To the Ephesus Ruins!

August 28^th, 2011

My morning began with an early morning workout before the boat docked. I hit the gym nice and early so I would be ready to tour the fabulous ruins of Ephesus, Turkey. Today I wanted my cross training to involve plenty of leg and abdominal workouts in a jam-packed calorie burning workout. I have listed my workout for today at the end of this entry.

I was off to explore the best preserved ruins in all of the Mediterranean today. My day began with a scenic motorcoach ride from the port city of Kusadasi and past the Byzantine fortress in Selcuk to the house of the Virgin Mary. We traveled through the picturesque Solmissos Mountains and saw the Adaland waterpark that claimed to be the biggest in all of Europe, the one problem with it being that geographically, the waterpark was in Asia not Europe.

We traversed the ruins on a downhill walk of the city, stopping and awing every step of the way. Our guide highlighted the best archeological finds throughout our journey through the ruins, particularly highlighting how technologically advanced the civilization was. They even had heated floors for the winter!

I saw the beautifully preserved Temple of Hadrian, the magnificent Trojan fountain-with a man placing one foot on a globe symbolizing the ruling of the world, and the Odeon Theater. All of these sites were so well preserved that it was nice to not have to imagine what was once there, but actually see it right there in front of you with your own eyes!

The mansions were so ornate and advanced with their heated floors and marble walls and mosaic flooring. It was so beautiful and to know that each intricate part of the house was all made by hand without any modern technology just amazes me. Their culture truly was something else. Above all the majestic Celsus Library was a site to be seen. It was three stories high, even though only two stories remain today. The whole front of the building was pretty much still intact! I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was so detailed-someone had even carved a menorah into the steps of the marble stairs hundreds of years ago and you could still see it today!

We concluded our fantastic tour of the ruins with a view of the Great Theater and hiked our way back to the bus past the camel ride and all of the noisy vendors. The day finished up with a nice shopping trip through the colorful bazaars before we hopped back on board the ship to travel back to Greece.

1)   Burpees

2)   Lunges with Torso Rotation-10lbs

3)   Bell Ringers-10lbs modified-after the reps hold the position for that many seconds

4)   Mason Twists Rotations-10lbs and the last set was a double count

(Set 1-16reps, Set 2-14reps, Set 3-12reps, Set 4-10reps, Set 5-8reps, Set 6-6reps. No break after 3^rd set.)

Abdominal Workout

1)   Crossover Crunch with arm+leg extended

2)   Crossover crunch legs in the air and bringing the opposite elbow to the opposite knee

3)   Leg lifts and leg circles

4)   Cross body pulses-balance on one side of the body and reach for the opposite leg with the opposite arm and then switch. Then hold the position for the count

5)   Reverse situps

6)   Six inches

7)   Lean back abdominal twists with dumbbell-10lbs

(4 sets of 20 reps)

Thanks for reading, please leave any comments below!

Courtney Dumas