Lauren Brooks Fitness

This post is not about anyone's body being transformed. It's about my ugly garage being transformed in to a kettlebell / training studio. I have been extremely busy the past several weeks trying to make this happen. It was a lot of work but the outcome is worth all the headache. For the past 8 months I have been training everyone in my backyard, which has worked out great. But when it rains or it's dark it isn't the best place to be. So looking at my horrible garage I thought it would be a good investment to use it wisely. The most challenging part was forcing us to get rid of lots and lots of crap! Which is probably one of the best parts about this. The next best part is I now have a home kettlebell gym that is fully insulated. I wasn't able to convince Ben to get a shed for some of our storage so we settled on getting nice cabinets. We still have room for storage AND a nice little desk for the online training and nutrition consultations I do. Here are the befo...

Where do I start? It was an unforgettable trip. I went to visit my grandparents to introduce Lyla to them. They are 84 years old and I didn't expect them to make the trip all the way over here. So we decided to go there. I will say I was half asleep for most of it. Lyla decided to be up from 2-5 a.m. every morning and sleep several hours during the day. We still made the best of it even though we were dragging. For 2 days of the trip Ben and I rented a car and we drove outside of London. One of the places we went to was Leeds Castle. It was absolutely gorgeous. I didn't really get a chance to do too much exercise since I was so tired to begin with. I did manage to get some Turkish Get Ups in with my carry on bag. My family thought I was crazy. Then I went outside to use my jump rope one time. My intentions were good. 8-) Just did not turn out as planned. During the trip I had no choice but to get off my healthy diet. Several days in to the trip I was starving from tryin...

Hello Everyone! Sorry for not posting in so long. I am in London right now. I packed my jump rope with me and some bands. I haven't had a chance to visit any kettlebell instructors while I'm out here. Travelling with a baby is quite a challenge. I will update everyone in the next several days when I have more time to chat.

I would have put a picture of peanut butter cups or chocolate bars but I wouldn't want to entice anyone to have some. I would be lying if I said that I resisted the halloween candy temptations. When food is brought in to my house I will end up eating it. Every day this week I have managed to eat some candy. I feel guilty but then again I feel it's ok. I have been so strict with what I have been eating that I allow myself to indulge every now and again. Speaking of my normal eating habits, Tracy had encouraged me to take a picture of what I eat. Last night I made Spagetti Squash and put organic marinara sauce on top with some turkey meatballs. I also steamed some cauliflower and brocolli to get some extra veggies. Then for dessert I had a fruit salad that I made. Everything was pretty simple to make. If I can make it anyone can. Here is what it looks like. I found it bit humerous taking a picture of my dinner plate. The picture of the Reeses peanut butter cup is not in the...

First I want to start off with a positive note. I feel extremely lucky to have a home to come back to. My heart goes out to all those who lost their homes and valuables in the fire. It is hard to feel sorry for myself when people have it so much worse. This has been an eye opener this week. It really puts things in to perspective. On Monday Oct 22nd, I woke up smelling smoke at 6:00a.m. I looked outside and there was ashes falling and a red haze in the sky. I immediately turned on the TV and on every station there was BREAKING NEWS wild fires. I phoned my friend Laura that lives 10 minutes from me. She had been evacuated at 5 a.m. from her home. It then occured to me that I better start thinking about what is important to me. I knew as long as I have my family including my 2 cats, that is all I would need. I got a knock on my door as I was sitting there in shock. It was my neighbor from across the street inviting me over to their home so we can breathe cleaner air. They have ...

We were getting really excited to start Ben's program last week. Then I had to rush him to the emergency room at 6 a.m. Now that he is off the Prednisone he is much more vulnerable for painful flair ups. I personally think we have gotten a little too comfortable with our eating and need to go back to a strict Ulcerative Colitis friendly diet. We don't know what the exact cause of the flair ups are. If we knew we wouldn't keep having this problem. The pain is so unbearable that he required pain medicine 4 times stronger than Morphine, which is called Dilauded. Once things settle down I will continue to post. My daughter hasn't been sleeping well either for the past several weeks. At 3 a.m. she decides that she needs me! With no sleep and high stress, it's very hard to stay above water. My body has finally said ENOUGH! My lowered immune system from everything going on, finally gave in to a virus. With that being said, I do not workout when I am sick. Once I build...

Those who have been with me from the start with my blogging will remember that my husband was suffering from severe stomach problems that landed him in the emergency room over 15 times and admitted in the hospital 3 times. I would like to announce that he finally got off the steroids that the doctors put him on. The prednione (steroid) may have saved him but also came with a whole list of horrible side effects we had to deal with. So I am now becoming a very happy women seeing my husbands health start to improve almost drug free. Since working out for him has not been an option for longer than I can remember, I am now giving him a challenge. I told him last night that if he did just 20-30 minutes a day of kettlebell workouts, 5 times a week his health and physique would improve dramatically. I am talking about a transformation. Of course proper nutrition would be part of it as well. We would take pictures, measurements, log everything to keep him on track. You would think sinc...

Today I was determined to do a little kettlebells and some other bodyweight exercises. Just needed my baby to take her morning nap. I decided to warm up with an 8 minute walk around the neighborhood. Just enough time to get her to sleep. Once I got home I knew it was just a matter of time until she would wake up. I needed to hurry up and get my workout done. Here it is. Explosive Push Ups 10 Jump Pull Ups (just using my tippie toes) 4 One Leg Explosive Box Squat (18 inch box) 10/10 on each leg Snatches with 12kg 20/20 Went through each exercise with little to no rest. After Snatches rested 1 minute and repeated 3 times. Felt great after this. The best thing is this took about 20 minutes to do. I could have been done but since she was still asleep I decided to use the extra time. Lying Hip Rotations 10x Wheel Roll Outs 12x Medicine Ball Twists 30x Did 2 sets and then she woke u...

Today was my interval training day. I had planned to do kettlebell swings and snatches. My baby needed my full attention this morning and was resisting her nap. I knew my plan of swinging bells was not going to happen. Instead of just not doing anything, which many times happens, I had to be flexible and figure out another way. Those who have babies will know that putting them in a stroller will usually put them to sleep. So I decided to kill two birds in one stone. I put Lyla in the jogger, grabbed my stopwatch, and left the house. Lyla fell asleep within 5 minutes and I was then ready to expel some energy. I wanted to run fast but only for a minute at a time. I decided to do 1 minute intervals of running and fast walking for about 35 minutes. Pushing a stroller and running up the hills were just as challenging on my heart as swings and snatches . I have never been one to love running long distances. I somehow completed a half marathon before, but don't have any intentions o...

I am going to start implementing a system to keep me more well rounded with my exercises. As much as I believe you should only have a few goals at a time, I am not going to be competing in anything anytime soon. So for me to be well rounded it's important for me to work weekly on explosive strength, maximal strength, interval training, endurance training, isometrics, and more. Unless someone is training for a specific strength competition or a marathon, I am starting to change my views on training. We all know our bodies will adapt to the same type of training. Today my workout was dedicated to strength. It took about 30 minutes to complete. Rested 45-60 seconds in between exercises to be fresh for each set. Always made sure there was 2 reps left in the bank. Practice needs to be perfect! Next time I will add weight to the double squats since 8 reps is high for a strength workout. A1 Ring Pull ups 3 reps 4 sets A2 Double Front Squ...

Just wanted to share this magazine with you guys. I enjoy the nutrition/recipes articles that come out of this magazine as well as the fun and unique exercises that are shared. I believe you can try a free sample issue. I am glad I was able to be apart of this.. The picture on the front is me doing a clean and jerk. There are some better looking pics of me inside the issue. 8-) To get to the actual site you must go to http://www.cathletics.com/. It's on my links section as well if you click on Performance Menu. Enjoy!

For those who know me I don't spend a whole lot of time in the kitchen. This banana bread is THAT good that I wanted to share it with everyone. Yesterday was Ben's birthday and I wanted to make him a cake that we could both eat without feeling too guilty. Guilty meaning no stomach pains and bloating afterwards. This banana bread / cake is made with Almond Flour. Here are the ingredients. I found this on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet website but used less honey, more bananas, and added spices to make it a little healthier and tastier. Here is the recipe. 3 cups of Almond Flour 1/3 cup of honey 3 eggs 2-3 very ripe bananas 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and nutmeg Smash Bananas or put in a food processor. Mix all ingredients together unti smooth. Pour in a loaf pan and bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes depending on your oven. If you pour in 3 mini loaf pans (which I did) then bake for only 40 minutes. It was moist and sweet. I...

What do you choose??? Well if I have a choice I will choose the nice ass! As all you kettlebellers know, swinging those bells can really roughen up the hands with ugly calluses. I have several people including myself that every now and again get bothered by it. I have never been one to spend time making my hands look really pretty in the first place. With the work I do they would be ruined in one day, so I don't even bother too much. So this is a message for those ladies who let the calluses stop you from swinging kettlebells and doing pull-ups. One of the affects that kettlebell swings have on the body is a very strong nice butt! Tracy Reifkind, the swing master, is the woman to talk to if you have a question on swings and hand care! She is a perfect example of what the swings can do to your body. Suck it up because the rewards are worth it!!!! On another note, today was an awesome class. It rained outside during the class but my husband and I managed to put a tarp o...

I wanted to wait until her 8th month birthday but I am bursting with love so I felt like expressing it today. As I write this blog she is crawling all over me trying to press all the buttons. Life is sooo different right now. Everything I have she wants to put in her mouth. It is very funny! It is amazing how life changes so much as a new parent. I am so lucky to have the career I have. I am able to be with her most of the day. I don't know how I would have continued to breastfeed if I had a different schedule. I will say that priorities change big time. I don't get the personal time to myself like I use to. Especially big windows to do long workouts. When you see the schedule below you will have an idea why. This does not include diaper changing, bath time, play time, etc... This probably wont interest you unless you are a parent or an expecting parent! A typical day of feeding Lyla. I have had to add some extra nursing times because I was starting to lose my m...

Lately I have been having many more women show up to the classes. To be honest with you, I think that the girls overall are tougher than the boys! I'm sure you guys know that though. Today it was a mix of beginners, intermediate and advanced kbellers. So it gave the advanced people a chance to go heavier than they are use to safely. Here is the workout. I took a couple pictures to give you an idea of what it looked like. Warmed up with Joint Mobility Body Weight Squats 15 x 3 Windmills 3 x 3 Low Swings 15 sec Medium Swings 15 sec Alternating Swing 30 sec Medium Swings 15 sec Low Swings 15 sec Rest for 1 minute and Repeat 2 times Circuit 30 seconds on 30 seconds off with a partner Kettlebell Tricep Pushups Alternating Step Ups Double Clean, Squat, and Press Knee Tucks on skateboard Alternating Snatches Ring Rows Repeat 3 times Finished with a Plank Hold and Stretched! Another gorgeous day!

Here are sompe photos of yesterdays class. We had lots of fun because it was a partner circuit class. Each station was either a kettlebell exercise, a ring exercise, bosu, or bodyweight. The rings were probably the most challenging part for some. Thanks to Greg Everett for suggesting me to get them, I am having the most fun with them. They are brutal though. I love it! Some of the exercises we did in the partner circuit were Snatches, Swings, Double Clean and Press, Bosu Pushup Burpees, modified pull ups with rings, Turkish Get Ups, and more.... The weather was beautiful this week.

Still on very little sleep due to coughing. But I couldn't get it out of my head that I wanted to try to snatch the 20kg. Even at my strongest when I was weighing 117 pounds right before my pregnancy I have never tried this. This morning my weight was 110 so I thought for sure my strength would be compromised. I pretty much did the same workout as yesterday, which is posted on the previous post. After I was fatigued from my workout, I was impatient and wanted to try it already. So I picked up the bell and my heart started racing. The last thing I want to do is hurt myself. But I went for it and then did it again. Now I am really fatigued, but wanted to do it one more time just to get it on video. I am very shakey at this point as you can tell in the clip. Next time I'll get a video at the beginning of the workout when feeling fresh.

The past several weeks I have been surrounded by 2 friends with Bronchitis and a client getting over Bronchitis. I have been lucky to have a great immune system and normally don't get sick. If I am not sleeping very well, I am bound to lower my immune system, no matter how healthy I am eating. So with that being said, I picked up a nasty cough and have been fighting it for over a week. This bronchial cough has taken even more sleep away from me. It has been hard to find the energy for a good workout. It has also been disgustingly hot here in San Diego, and I don't have air conditioning! Today I made myself do a 30 minute workout. I kept the reps low but the weight high. Warm Up Set 1 Pistols holding 8lb medicine ball 1/1 One arm Push-ups on 18 inch box 3/3 Turkish Get Up 16kg 2/2 Snatches 12kg 15/15 Rested 90 seconds Set 2 Pistols with 8lb medicine ball 2/2 1 arm Push-ups on 18inch box 3/3 Turkish Get Up...

I'm discovering that I probably have a wheat or gluten intolerance. I like to experiment with my body, so I will go through stages of eating only gluten free and wheat free products. When I am strict with it I will notice an increase in my energy and no pain or bloating in my belly. This past week I decided to try the corn tortilla crips from Trader Joes. Normally I look at the ingredients, but being in a hurry I didn't realized the first ingredient was whole wheat flour. I just assumed it was corn flour. Since it was already in my house I decided to eat them anyway. I only ate about a serving a day hoping that it would not have an effect on me. Within 3 days my stomach was bloated. There have been times where I can get so bloated I look 5 months pregnant. The bloating does not happen right away which lets me know that it is most likely not a food allergy, but a food intolerance. Two or three days can pass before seeing any problems, so it can be very hard to pinpoint wha...

I'm thanking San Diego everyday for the beautiful weather it has. This city has allowed me to have such a wonderful outside gym. It was a bit over cast this morning which was nice because it cooled things down to about 72 degrees. I know that is nice and cool compared to most of the country right now in August! Here are some pics of where most of my training and teaching happens. Todays workout is below. We had some high intensity music going to keep the energy up! Warm Up Joint Mobility exercises in Neck, Hips, Shoulders, and Knees Light Swings 10x Body Weight Squats 10x Figure 8's 60 seconds Workout Sequence 1 Sumo Squats 12x Fisted Push ups 10x One Arm Swings 10x each side Alternating Swings 10x 2 Handed Swings 10x Rest 1 minute after last exercise and repeat 3 times Sequence 2 Renegade Rows 5x alternating each side Single Squat and Press 6x per side High Pulls and Snatches 10x per side Rest...