The good news is that summer has been prolonged. I think we used to call it Indian Summer when I was a kid. Temps are up in the high 70s but the humidity makes us all wonder if we should carry umbrellas. The bad news is that leaves are dropping en mass. Of course, due to plentiful summer rainfall, the maples are edged in firetruck red in a stand of golds, greens and some early paper-bag brown.
The good news is that I'm at the gym at my usual time, just as women are streaming out of the locker room. I get on the LifeFitness, punch in 30 minutes and start pedaling. The bad news is that I feel tired and it's only the last 5 minutes of panicky pedaling that propels me past the 3 mile mark. The good news is that the Cage is free and I do a quick hamstring stretch. I've been foregoing the side stretch just to baby my hips a bit. Perhaps there can be such a thing as too much stretching. Too much flexibility can lead to arthritis.
The bad news is that there's a 45 lb plate on the bar at the Smith machine and I see Island Jerk and his new trainee standing right next to it. I immediately turn heel and head back to the Cage because I'm so not interested in having a conversation. I'm glad I have an alternate plan for days I can't get use of the equipment I want.
The good news is that the difficulty of push ups is more in my head than in my body. I can knock out the first two sets without pausing. I'm interspersing Hammer Grip Pull Ups between my push up sets so my arms are horribly pumped and my hands are numb by the time I'm done. The last set of push ups is a tad harder, but I only have to pause at rep 45 before finishing the set. I'm not sure if I should try to add more reps next time or see how far into a 4th set I can go. How cool would that be, doing 200 push ups?
I stop off at the Torso Twist machine because it's a popular machine and I nab a set when I can. There's no one at the Smith but there's still a 45 lb plate on each end of the bar. Island Jerk is notorious for this. After I politely ask the dude DB pressing next to the Smith if he's using it (he's not) I pull off the plates to re-rack and I'm fairly noisy about it. These plates are a lot lighter than I remember. Or maybe I'm just annoyed.
I use a bare bar and set it two notches from the bottom of the rack to do Inverted Rows. These are hard. I actually have to pause at the 8th rep for a moment before finishing the set. Done. Three sets of weird push-up GHRs at the Lat Pull Down machine, then up to the elliptical for 2 more miles. Because my right calf has been odd for the past two weeks, threatening to cramp sporadically, I make sure to vary my incline and to pedal backwards occasionally. It seems to help. The steeper incline also helps.
I see the blonde woman with the nice arms stretching out at the Mat. She's got that swimmer build: wide shoulders, long body and narrow hips. I'm just very sturdy. I knock out three sets of Dive Bomber Push Ups, a plank (still hate them) and then Pistol Squats. Afterwards I stretch hamstrings, lower back, upper back and shoulders. Done. Yaaay! I know my weight and BF have crept up again because my eating has been poor lately. But today's another day to start fresh.
Tuesday Workout
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