Only Masochists Go To The Gym

We were lucky with last night's storm and not only didn't lose power, but the yard looks pretty much the way it was before the storm. No branches down, no overturned lawn furniture. My son's summer camp didn't have power this morning, but NYSEG is admirably responsive around here, and everything was up and running in a matter of hours.

The gym looks pretty empty but that's usually the case on a summer Friday where everyone wants to start their weekend early. I get on my favorite elliptical (there are four but they don't all glide as smoothly as I'd like) and put in my 45 minutes. 5.27 sweaty miles on hill #6 seems an okay way to end the week. Today is a Pull Day and I'm excited to try something new. A college gym rat buddy suggested a few postings back that several sets of high-rep, reverse grip barbell curls might be helpful to the elbow issue. I'm game!

I dutifully slog through my seated cable rows, cage stretch & kicks, torso twist, lat pull downs, reverse grip barbell rows and seated dumbbell hammer curls. I get a quick 4 sets of weighted inclined situps in before I reach for the 30 lb barbell. 20 reps for just 3 sets and I'm wincing by the 15th rep. By the last set, my eyes are watering from the effort. I'm sure I could go for another set or two, but that would involve probably a lot more grimacing on my part, and I'm not sure I want to display that face in front of the gaggle of high school boys trying to out-bench each other. But I've added this to my Pull Day routines so I'll be doing it twice a week for the foreseeable future.

Today's Total Workout
45 min cardio = 5.27 miles
Seated Cable Rows: 1 x 12 @ 75 / 1 x 12 @ 90 / 3 x 12 @ 105 / 2 x 12 @ 90 lbs
Lower back extension machine: 2 x 25 @ 90 lbs
Torso twist machine: 2 x 25 @ 60 lbs
Cage stretch & kicks & 12 neutral close-grip chin ups
Lat Pull Downs: 1 x 12 @ 75 / 6 x 12 @ 90 lbs
Dumbbell Hammer Curls: 1 x 12 @ 15 lbs / 3 x 10-12 @ 20 lbs
Bent-Over Reverse Grip Barbell Rows: 6 x 15 @ 50 lbs
Inclined Weighted Situps: 4 x 25 w 10 lb plate
Reverse Grip Barbell Curls: 3 x 20 @ 30 lbs
Mat stretch for hams, calves, back, shoulders & neck

The mat stretch feels good and I like to move pretty quickly, using a dynamic stretch for almost all of it. The scale reads 107.0. This morning, my home scale read 105.0. (Yep, always off by 2 lbs.) I put on a dress I bought last summer in the Juniors section at Marshall's. It was a little snug then but I expect it to fit now. What it does is swim. Not horribly flattering. But not horrible either.

Damn. I can hear my image-conscious mom telling me as a teenager that 107 lbs is fat (she thought I should be closer to 100 lbs), and so I don't feel little at all. What I have to keep reminding myself of is the fact that my whole body composition has changed and that I'm a lot denser now. So 107 lbs now is not the same as 107 lbs then. It doesn't help that clothing manufacturers changed the sizing paradigm some years ago. I try on clothes from 30 years ago, when I was a tad heavier, and they fit quite snugly. But I don't think the clothes have shrunk. It's just that "normal" in the year 2012 seems to be on the hefty side.