I've been sick for the past week. And it's been quite a few years since I've come down with something, so it took something really strong to bring my immune system down, but it finally happened. For the week prior to this, we had work done on our house that had me sleep deprived for an extended period of time. This really ran down my immune system and left me susceptible to illness. It sounds counterintuitive (and probably crazy to some too), but the one thing that really helped me throughout my sickness was continuing to work out. I know, you're always told to get plenty of rest and not overexert yourself so you make your body feel worse and even sicker, right? But it's not about overdoing it; it's about doing something instead of absolutely nothing. There's still plenty of lying around time too, don't worry. Plus I drank over a gallon of water for the past 3 days to stay hydrated and keep my nose and throat from getting too dry. And though it scared me a little to drink so much, I didn't even pee more frequently than usual, so I know my body really needed and fully utilized that fluid. Crazy! I'll talk more below about why exercising through sickness is so helpful and worth doing, but in the meantime, we finally have a new workout to do! Come get your lower body burn on with me...

This upper body workout burns so much, I had to cut the reps in half for the second round. I wouldn't have been able to continue if I had to do all those reps again! Come see what I mean, try it out with me...

Kettlebell yoga is back! I couldn't resist creating another workout for this series, I enjoy this fusion so much. I hope you like this one as much as the first. Let me know what you think...

Say what?! This was such an inspiring idea for a workout for me. You work your entire body, get your heart rate up, and get a great stretch in all at the same time. Kettlebells work really nicely with yoga and a large variety of different exercises in general. I'm really excited to share this with you, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 

I thought I would get through this workout a lot faster than I did; it really challenged me, but that's a good thing. My pistol squats are far from perfect, because they too still challenge me, and that's okay. That's why I work on them. These workouts are supposed to challenge you, and make you stronger in the process. Working on your weaknesses is essential to growth, improvement, and change. Never shy away from a challenge! Let it empower you to push as hard as you can, and each day you will truly be stronger than the day before. Come try this awesome new kettlebell cardio workout with me...

This workout is relentless. It just crushes your upper body for pretty much the duration of the workout (minus one leg exercise to give the upper body a brief break). Thankfully it only takes 12 minutes; then you can stretch, relax, and grab some protein to help rebuild your fatigued muscles. Let's get to it!

Kind of a mouthful of a title, but this workout is so fun and really packs a punch in just 15 minutes. Try it out with me to see what I mean...

My cat was present, but paid little attention to me as I worked my way through this awesome 15 minute AMRAP. This really gets your heart rate up and delivers an amazing burn in your legs in such a short amount of time. How many rounds can you do in 15 minutes?

You are going to feel the burn with this one. This workout is a lot tougher than it sounds. When I was putting it together I feared it might be too easy. Try it with me to see how wrong I was...

I absolutely love working with my kettlebell (which I think I've made abundantly clear in the past) but still I struggled so much with this workout, I almost knocked it back to 2 rounds instead of 3 while I was working through it. I just didn't feel like I had the strength to make it through 3 rounds, but I really wanted to be true to my plans and complete all 3. I didn't want to give up. I don't know how I did it, but I dug deeper than I thought possible and really pushed myself and somehow managed to get through it. You're always stronger than you think. No matter how much resistance you are physically or mentally facing, you can almost always push back against it and win. This is definitely an advanced level workout though, so pace yourself. Come try this with me and see if you can get through the 3 rounds...