Exercising at home

*Note: Always consult a physician before starting a new exercise program. Always be safe and stay within your body's limits. Listen to your body. What works for me, may not work for others.

Trying to find time to exercise in our hectic lives can be difficult; often very difficult. I am guilty of not exercising enough. Between my job, my errands, my family, and migraines, exercising often takes a back door. It also takes a lot of effort for me to leave the house to go workout. That takes time; time that I don't have. Due to this, I decided I needed to find a way to workout at home, in my apartment. So far, this is what I have found that helps me get in a workout at home.

Fitness Blender
I really like this website. They have full workout routines in which you can filter by level, type, parts of the body used, etc. I love their tabata-style workouts! They are quick, hard, and effective. The stairs up to my place become my nemesis the next day. The workouts are free!

Safety first: use a crash mat

The bruise on my shoulder, resulting from the fall

I am going to sound like a nagging mom in this post, and I suppose I am nagging a bit, but I am very serious when I talk about this topic. I have had several discussion with polers about crash mats, and a lot of people seem hesitant to purchase one because of cost. That is what prompted this post.

Buying a crash mat is a big expense. I understand that it is hard to budget $200-$300 for something, especially after you just spent a lot of money to get your pole. That being said, pole has it's hazards, and falling is one of them. I am going to tell you an experience that I had that forever changed my perspective on poling and safety.

Why do you hate me 2012?

So 2012 has been interesting for me. It did have it's good side, but boy did it have it's bad side!

Lets start with the bad...

This year I have injured myself more times than I have EVER injured myself in my lifetime. Some of it was pole related, some not. Almost all of them have hindered my progress in pole though.


This summer I did something stupid, and it taught me to ALWAYS USE MY CRASH MAT! I always use my crash mat, but the ONE time I didn't, I fell out of a bow and arrow, landing on the side of my head and shoulder. That move is now on my NEVER AGAIN list..

This is what my shoulder looked like after the fall...I hate to think what my head looked like...