Trick or Treat

Today is Halloween and I've uncharacteristically worn clothes that are not black or grey, but orange. Halloween Orange. I guess I'm dressed like a pumpkin. I've got puffy Joe Boxer flaming skull pajama pants on, and an oversized orange tank top. It's a size Small, but this brand must run large. I don't really care as long as the clothes don't impede my workout. The waistband is tighter than I'm comfortable with so I keep moving my iPod from the back to the side until finally I clip it to the edge of the on-seam pocket. I'm nearly run over by the stampede of ladies en route to Zumba. Or was it Body Pump? All the same to me as long as they're not where I want to be which is on the elliptical.

Yay! My favorite Precor is free. Actually, they're all free because no one is doing cardio today. Very odd. I punch in Interval 7 and lose myself in my tunes. And lost I am because the program ends, the warm up ends, and I'm still peddling. Well, that's never happened to me before! Maybe because I've just added two new tunes to my mix? I'm like my 8-year old in that I can listen to the same 10 songs relentlessly, just as he watches the same episodes of SpongeBob over and over again. I went to bed earlier, hit the snooze three times this morning and still feel a tad tired, but I went back to tossing an egg into my oatmeal for breakfast. So I'm surprised that I make my quota when the little naysaying voice behind my ear whispered, "well, you probably won't even make three and a half."

Today is Arm Day and I like to begin with Decline Bench Presses. Except there's only one Decline Bench, and The Mayor, Tall Pace and Jude are hanging on it. Well, yes, one of them is actually benching, and the rest are chatting and hanging off the other free weight bench. So I pick the bench furthest from them and set up for regular presses. I'm about to do my fourth set when B stops by to chat briefly. She at least notices my pants before running off to do errands. By this time, the chatty crowd has moved to the Squat rack so I peel the plates off my bar and claim the Decline by tossing my towel on it, not that anyone else was interested in it.

And just like last week, I start from scratch, with just the bar to get a feel for it. At 115 lbs, I get 8 reps. I can tell that the guys are watching from the Squat rack which is only 12 feet away. I see Jude move the bar with three big plates, a 25 and a 10. Just a little shy of 4 big plates. He's a lot stronger than he looks. He also moves a lot more weight than either Tall Pace or The Mayor. Probably because he's younger. Or at least he looks younger, even if he has the least amount of hair out of all of them.

The Mayor uses the Squat rack to do Over Head Presses with the bar and 25 lbs on each side. I think Tall Pace just chats and moves DBs instead. I'm not really paying attention. Because it's Arm Day, I'm comfortable dropping the weight from there and doing another two sets. Done! I wander across the gym to the Cage to do my stretches and kicks, then return to the DB area for the remainder of my workout. Meanwhile there is hammering and banging galore as several staff members and the owner make repairs to the equipment. First a treadmill is disassembled. Then flooring appears to be replaced or removed. A few spin bikes are being adjusted.

I claim a flat bench, sitting at one end to do alternate DB curls. I have a BB at the other end for Skull Crushers. I'm not brave enough to up the weight so I do three hard sets of 12 reps at 45 lbs. Between sets I see The Mayor doing what seems to be a variation of Skull Crushers, except he's got plates on an EZ bar, and his bench is perpendicular to the preacher curl seat. He's using the preacher bar holder as his safety. Well, that's different.

I re-rack everything and grab a 20 lb DB just to do one set of Tricep Extensions for the stretch. My wrists and right thumb have felt delicate lately so I'm careful to minimize stress there. I haven't done Tricep Kickbacks in a while and though I don't really think they do much, I do enjoy watching the muscles dance across my arm so WTH. The Jefit app doesn't seem to have a listing for Kickbacks so I put my stats in with the Tricep Extensions. Some ding-dong has put the 50 and 60 lb barbells on the wrong racks so the only spot left for the 40 is at the bottom. I'm not going to rearrange the BBs although I did get frustrated and sorted the 30 and 25 lb DBs. The only things left to do are BB curls and Reverse Grip BB Curls. My elbows are not as happy with me this week so 45 lb curls hurt a little. I lean forward slightly and keep my elbows tight to minimize the pain inside the bottom of my joints. The RGBB Curls actually don't hurt at all and I knock out three sets without any issue. Done.

Okay, not quite. Some abs first. And then Mat Stretch. And if I don't fall asleep during the plank, then a nice hot shower. Yay! The gym scale reads 110.8 lbs, a skosh better than yesterday. I'm not nearly as tired now, but I'm hoping my son will've had enough candy and "trick or treating" at school so that we don't have to walk up and down our road in the rain this afternoon. There are very few kids his age on our road so no one expects Trick or Treaters. We have candy at the house, just in case, because we usually get at least one or two families. I'm all dressed for the event too, although I still have to take my son to tae kwon do class this evening. I've got a pair of leggings I scored for $10 that I'm really happy with and since this isn't NYC, this is the only holiday where it's okay to look a little goth. LOL!

Arm Day Workout:
35 min Interval 7 = 4.47 miles Yay!

Olympic Flat Bench: 12 @ bar (45 lbs) / 10 @ 75 lbs / 8 @ 95 lbs
Decline Bench: 12 @ 45 (bar) / 10 @ 75 lbs / 10 @ 95 lbs / 8 @ 115 lbs / 12 @ 105 lbs / 12 @ 95 lbs

Cage Stretch with BW heel dips & calf raises and side kicks

Alternating DB Curls: 12 @ 25 lbs / 10 @ 27.5 lbs / 3 x 8 @ 30 lbs
last three sets superset with 
Skull Crushers: 12 @ 40 lbs / 3 x 12 @ 45 lbs

One-Arm Tricep DB Extension: 12 @ 20 lbs
Tricep DB Kickbacks: 12 @ 22.5 lbs / 3 x 12 @ 25 lbs

BB Curls: 12 @ 40 lbs / 3 x 12 @ 45 lbs
RGBBCurls: 3 x 20 @ 40 lbs

Ab Crunch Station: 100
Flat Bench Twisting Sit Ups: 150

Mat Stretch with 12 wide-legged DBPUs, 3 rolling, 12 DBPUs, 20 second plank, splits, upper back, neck and shoulder stretches, lower back/hip bridges, hamstring stretches, etc