Born Again Gym Rat: Grinder Tuesday

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Grinder Tuesday

I'm never in the mood to go to the gym so I don't pay any attention to the little voice in my head that tells me how nice it would be to lay in bed all morning. I didn't even go yesterday, Memorial Day, because I suspected it would just be so crowded with kids home from school that I'd just be vexed. Instead, I spent a productive afternoon going through my email account and deleting hundreds of emails (if not thousands) that dated back to 2009. Good grief! Then I reformatted the 4T back up drive I got a month ago because it's Windows-friendly and I work on an ancient Mac.

Okay, my Mac Mini isn't as old as the laptop in the kitchen, but it's close. I still use a huge VGA Diamond Trinitron monitor too instead of the latest flat screen. Then I had to install a "new" version of '09 iWorks because my iPad uses Pages and I don't own that on any of my other computers. Yep, that was just about an entire afternoon right there. I haven't figured out how to off-load videos from my phone though. It's an iPhone 5 and only the photos seem to sync with the iCloud mirror drive. Videos take up a lot of room, and I'd like to be able to archive these and not lose them. Sigh.

I get to the gym and spend 30 minutes on the LifeFitness cross-trainer to make up for not doing anything yesterday. (Okay, I made ciabatta bread french toast for lunch, but the hubs grilled chicken, mowed the lawn, worked out in the garage, and cooked up marinade for the 9.5 lbs of London broil I bought Friday to make beef jerky this week. Of course, I'm cleaning up the kitchen mess today!)

The Smith machine is occupied by a guy doing OHP. Someone else is in the Max Rack. I don't feel like wrestling with the breaker benches. Instead, I do sets of DB presses on a flat bench, but I keep my hands in the neutral position. My right shoulder immediately makes itself known, but it's not painful. I should've cut my reps as I upped the weights, but I didn't so when I got to the 45s, well, I could get them into position, but couldn't press them. I got my arms up about 2-3 inches but not enough for a full extension. So that's zero for that set. Oh well. Next time I'll cut my reps. I pyramid down to make up for the failure.

I'm not all that concerned about my chest anyway. I move on to the DB laterals and Reverse Flyes. The gym is sporadically busy with regulars and new faces. Tattoo Tank, PonyTail, M, Skinny J, Soccer Boy are a few I recognize. There are a few tall, blonde, young women as well. One takes a pair of 10 DBs and moves sideways across the front of the DB rack, with her knees bent and feet facing outward, her elbows bent as she simultaneously rotates her shoulders so that her arms seem to be opening and closing in front of her body as she moves. Well, I've never seen that before.

Too heavy for me!

Two of the breaker benches have big plates on the bars and the 3rd bench has one of those godawful multi-angle thick grip bars which I'm not even attempting to budge. Instead, I position myself in the Max Rack for Close Grip Bench Press. It takes me a while to figure out where I need to be to clear the support hooks. It's not quite the same as the Smith, and the bar is a lot heavier. I'm very happy to get 20 reps on my last set! Finally, just Rip Skulls are left. I wish I could catch a photo of my arms with the EZ bar: they look so cool and impressive.

Just 30 minutes on the Precor: 10 min of HIIT (15 sec On/ 45 sec Off -- which really means a slow jog) followed by 20 min of LISS. A quick stretch on the Mat and then a well-deserved hot shower, followed by 20 seconds of ice-cold. At least I'm not sweating when I get out to the 84F parking lot!

Tuesday Workout
(5.81 miles total; 11,8454 lbs moved)