The Awful Truth

When I get into the locker room this morning, I make the horrible discovery that I've somehow lost my elbow braces. They're not in my gym bag. It's possible that they're in the car, or at home. Or that I dropped them on after my workout on Tuesday. I didn't use them yesterday because that was Leg Day. I'm bumming but decide that I'll still work out albeit a bit more cautiously. There's a chance someone found them so I wander up to the front desk on my way to the cardio stations. And yes! They were found and tucked away in a drawer for safe keeping. Hooray! I'm so relieved!

My butt hurt as I pedaled away on the elliptical, but my knees and ankles felt pretty good today. I managed to make my quota (barely), and the Smith was empty so I was set to go! Yay! Today is the 2nd Push Day and I'm pretty sure that fatigue and injury are going to show in my routine. But I could just be defeating myself before I even get started. Surprisingly, benching goes well. I get my 3 sets of 6 reps at 155 although I don't notice the great chest pump I got on Monday. Perhaps it's because I'm a tad distracted. R is working out a few benches over. I haven't seen him work out during the mornings in a long time. But I never talk to anyone when I'm working out, and I don't make an exception for him either. The Mayor and Tall Pace and a few other regulars are nearby as well. I can hear the Mayor even with headphones on. He always looks frantic, as if he's just about to miss an important function.

I'm impatient to get my benching done and move on so I don't quite rest enough before my last drop set. I get to rep 22 and have to put the bar on the stays, take two breaths, and because I'm so pissed off at myself for not getting a straight 25 reps, I knock out another 5 reps. Now I'm done. I wipe off the bench and stalk off to the other side of the gym where the stretch Cage is located.

Today's 2nd Push Day Work Out:
35 min cardio = 4.02 miles Yippee!
Smith Bench Press: 20 @ bar / 12 @ 95 / 10 @ 115 / 8 @ 135 / 3 x 6 @ 155 lbs / 12 @ 135 / 22+5 @ 115 lbs
I can probably get more than 6 reps at 155 but I'm not mentally prepared to do that yet. What concerns me slightly is that as I get stronger, I seem to be putting on size as well. Even though I'm doing an astronomical amount of reps, which theoretically should keep me from gaining size. Hmm.
Cage Stretch & Kicks
As I stretch I see a vaguely familiar face at the front desk and realize that it's my neighbor Q. Jeez, pretty soon my entire road will be working out at my gym! V and Q are immediate neighbors, and share a common dislike of each other. This should be interesting. I've known Q since he was a skinny little 10 year old, and now he's a 30-yr old ex-personal trainer who got fired from another fitness club for dealing steroids in the locker room, and lives at home with his parents. Oh boya! He's cute and charming, but he's never really had to account for any of his actions and he's never really found anything one could call a career.
Seated Inclined Rear DB Raises: 6 x 15 @ 25 lbs
As I'm panting into my towel on the Inclined Bench, I watch R doing one-arm presses with an Olympic bar and a few plates balanced on each side. I'm guessing that it's a combination delt, tricep and core exercise. It looks damn hard, but count on R to perform exotic movements for strength. Like I've said before, he's the most interesting guy to watch at the gym.
Lateral DB Raises: 3 x 15 @ 20 (I remembered to do sets of 15 today!)
Lateral DB Raises SuperSet with One-Arm Tricep DB Extensions: 3 x 15 @ 20 lbs
Flat Bench Twisting Sit Ups: 125
Lower Ab Kick Outs: 100
Tricep Press Downs: 12, 12, 11 @ 50 lbs / 8 @ 40 lbs / 12 @ 30 lbs / 12 @ 20 lbs
Mat Stretch

As I stretch out, I see that the Mayor has glommed on to Q. Probably because he's new to the gym. Plus Q has some pretty impressive arms as well. I'm tired and I have things to do so I head to the locker room to shower. Mo finds me and gives me my newly repaired peacock black pearl necklace, one of my favorite pieces of jewelry. No charge. Really? Really. Wow, that's great! I'm happy.

I'm not happy when I step on the scale though. It reads 110.6 lbs. Wow, I REALLY am bigger, heavier. This isn't a fluke. This isn't just water weight. I have to wrap my head around making such a big jump in such a short amount of time. I look bigger. I weigh more. I must be bigger. It's not something I'm actually prepared for because I don't want to have to buy new clothes. Okay, at least my butt isn't bigger. Yet. I can still wear all my candy-colored Gap khakis! Yay! But arms, chest and back. Well...

And then I think about it all again and suddenly it's kind of funny. Because really, I'm this tiny not-even-five-feet-tall, middle-aged Asian woman who wears XS or S dresses and has a kid who's nearly the same size. And the awful truth is that I'll probably keep upping my weights and seeing how far I can go. Until I can't any more. But I don't really want to get bigger. Funny hearing myself say that because that's the excuse newbies give for not lifting heavier. And that's the truth.