Conclusion of Passion Blogs

I have always been passionate about good health and strength. As a dancer, I always had a specific fitness routine in order to keep my strength and stamina at the level it was. Coming to college, it was a tough adjustment to find that routine again. I wasn’t able to practice as much and I barely had time to keep up with my fitness. However, the Passion Blogs allowed me to find that routine here. Even though I was unable to practice as much as I did at home, I found that cross-training helped just as much when it came to keeping my strength and stamina within my dancing. Choosing the topic of fitness for my blog truly helped me to find what best worked for me and enabled me to continue to dance. Even after the passion blogs end, I know I will be able to keep up with this same fitness routine, as I have been doing. In the beginning, it was extremely tough to find time to go to the gym, but as I got more comfortable and assimilated into the Penn State community, I found everything that would work for my schedule. The Passion Blogs helped to find myself in this huge school and get back to normal routines, as I had been so use to at home.

Also here is a little update with how dance is going:

Over Thanksgiving break, as some of you may know from my previous blog posts, I competed in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships. Despite not having a lot of practice time and the lack of a designated practice area, I mostly cross-trained leading up to this competition. The amount of competitors in my solo competition had dropped dramatically from the previous year, solely due to everyone going away to college and quitting dance. It was mostly the top ranked dancers left in the competition and would be a blood battle for top placements. However, I am proud to say I am 13th in the Region (out of around eighty dancers). I could not be happier and feel more accomplished. Receiving that placement after having this huge adjustment was an achievement all in itself and I hope to continue to keep up with dance and possibly move up in rankings.

Next stop: New Orleans for the National Irish Dance Competition.

Passion Blog #7- Fitness

Attempting to balance school work, workouts, dance practice, and sorority events has become extremely challenging. I never expected it to be easy, but I never thought I wouldn’t be able to attend dance practices, mostly because they are so late at night. However, thanks to Greek Sing practice for my sorority, I haven’t been able to practice- which is a problem considering regionals has passed the 30 day mark. For the first time in about two weeks, I was able to attend dance class, and I have never felt better. I was certain that I would not be able to make it through a full routine, due to my lack of practicing. I entered the room with a very pessimistic view of how it was going to go. To my surprise, I did a lot better than I expected. Because I had not been going to practice, I spent majority of my free time at the gym, as you all know, cross-training and working to build more leg muscle. It didn’t feel as though I was doing anything productive, and I certainly did not think my legs had grown any stronger. However, this dance practice proved me wrong. I was able to get through two full routines, all while keeping my stamina in tact and was able to end the routine without the dreaded “jello-legs”, a term we use to describe how our legs feel once finishing a dance (they are completely dead). I had completely forgot just how vital cross-training is for dance. Stamina and knowing your steps are not the only things involved with it. Strong legs are what can help keep your stamina up! If your legs are not weakening throughout the dance, you will be able to get through it with no problem. All in all, I had began to discourage myself about how my result at regionals would turn out, solely because of how crazy my schedule is and how little time I have to practice, but after this last class, my hopes have been lifted once again. I just have to keep cross-training and try my best to make it to practice. Let’s hope for the best!

Passion Blog #6- Fitness

Guess who has finally been consistent with going to the gym again! Meeee (big surprise). This week, I had a new instructor for Washboard Abs. She took a new approach to the class as opposed to the other instructors I have had. She worked backwards. The workouts we would usually do at the end of the class, she started with, and vice versa. This class consisted of mostly lower ab workouts, which I loved! The other instructors usually focus on top abs, so it was nice to finally switch it up a bit. In my opinion, working backwards made me feel a lot better afterwards. Instead of starting with the easy ab workouts, we started with the harder ones, thus allowing ourselves to use the easier moves at the end in order to cool down. We began with an Air Bike, in which you extend one leg and bend the other, bringing your opposite elbow to your knee. Usually we start with a basic crunch, but this was much harder. The pace of the class was a lot slower than the usual class, allowing myself to focus more on doing the moves properly, as opposed to trying to fit as many as I can into the short time frame. The instructor focused more on form rather than intensity, which I enjoyed.

Due to Big-Little Week for my sorority, I was advised to be out of my room from 4 pm -6 pm, so I decided to spend that time at the gym before abs class. I used the elliptical and chose the Fat Burner workout, which lasts for twenty minutes and the resistance changes after every few minutes, making it much harder. After that, I used the hip abductor for about ten minutes. To my surprise, I was not as sore as I thought I would be the next morning. I moved my way over to the leg press and then I worked on squats and lunges. I clearly don’t skip leg day- arms, however, I do skip.

Passion Blog #5- Fitness

With school work, a social life, sorority meetings, and finding time to study all piling up, I have found it extremely hard to make time to go to the gym. Keeping up with scheduled workout classes and even just going to the gym on my own has become a huge struggle. I find that I never have time to go. However, I was able to go this week and, let me tell you, I have never felt better afterwards. My roommate and our friend went together and spent an hour in the gym and then went to the washboard abs class. I was expecting the class to be extremely difficult due to the fact that I had not gone in so long, but to my surprise, it was not that bad. I have always worked on abs at my dance classes at home, so taking a break from the classes felt like a weird adjustment. Finally taking the class again  got me back into the routine of wanting to go each day; well, every other day (if I’m lucky).

Since I have been very inconsistent with attending dance practices, I have been working on cross training. Gaining leg muscle is essential in dance, as you have to be able to have the strength to get through high-intensity routines. Squatting and leg presses have been my go-to workouts in order to build this muscle. Each time I go to the gym, I add more weight to my workout. To my surprise, I am not as sore as I thought I was going to be and have began to gain even more muscle in my legs. I really hope to keep up with this, as being a college student is very stressful and time consuming. I am planning on setting aside days and times in which I can go to the gym, allowing myself to stay on a strict schedule and be able to follow through with it.

Passion Blog #4- Fitness

For this week’s blog, I am going to stray a little from my stories of working out at the gym and taking classes at IM- mostly because I haven’t gone… 🙂 So, if you know me, you know that I have been competitively Irish Dancing for 14 years. Not only is it extremely fun but it is also a great workout. My time at Penn State is not going to take away from my ability to still compete. I have joined the Irish Dance Team here in order to keep up with practicing so I will be able to go to Regionals in November and (HOPEFULLY!) qualify for Worlds in April. However, the practices are held very late at night so I lose the motivation to go. On Mondays I have practice from 8pm-10pm. Within that time we work on stamina building, ab workouts, our own solo routines from our dance schools back home, and we learn team dances. Wednesday practices are really where I find no motivation to go, considering practice is from 10pm-11:45pm. Dancing is possibly the last thing I want to be doing that late at night, but I keep pushing myself because, if I don’t, I won’t reach my goal of world qualifying.

Dance requires a lot of stamina to get through routines. In order to build this stamina, you not only need a ton of leg strength, but a strong mindset to tell yourself to keep going once your legs feel like jello. I have been doing squats and lunges to build muscle in order to be able to complete each move as strong as I can. I also run and use the elliptical machines at the gym. Dance requires a ton of cross training in order to be successful. To my surprise, I have been doing very well with keeping up with practice, although I could always use an extra push.

Passion Blog #3- Fitness

My first two weeks here I was trying extremely hard to keep up with going to the gym and taking classes at IM. To my surprise, I was being very proactive and pushing myself to keep going. However, once Rush week for Sororities started, I stopped working out because it took up all of my time. After rush ended, it had been about a week and a half since I had last went to the gym. I pushed myself to get out of my pajamas and go work out. One of my roommates came with me, making it a bit easier. First, we did the Washboard Abs class, my absolute favorite one to go to! Although the class was a bit harder, considering I hadn’t gone in a while, it still made me feel great after which is exactly what I was looking for! After the class, my roommate and I went to the gym ourselves and did our own workouts. She ran the track and I went to the bar to do squats and then I went to the leg press machine. I pushed myself extra hard that day because I knew I had to make up for all of the progress I had lost when I was rushing. I ended up squatting 100 reps of 90 pounds. Of course, my legs felt like jello after, but that feeling only motivates me more to build the muscle in my legs and be able to get through squats with no problem the next time around. At the leg press machine, I slowly worked my way up. I first started with 40 pounds and realized how easy it was. I kept adding twenty pounds until I got to 200. I was extremely proud of myself and knew that if I continue with this, I would be able to make even more progress and possibly get to 300 pounds one day. The next morning, my legs are extremely sore and I could barely get out of bed but I use the soreness as my motivator. I went to the gym again the next day and it was so much easier than the day before, which I hope to continue with.

Passion Blog #1- Fitness

screen-shot-2016-09-09-at-2-46-24-pmFor first year students going off to college it is extremely hard to learn how to balance studies, a social life and leaving your family. Aside from these challenges, every freshman comes face to face with battling the dreaded “Freshman 15”. What some fail to realize is that, yes people do tend to gain weight in college, but it doesn’t happen over night. Type Freshman 15 into any search engine and articles will fill your screen with helpful tips and warnings. The anxiety brought upon students about trying to not gain this weight may bring about a negative effect and cause them to obsess over eating healthy and working out. Yes, it is good to be conscious about this, but it is never good to over work or under eat.

As a freshman, I, too, and worried about the threat of the “Freshman 15”. However, I have taken my own initiative to try something new in order to prevent it. My roommates and I have started taking classes at the Intramural Gym, IM for short. Not only have I never felt better but I thought to share my experiences through this blog and possibly inspire other freshman to do the same.

One of the first classes I have taken was Washboard Abs. I figured that this class would not be that bad considering I would do ab workouts at home every other day. Boy was I wrong. This class is twenty minutes of pure torture- great torture, of course (if that is even possible). Washboard Abs consists of a multitude of planks, crunches, sit ups, and different variations to each move. Throughout the entire class you really have to push yourself and, from my experience, you feel amazing after. The more you take the class, the easier it gets. You are surrounded by other girls who clearly have the same thoughts as you, such as, “Why in the world did I do this to myself”. The high intensity of the class is truly what kept making me come back for it. The results and the feeling it gives you is such a great thing. I highly recommend taking this class. You will feel great and can 100% beat the “Freshman 15”.