The Ice Cream Shop That Isn’t

Yay for sounding like a broken record (again) but is it alright to say yet again how much I appreciate your support? I read so many wonderful comments yesterday that helped me see this weekend differently, and that I am not the head case I believe I am. It is truly delightful to know that I am certainly not the only one that struggles with these disordered, consuming, irrational thoughts. Having this knowledge enables this difficult journey to be just a bit easier, and the struggles don’t seem quite as bad. So thank you my dear friends

I have recently received a few questions about the internship I am working at this summer and how it is going. And of course I would love to update you! For the three months I have off from school, I am helping out at a fitness facility where a whole bunch of programs and classes are offered. Boot camps, triathlon/half-marathon/marathon training programs, power lifting classes, CrossFit style workouts, and so much more. I have been working out with B and S Fitness for years now, and have learned so much more about the countless variations and ways you can work your body. I honestly didn’t understand the utter importance of weight lifting prior to joining this program and that body weight exercises even existed. So much of my fitness knowledge has come from my experience at B and S so I was more than thrilled to be working with them this summer

Originally I was attending the early morning boot camps at 6am Monday-Thursday, as a way to learn their methods of teaching and how they conduct the routine of a class. Monday and Wednesdays focus on strength training and Tuesdays and Thursdays are running workouts.

Here is an example of a typical strength workout:

Dynamic Warm-up: full w/inchworm and pushups

Pushups 40 sec

Partner sit-ups 40 sec

Metabolic: 2x

15 sec pushups > pop-up & accelerate to tree #2 > easy jog back

20 sec squat thrusts > accelerate to tree #3 > easy jog back

25 sec mt climbers > accelerate to tree # 4 > easy jog back

30 sec squat pulses > accelerate to tree 4 > jog back to tree 2 & walk back to sidewalk

(Repeat)

Strength Session 1: Playground w/ leg bands 3x

Elbow plank step-ups w/ Plank jack w/close grip pushup 30 sec

Tubing shoulder press 30 sec

Leg band (around wrists) side plank 2 step crawl 30 sec

Tubing Single arm plank back rows 20 sec/side

Supine single leg knee leg band draw-ups 20 sec/leg

Session 2: 3x

Tubing split squat 20 sec/leg

SL hamstring hip-ups 20 sec/leg

Torso twists 30 sec

Superman trilogy 15/15/15 sec

 Session 3: Finale 1x

Forward lunge walk across court > jog back

Forward crab walk across court > jog back

Reverse lunge walk across court > jog back

Reverse bear crawl across > jog back

Bound or low barn door across > reverse bear crawl back

Jog a lap around the court

Stretch

A running workout might be something like running 3-4 miles and stopping after each mile to complete a series of plyometric moves- jump squats, jump lunges, plyo pushups, lateral jumps and so on. Another type of running workout could be splitting the group of participants in half and having one leader lead each of the groups for Indian Sprints. If you are not familiar of what those are, basically people line up, one behind the other, and start to jog. The person in the back sprints forward, passing the line as they go, to the front of the group and then start jogging. This is a great (and exhausting!) way to mix up your routine with jogging and sprints.

For the first month, I attended the Boot Camp 4 times per week as a participant. Recently I have only been going to the Tuesday and Thursday running workouts as this is much more my “specialty.” Now that I have been working with B and S for some time now, I have been leading more classes and groups all by myself! It was rather terrifying at first, having to lead a group of adults and make sure they get an efficient workout and don’t make a fool of myself while doing it! But I have become more comfortable and really enjoy leading and encouraging the people that are waking up quite early to try and improve their well-being through fitness. Last week I lead a group of runners on a 4 mile run where we did the plyometric style moves at each one mile stop, as I was referring to earlier.

We also have done workouts such as 6x400s or 4x800s, 10x200s on a track, and after each one we do crunches, situps, pushups, supermans and other exercises to also fit in strength. I am physically benefiting from this type of fitness as it is certainly improving my running speed. If you want to get faster, you have to incorporate strength and faster intervals into your return, and this boot camp has been a rather efficient way for me to do this. If you would like more information on this, check out my guest post on Jenny’s blog from a few weeks ago

This was another recent workout I taught:

I was personally tired at the end of this, along with the lovely people who made it through too

One of the aspects I am enjoying most about this internship, is seeing how much people improve over the 6 week period that each boot camp session lasts for. You have the option to attend just 2 days per week, but most people make the effort to go those 4 early mornings Monday through Thursday. In the beginning of the session, you are given a fitness test involving 1 minute of pushups and situps, followed by a half-mile run as fast as you can go. These results are recorded, and then everyone is retested at the end of the session. If they have been committed and have worked hard and not cheated during the boot camp, there is a 100% improvement. They have clear evidence that they are in better shape as they bust out 15 more pushups, 20 more situps, and several seconds faster on the run.

I am also a regular participant at a class called Extreme Fit on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 9, where we do tons of different and varying exercises. I am guaranteed sore after one of these classes, so I am pretty much sore 100% of the time haha. This is one of the reasons I am realizing how important rest days are. If I continue working out like this, and having muscles that are weak and breaking down all of the time, well of course they will never repair and no muscle will be built. I must remind myself of vital bits of information like this when I am tempted to ignore my rest day and workout anyway. This entire program is showing and teaching me so many new and challenging ways to exercise and get fit, and I am so thankful to be part of this internship

Now, this internship is unpaid, but I do get to workout for free, so that is quite nice! However, I must get paid somehow, so I also had a job at a local ice cream shop… a rather hot and popoular spot in my tiny town. Now, notice how I use the word had… and no I did not get fired!

This is what I was doing yesterday at work, aka a rather delightful day I should note here, that I absolutely loved this job, I mean how can you not be happy while working around ice cream all day and serving people this truly tasty dessert!?

These bad boys went from this-

To this!

And how about these too?

That last one there is covered in Heath Bar and Butterfinger… oh yes.

Decorating the waffles bowls was so much fun yesterday, and this simple job makes me smile each time I am working. But then this happened:

Can you guess what happened yet?

Alas, a fire occurred The exact cause is still uncertain but the the ice cream shop is attached to a restaurant and it may have started there. Or possibly there was an electric fire in the ceiling or something? Well whatever the cause is the result is the same, the shop is ruined. Everything was either burned or damaged by smoke, so the only goal now is to rebuild. Although they can rebuild, the situation is just so sad (of course!) This happened right in the middle of summer, the busiest time of the season, and everything is lost… all that ice cream… melted fo sho Plus, me and several other ladies, no longer have a paid job! That’s kind of a bummer too, as I am quite lacking in the money department.

I feel so terrible for the owner and his wife who are such wonderful people, but they are staying optimistic and I shall too! And when it is rebuilt, the shop is going to be even better Also, now that I don’t have a paid job, I am going to take the reins in planning a yard sale my mom and I have debated setting up for a while now. So after hearing the news, I spent the day cleaning out our rather gross and cluttered attic… most of the time I was like this.

Oh baby it was hot up there, but still, it gives me something to do so no more complaints from me!

I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday! It’s going to be a scorcher here… yeeshe!

Tagged as: Body Weight Workouts, fire, Fitness, ice cream shop, Internship, Running, summer job, workouts