As some of you may have gathered… I don’t have much of a life. I don’t mean that in a bad way— life has become much more simple these days.

I work part time. I exercise. I cook weird food creations. I read. I cuddle my cat. I hang out in the same sweater every single day…

Some days are better than others.

Some days I curse myself for not being able to do more.

And some days I feel great. I feel like I don’t have cancer. I feel as though everything is '“normal”.

Those are the days I take advantage of and head to the gym.

Sometimes frustrated with my body. Sometimes super proud.

I wanted to share what a typical gym workout looked like for weeks I’m feeling energetic.

When I’m not feeling as good, I stay home and do a workout in the basement (here’s what that typically looks like).

Or maybe I just walk on the treadmill.

Or, I don’t workout at all.

Workout:

I do 3 sets of every movement shown here. I take short breaks in between (2-3 minutes). I adjust the weights as needed but since I’m trying to maintain strength and muscle mass, I do try to lift as heavy as I can more often than not. It’s about listening to your body. I know how far I can push myself before passing out or puking (Hah, I go too hard sometimes, I’m sure of it). One thing to note: I usually “superset” these movements (meaning I do 2-3 of them back-to-back to be more time-efficient). This is a long workout, so you can pick and choose what you’d like to do from it. You could split it into 2 days! I aim for a full body workout (or close to it) if I’m at the gym these days simply because I can’t go as often (and isolate the muscle groups as I used to, bodybuilder-style).

Hip Thrusts: You can do these with or without a band(s) around your legs for extra resistance. You can also do these with kettlebells, dumbbells, or a pre-loaded bar (instead of the barbell shown here). I’ve lost a ton of strength on this lift but I’m doing my best to maintain what is left! It’s difficult when I go on average 10 days without the gym on my ‘bad weeks’…
Banded warm-up between sets of Hip Thrusts: These bands come in different resistance levels (I have a light, medium, and hard one— as shown here). I do squats (drive your knees out to feel the burn!), glute kickbacks (squeeze your butt cheeks and make them do the lifting of the leg!), and hip abductors (leaning forward, drive your knees outward to feel your outer hips burn).
Smith Machine Squats: You can of course do squats in a variety of ways, but this is pretty good for beginners, or if the squat rack is taken. Shown here I did 1 1/2 squats where I go down, only go partially back up, and then down again before returning to the top again and doing it all over (8-10 times depending on the weight). If you push with your heels you’ll feel the emphasis on your butt.
Push-ups: You can start from your knees if you have to! These are difficult for me right now but I want to do some sort of chest movement during this whole ordeal…
Lat Pulldown: I lean back a bit, and pull thinking about bringing my elbows down to my sides in order to engage my back.
Bicep curls: I did these alternating but you can do both arms at the same time. Make sure you’re not swinging your entire arm too much.
Side shoulder raises: I think about ‘pinkies’ out and up, and about moving everything from the shoulder.
Leg pushdown on assisted pull-up machine: Be careful getting up on this thing so you don’t fall off! But once you’re set up, simply press down with your leg (emphasis on heel again if you want your butt to do more of the work!)
Hamstring Curl: Make sure your hips don’t raise up or you’ll hurt yourself. Lower the weight if this happens!
Sumo Goblet Squats: These are great for the legs as well! Use a wide stance.
Leg extension: These focus on your quads (or front part of your thigh) and I like to ‘burn’ them by doing single leg and both legs at once!
Hip Abductors: King of the awkward workouts, this focuses on your ‘outer butt’ (which is a weak spot for me).
Butt Master Machine: Well, this speaks for itself. Press through your heel so that your butt cheeks do the work!

It’s so awkward filming at the gym but here we go!

Well that’s it! I’m exhausted. If you try any of this, let me know!

You can email me at shestaysstrongblog@gmail.com. And if you want more behind-the-scenes stuff from me, you can follow my journey @shestaysstrongblog on Instagram!

Health and happiness to you all!

Thanks for reading! XO