At least my trusty Precors were still there. I got on #1, punched in Interval 7 in spite of, or perhaps, because I've been a complete slug for the entire 4-day holiday weekend. My body is achy and stiff from all the inactivity. (Clipping the hedges in front of the house yesterday doesn't really count because the only thing that hurt afterwards were my hands.) I have a knot forming under my left shoulder blade and a stitch under the right-side rib cage. Yep, inactivity is killing me. I make my quota but I'm barely sweating. My body is always like this at the beginning of the week, taking a full 35 minutes to warm up.
I amble down to the free weight area and count two flat benches, one decline, two inclines. We're short a flat bench. It's against the wall, in sections. I position myself on the bench with just the bar. The bench itself is short length-wise, but it's a tad too high so I can't place my feet flat on the floor. I grab two 25 lb plates and drop them by the base so I can put my feet on them. All the plates now sport octagonal sides so they can't roll away. They're also not really flat. I reach up and the post that the bar rests on pulls forward, freaking me out a bit. "Is it suppose to do that?" I ask the gym owner who's setting up one of the Incline Benches. "Yeah, they're like spots. You pull the bar forward so it's over you then break." Yep, that's why they're called "breaker benches". Sigh. I suppose it's suppose to make benching easier, but I don't like it because it's hard to slam the bar back onto the uprights. The bench is also a tad wider than the old ones so my shoulders don't completely clear them. It's probably not an issue for most people, unless you're small like me. I actually do okay benching, going for reps instead of weight. After the Cage Stretch, I grab those magnetic discs and head back to the DB area. Uh oh. New benches there too. And these are problematic. The Inclined Bench seems to have only three settings: flat, 45° and straight up. I do two sets of Rear Inclined DB Flyes but the angle is too high and I give up, resorting to a flat bench to do Bent Over Rear DB Flyes. I don't like the flat bench either, not the splayed foot at one end, or the suggested head or butt rest at the other end. These benches are godawful heavy to move as well, even though they have wheels.
I see R and Big Mustache chatting at the end of the DB row. After I'm done wrestling with my Lateral DB Flyes, I take a breather and chat with R for a bit. He's concerned about his baby being breech, about the C-section that might happen, but he's happy that his in-laws moved into the area just to be there. "They sold their dream house out in the Hamptons just to move up here and babysit for us!" "First grandchild?" I ask him. Yep. But they were downsizing anyway since they really didn't need a six-bedroom house anymore. Wow, I think I'm a tad jealous. I've only ever heard about families like that. But I'm really happy for him.
I tell him I don't like the new equipment and he tells me that the benches are too high, throws everything off balance. "Yeah, well, I had to drop plates on the ground just to get my feet flat on the floor," I tell him, and he suppresses a smile. Yeah, I'm that short. "I thought it was just me," I tell him when he again says the benches are too high. I only do three sets of Rip Crushers because three sets of 12 reps at 40 lbs is all I can handle. Maybe I'd be able to handle more with an EZ bar, but I'm not going to risk spraining my hands wrestling with the clips to keep the plates on. There's a loaded EZ bar on the preacher bench right behind me. I'm not sure who's on it because the station seems vacant. I suppose I could've used that since it was already pre-loaded with a pair of tens and fives, but I didn't. Oh well.
I wander off to do abs and then return when the Decline Bench is finally free. It's massive, and I'm not sure if I'll fit properly once I adjust the leg rollers. But I do fit. I still don't like the breaker uprights and again, I go for reps because I want to get a good feel for the equipment. I find myself slamming the bar back into the upright when I'm done. R is doing one-arm BB presses and he complains that the stays are too short for him at 6'4. The stays aren't adjustable like the old ones were. "Yeah, I don't like this new stuff either."
My husband suggested that I use my cell for a timer on the planks that I complain about, but today I realize that it only times minutes and hours, not seconds. I suppose I could use the stop watch function instead. I only realize today that I'm probably doing longer than 20 seconds when I note how fast the seconds move on the elliptical counter. Oh well. The Mat Stretch feels good, but dam I've been here an awful long time. I'm trying to cut back my gym time, not extend it. The gym scale reads an alarming 114.0 lbs. Egads! Yeah, thankgoodness feasting is over and I'm back at the gym. Now I'm not so sure I should cut back on my workouts. Maybe I'll just sneak in here on Wednesdays to do some cardio?
Monday Workout:
35 min cardio Interval 7 = 4.53 miles Yay!
Bench Press: 12 @ bar / 10 @ 75 lbs / 8 @ 95 lbs / 8 @ 105 lbs / 8 @ 115 lbs / 2 x 10 @ 115 lbs / 20 @ 95 lbs Working toward 3 sets of 12 reps at 115 lbs
Cage Stretch
Inclined DB Reverse Flyes: 15 @ 25 lbs / 15 @ 27.5 lbs Incline is too high and can't be adjusted
Bent Over Reverse DB Flyes: 15 @ 25 lbs / 15 @ 27.5 lbs / 3 x 12 @ 30 lbs I sit on a bench with my chest in my lap when I do these
Rip Crushers: 3 x 12 @ 40 lbs Next week I'll add 2.5 lbs to the BB and see if I can get 3 sets
Flat Bench Twisting Sit Ups: 125
Lower Ab Knee-In Kick-Outs: 100
Ab Crunch Station: 100
Decline Bench: 20 @ bar / 15 @ 65 lbs / 15 @ 85 lbs / 12 @ 95 lbs
Mat Stretch with 2 x 12 DBPUs, 20 second plank, splits, etc
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