Breaking the Routine

I knew I wasn't going to like the gym scale when I woke up this morning, because my puffy face is a sure indication that I've eaten too much salt this weekend. Making thick-sliced bacon and eggs for lunch, and then my favorite, beef and broccoli (and/or tomatoes) with oyster sauce over rice for dinner means an overload of salt. Yes, it was definitely tasty. And something I'm not likely to repeat for a few more months.

I get to the gym late to find the locker room empty, and my favorite cross-trainer empty. Yaaaay! Warm ups still include pull ups, push ups, crunches and planks. The Smith is occupied so I do a few sets of plain ol' benching on the flat Breaker Bench. I don't like it because my feet don't sit totally flat on the floor, and I'm a little nervous with my thumbless deadman's grip. But my right hand has been intermittently sore and the weight of the bar presses uncomfortably on the meaty part of my thumb. I might've re-sprained it trying to open something in the kitchen...

I toy with the idea of doing variations on DB presses, but again, I have issues holding the weights because of my tiny hands, and propensity to sprain or strain all their tiny tendons. There was a time, not so long ago that I could warm up with 25 lbs plates on an Olympic bar. That's 95 lbs right off the bat. Now I'm more skittish. I can probably still do it, but I'm not as cavalier as I used to be when I was younger, and didn't worry so much about joint injuries.

The Smith frees up and I do several sets of Inclined Presses before moving over to the DB area for lateral raises superset with reverse flyes. I use the tiny magnetic plates to increase the weight up to 22.5 lbs. It's just a tad heavier. I'll eventually move up to the 25s and maybe cut the reps a bit. There are a lot of newbies, and a few familiar faces who I haven't seen in a very long time. I keep the discs to affix to the 30 lbs solid barbell for Rip Skulls. That's 35 lbs. Then 40 lbs. At first my left forearm aches but once my elbow settles down, everything feels good.

Back to cardio. I'm running out of time though. Instead of 30 minutes of one of the Performance Programs, I opt to do just 11 minutes of HIIT cardio, easing myself into it with a 30 second On / 2 minutes Off structure. Because I'm not going to start the session going all out, I add another 60 seconds just so I can "warm up" for a minute. That makes 11 minutes of "cardio", where On means I'm trying to achieve over 270 Strides Per Minute, and Off means anywhere from 90 to 110 SPMs. It's pretty intense! I'm going to try and work up to 15 minutes, and then 20 minutes.

When I'm done, I stretch a little and then try to do as many Hammer Grip Pull Ups as possible. I get to 34 before giving up. Well, not as good as 36, but I did just start doing tabata-style cardio, so it's okay. What's not okay is the gym scale. It sighs at 112 lbs. Maybe I shouldn't have had those two glasses of red wine at dinner on Saturday. But better than drinking beer or hard cider. Still...

Monday Workout

30 minx-trainer
3.79 miles
138 cal
7.54 av spd
7:57 avpace

HGPU 31
Knee-Ins 50
Push Ups 100
Crunches 3 x 60
Bird dogs 2 x 60 sec
Side Planks 2 x 60 sec

Breaker flat bench
Bar (45 lbs) x 12
12 x 65, 85, 105
25 x 75

Smith inclined
Bar (30 lbs) x 12
12 x 70
80 x 12 x 3

DB Lat s/s Rev Flyes
20 lbs x 12/20
22.5 lbs x 12/20 x 2

Rip Skulls
30 lbs, 35, 40 x 12

11 min elliptical
30 sec On / 2 min Walk
Incline 6 / Resistance 0
Miles:  0.83
Calories:  84.4

HGPU 34