Is Today Really the Most Depressing Day of the Year?

I just read a headline that states the first Monday back from the Christmas holiday is the most depressing day of the year. Well, that might explain why I feel so blue today. Never mind the sudden temperature drop from 53°F this morning to barely 40°F when I left the gym, to the big fat snow flakes mixed with rain that's falling now. Snow kept me from getting much exercise last Friday although I did shovel a bit. And I'm a complete and utter slug on weekends.

Today is Universal Bench Press Monday so I got myself warmed up with 15 minutes of moderately paced pedaling on the elliptical. That's about 200 Strides Per Minute and a bit over a mile and a half. Well, it makes me warm, but I don't feel great. I feel Blah. The chest program I'm following lists Inclined Press, Flat Press, Decline Press and then Pec Dec. I always start with the Flat Bench because it's the exercise I'm the most comfortable with even if I have to drop two big plates on the ground on each side of the bench just so my feet feel level and stable. I'm also well-aware of what I can move on the Flat bench so after a warm up set with just the bar, I start with 125 lbs. I only need 4 reps although I might be able to get more. Because I've got short arms, it takes me a bit to slam the loaded bar backwards into the breaker stays. A fat old guy moves to "assist" just as I catch the bar on the support. I don't even know what he was planning to do but I blithely ignore him. Everything else goes fairly smoothly.

There are two Inclined Benches and only one Declined Bench, but both Inclines are in use. By default, I do my next sets on the Decline Bench. Here I am decently comfortable, enough to know that 95 lbs is safe. I figure I'd see how many reps I can get and then move down from there, adding reps to keep with the spirit of the program. I need six sets so at 55 lbs I'm counting out 25 reps. That's probably a mistake because I have a lot of trouble with the newest exercise, Inclined Press. The bar is way over my head, almost like an Over Head Press which I don't do because I've got issues not only with my right shoulder, but with a tangle of errant circulatory vessels in my neck. The first heavy set is fine, but I can't recover quick enough and I struggle with the next several sets even as I drop the weights. My right shoulder is starting to ache a bit, but I'm stubborn so I just keep grinding through my half sets until I get eight in total. I'm not happy about it, but at least I didn't quit.

The only left to do are DB Flyes, a few sit ups, 20 boring minutes of LISS and then a Mat Stretch. After the flyes, I definitely get a chest pump so I feel a bit better. I do sit ups and knee-in kick-outs because I haven't done any abs in several days. And I know my shoulder isn't going to put up with me playing with the Ab Wheel today. Doing LISS is okay for the first 10 minutes when I check my emails on my cell. But afterwards I'm bored to tears and I'm so happy to hop off the elliptical and do a full Mat Stretch routine.

I'm not happy about the 115 lbs the gym scale registers (okay, sucked down 3/4 of my water bottle so that's over a liter). Or the pile of undergarments and shoes that someone has piled up against my locker. I have a lock on it so it's not as if Miss Piggy doesn't know the locker is occupied. She also has all her gear spread over most of the bench, but she's in the shower. Nonchalantly, I toe her stuff over to the next (empty) locker and retrieve my towel and shampoo while stuffing my gross gym clothes into my gym bag. Everything goes back into my locker because I don't treat the locker room like it's my personal changing room. Half the women who come here have no concept of gym etiquette. She's blow drying her hair when I get back from the shower but she's chatting with someone else. What's she going to say to me, "Hey, you moved my stuff?" I play my retort back in my head "Oh the stuff on the floor piled up against the locker? What kind of slob are you anyway?" Luckily there's no interaction. She's weirdly self-centered and emotionally unstable. Just the sort of person I've learned to avoid at all costs. People like her are the reason I think I'd never be good as a Personal Trainer... I'd just want to do the world a favor but I'm sure she's got a mom who'd miss her. Oh well. Good thing I never talk to anyone anyway.

I had thought about doing Chest and Back today, but there's no reason why I can't do HIIT tomorrow and maybe shoulders because I'll have to make it a short workout. That'll leave Wed for Back and Thurs for Legs, and if the weather hold, another HIIT session on Friday and yes, whacking the Nexersys. That always cheers me up.

Monday Workout:
15 min warm up elliptical = 1.63 miles
Bench Press: 12 @ 45 lbs / 4 @ 125 lbs / 8 @ 115 lbs / 12 @ 105 lbs / 16 @ 95 lbs / 20 @ 75 lbs

Decline Bench: 12 @ 45 lbs / 8 @ 95 lbs / 12 @ 85 lbs / 16 @ 75 lbs / 20 @ 65 lbs / 25 @ 55 lbs

Incline Bench: 12 @ 45 lbs / 4 @ 95 lbs / 6 @ 85 lbs / 5 @ 80 lbs / 5 @ 75 lbs / 8 @ 65 lbs / 12 @ 55 lbs / 20 @ 45 lbs (bar)

DB Flyes: 3 x 15 @ 20 lbs

Flat Bench Twisting Sit Ups: 125
Lower Ab Knee-In Kick-Outs: 100

20 min LISS elliptical = 1.12 miles

Mat Stretch with 2 x 12 DBPUs, 60-second plank, splits and other stretches