Super-Abbreviated Leg Day

When you know you have to cut your workout short, you front-load the important items. Today is the first day of summer vacation for my son so I had to take him to the gym's Child Care room. Luckily there were other boys his age already there. It's hard to do cardio, lift weights, stretch, shower and change all within the two-hour window. I ran 10 minutes late. He was the last child in the room, but he says the other kids had just left. Whew.

First I get my cardio out of the way. If I don't do anything at all today, at least I got my 5 miles in. It's just steady-state pedaling with allowances to vary the incline but I allot myself 55 minutes. Done in a bit over 53 minutes. I could go faster but I'm trying to adhere to the heart rate guidelines. Sometimes, though, the elliptical's heart rate monitor gets wonky. It zoomed up to 199 BPM and stayed there for almost a minute. I didn't even have my hands on the sensors at that point. So it's not very accurate, but I'm not going to wear those around-the-chest or wristband monitors.

By the time I'm done with cardio, the free weight area is mostly empty. I was worried I wouldn't be able to use the Smith machine. I do my Squats. They seem hard because I skipped Legs last week. The SLDLs seem even harder. Because I'm pressed for time, I only do 1 set at 160 lbs. My vertigo has been worse in the mornings, and better as the day goes on. I think that exercise helps the inner ear drain fluid that's accumulated during sleep. A quick Cage Stretch and then just three sets on the Leg Extension. This has definitely been easier in the past. I skip Leg Curls. I don't have time. Instead I grab a bosu and set up on the Lat Pull Down Station for GHRs.

Creepy middle-age Mr Pajama Pants is situated at a back machine at 1 o'clock. As I knock out my sets, he switches to a machine directly in front of me. Thankgoodness I'm on my last set and can exit abruptly. Some men are so obviously creepy, especially if they drape themselves over the equipment and stare. I swear I can see them drooling. Yuck.

I think I have enough time to do most of a Mat Stretch. I'm worried that if I don't, I'll be suffering from knotty stiff muscles all weekend. I skip abs completely. The gym scale reads 110.8 lbs. I'm good with that. I ordered skin-fold calipers but haven't taken them out of the package yet. My home scale is giving me inconsistent readings. The inconsistencies are small, but annoying. At 8 am today, it told me I was 109.4 lbs and 20.6% Body Fat with 4.4 lbs bone. Then at 3 pm today, which is when I usually take my readings, it read 109.8 lbs and 20.2% BF but 4.6 bone. Bone readings shouldn't change in a few hours! BF doesn't either but that's somehow dependent on the amount of water in your cells at the time of the reading. Still, I think my arms and thighs are starting to look better. I've resigned myself not expecting to ever have a six-pack. The loose baby belly skin I developed when I was pregnant will never be thin enough to show muscles. Still, I'm happy with my progress so far.

Abbreviated Leg Day Workout

Elliptical Training

Calorie :   425 CAL
Distance: 5 mile
Duration : 00:53:28

Smith Machine Squat

Set 1 : 30x12
Set 2 : 80x12
Set 3 : 120x12
Set 4 : 140x12
Set 5 : 160x12

Smith Machine Stiff Legged Deadlift

Set 1 : 30x12
Set 2 : 80x12
Set 3 : 120x12
Set 4 : 140x12
Set 5 : 160x8

Leg Extensions

189

Set 1 : 75x12
Set 2 : 105x12
Set 3 : 135x12

GHRs 

Set 1 : 12
Set 2 : 12
Set 3 : 12 

Dive Bomber Push Ups 

Set 1 : 12
Set 2 : 12