My Workouts Lately: Xtend Barre Encinitas, Hiking Iron Mountain & The Fit Mill {Muscle Tweaks Can’t Hold Me Down!}

Hey friends!

How was your weekend? Mine was wonderful and included lots of fun with my little family! Check out Harley licking her lips at the sangria carafes I brought to a friend’s on the 4th of July: 

I can’t blame her, sangria is one of my favorite summer drinks!

Today I thought it’d be fun to talk about my workouts as of late. As usual I’ve been super active, but lately I’ve had a few not so fun muscular tweaks happening. I’m thankful to be strong and healthy, but does anyone else ever feel like their body is just out of whack and giving out on them in an aches and pains kind of way?!

The first tweak was a couple of weeks ago when I hurt my neck doing a Jillian Michaels’ DVD that I’ve done a million times. It felt like a nerve pinched in my neck down through my shoulder blade, and I immediately felt a tingling sensation. It felt annoying but just kind of weird during that day, and developed into a crazy painful tweak that night. For a bunch of days I couldn’t turn my neck easily, and so I was obviously very careful with my movements. I applied my heating pad to it like crazy and begged my hubby to give me lots of neck rubs until it subsided.

Once my neck felt more normal again, I started a 2-week unlimited class Groupon at Xtend Barre Encinitas. I’m going to talk more about it in another post, but I’m now a fan of Xtend Barre workouts and enjoyed this barre workout’s focus on more cardio. I took 5 classes in 2 weeks, and even though each class was different, by the last few classes, I felt like I had a decent grasp on Xtend Barre moves.

The last weekend in June, when my hubby and I awoke to gloomy skies and cool temperatures, we decided to spend the morning hiking with our pup. This type of weather is ideal for summer hiking, and we headed to Poway’s Iron Mountain.  

We had hiked Iron Mountain just once before a few years ago, so we had an idea of what to expect. There was some excitement heading to the mountain peak, as I got to see my very first helicopter rescue on a hiking trail! Apparently a woman twisted her ankle and the heli came down right in front of us to rescue her:   

I’m not sure how badly she was hurt, but my hubby and I joked that we would have to be pretty damn bad to call for a helicopter rescue. That’s the Marine in him and stubbornness in me I suppose! I’d probably limp all the way back down and then call an ambulance if I couldn’t drive to the hospital myself. I already know that’s what my hubby would do, considering that scenario already happened when he broke his hand surfing a few years ago, and proceeded to take off his wetsuit himself and drive home before calling to tell me that his dominant hand was completely broken and freakishly swollen. True story!

The hike took us a total of 2 1/2 hours. It was a great workout, and I’m glad I got a chance to hike Iron Mountain this summer! It’s definitely a fun half-day San Diego hike with beautiful views and a steady incline.

Harley did great too since the relentless sun wasn’t out too much to tire her out, though she was a sleepy pup for the rest of the afternoon:

While the hike was great overall, there was one little downside: my foot’s annoying chronic sesamoiditis was bothering me. Usually when I plan to go on a hike, I’ll workout on the easier side the day before since I know that my foot pain can act up with too much activity, but since I hadn’t planned this hike, I had a tough HIIT workout the day before.

My foot started aching just 20 or 30 minutes into the hike, and at one point, my hubby looked back at me and asked why I was limping. I was subconsciously overcompensating to protect my foot, and what wound up happening was that I used the outside of my foot and calf more than usual. This led to tweak #2: crazy soreness on the outside of my calf’s soleus and Achilles tendon.

For a few days I kept it low-key to allow the soreness to subside. I did lots of icing and practiced some yoga to try to stretch my leg out and keep it nice and loose. After 4 or 5 days, I thankfully felt back to normal…. just in time for my friend Trish‘s outdoor bootcamp class mid-last week!  

Trish held the class at East Mission Bay Park one evening, and even though it drizzled the entire time (I know, rain in San Diego?! We’ve had a couple of rainstorms lately!) and I was kind of chilly yet sweating, it was a fun workout. We did lots of plank moves, and jumped rope and ran around a lot during the partner workout.

The next night, I tried out a new studio in the area: The Fit Mill. 

The Fit Mill’s approach to fitness comes in the form of a circuit workout, and the class included circuits of biking, rowing, gravity machines, TRX, plus wall and box sections for things like ab exercises and tricep dips. We did 3 consecutive rounds at one station, then moved on to the next one. Once we had exercised at each station, the workout was complete.

What I loved about The Fit Mill was that the workout went by really quickly, which is one of the main reasons why I love circuit and HIIT workouts in general. The studio was set up and decorated really cute, and my instructor was one of the owners, Shanae. She was very energetic and friendly, and I enjoyed the class a lot. I definitely recommend that you check it out if you live in the Carlsbad area and are looking to switch up your fitness routine!  

I’m not sure if it was the bootcamp class or my workout at The Fit Mill, but following those workouts, for the whole weekend my left quad was super sore. This was clearly just delayed muscle soreness and not as painful as my first 2 tweaks, but still, I couldn’t figure out what specific exercises caused it. The next morning, I took a gentle beach yoga class to stretch out my achy quad and tight muscles in general.

Beach yoga was such a peaceful and calming way to start my long 4th of July weekend. I even got my hubby to join! We also took the pup for an hourlong hike at the lake nearby our house later in the day.

On Saturday I took a much needed rest day, and all I did activity-wise was go for a 45-minute walk with my little family. Lastly, on Sunday I completed a sweaty at-home workout while watching USA kick some serious ass in the Women’s World Cup. I totally only watch soccer when the major games are on, but it was exciting nonetheless (and definitely motivated me to workout harder!).

By the way, can you tell that I’m doing a new Instagram yoga challenge by all of the yoga pictures I’m including in this post? 🙂

To sum it up, I had THREE muscular tweaks within the last couple of weeks but charged on! I took it easy when I felt I needed to, and resumed being a workout maniac when I felt better. They say things come in threes, so maybe my streak of weird tweaks is over for now, but I’m making sure to apply ice, use the heating pad, drinks lot of water, get as much good sleep as I can, and fuel my body through nutritious food. I also think that practicing yoga often helps me with the amount of tension and stress held in my body, and I’ve added this Muscle Recovery tea to my stash of Yogi teas:

I figured it can’t hurt! I’m also planning on scheduling a massage for later this week. With how active I am, I definitely feel that I benefit a lot from frequent deep tissue massages. It helps to work out the kinks before they turn into situations of me not being able to turn my neck for a week again. 😉

Tell me… What new workouts have you been doing lately? How do you prevent sports injuries and serious muscular aches?