Hi Everyone!

Welcome to a new week! Let’s work together to make choices that make us happier and healthier this week.

I am starting out my week with a fantastic Standing Lower Body Workout paired with my Quick Arm and Back Workout routine.

The Lower Body Workout is great for me right now (at 25-weeks pregnant) because I don’t have to modify it at all. It’s pregnancy safe, and the only equipment needed is a chair.

The arm and back workout requires a chair and dumbbells.

Here is the video. For the full photo tutorial and workout breakdown check out the link at the bottom of this post.

Standing Lower Body Workout:

Quick Arm/Back Workout:

These are some great, quick workouts to keep in your exercise rotation. If you want a longer workout routine, you can increase the number of rounds you complete.

Pregnancy Update:

I am happy to report that I am finally feeling like myself again! This has been a challenging pregnancy, when I compare it to my first. I’ve been sick a lot, barely sleeping, low energy, moody as heck, and overall not feeling like myself.

Over the past week, I made a change, and made sure to get in 5 days of working out, even though I was tired and unmotivated. An interesting thing happened, and I found my mood and energy levels increasing exponentially. Everything felt better and easier.

Exercise is important for my physical, mental and emotional health. Even though I already knew all of that to be true, I was skipping a lot of workouts and letting myself veg out. While that is totally okay sometimes, it’s not a good habit to get into all the time. It was impacting my mood and energy in a very negative way.

Unfortunately my moodiness, also meant that I wasn’t blogging as much. It felt hard to bring you guys positive and uplifting content when it felt like I didn’t have anything worthwhile to say. Sharing workouts here with you is something that I do because I love it, I’m passionate about it, and I feel like I’m making a difference.

It’s important to me to continue doing that, but to also be authentic when I go through a challenging time, when it’s hard for me to do what I love.

For me, the answer was to focus on getting in the workouts and getting myself together physically and mentally.

Last week I did: Yoga, HIIT (modified to a moderate/speaking level of intensity to be pregnancy safe), LIIT (low impact interval training), Walking and Running.

My goal is to get in 5-6 workout days again this week. Please set your workout intention with me. It helps you to stay on track. I highly recommend marking each workout on your calendar. It helps you stay accountable to yourself.

I am filming new workouts this week, plus I partnered with HelloFresh to give you guys a new discount if it’s your first time trying those meals. So check back here, on Instagram or Facebook, and I will update you throughout the week.

I hope you enjoy these workouts! See you soon!

Melissa

PS You can find me on Social Media: @BenderFitness and on Facebook: @MelissaBenderFitness and Jesse is on Instagram: @BenderCrosby1

If you want to help support BenderFitness so we can continue to share and create Free Workouts, your donation is greatly appreciated: https://www.patreon.com/BenderFitness. 

PPS I recently created an Amazon Shop. It includes some “Must Have” workout equipment, kitchen tools, books I’ve enjoyed, fashions I love and fun household decor items. This is an affiliate link: that means BenderFitness makes a small commission when you purchase an item. If you would like to check it out you can do so here: www.amazon.com/shop/benderfitness

Great Standing Lower Body Workout & Quick Arm and Back Workout