A Modest Sunday Workout

School was closed on Friday due to a measely two inches of snow that morning. On Sunday we got word about a nasty sleet storm heading up the East coast by Monday morning, so I decided to take my son to the gym Sunday afternoon. Because otherwise he'd be glued to his video games and TV the entire long weekend, and I needed to get a little exercise as well. I don't drive in freezing rain. I barely leave the house except to refill the bird feeder and let the dog relieve himself. I'd already put the mail and trash out the night before and my house is well-stocked. No reason to brave icy roads for any reason.

However, whenever I go to the gym with my son, it's mostly him who's huffing and puffing. I really need to build up his endurance better. We start off with 20 minutes on the LifeFitness Cross-trainer. A college boy with full-size gloves is sparring with the left-side Nexersys machine. Most people who use these machines hit much harder than I do. They also don't go for more than 2 to 3 rounds, so I'm guessing they either get bored, or just don't have the endurance. I think endurance is critical to being a good all-around athlete, along with strength and flexibility. It's basic cross-training as far as I'm concerned. But that's just me.

My son and I both work up a mild sweat on the cross-trainer. I'd like to do 30 minutes but he's done at 20. I show him basic hamstring and hip stretches from a forward lunge position. Then we go look at the weights and since my son hasn't been here in several months, I start slow and easy. He grabs a padded 12 lb bar and I position him on a flat bench so he can do presses. After 12 reps we move up to the 15 lb, then the 18 lb bar. Those are easy. I see the girl who was squatting at the Smith is done, so I drag the bench over to it. I explain how the bar is counter-balanced and weighs less than a regular Olympic bar. My son seems a little intimidated. 30 lbs seems like a lot to him.

I have him do only 4 to 6 reps, making sure he understands how he should be positioned. I also keep my hand near his chest so that the bar won't slam down on him if he suddenly gets tired. He's only 9 years old and he's a big 9, but he's still a child, and he's still smaller than I am. I do a quick warm up set with the bar and then toss on a pair of 25 lb plates. I make him do gym math and tell me how much weight is on the bar. He sighs and rolls his eyes. I pull the plates off for him to do another set, then reset with 25s and 10s. I don't get to 120 lbs because I can see in his face that my son is either bored or tired. I switch to Inclined Press to show him how it works different muscles. He's intrigued that he can see the cables inside the frame for bar.

He tells me that he's tired so I skip Inverted Rows. He hates those. Instead we spend 20 minutes on the Rowing machines. They must be broken or something because neither of us breaks a sweat. He's chatting with me the entire time but we are still moving at a good clip. He does a set on the Leg Press machine, and then we climb the Step Mill for 10 minutes. Even though I've given him headphones so he can plug into the TV, he prefers to tell me about the different games he's been playing, like Plants Vs Zombies. I ask him if he'd like to do the elliptical or smack the kickboxing machine (I brought weight gloves for him and a few smacks won't hurt him or the machine) but he just wants to go home.

The JeFit site seems to be down so I can't copy and paste yesterday's log here. So no cute pictures. Oh well...

Sunday "Workout"

LifeFitness Cross-trainer 20 minutes  2.37 miles
Hamstring stretch
Smith machine bench press: 12 @ bar (30 lbs) / 12 @ 80 lbs / 12 @ 100 lbs
Smith machine inclined bench press: 12 @ bar / 12 @ 60 lbs
Rowing machine 20 minutes  1.53 miles (2460 meters)
Step Mill 10 minutes  27 floors