Photo by Elena Eshleman (@elenaeshlemanphotography)
It's human nature to want to "DTR" just about everything in your life including your relationship with you favorite barrista. At first, your face is familiar then, he kind of remembers how you like your coffee and before you know it, you are on a first name basis making small talk every morning. Fitness is pretty much like any relationship, you want to see growth and progress. I must make one caveat using the cliche saying: "you must learn to walk before you can run" or something like that. It is important that you are honest with yourself and ask "Am I really ready for the next phase?" If your ego takes control then you might find yourself moving onto something that you aren't ready for and all of that effort will be fruitless because your foundation just isn't strong enough. There are tons of things I can physically do and there are so many more I am still working towards. That's the fun part! Otherwise, if I could easily do everything what would the point be? How would I ever measure growth and progress?
Getting to the point (ugh so hard for me)... Before trying some of these moves, you should ask yourself a simple question, "how's my form?" If you are killing it at squats, getting the thighs super low and parallel to the ground and maintaining that natural curve in your spine then let's move forward. Let's add some weights or in this case, add a block into the mix. Let's keep the challenge alive! I was doing enough squats and lunges where I was getting kind of bored. I knew I needed to up the ante in order to stay committed and to see better results. So, I decided to take my yoga block and use if for something besides yoga. I placed that little sucker under my foot and it unleashed a whole new world. I couldn't walk for two days. It has officially become my best friend, a tool that lets me leverage height to add a new level of intensity and balance to recruit new muscles into the mix. I made this YouTube video showcasing a short sequence with squats and some lunge variations. You can follow it or use it as inspiration next time you are ready to take your relationship to the next level with your squat or lunge game.
My ridiculously awesome pants are Zara Terez. Use promo code: Kelly25 if you'd like to get a pair too, they have lots of other fun prints. You'll save 25% off with the code! I wore these bad boys in a Core Power Yoga class in San Diego a few weeks ago and the fabric was amazing in the heat!
Squat it out. xo Kelly