Monday Morning Madness

We got enough snow this weekend to warrant an hour or two of shoveling. It's not a lot of snow but it's weighty. Doesn't pack into snow balls or snow men, and has a hard ice crust on top. Getting the cars and driveway cleared was the goal. Mission accomplished. My son even managed to make a few snow angels although he had to pound himself into the ground to break the ice before anything vaguely angel-like took shape. Then I spent the remainder of the weekend as a desk jockey, putting the finishing touches on our annual Holiday Card (handmade, homemade) before printing out 50 copies on my old Canon bubblejet printer. I've grafted an elf hat onto the dog and pasted the dog into my son's lap, in front of his re-purposed laptop. Last year the dog sported antlers and a bulbous red nose while he and my son were "at the North Pole". This year they're inside Santa's Workshop and the dog is asking my son to double check the Naughty List.

I finished, finally, the collage I make of my son every year and eventually upload to a site where I get several coffee mugs made for ourselves and all our relatives. It means sorting through several hundred digital files and then processing the selected hundred or so images, silhouetting, filtering, adjusting color, tones... We have mugs dating back several years and every now and then my son or my husband will ask about a specific image on one of them. I like doing this better than scrapbooks or photo albums, which never get looked at.

I got to the gym a little late and greatly dismayed after tossing all my gear into the locker because somehow I'd forgotten to pack my trainers. I can't work out in my boots, so I have to drive all the way home again just to retrieve the old black Asics. By the time I actually get started, it's well past 10 o'clock. Mondays are always hard so I punch in Hill 6 on the elliptical. I haven't done it in a long time. And I log an abysmal 3.78 miles. But I'm warmed up and a bit sweaty so that's okay. I keep checking my logs from last week to remind myself of what I'm doing today besides benching. And I have to remind myself to lower the reps on my warm up sets!

I drop a pair of 45s on the floor at the end of the bench to give my feet a flat even surface. I'm pretty happy with getting three sets of 10 reps at 115 lbs. It's not my maximum, but I've gone back to my old-fashion pace. When I can get three sets of 12 reps, then I'm upping the weight. I think The Mayor and the other guys are wondering when I'm going to lift heavy again, when I'm going to ask one of them for a spot. They seem to hover without trying to be conspicuous. I notice but don't acknowledge. I don't really want to talk to anyone anyway.

I grab some magnets and the 110 lb BB from the rack. It's the last one. Once I move past putting 5 lbs on each side (totaling 120 lbs), I'll have no choice but to figure out how to handle an actual Olympic bar and plates for Reverse Grip BB Rows. But I'm not there yet. Today I move up to 117.5 lbs which is the heaviest I've gone for reps and I only do four sets. Without the Versa Gripps I wouldn't be able to do them at all because I felt my left wrist twinge with just the 110 lb BB. But four sets is plenty today. I'm feeling it although I had my oatmeal breakfast this morning (but spaced on tossing in the pomegranates). I'm not even sure I'll be able to work out tomorrow because snow is in the forecast. And it's another scheduled half-day due to the Parent-Teacher conferences rescheduled from last week.

I can't remember what's next until I consult the Jefit app and view last week's routine. Ah, Decline Benches. With my legs positioned correctly, the top of my head just reaches where the support sits when it's pulled forward for the break. This bench is meant for a longer person, but I can still manage. It's an extra effort to reach past my head to grab and pull the bar off the stays. I go for reps, but I pay for it later when I struggle with DB press and flyes. I also feel it at the last set of Close Grip Lat Pull Downs where I attempt to get 12 reps but can only manage 10 at 120 lbs. My elbows still don't like this movement although that's not what fails at the max weight. My right shoulder is starting to twinge a little too. My elbows wake me in the middle of the night. I don't want issues with my shoulder as well, bad enough the left wrist is still tender.

Both adjustable incline benches are being used so I drag my DBs over to actual Inclined Breaker Benches. No ones's using those. I'm worried about being overly optimistic so I only have 25s and 30s. I superset the presses and flyes and it only takes me three sets before my left arm fails at rep 7 during a press. Nothing dramatic. It just fails in slow motion. With flyes, there's failure at  rep 11. The next set I only make it to rep 9. It's been a really long time since that's happened. Like "back in college" long time ago. I'm glad to do only three sets of Lower Back Extensions. There's no way I can do One-Arm DB Rows, but I sneak a look at the Smith which is vacant. I use the VGs to grab the bar and stick my legs out straight in front of me, ankles crossed. I can only get 8 pull ups. My right shoulder's not happy with that. The next go-round I try chin ups instead. It's better but again, I can only get 8. I used to be able to 11 or 12, but my elbows really suffered for it. It's not worth that.

I look at the clock and realize that I've been here way too long. A quick set of sit ups and then the Mat Stretch. Dive Bomber Push Ups, especially the second set, really start to bother my shoulder. The 60 second plank isn't quite so bad though. Splits are good and I know that stretching every other day seems to work better for me.

The gym scale reads 113.0 which isn't horrible but not where I want to be. What I find really disturbing is that I can see how much smoother, how much more subcutaneous fat I seem to have, like a bear preparing for hibernation. By the time I get home, I barely have time to unload my car before running down the road to meet the school bus. In the past week, several roads have been closed due to traffic accidents, or fallen trees. Today I counted three closed roads including the one that goes right past the gym. A fellow directs us all to turn around because "Well, we have to cut someone out of the car and that's going to take at least 15 to 20 minutes."

Chest and Back Workout
35 min Hill 6 = 3.78 miles Bleah!

Bench Press: 12 @ bar / 10 @ 75 lbs / 8 @ 95 lbs / 3 x 10 @ 115 lbs / 12 @ 105 lbs / 20 @ 95 lbs

Reverse Grip BB Rows: 12 @ 45 lbs / 12 @ 110 lbs / 12 @ 115 lbs / 4 x 12 @ 117.5 lbs PB

Decline Press: 12 @ 45 lbs / 12 @ 75 lbs / 12, 18, 15 @ 95 lbs Yay!

Neutral Grip (Close Grip) Lat Pull Downs: 12 @ 75 lbs / 10 @ 90 lbs / 8 @ 105 lbs / 10 @ 120 lbs

DB Incline Press: 12 @ 25 lbs / 12 @ 30 lbs / 7 @ 30 lbs / 12 @ 25 lbs
  SuperSet with
DB Incline Flyes: 12, 12, 11, 9 @ 25 lbs

Lower Back Extension: 12 @ 180 lbs / 2 x 12 @ 195 lbs

Pull Ups with Legs straight in front, ankles crossed: 8
Chin Ups with Legs straight in front, ankles crossed: 8

Flat Bench Twisting Sit Ups: 125

Mat Stretch with 2 x 12 DBPUs, 60 second plank, splits, etc