Trying New Exercises: Plie Squat

Monday I felt extra tight in my calves, legs and ankles. I have no idea why…it started on Sunday after my swim. If I ventured a guess I’d say it was from sitting in a car all weekend driving back and forth to Seattle.

Needless to say, I was not sure what kind of workout I’d get Monday after work. Luckily I seemed to have less pain and discomfort when I was running than just walking around! Weird.

This week marks the first time trying to run more than 2 miles on the treadmill. The Return to Running Plan has been veerrrrrrrry slow. As a quick recap for new readers:

• Labor Day weekend I ran 4 miles as a recovery run to Hood to Coast and realized I was injured.
• A week later I was diagnosed with Over-use of my IT Band.
• I haven’t run for real since September. 🙁

So there ya have it. The last 4 months in a nutshell. I’ve been following the doctor’s orders and not increasing my mileage more than 10% each week. Of course there were lots of setbacks: flu, a cold, several new injuries…Sigh.

I’m much more comfortable at a faster pace on the treadmill–even though it’s still pretty slow. I increased my mileage last night to 2.20 miles with NO incident! Awesome!

After my run I lifted weights and then moved on to some new moves!

A few weeks ago I asked Susan from The Great Balancing Act for exercises to prevent running injuries. She referred me to one of her posts. She has lots of good exercises for runners. A few of them I already do. Last night I decided to try the PLIE SQUAT.

The benefit of the Plie Squat is that it works your inner thighs–a must for runners. Especially runners with IT Band issues like me. It will strengthen my inner thighs and hopefully prevent further issues.

1. Stand with your feet wide apart in a wide stance.
2. Your knees should line up with your toes.
3. There should be no pain or discomfort, so if there is STOP. Maybe you’re too far apart or not aligned correctly. I recommend doing it front of a mirror to watch form.
4. Hold the free weight in any amount you are comfortable with.
5. Bend your knees down in a squat, lowering the weight.
6. Keep your back straight and suck in your abs for support.
7. Push back up. Repeat.

Here’s what I did last night:

• 10 squats with 8 pounds
• 10 squats with 10 pounds
• 10 squats with 12 pounds
• 10 squats with 15 pounds

In the future I will stick with the 15+ pound weight for this move. This morning I woke up and felt the soreness on my inner thighs! IT WORKS! It feels great, too.

Gym Stats:

Time: 1:23

Calories: 580

When I got home Michael was making his famous Mac n’ Cheese.

He was making a batch for his work Christmas party and made a little extra for us to have for dinner. Yum!

The bread on top got a tad crispy but it still tasted great.

Michael cooked some bratwursts and chopped them up, adding the sausage to the mac n’ cheese. It was good and I needed the extra protein after my workout (plus I was starving) but the sausage had fennel in it and I dislike fennel a lot.

We also watched the finale of Dexter. It was good!

QUESTION: What did you think of the Dexter finale?

I also got a handmade Christmas card in the mail from a friend!

Inside she wrote with calligraphy! It was very cool and I love handmade cards. I used to make handmade cards every year. I’d spend hours watching movies and making cards. Then I realized I have no time. Maybe next year I’ll start early so I can send handmade cards again.

QUESTION: Have you ever tried Plie Squats? And are you a handmade card person?