Born Again Gym Rat: Holiday Prep

Monday, December 21, 2015

Holiday Prep

I figure I can get 3-4 days at the gym this week, depending on what day my hubs gets back from Boston. At this point, he's not even sure what day he's coming home. Today I have the luxury of a full workout, but I'm not inclined to spend all day at the gym... too many pre-holiday errands! Last night I discovered that I didn't have enough wrapping paper, and one of the clear plastic bags those luscious assorted caramels are housed in, split open when it slipped out of my hand as I was removing them from the fridge. Egads! Luckily I could stuff the caramels into little holiday gift boxes I got last year, but they need to be secured with ribbons. I need ribbons. I need colored tissue papers too. I need to go to the store, where I will spend waaaay too much money, and invariably forget something.

Regardless, I go to the gym and do my 30 min of cross-trainer, stretch, do a set of pull ups, and then endless push ups and planks. I decided to do Wide Hand Push Ups for the first two sets to ensure that I was getting the full stretch out of the movement. I concede that I tend to "cheat" a bit when I'm going for reps by not extending my arms fully at the top of the movement. Wider hands takes that type of cheating out of the equation, but it also means I can't do 100 reps straight. Instead I have to break it down into sets of 50. And I have to fix my Diamond Push Ups. Again, I'm only coming halfway up for each rep. I find it hard on my right elbow to extend fully so maybe I'll play with hand positions. All these reps have an effect though, because I've got quite the pump in my arms and chest.

The planks are standard alternating elbow and straight arm for regular and side plank, but I keep the bird dog simple with a bent knee for all sets. When I get to the free weight area, I see several clusters of guys hanging out by the DBs. No available benches. Ugh. I grab the adjustable inclined bench by the Smith and drag it into the Max Rack. I can do my DB lateral raises and Reverse Flyes here. I almost don't recognize Shaggy because he's gotten a trim and shaved his face, probably to visit his mom for the holidays. The beard was hiding a weak chin. He's still squinting like he's smoked too much pot. Clean shaven, he looks even more like a sad middle-aged guy. Maybe if he got a real haircut instead of sporting a Beatles do? I'd like to take a selfie with the DBs and this dramatic lighting, but Shaggy keeps hovering nearby, as if he's expecting me to suddenly notice him. Honestly, I try not to notice anyone, except the hot guys and chicks, and even with them, I don't make a big show of looking. That's just not who I am.

I get in two more sets of Hammer Grip Pull Ups and another 30 minutes on the elliptical before a good Mat Stretch. I'm toying with the idea of Renegade Rows. An article in T-nation (tnation.com) states you should be able to pull half your body weight but I'm pretty sure the article is geared toward muscle-head guys. Still, I'm curious to know whether I can pull a 55 lb DB in a Renegade Row. I used to be able to do One-Arm Rows, going for 6-10 reps at up to 60 lbs, but I also had the use of VGs (VersaGrips) and a good sturdy bench. I don't think I can do the row from what amounts to a plank position. Maybe I'll just start low, with maybe a 20 lb DB?

Tomorrow I get to whack the machine. I just have to remember to double pad my right first knuckle.

Monday Workout
(6.76 miles total cardio)