, i basically kept the same pace throughout the entire race. it was suuuper convenient because there was race pacers. basically holding signs saying what the pace they were going for were at. i ended up chilling with the 2:00 hour pace guy for about 85% of the race. after mile 10 or so i broke off and went a little further ahead and tried to push my pace just a little bit. 

tbh, i don't think really hit a full on wall during the race, but i did definitely feel my knees and ankles getting progressively more ache-y. 

anyway, the last couple of miles i was just focused on one foot in front of the other and the third best moment was seeing that 12 mile marker, second best was the 13 mile marker, and obviously the best moment of the race was finishing it! and finishing it under 2 hours!!! (the timer said the 1:58:54 and the chip timer clocked me in at 1:58:47!) 

as soon as i finished it i got water and basically collapsed on the ground chugging water. my knees and ankles were shot. it was rough. but i was outrageously proud of myself. and once i had a minute of sitting colt and i walked around so my muscles didn't get too tight. 

the worst part was the MILE long walk back to the parking lot that had my car. that was tough. my legs were not having it. 

but overall...  it was a really great time. the race was better than any of my runs that i had done in training and i was able to maintain a really great speed throughout. and i will definitely do another race in the future... but probably not a half marathon again. not for a while at least. my body took a beating during this training cycle. and the recovery time was honestly longer than i would like it to be, especially because i am training for more than one event. plus it would be fun to push my pace on a shorter distance. and then it would also save A LOT of time to do shorter runs cause training for long distance races just takes long time. :) 

also, shout out to Title 9 & Mermaid Series for putting on a great race. Now, I don't have anything to compare to, but everything went super smoothly and started right on time and the route was super easy to follow and it was really great. definitely had zero stress on the part of the actual race day because of it. so much appreciation to them! cause let's be real, i can find a whole lot to be anxious about, so it was a miracle and a half that i didn't have any of that on race day (minus just general pre-competition jitters)

so there's my thoughts on my first race. definitely not my last race. but man do i need some time to rest up from this one. my legs, hips, knees, and ankles are definitely still really, really tight from the race and i think it'll end up being a few days before i'm back at 100% but i am really, really proud of myself for doing this race and for hitting my goals! 

also, shout out to Title 9 & Mermaid Series for putting on a great race. Now, I don't have anything to compare to, but everything went super smoothly and started right on time and the route was super easy to follow and it was really great. definitely had zero stress on the part of the actual race day because of it. so much appreciation to them! cause let's be real, i can find a whole lot to be anxious about, so it was a miracle and a half that i didn't have any of that on race day (minus just general pre-competition jitters)

if you're looking to train for a race or for anything else... contact me so we can work on a program for you! check out my instagram or my facebook or just drop me an email! 

if you have any questions about my training or anything else... just leave a comment! :) 

my first kettlebell competiton!

if you follow me on any of my social media (which i am gonna assume you do if you are reading this) you'll know that this weekend was my first kettlebell competition! it was SO MUCH fun and now I am so ready to do another one (once my hand is all healed up, tbh)! 

this post is basically gonna be a wrap up of my sets and how i feel about them. also i need somewhere to post all the great pictures and videos I got from it.  

all my prep for deck the bells came from my bad ass coach, Brittany van Schravendijk (i am so hoping I spelt that correctly), also known as @kbfitbritt and I did most of my actual kettlebell sport workouts at Kor Strength and Conditioning in North Park. 

All of the following pictures and videos are taken by my awesome boyfriend Colt Magana. Video is on a GoPro Hero 5 Session, pictures on a Google Pixel 2! 

Snatch Set! 

10 mins, with a 12kg bell! 

This is the event that I was really training for over the past 5 months. 

My goal was 200 reps (I hit 198! :) ) 

below is the full video if you want to watch me swing a bell for 10 mins straight 

I am outrageously proud of myself for this set, because it was my first ever competition set. I was straight up shaking when i got up to the platform... and probably throughout my first few minutes too...and maybe after. (i'm only kinda joking there)

i don't think i thought throughout this set anything other than, "breathe" and "OK" to my coach's cues. i was concerned that i was going to slip into some sort of negative self talk, but we did go through a lot of mental prep with Britt, so I had plans on plans so I wouldn't do that. and the plan A mental game plan went great. and because I had SO much adrenaline going it knocked out my cough that i has been fighting off for the last week and a half. (woo!) 

most helpful, was the cues from my coach and teammates. SO appreciated that. and by the last minute I was able to rep it out really fast that last minute. I think I hit like 25 reps that last minute which is pretty solid for me. And then I hit 198 reps! Which is a PR for myself! 

onto my One Arm Long Cycle! (clean & jerk)  12kg, for 5 mins. I hit 59 reps! First in my flight, and 3rd overall! 

Not something I really trained for as much as snatch. I did practice clean and jerk a lot on my own, with hardstyle bells more so than comp bells, but it clearly translated pretty well! 

this one I had an audience outside of my team and Colt cause my friend Josh and his lovely ladyfriend Ashley came and watched me! :) 

here is the whole set for your viewing pleasure: 

I didn't have as much coaching in this event, but i felt really solid throughout it, and it was 5 minutes, and I felt really good during the set. Long cycle is just a lot of breathing, so it was just getting into that breathing rhythm and sticking with that. 

so i was and am very happy with how that set went! 

so, all in all, i had a great first comp! i am really proud of how i performed and really excited to do another comp! i learned SO MUCH about kettlebell sport and all the scoring and just little things i didn't know and I got to see amazing lifters do amazing things, which was and is SO inspiring for me to keep on going with this sport! shout out to my awesome team and for all the awesome performances that came out of Deck the Bells! legit, got to see a woman break the world record on 2x20kg long cycle.so amazing. so excited i got to do my first comp in the kettlebell world with my home gym, full of all sorts of great people! 

onto the next! 

if you are interested in following my future kettlebell lifting comps or if you want to kick off your own fitness journey check me out on instagram and facebook and drop me a line!