Our Cup of Tea is Annmarie Skin Care’s monthly series featuring the team members’ favorite things! From recipes to workouts to nights on the town, we’ll share the things we love with you. You’ll get to know our team a little better and who knows, you might just find a new favorite thing.
Springtime is almost here and we’re just waking up from the wintertime hibernation with our favorite ways to workout! Rub those sleepy eyes and shake out the slumber from your limbs because it’s time to get moving.
Here’s what the ASC team is doing to elevate our endorphins and get our bodies ready for warmer weather! A lot of us have region specific work outs but if these sound good to you, we encourage you to find a comparable place to get your blood pumping!
Walking on the Bike Trail & Hiking
Lisa lives in NY and says, “it’s tough to get outside in the winter (I’m a big baby when it comes to the snow/chilly temps). I’m going to have a baby in early April and I’m very excited to put her in a Solly Wrap and go for walks with my family on our local bike trail and also go hiking. It’ll be amazing for all of us to get outside, get some fresh air, and enjoy the amazing spring weather here in the northeast!”
We can’t wait to see photos of Lisa with baby slung around her, hubby and kiddo in tow, power walking through the trees!
Resistance Bands
Nataly is LOVING resistance bands right now.
She says, “They are great for building strength and you can literally use them anywhere. I put a medium strength band around my thighs during traffic and werk it out. Is that weird?”
Yeah Nataly… a little bit 😉
Daily Pushups
Jonathan is a goal setter with his work out. He’s doing three sets of pushups everyday and slowly strength building throughout the year!
“I started the beginning of the year at 3 sets of 14/day. I’m up to 3 sets of 22/day. The goal is to do 3 sets of 100/day by the end of the year.”
We’ll check back in with you, Jonathan and see how this goal went for you!
Lyon Street Steps (SF)
Abby runs the Lyon Street Steps before work and she comes in so stoked on the day (while we’re all still drinking our morning cuppa) that we’re sure there must be some magic to it. This is what she says:
“These steps are 5 blocks from my house… I start with a warm up jog to the stairs and do about 6-8 rounds of the stairs (top to bottom). There are 2 long flights of very steep steps (62 steps each flight) and 8 levels of more spread out steps (15 steps each flight). It ends up being around a 40 minute workout. The view is gorgeous and it’s FREE <3”
5×5 StrongLifts
Chandra is another strength building goal setter, she uses an app and goes to the gym to do the 5X5 workout.
“This workout is a great introduction for beginners interested in weightlifting and increasing strength. You work out 3x a week and there are 2 workouts that you alternate between, in which you do 5 sets of 5 reps of 3 compound exercises each workout. I love how this routine is structured and there’s also an app you can download to log your data and track your progress. I get to see how much strength I’ve gained since I began and even when I fail, it’s fun, because I feel more motivated to tackle it the next time around.”
Having done this workout with her (once… and never again) I’ll be the first one to tell you she is rocking this workout!
Stand on One Foot
I have to strength build pretty slowly because of an injury and the thing that has been most helpful for me has been standing on one foot—I have a regular yoga practice and rock climbing to gain strength too, but this is one thing I can do all the time! If I’m waiting in line, tired of sitting at the desk, or if I find a good log on a hike, I’m on one foot.
It strengthens the core muscles, keeps me balanced, and re-aligns my body.
Tabata
Rachel was watching a video in her office pretty late last week and I asked her what she was doing thinking that she was still working hard late into the evening (again). She calming looked at me and said, “I’m watching my workout video before I go to the gym.” This workout is so fast that she can be in and out of the gym in 20 minutes, check out what she says about it:
“I am all about tabata training. It’s high intensity interval training workout… where you can choose what section of your body you want to focus on, or even your whole body and then do interval training. I typically like to do 5-7 unique workout moves at 45 seconds each, repeating them 3 times. You can easily google “tabata” to find some sweet moves which may include mountain climbers, burpees, some lunge variation, arm workouts, etc. The best part about this is you don’t have to spend too much time working out. So if you work a lot (like me), this would be perfect for you. Also, not spending so much time will allow you to do it more frequently (5-6 days a week).”
5 Rhythms Dance
Jasmine is the newest edition to the Annmarie Team but she fits right in with this one:
“Dancing is my way to let loose, bring out my inner child, meditate, and work out all at once. There are many great ‘consious dance’ classes in the SF Bay Area where I live, but the one I’m really into right now is called 5 Rhythms. It’s basically two hours of free dance, with a little bit of spiritually minded guidance from the instructor. It’s highly therapeutic and incredibly fun!”
Sounds fun! Team dance hour anyone?
Yoga Classes or YouTube Videos
Rachel H doesn’t do it so often but she really likes them when she wants to clear her head. She says that “there is something super calming about moving through the different poses and concentrating on my breath. It allows me to become more present and connect with the things in my life that I am grateful for.”
Redwood Regional Park
Coast to coast hiking, Michon visits the trees just like Lisa! She says, “living in the Bay Area there are so many great places you can go hiking because of our beautiful hills but I really enjoy this park specifically. Lots of different trails & views to experience! Plus, it is always a lot cooler temperature in this area, which makes it a good summer hiking spot if you’re sensitive to heat like I am. The air feels so much nicer as well, who doesn’t like nice air?”
Body Rock
Carly is obsessed with these workouts. It’s a set of high intensity interval training sessions that last 12 minutes from start to finish. She says it’s great because she gets in a good workout in such a short period of time that it’s easy to fit in during her busy day. She does say it’s best to stretch afterwards when you’re all worn out.
We wouldn’t be surprised if we started seeing Carly on the Body Rock videos and we’ll be sure to share those with you when we do see that!
Classical stretch = the PBS show – is an awesome way for some of us older couch potatoes to get moving.
Walking fast while driving trolley!
My exercise is walking even though I walk with a cane and it hurts to walk and I move slow. I used to love to dance now I don’t,but I still like to listen to music. I love the outdoors and I walk to get the mail. I know if you don’t use it you lose it.
My obsession . . . Weight training. I first discovered weight lifting when I was in college back in the mid 80’s. One of my room mates introduced me, I took a class and I was hooked. I also had a class mate that was a body builder (female). I believe this class I took was my senior year. When I graduated and got my first job I joined a body building gym. I wasn’t into body building at the time I just wanted a gym which was close to home and affordable. I really got into body building soon after joining. I started by watching people workout who looked like they knew what they were doing and got Lou Ferigno’s book from the library to learn different lifts and how to perform them correctly. I finally purchased my own book Flex Appeal by Rachel McLish. I gradually added a few more books including some nutrition books, a calorie counter and picked-up some Muscle and Fitness magazines. I even had a workout partner that was a former professional Body Builder and making a come back. I ultimately got in awesome shape as I was training for a body building competition. My ultimate weight and body fat composition was 107 lbs and 7.9% body fat at age 25. Not bad. It was an obsession because all I did was go to work, workout (6 days a week @ 2.5 hours per day), eat and sleep basically. Ultimately life got in the way and I was not able to keep up this type of training. I still love to lift weights and have recently got back into it spending way too much time at the gym.
Walking. I have Balance issues so I usually do my walking at stores with buggies so that I have something to help me not to fall
I really like to hike Griffith Park in LA. I love to be outside and looked out over the city and get a work out
I do Qigong to start the day then a set of free weights and sit ups. Then before the day ends I go for a walk. Then before going to bed I do a Qigong rub down and praise. This settles me down for a good nights sleep and the end of the day.
OPPs! I just realized I answered the question wrong! I love to go biking, and jogging, early in the morning, when its quite and you can hear the birds sing. I dislike listening to music when I am exercising outside, one you miss hearing all the wonderful nature around you and two I feel its dangerous, if someone is yelling or breaks screeching you’ll miss it.
Working out is my mental, physical and emotional therapy without sitting on a couch talking to someone…..Strength training with barbell twice a week in a group setting, Yoga three times a week each class is a different form of yoga which challenges my body while clearing my head to where it’s just me and my mat even though there are others in the room.
My boyfriend and I get walking in twice a week with the dogs. Don’t know how to live life without working out even when vacationing I get something worked in just not as often when home.
Teresa
I do a combination of Yoga, Pilates and Zumba. As a cancer survivor it is important to reduce stress levels so these are the exercises that help me with that. I also love to dance and Zumba is like dancing to me!!