Quickie Cardio Leg Blast

Hi friends!

After a couple of days of feeling icky and taking it a bit easy, I’m feeling more like myself today. Having more of my normal energy levels, my Thursday was a nicely active day, with half hour walks with my dog first thing this morning and also tonight, and squeezing in a quick hour of volunteering at the Humane Society walking dogs before heading to the gym for a sweaty workout this evening.

On my way to volunteer, I slugged down a bottle of Well Well Wow! – a liquid blend of chlorella growth factor and eleuthero that’s meant to energize you without the jittery side effects of caffeine. As I’ve talked about before, I’m a fan of consuming algae. Chlorella is a superfood algae that is thought to detoxify the body. So when the makers of Well Well Wow!, Sun Chlorella, asked me if I wanted to try a couple product samples, I was all for it.

A little tidbit about caffeine and me: We don’t mix together very well. If I drink coffee, I typically just get jittery and feel headachy, yet I don’t really feel like I have more energy at all. I’m constantly drinking tea simply because I like it, but I don’t feel any effects of caffeine from it. And the few times I’ve drank energy drinks in my life? Not only did I think they were nasty, but I again just felt kind of spastic and jittery instead of nicely energized. Since Well Well Wow! is a caffeine-free product that aims to increase endurance levels, I wanted to see if I would feel any effects from it.

The drink contains chlorella extract, agave nectar and eleuthero extract. Eleuthero is an adaptogenic herb, which means that it’s thought to boost the body’s resistance to stress. By combining the two extracts, the product strives to decrease the harmful effects of stress on the body while also increasing endurance levels, hence why I’ve drank it a couple of times pre-workout to see if I can notice a difference.

In all honesty, I didn’t feel an energy boost from the drink, but the taste of Well Well Wow! was interesting. I can’t say that I loved it or disliked it — I just couldn’t put my finger on what it tasted like, besides a hint of licorice. I definitely sipped it down easily. I think that making decent tasting algae products can be a difficult feat, as they most often taste super greeny. In any event, I do like the idea of drinking something that offers the benefits of algae and decreases the effects of stress on my body, being that we live in environments with so many toxins causing distress on our bodies on a daily basis. If you’re interested in checking out Sun Chlorella’s product line, click here.

Now onto my workout of the day!

Today’s gym session focused on legs. After starting off with a couple of strength training exercises, including leg extensions, dead lifts, and the adductor and abductor machines, I headed to the cardio room to do this quick cardio workout:

When I initially came up with this combo, I didn’t think it’d be too difficult. But by the second set of these moves, I was already starting to feel fatigued and out of breath… which is great! It kicked my butt but I powered through it in about 15 minutes. The workout targets legs but also works out arms, which is why it probably didn’t help that my arms are sore from my triceps workout yesterday! I’m definitely keeping this one in mind for future workouts when I want to feel the burn quickly.

While doing this workout, I blasted my new favorite gym song: Fall Out Boy’s Light Em Up. Fall Out Boy always reminds me of the summer after my senior year of high school, when I continuously listened to their From Under the Cork Tree album while driving. I’m bringing em back onto my playlist, as I love the chorus in this song while working out. I’m pretty sure I’ll be obsessed with this one for a little while! Check it out. 🙂

Disclaimer: While I did receive free product samples, as always, all opinions expressed in this post are my own.