So I have to make this super quick because I’m racing against the clock!
I just finished class (adv. nutrition) and have about 45 minutes to eat dinner and blog before a staff meeting back on campus at the rec.
Breakfast was definitely the highlight of my food today 
I realized that I have a bag of cranberries from last Thanksgiving that I stuck in the back of the freezer. In preparation for next weeks’ festivities, I decided to incorporate them into my morning oats.
Oats n’ Cranberries
·1/4 cup steel cut oats
·3/4 cup water
·1 tbsp. ground flaxseed
·1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
·1 serving cranberry sauce*
·2/3 cup non-fat plain greek yogurt
·1 tsp. pure maple syrup or other sweetener
Combine the steel cut oats and 1/2 cup of the water in a large, microwave safe bowl and let soak overnight. The next morning add 1/4 cup water and cook on high for 3-5 minutes until soft. Stir in flax and cinnamon. Combine remaining ingredients in a serving dish and drizzle with maple syrup.
* I made a quick cranberry sauce using 1 cup of frozen, whole cranberries, 1/4 tsp. vanilla, and 1 tbsp. of water. After microwaving on high for 3 minutes, I had a perfect sauce!
All mixed up:
***
I only had a short window of time in which I could work out, so I put in my earphones and got down to business! Here’s what I did:
It took me about 45-minutes from start to finish and I was a sweaty mess by the end! I had plans to meet my ex. phys lab partners this afternoon for our next assignment and if I knew I was going to spend a solid hour doing squats with heavy weight I may have cut back a bit on my am workout. Oh well!
I coached boot camp then headed over to the lab (the other lab!) to work for a few hours. It ended up that we were short staffed so I filled in as a “trainer” putting two participants through their workouts. Often Thursday afternoons are full of data entry and catching up so this was a really nice change for me. And then I got my squat on…
Our lab assignment this week is to determine the most accurate method for testing power, force, and velocity of a squat. First we each had to find our 1 rep maximum (RM), meaning the most weight we could squat with perfect form. After an easy warm-up of about 3-5 squats, you keep adding weight to the bar and completing 1-3 reps until you physically can’t do any more!
Our lab protocol required us to do 3 squat reps 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% of our 1 RM. This equated to adding more weight as our legs were getting more tired. My legs were fatigued! I think I may be sore tomorrow 
Tomorrow’s another busy day, but it’s FRIDAY…hooray!
I’m off!
*TIP TIME*
Next time you lift, try some drop sets. On your last set for a muscle group complete your usual 12-15 reps, then immediately drop down about 10-20% in weight and continue to fatigue. If you’re feeling really crazy you can keep dropping your weight by 10-20% until you can’t go down any lower!
Question: Do you wear earphones when you workout?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
oooh! that workout looks awesome!
AND i can totally relate about the ex.phys stuff…
that was my major in college and i can remeber having to do do VO2max tests with my lab partner…since i was the runner i was almost always the guinni pig. however,trying to run hard and fast AFTER a 12 mile (9 of those being UPHILL) practice…..
gah!!!!
anyways,hope you have a good weekend!
Great workouts! The squat lab sounds interesting.
I wear earphones if I’m at the gym — especially if I’m doing bodyweight-interval-type-stuff or something intense & I don’t want to be interrupted. People usually won’t bother me when I’m wearing earphones & pushing really hard…but you do get the occasional guy that feels the need to ask questions or talk…um, first I can’t hear you; second, I can’t really talk because I can barely breathe.
I finally found a pair of ear buds from skull candy that work really well for working out. Do you always wear earphones?
I wear earphones for the same reason! I find I can usually zone out and get in a really good workout, but I only wear them when I am running on the treadmill or lifting alone.
Your breakfast pics always look so good!
I like having my earphones in … my struggle is that when a class is going on (you know the drill), I find I have to turn up my own music so loud to overpower the class music that I am probably damaging my ears. So, I wear them upstairs, and downstairs when there’s no other interference! = )
Totally! I always worry about having to turn the volume up so high for my ears…and when someone says my name I have no idea they’re speaking, it’s bad!
I use hearphones only at the gym because that’s the only time I can watch the food network
I can relate to that! I used to plan my winter long runs around the food network schedule when we lived in Boulder. It made the time go SO quickly!
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