Back to School Series Pt 2 | 5 min Total Body Fitness Circuit!

Hey everyone! Today I will be sharing with you a quick back to school fitness routine. Now that summer is nearly over, we will have half the amount of time to workout and keep up our fitness. That's why I have put together a super quick 5 minute circuit that you can squeeze in to any day. It's five minutes so you have no excuses as to why you didn't have enough time to finish it!

There are 5 exercises total and each move should be done for 1 minute. In between each exercise you can take a 30 second rest to prepare for the following move. Since each exercise is only for a minute you should be trying to get in as many reps as you can to make the most of that minute.

If you are feeling great afterwards, challenge yourself to another couple of rounds to create a longer workout if you aren't also involved in extra sports and activities.

5 moves, 1 minute each...are YOU ready? 

First round - Side Hops

Jump as high and far out to the side as you can with your legs tucked in to your chest. No breaks during the whole minute just hop as hard as you can! 

Second Round - Bicycle Crunches

Laying on your back with your legs straight out in front of you and hands behind your head. Bring one knee to your chest whilst simultaneously crunching the opposite side of your body to your knee.  

Third Round - Single Leg Butt Kicks

On your hands and knees lift one leg up and kick up and down for 30 seconds (keeping your knee bent), then switch onto the other leg to complete the minute of exercise. 

Fourth Round - Inner Thigh Pulses

Laying on your side, bring one leg across the other and near chest at a bent angle. Next, flex the bottom foot and pulse up and down for 30 seconds switching onto the other side for the last 30 seconds. 

Fifth Round - Downward Dog Push-ups

Starting in a downward dog position, slowly drop your body down towards the ground and bring one leg at a time to your chest. Then, do a tricep push-up down to the floor. From there lift up your hips slightly off the ground and push your upper body up to the sky with an arched back. Finally, bring your hips back up to downward dog. 

Thanks so much for reading through and completing this fitness circuit! I hope you are sweating and on the floor and if not DO IT AGAIN! I also just wanted to recommend a great youtube channel that you can go to if you want more interval style fitness routines. The channel is "blogilates" and most of my fitness inspiration comes from her videos as she has millions of videos perfect for every part of your body. In addition, I am starting school on Wednesday so I will probably only have time for once a week posting just to let you know. With that said, thanks again for viewing my blog and I'll talk to you soon xx

PS...
Top: Nike
Shorts and Sports Bra: H&M

Back to School Series Pt 1 | School Supplies & DIY!

Hey everyone! So I start school in 6 DAYS...and I know some of you have already started or may be starting in a week so I figured it was the perfect time to start my back to school series! Basically, it will be a collection of various posts all about school and how to make transitioning into a new grade or school easier.

Ahh I still can't believe summer is almost over it has gone by way too fast like it always does. Anyways, in today's first part of the series I will be sharing with you my school supplies / backpack / s couple DIY's for your supplies.

School Supply Haul
Everything was purchased from Target except for the 'emergency kit' which was bought at Urban Outfitters.

School planner

Emergency kit filled with 22 random items (i.e rubber band, deodorant, tide stick, lip balm, etc)

Backpack
My backpack is from the brand Fjäll Räven which you can find at Nordstrom's or online. It is in the color graphite which is basically a dark gray with blue tones. I love this backpack because it has an extra 13" compartment to store your backpack. This is so ideal because you have extra room for all your books and don't have to take up space in the main compartment for your laptop. It's also really comfortable on your arms and holds a lot of things.

Laptop compartment

DIY's
School supplies can be a really boring thing if you get basic stuff that everyone has. Instead, you can use these three super easy DIY's to add some personality to your items and keep you more organized.

The first are dividers to go into your binders. If you're like me, I get so confused with all my papers and sometimes just end up throwing them somewhere. Therefore, I decided to get white dividers with colorful tabs. Then, I took these white strips and wrote the class name AND room number and placed them inside the tabs. Now, I can easily flip to the correct class when I'm in a hurry and need to shove a paper into my binder. You can also tape your schedule to the back of your binder to keep track of your classes.

Next, I have this 5 part notebook which is super helpful because I can have all my classes inside of one notebook filled with tons of lined paper so I don't have to carry around a separate notebook for each class. It also came with a page of cut-outs to write the class and teacher but you can also make your own. I cut out each of the boxes, filled them in and taped them to the start of each section. 

This could also work in a normal notebook in which you tape in titles to keep each section of the class organized. Ex: In your biology notebook you could split the notebook so one section is for classwork, one for homework and one for test prep. 

Next, is a DIY to jazz up your binders or notebooks with washi tape! I love washi tape and I'm so happy I can finally use it because they didn't have any in Switzerland :( Anyways, this is a pretty self-explanatory DIY where you take different rolls of tape and add a design to the corners or all over the surface. I bought a white binder and added some tape to the bottom to keep it simple with a pop of color. 

Finally, this is more of a tip than a DIY but it's to screenshot your schedule and set it as your lock screen for the first couple weeks of school. I've seen this on so many back to school tips and think it will be super helpful rather than searching for your schedule in your bag or going through your phone to find it. 

I hope you all enjoyed this first part of the back to school series and that it gave you some ideas of what to buy and also some easy DIY's you can do to add a touch of personality and organization to your supplies. Till next time xx