The Post-Fourth Workout

It's still scorching hot today even though last night alternated between torrential rain and loud bursts of fireworks. I don't even wear my hoodie in the car when I drive to the gym (with my windows open). But I put it on to do cardio. 45 sweaty minutes later and I'm hoping to at least do 5 miles because damn I'm tired today. Maybe it was that glass of meade I had with dinner last night. Or maybe it was dinner: littleneck clams sauteed in garlic, butter, olive oil and, since I don't usually keep white wine in the house, sake over gemelli pasta.

45 minutes and I read 5.24 miles which is good enough for me today. The gym's not nearly as crowded as yesterday but still... I scurry over to the weight area and the Smith is occupied. So is the Decline Bench. The only station open is one of the plain flat benches which means I'm going to do reps because I'm not brave enough with my hinky joints to bench heavy. Even with my golfer elbow braces.

I bench the bar just to warm up and 25 reps feels ridiculously easy. I add a pair of 10s. Another 20 reps. Add another pair of 10s. Another 20 reps. Okay, I inhale sharply and add another pair of 10s. I've been using the thumbless grip for most of this, but at this weight I'm safer using a regular grip. And I can only bench 8 reps. And only 6 at the next set. My thumb, wrist and elbow feel weak. So I drop the weight back down and do reps again. Thumbless. By the time I'm down to just the bar, I push for 50 reps. Which isn't really that hard. I swab the bench with a paper towel and bleach spray because I'm still raining sweat from the cardio.

I get a quick set of torso twists in (50 reps at 60 lbs) and then get cage stretch & kicks out of the way. I like doing them fairly soon after cardio when my legs are still warm and flexible. It's much harder to do at the end of the workout when I've cooled down. I head back to do shoulders and grab the magnetic 2.5 lb discs to affix to the 15 lb dumbbells. The first superset I do with just 15 lbs. Everything else I do with 17.5 lbs. 3 supersets of front and lateral raises. 3 sets lateral raises. 6 sets of seated inclined rear raises. All 12-15 reps.

Even though the air conditioning and fans are on, I never seem to actually cool down and I'm constantly wiping sweat off my face or guzzling water. I stretch my triceps with a set of dumbbell extensions with the 17.5 lbs, thinking I'll come back for the 20 lbs later. But I never do. Instead, I do more torso twists, a heart-racing set of twisting situps and lower ab kickouts. Then I see that the Decline Bench is free so I amble over there, figuring doing reps there works tricps as well even though what I'm concentrating on is lower pecs.

It's not a spectacular workout. Just 6 sets working my way up from the bar to 95 lbs and back down. At the last set, I squeeze out 25 reps. I'm done and go stretch out. The scale reads 107.0. Well, that's pretty definitive: I'm bigger. Somewhere. Or at least heavier. It's all good! Back tomorrow!