It's a Beautiful Sunny Friday and I'm Where?

You can tell us "gym rats" because we scurry toward the badly lit areas on a bright gorgeous sunny day. Yes, we go to the gym. Like we always do. Because it's Friday. No excuses needed!

It's Friday and I've gotten used to scarfing down the packet of instant oatmeal with my instant coffee before I head off to sweaty bliss. My butt's a bit sore from yesterday and the hamstrings are stiff, but nothing that a good bout of cardio won't fix. Seriously. If you're sore and achy, go DO SOMETHING PHYSICAL. Get the blood moving and your recovery time will be greatly improved. I spaced out while keying the input so only did 40 minutes on the elliptical for 4.44 miles. It felt good anyway so I'm satisfied.

Fighting the urge to do Big Movements (chest/back/legs), I did 6 sets of close grip bench presses to work triceps. The further apart your hands are, the more you work chest (pectorals). I wore both my Golfer Elbow braces for the 3 sets at 85 lbs because I could feel my forearms twinging. Can't imagine enough exercises to justify just doing arms (and abs) today so I toss in shoulders as well. I love doing shoulders because it's so damn rewarding! There's nothing to boost the ego more than glancing in the mirror at nicely defined delts, especially now that summer's here and it's tank top weather.

Resisting the urge to up my weights, I stick with my 15 lb dumbbells and do lateral raises (6 sets), front raises (3 sets because benching also works front delts), and finally, seated inclined rear raises (6 sets at 15 reps). I do 3 sets of light (30 lbs) barbell upright rows but the left forearm is complaining, even with the elbow brace. Back to triceps. 3 sets of one arm dumbbell extensions with 20 lbs. Be careful not to clock yourself in the back of the head when doing this!

I alternate with sets of seated alternating dumbbell curls for biceps. The right forearm gets a nerve zing so I have to loosen that brace slightly. All this movement will cause your arm muscles to engorge with blood. It's a good thing, and it's very temporary. I still can't find the angled press down bar (the straight bar hurts my wrists and forearms) so I opt to do sets of 25 reps of French presses: lay on a bench with a light EZ curl bar (15 lbs), keep arms straight up, bend at elbows so that bar comes slowly down to your forehead (pronated grip). Again, don't clock yourself in the head doing this! For biceps, I do 3 sets of 21s. Yup, as its name suggests, the exercise is based on 21 reps per set: 7 reps of full curls with a light bar (I use a 30 lb barbell), then 7 reps of half reps going from shoulder to chest, then the remainder 7 reps going from belly to hip. It's killer! But hell, you'll have nice arms!

The scale reads 106.0. Must'a been those glasses of Barefoot moscato wine I had last night. I know wine doesn't keep and I used half the bottle to poach the remainder salmon. I'm not a dry white drinker (it gives me massive heartburn) but sweet whites are okay. I toss leftover sour cream into the poaching liquid and add mustard to make a sauce for the salmon. It was nice. I've got cod for tonight, and my son made me promise to make chicken & noodles (soup) this weekend. Like I keep saying, Work out like a Demon and eat like a... Civilized Human Being!