Willful Blindness

There's nothing wrong with ignoring the fact that you used to lift heavier, that you used to be thinner or leaner, that you were younger. Once. We all were. Once. Sometimes you have to be willfully ignorant of past history, otherwise you'd never get off the couch, mired in self-pity and excuses.

I haven't gotten enough sleep but that's not really an excuse. It will cause me some memory issues throughout the day because sleep is inextricably entwined with daily brain functions. I'm only concerned that this fatigue is going to negatively affect my workout today. Cardio seems surprisingly okay, although I've noticed that my endurance seems to ebb and flow. I don't make steady, continuous gains like younger athletes. Perhaps that's because I'm decades older than most athletes in their prime? Regardless, I'm here now and it's early enough that I can actually grab the Smith after my cardio warm up.

I haven't moved past 130 lbs on the Smith Bench even though I've done it in the past. But those attempts always left me feeling I had injured my right front delt. No need for that. I'm not trying to prove anything. I'm benching several pounds more than my body weight, and for a 55-year old woman who's not using supplements, I think that's pretty damn good. At some point I'll look my age, but hopefully that won't be any time soon.

Lack of sleep is catching up with me. I do a few sets of Inclined Benching on the Smith, adding reps for each set. It's counter-intuitive. It's also proof that I'm a lot stronger than I think I am. The DB area is really crowded today. R is here early and he's chatting with a lot of the other guys. He and his wife are expecting a baby girl in a few weeks. He's planning to relocate to a better school district in the near future, although his town has come up fairly high on the list of Best Suburbs to Raise a Family. He's not comfortable talking to me much when there are a lot of peers about. It's okay. I don't have anything much to say to him anyway.

DBs feel heavy doing Lateral Raises and Reverse Bent-Over Flyes. But I still do them. Benches are crowded so I skip Close Grip Benching for triceps and go straight to RIP Skulls by the DB area. It's crowded there too. Mostly it's a younger crowd though. High school and college boys, I'm guessing. I'm surprised to see that the cable station for Press-Downs is vacant. I haven't done these in a long time. They are harder than I remember. Bummer. I pyramid the weight up, and reps down. Then reverse. And I soooo don't feel like doing it, but I march back up the cardio platform and get myself in gear to do 10 min of HIIT cardio, followed by 20 min of LISS. It's not really feeling any easier.

I haven't done Dive Bomber Push Ups in a very long time, mostly because of my wonky right shoulder. I don't plan to start doing them today either. But I do my other stretches. I feel like I've been here all day between 45 min of cardio, weights, and stretching. Time to shower and change!

Monday is Push Day
(4.05 miles; 18,345 lbs moved)

Cross Trainer

Steady State

Calorie :   71 CAL
Distance: 1.91 mile
Speed :    7.62 mph
Duration : 00:15:03

Smith Machine Bench Press

164.67

Set 1 : 30x15
Set 2 : 80x12
Set 3 : 120x10
Set 4 : 130x8
Set 5 : 110x12
Set 6 : 90x22
Set 7 : 90x3

Smith Machine Incline Bench Press

126

Set 1 : 30x15
Set 2 : 70x12
Set 3 : 90x8
Set 4 : 90x10
Set 5 : 90x12

Dumbbell Lateral Raise

35

Set 1 : 20x12
Set 2 : 20x12
Set 3 : 25x8
Set 4 : 25x8
Set 5 : 25x12
Set 6 : 20x15 SuperSet with

Dumbbell Reverse Flyes

37.5

Set 1 : 20x15
Set 2 : 20x15
Set 3 : 25x12
Set 4 : 25x12
Set 5 : 25x15
Set 6 : 25x15

Barbell Reverse Grip Skullcrusher

52.5

Set 1 : 15x15
Set 2 : 37.5x12
Set 3 : 37.5x12
Set 4 : 37.5x12
Set 5 : 37.5x12

Cable Triceps Pushdown

60

Set 1 : 30x12
Set 2 : 40x10
Set 3 : 50x6
Set 4 : 40x8
Set 5 : 30x10

Elliptical Training

Calorie :   209 CAL
Distance: 2.14 mile
10 min HIIT
20 min LISS
Duration : 00:30:00