Unintended Consequences

Yesterday was Easter Sunday and the Easter Bunny delivered as promised. On Saturday, my husband made kalua pork in the oven from a nine and a half pound picnic pork shoulder. It's delicious, and the best option for free protein, considering our supermarket's holiday giveaway of either a frozen turkey, a ham, frozen lasagne, tofurkey, or a picnic pork. Yesterday we went to visit friends in Connecticut and enjoyed homemade bread, banana kefir muffins, apple crisp and lasagne. And an immodest amount of Skinny Girl cocktails in a bottle: mojito and white peach margarita.

I admit I might've felt a tad hung-over this morning, skipping breakfast altogether. I have my left index finger wrapped in self-adhering foam surgical tape. The first time I ever saw this item, it was purple and my vet used it to wrap a wound on my dog's leg. But I keep a roll of the flesh-colored stuff in my gym bag. I've determined that the higher my mileage on the Precor elliptical, the worse my finger hurt. Friday I broke 7 miles and the throbbing from my finger seeped into the palm of my hand. Ouch. Somehow, the way I grip the warped handle bar of the elliptical is causing some sort of pressure damage to my hand and finger. Yikes. Not what I was expecting from intense cardio. Today I'm cognizant of how I grip things, especially since I have a big fat roll of "gauze" on my finger.

I feel a little sluggish, but I'm not at all weak today. As long as I'm careful with my finger I'm okay. I take a few selfies and note how big my arms and shoulders look. That makes me happy. An unintentional consequence of weekend feasting. I do concede to injury for certain movements, and grit out reps with lighter weight. The Smith Bench starts off being a grind, but I surprise myself by getting 8 reps instead of 6 for the last two heavy sets. Then I knock out 25 reps at 90 lbs. There are too many newbies in the free weight area and I can't locate an Inclined Bench for Smith Inclined Presses so I skip that and move on to DB Laterals super set with DB Bent Over Rear Flyes. I can't grip the 25 lb DB properly without my index finger so I drop back to 20 lb DBs for all my sets, making it up in reps.

Eventually all the newbies move onto the Cybex machines in the center of the gym and the free weights and benches are available again. I see regulars like Jude, Maroon and Tattoo Tank. There's a greying old man trying to convince his middle-age wife to bench press just the bar. Because I missed out on Inclined Benches earlier, I take this opportunity to get a few sets of Inclined DB Flyes, and then Inclined Benches for reps. I don't like the Inclined Flyes much, finding them very stressful on my front delts for no good reason since I'm using fairly light weight. I skip abs today because tomorrow is an abbreviated workout day: parent-teacher conferences and hence school half-days twice this week. I'll just do cardio and abs tomorrow.

I do another 30 min on the elliptical, careful not to grip the handle too tightly. Then a quick stretch. No push ups, no plank, no pistol squats. Done!

Monday Cardio and Chest/Delt Workout
(6.67 miles; 15,860 lbs moved)

Cross Trainer

Calorie :   145 CAL
Distance: 3.76 mile
Speed :    7.5 mph
Duration : 00:30:07

Dumbbell Bench Press

49

Set 1 : 20x12
Set 2 : 25x12
Set 3 : 30x12
Set 4 : 35x12

Smith Machine Bench Press

165

Set 1 : 30x12
Set 2 : 80x12
Set 3 : 120x10
Set 4 : 130x6
Set 5 : 130x8 Yay! +2
Set 6 : 130x8 Yay! +2
Set 7 : 90x25

Dumbbell Lateral Raise

28

Set 1 : 20x12
Set 2 : 20x12
Set 3 : 20x12
Set 4 : 20x12
Set 5 : 20x12
Set 6 : 20x12 SuperSet with

Dumbbell Seated Bent Over Reverse Fly

30

Set 1 : 20x15
Set 2 : 20x15
Set 3 : 20x15
Set 4 : 20x15
Set 5 : 20x15
Set 6 : 20x15

Dumbbell Incline Fly

28

Set 1 : 20x12
Set 2 : 20x12
Set 3 : 20x12

Barbell Incline Bench Press

108.33

Set 1 : 45x15
Set 2 : 65x15
Set 3 : 65x20

Elliptical Training

Calorie :   258 CAL
Distance: 2.91 mile
Duration : 00:30:10