I find it harder and harder to get excited about going to the gym, but at least my son is good company. Meaning, he's a good sport and willing to do what I ask of him. Every now and then he'll timidly ask to do something. He never usually asks for anything. We do the recumbent bike and then the treadmill because it's Monday and neither of us is feeling too energetic. "Why is it so crowded?" he asks me. "Probably because it's Monday and every feels guilty about the weekend." "Ah," he says with a knowing look.
Part of my personal frustration is knowing that I've lost strength in the 8 weeks I've been limited to non-strenuous exercise. Part of it is that being 58 years old, it's a lot harder to regain what's been lost, especially since I felt I was barely maintaining what I had to begin with! The only positive thing to have happened is due to changed parameters: instead of doing one long set of pull ups, I break it down into multiple smaller sets. So in total, I've actually done twice the amount I used to do. Yaaay for tiny victories!
Today I get my son to do a few more pull ups than he did on Friday. His form isn't great, but neither is mine. He's not dropping into a full extension. Instead, he's pulling up from bent arms. He kips the last two reps. Still, he's is pulling his entire body weight and that counts. When he's older, stronger and more confident, I might ask him to do a few full reps. But not right now. He's working the proper muscles and not straining his elbows and forearms so I'm good with that. Today I also manage to get a few more pull ups. But unlike my son, I'm panting at the end of each set. My son is not. He complains about being tired, but he's doesn't appear winded. I suspect he doesn't really know what tired is, but maybe I'm biased?
Push ups and core follow. Some people might be done by now, but I'm just feeling warmed up. We see a woman at the Smith with 45s on the bar. However, she's stripping the plates off and looks like she's done! Yaaay. I like the Smith for the safety factor. Because I'm not tall or big, I worry about being able to properly spot my son should he start to falter during a set. He's not moving all that much weight, but since I'm his mom, I do worry. He tells me that 90 lbs is heavy and only gets 6 reps. When I ask, he tells me that he feels it not only in his arms and shoulders, but across his chest as well. Finally! I get 12 and add another 10 lbs. Next week I'll try 110 lbs since that's close enough to my body weight, but I may have him try sets of 5-6 reps at 90. We both finish with 25 reps at 50 lbs. That seemed awfully easy. How about 25 reps at 60 lbs next time? He looks slightly worried, but I assure him he'll be fine. I'm pushing, but just a little at a time. It's hard to know just where the edge is until you shove up against it.
My son likes the Lateral Raise Machine and does 3 sets there, and then asks if he can do something with legs. "Like the Leg Press?" While I don't do them, I let him do a few sets at a fairly light weight. He's a thick boy with large thighs, which makes buying him pants a challenge as he's only average height for his age. I've known men with big ill-proportioned thighs and they had terrible self-esteem issues. While I don't discourage my son from Leg exercises, my feeling is that all the different cardio movements we do are enough for the summer. He's already struggling with stiffness in his hips and getting thicker won't help that at all.
I do my DB supersets with a pair of 15 pounders. At some point I hope to feel strong enough to up the weights back to 20 and 25s, but that's probably not going to be anytime soon. Especially since I'm thinking I'm having cataract-stent surgery for my right eye in September. I see the eye doc tomorrow to check my pressures and discuss options and schedules. I ask my son if he wants to wait around until I finish or do something. He's content to stare at his phone.
I give him the choice of Bench Dips or Skull Crushers. He winces and says Skull Crushers. Because he's new at this, and considerably weaker, I tell him to grab the 20 lb solid BB. I grab the 30. Next week I'll also grab the magnetic discs. He has a little trouble getting coordinated with the 3-part move. I tell him that if his hands go numb or he feels he can't hold onto the bar any longer, to just drop the bar past his head as it'll only be a few inches off the matted floor. He's fine. At no point during any of our exercises does he look tired. He's probably a lot stronger than he thinks, so I'm constantly testing and pushing, but just a little.
Wednesday we'll be more focused on Pulling, so that's back and biceps. I won't give him any bicep exercises until he stops telling me that his arms are tired. What would be the point? Last night my husband noticed how much bigger my son seems when he's standing next to me. I notice it when I hug him goodnight, because my chin has slowly slid from the top of his head to his ear, his shoulder, and now, just below. Sigh. I hope he'll at least be average height. Short guys have a harder time and life is already difficult.
Monday Blahs (M=my son; L=me)
15 recumbent bike Level 1 Calories 60 Miles 1.45 Average Heart Rate 98 (WTH?)
30 treadmill Incline 10% Speed 3 Calories 268 Miles 1.51 Average Heart Rate 117 / maximum HR 137 HGPU 20, 15, 15, 8 (58) M pull ups 10, 7, 6 (23) L Push Ups 20 + 10 + 10 M 20 + 10 Bicycles 50 Crunches 30/20 Side Planks 2 x 60s Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Smith Flat Bench Bar (30) x 15 50 x 12 70 x 12
90 x 6M, L12 M 80 x 8 L100 x 12 50 x 25
M Lateral Machine 35lbs x 12 reps x 3 Leg Press Machine 90lbs x 12 x 3
L DB Laterals s/s Rev Incl Flyes 15lbs x 12/15 x 3 sets
I forgot to pack my towel in my gym gear today, but I didn't realize it until it was time to shower. Ugh. Luckily I always have a few spare hand towels in my bag, just in case. Which means I get on the gym scale in just my sweat-drenched underwear (because a hand towel isn't going to cover anything!) and gasp a little. It reads 109.4 lbs, which is more than 2 lbs less than yesterday. Weird, right? Well, considering the workout I put my son through today, maybe not.
It's already hot (85F) and humid by the time we get to the gym around noon. The sun is scorching, but the recent rains make everything steamy. There's no relief except indoors to air conditioning. My son wants to do 30 minutes on the treadmill first. I've already told him that the Step Mill, Expresso Bike and Walking Lunges are on the agenda for today.
"So it's a cardio day?" he asks.
Yep. He's fine with that. Secretly, I think he's concerned about getting bulky.
I keep my pace the same as when I was recuperating from eye surgery. My eye still bothers me, mostly with a dull ache in the morning and a sandy feeling whenever I'm not focused on something else. This is going to be extremely annoying when I have the other eye done, because then both eyes will ache and itch. Ugh. I tend to squint as my eyes get tired, but I've discovered that if I consciously widen my eyelids, my vision improves a little. As my eyelids narrow, my eyelashes make reading harder. It's the peripheral fringe of fuzzy dark spikes that encroaches on my visual field. Yet, better to have lashes than not.
Of course, this is all since I started using Travatan® and latanoprost before that. That's the same drug family that's advertised to increase eyelash lengths (a là Brook Shields). And boy does it work! I had sparse, barely-there lashes until then! What I can't understand is how people with naturally long luxurious lashes manage to see at all! My mother used to glue false eyelashes to her lids when she wanted to dress up, but ultimately, she'd complain it was like wearing spiders on your face. I totally agree with that.
My son has his earbuds plugged into his phone and he watches YouTube videos while walking on the treadmill, or the stairs. I turn on the TV function to watch reruns of Supernatural, which is entering its 14th season and 300th episode. That's pretty amazing. My son actually thought that Buffy The Vampire Slayer was a bad knock-off of Supernatural because time references mean little in a streaming universe. What Buffy reminds me of is an old favorite, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, which only ran for one season with 20 episodes. My hubs has that all on DVDs.
We jump on the Stretch Cage to do pull ups because the Expresso bikes are popular today. Halfway through our set my son tells me that the bikes are free. But I want to finish before moving on to a different exercise. My son isn't thrilled with pull ups, but today I get him to do one more than Wednesday. I ask him if he feels stronger and he says "No, just tired." Well, at least he's honest. We select the dragon game for 15 minutes. There's a lot of obstacles to pedaling around, collecting floating coins and bumping dragons for extra points. My son's hair is plastered to his head. Sweat drips off my nose and down the back of my neck.
"Are we done yet?"
"We haven't done our lunges!"
We also still have some core to work on. After push ups, crunches and planks, my son is lying face down on the squishy mat and tells me he feels like taking a nap. Lunges first, I say. Then a quick stretch for the lower back and hips and we'll be done. I don't actually feel tired. But I am hungry. I'm used to doing so much more. Perhaps that's not normal? I'm bummed that I don't get that exhilarating sense of well-being from these workouts. If anything, I feel something akin to being sad. Not overwhelmingly sad, but something just under the surface. It's weird and I wonder if my hormones are out of whack. Perhaps next week I'll actually push myself a bit harder and see how I feel afterwards. Exercise has been my refuge, relief and escape. If it's not working anymore, then I'll have to try something new. I'm a gym rat after all.
Cardio Friday
30 min treadmill Incline 10% Speed 3 Calories 263 Miles 1.48 Average Heart Rate 113 (70%) / max HR 131(80%)
15 StepMill Speed 3 Total steps 565 Floors 35 Calories 88 129 Average HR
Today I let my son sleep in and I went to the gym by myself. The gym doesn't allow anyone younger than 17 years of age to use the kickboxing machines so he'd just be bored anyway. I'm not really sure why you have to be at least 17 years old, but I haven't been curious enough to ask either. The gym seems crowded, but of course, it's been raining all week, sometimes sideways.
I got on my home scale this morning just to determine what I'd suspected: I'm losing control of my meal portions and I'm putting on weight. And the not the good kind. To make matters more confusing, I bought myself a new bath towel at the grocery because it was on sale for $3.99. All cotton, solid colors and not horrible ones either. The towel is a lot thicker than my regular gym towels. Admittedly, my gym towels are so old and threadbare that they barely weigh anything and are almost sheer. This new towel actually has some heft to it. But enough to tilt the scale? I get on my home scale with and without said towel to check. And yes, the towel weighs in at 1.4 lbs and it's not even wet yet.
Yesterday the gym was playing music from the 70s and 80s. I guess it was Throwback Wednesday. Today it's Country Western Thursday. It used to be the other way around. I guess they're mixing it up for the seniors? Ugh. I turn my tunes up higher. While I'm warming up, I catch snippets of conversation between Little R and a guy on the other side of my bench. All I hear is something about American Psycho and Christian Bale. I'm a little surprised actually because that's not what I expect guys to talk about at the gym. I got to listen to HS girls the other day when I was with my son. Wow, I wonder if I sounded that vacuous back then? I try really hard not to listen to other people's conversations even though we're in a "public space" and there's no expectations of privacy. Still, I'd rather not listen in...
Again, I decide to just to 7 rounds, Beginner level, Follow Me program on the right-side machine with the dead Power Dig sensor. It's going to ruin my Accuracy and Power scores because those blows will count as zeros in the total. I don't care. It also discounts combos that involve the Power Dig, like the Jab/Power Dig. So even though I hit the Jab fine, because the Power Dig doesn't register I lose the whole point for the combo. Sigh. Well, it's not like I didn't know this would happen. The glare is really bad today because the sun is blazing now, but it's still raining.
I don't do my customary pull ups afterwards because I did 50+ yesterday, and might do the same tomorrow. I'm starting to feel a little stress in my forearms close to the elbows and I don't want that to progress. Instead, I do a few basic core moves with a quick lower back stretch and then I'm done. Since my son isn't waiting for me (he doesn't shower at the gym because he says the locker room smells like yeast and is gross), I can take a bit more time in the shower to exfoliate and slather on the alpha hydroxy cream I need to keep the scales at bay. I'm finding rough patches in weird places now, like along the edge of my jawline just below the ears. Ugh.
Tomorrow my son and I will go to the gym and do some fun things. He'll roll his eyes at the pull ups and walking lunges, but hopefully he'll enjoy the Expresso bike. I know I will!
I watched the entire season of 9-11 with Angela Bassett and Peter Krause. I haven't seen him since Six Feet Under, before Michael C Hall rose to mesmerizing stardom as Dexter Morgan. Maybe since I've pretty much run through all the decent shows on Hulu, I'll actually get more stuff done. Hoarders only goes to Season 12 and Hulu hasn't aired the series 2-hour finale filmed last March. Prison Break just got too silly, and there's no more episodes of The Incredible Dr. Pol to watch. I've been viewing Glee intermittently, and the current shows So You Think You Can Dance as well as Gordon Ramsey's 24 Hours: To Hell and Back. I miss Robert Irvine's Restaurant Impossible! However, I did wander into the first season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, since I've never actually seen it. The first thing I thought was, hey, isn't that theme music the same as The Offspring's The Kids Aren't Alright. Me and about a thousand others thought the same thing, and it's not them. The 1997 Nerf Herder song predates Kids (1998) by at least a year. I've never heard of Nerf Herder before.
Yeah, weird, right?
Thursday
10 elliptical
Calories 88
Miles 0.80
Average Heart Rate 143 (85%) / max hr 162 Oops!
It's been raining all week and the humidity is so bad that I have the a/c on just to keep the house reasonable. It's bad when mold starts to form on everything vaguely moist! The little cotton balls I've been dousing with ant poison (sugar and boric acid mixed into plain water) have gone from ant oases to black mold repositories. Yuck! The bread isn't lasting too long either, and I toast the ciabatta just to keep the little blue and black spots at bay. The grocery store doesn't always carry the plain ciabatta my old dog likes, but toasting the remaining loaf allows me to give him crunchy treats a few days longer.
The pup has been losing control of his bladder more frequently, mostly when eating so I've finally purchased a "male wrap" to keep the puddles to a minimum. It attaches with velcro at the top (spine) and wraps around his belly and leaking bits, At the end of several hours, there's a distressing indentation in his fur so I take it off for the night. I'll have to determine when the best time is to leave it on him, and for how long. There's also wee disposable pads (that look like miniature sanitary napkins) to stick to the inside of the wrap for extra absorption. Sigh.
It's only in the mid 70s temp-wise, but the rains make it tropical outside, and not in a good way. My son and I arrive at the gym a bit past noon and debate whether to bring umbrellas in with us. We opt to leave them in the car because it's not actually raining at the moment. We only do 30 minutes on the treadmill because I know I'm going to be pushing my son to do more and heavier weight today. At the Stretch Cage I ask him to get 10 pull ups. He's ready to walk away afterwards, but I tell him that I need to do my set too. He knows better than to say No. Then I ask him if he thinks he can get another 5. Then another 3. I tell
him if he gets another 2, it'll give him 20 total pull ups.
I've caught him saying things like, "Well, I don't really have a choice, do I?" and "Why are you asking me?" He's right, of course. I tell him that I'm just trying to be nice about it. For each subsequent set I ask just a few reps, but less than the last time. I can barely keep up myself! Finally we can walk to the classroom and do some push ups and core. He doesn't complain. I think he's happy to have done 20, but doesn't really want to show it. After all, he's at the gym with his mom.
I decide that an abbreviated core will suffice today so that's just push ups, side planks and the bicycle and crunch sequence. Then we step into the weight area. It's not horribly crowded. I see a lot of guys but they're mostly clustered around the cable stations and the machines. I do a set of RDLs at the Smith with just the bar and have my son do the same. I'm actually impressed that he seems to remember what I told him earlier about keeping his back straight. We alternate sets, with me doing a heavier load because I want him comfortable with the form before I ask more of him. Besides, it's his arms that are tired.
Doing BB Rows at the Smith doesn't help, but he does them. I allow him to try different grips with each set. He's finally figured out how to do these movements without shrugging, but these are light weights. Since I hope he's going to get a bit taller, I'm not going to have him lift heavy weights and risk damaging his growth plates. But he will get stronger! And at least build up some endurance. He shows me his hands because callouses are forming just below his fingers. He says they're from doing pull ups. Yep, I can see how that'll happen. I guess I need to get him some gloves!
At the Lat Pull Down station, the close-grip handle is already attached so that's what we're using today. (I don't tell my son, but he's too loose in his form when the regular handle is affixed. It's not benefiting him to jerk the weight like a floppy-armed rag doll.) I tell him to look up towards the top of the cable as he pulls the handle to his chest, and to arch his back slightly as if puffing his chest out to meet it. It's a bit complicated but he gets it most of the time. As he tires, he's less likely to look up and I see his chest curve forward slightly. He's using the weight of his shoulders to bring the weight down. (I know what that is because I've done it myself when the weight was too heavy!) We're both pulling the same weight for reps. I ask him where he feels it, and again the answer is him running a hand from his shoulder down the length of his arm. After 3 sets, we do seated cable rows, again with the close-grip handle. I know he's tired so I set the pin at 60 lbs. I haven't done this movement in a long time because it aggravates my sciatica, so I move the pin up to 40. But with each set I drop the pin down until we're both pulling 60 lbs.
My son is ready to leave, but we do some necessary stretches first. He's trying to figure out how to do an extended leg without falling over. It's a staple in martial arts training. We start with just a shoulder's-width-stance and squat down, keeping heels on the ground. Then slowly extend one leg just a few inches out to the side. Eventually fully extend the leg. My son's bent knee is not aligned with his foot, which seems to have swiveled out on its own. Weird. He inches it back into place. Done. Tomorrow I'm coming to the gym by myself so I can whack the machine. I'll be at it for at least 30 to 40 minutes, and I told my son he can sleep in on the alternate days we don't work out. That's my concession to him and he doesn't complain. On Friday we'll do the Step Mill, walking lunges and play the Dragon game on the Expresso bikes. That'll be fun! Or at least I think it will be...
Wednesday Pull Day
30 min treadmill Calories 263 Miles 1.49 Inclined 10% Speed 3 Average Heart Rate 111 (66%) / 128 max rate (76%)
I’m trying to create a workout program that accounts for both my and my son’s difference in ability and experience. He’s a newbie and better served with a full-body, three-day-a-week program. I’ve got what’s referred to as “mature muscle” so hitting each body part once a week with some overlap is fine. The point where we converge is doing cardio, and core.
Today is Monday and my son’s bio clock has been reset by a week at Boy Scout Camp. He actually gets up without me having to rouse him. It’s also a Push Day, but we start off with our basic cardio: 15 min of recumbent bike and 30 min on the treadmill. However, I do increase the incline to 10 degrees so that makes it a tad harder. Pull ups are another matter. I have my son rest after his first set. He doesn’t get 10, but close. I get my 20. I ask him to just get 5 more, and he does but he indicates that’s about all he can do for now.
We continue with push ups and core movements before going back to the weight area. The Smith is free as is the smaller flat bench. I show my son how to bench press and we take turns, using the same bench. His reach is longer so he sets the bar a notch higher. As we move to heavier weight, I make sure my son keeps his form. At least with us alternating turns, my son is forced to rest between his sets. Since I’m just getting back to lifting after 6 weeks of doing nothing but mild cardio, I’m easing into the routine. I’m not quite ready to push as hard as I’m used to, so this works out well for introducing my son to the rhythm.
We get to 80 lbs and I worry that it’ll be too heavy for my son, but it isn’t. I tell my son that I like to end with a low-weight high-rep set of 25 reps. My son is able to match me without any issue. That’s so great. I’m less worried now and next week I’m going to increase the weights a bit more. The next movement is for shoulders. My son tells me he wants to do the Lat Raise Machine. 35 lbs is more than I remember him doing last, but he’s able to get his reps. Then he stands around staring at his phone while I do my DB Supersets in the free weight area. I’m hoping to regain my strength quickly and return to the 20-25 lbs. Right now it’s just the 15s for both Standing Laterals and Reverse Inclined Flyes.
I like to finish Push Day with triceps so I give my son the choice between Rip Skulls and Bench Dips. He’s never done Bench Dips before but he definitely feels them in his triceps so he continues with them. He’d rather not do them at all, but that’s not the choice I give him. (It’s best to limit choices when dealing with kids, otherwise they’d rather not do anything at all!) I do my skull crushers with 30 lbs and they feel light. Next time I’ll grab the discs and add 5 lbs. I still have to ask the front desk how to add increments to the new cable stations.
When we’re done, my son is ready to stretch out a little, and then leave. Tomorrow we plan to see Hotel Transylvania 3. It’s a little young for us and it didn't get great reviews, but we’ve enjoyed the previous two movies, so we’ll probably laugh at this one too.
Monday Push
15 recumbent bike Level 1 Calories 66 Miles 2.13 Average Heart Rate 105
30 treadmill 10% Incline Speed 3 Calories 263 Miles 1.49 Average Heart Rate 114 / maximum hr 131 776 ft climbed
Max HGPU 8, 5 HGPU 20
Push Ups 30 Max 20 + 7
Bicycles 50 Crunches 30/20 Bird Dogs 2 x 60s Side Planks 2 x 60s Elbow Plank 60s
Smith Flat Bench Bar (30) x 15 50 x 12 (M 12) 70 x 12 (M 12) 80 x 12 (M 12) 50 x 25 (M 25)
Max DB Lateral Machine 35lbs x 12 x 3 sets
DB Laterals s/s Rev Incl Flyes 15lbs x 12/15 x 3 sets
Rip Skulls (Max Bench Dips 10, 12, 12) 30 lbs x 12reps x 3 sets
Yes, perhaps I'm having a Gomer Pyle moment, for those of you old enough to remember Jim Nabor's goofy but lovable Marine. I watched a lot of television as a child, but I think we all did. Yesterday was an absolutely perfect day for yard work. Well, compared to days before and after, it was the best day with moderate temps and zero humidity other than what I perspired. Mindful of all the bitey insects that live in my neighborhood, like brand new species of ticks and the requisite horse flies, deer flies, mosquitoes, gnats and thrips, I covered myself from head to toe with protection.
I wear knee high fabric boots year round when walking my dog. They're not quite as waterproof (or winter-proof) as advertised, but I can get them up my big calves. Long pants tucked in, an oversized Buzz Off® button down shirt over my tank top, safety glasses and a Buzz Off cap, complete with side drapes reminiscent of the French Foreign Legion. All liberally sprayed with picaridin which has a pleasant fruity scent compared to DEET sprays. (I got the Buzz Off clothes from LLBean years ago, but these items are no longer available from either the Buzz Off company or LLBean.)
I also wear leather gloves to protect my hands. The weed wacking goes well until I run out of string and have to replace the spool. Luckily, I'd purchased a package of replacement string (really plastic cordage) when I got the weed wacker. What I really needed was a full face-shield since I got winged by flying plant debris as I whacked. Perhaps plant debris is too soft a word. Bits of woody stem is what I really meant. I have to unstick the nylon string a few times and I take frequent breaks because I'm sweating profusely. It's 80F and the sun is blazing, and I'm fully clothed with boots, hat and leather gloves. Once past the wood pile, I move gingerly to avoid the shiny three-leaf plants close to the ground. Is that poison ivy or just something that looks like it?
The overgrown wineberries are another matter altogether! Their thick thorns make me wield the weed wacker like a machete, hacking through the tough vines and foliage. And then I see them, flying low to the ground, exiting and entering what looks like a small rotted tree stump. Shiny, yellow and black, and totally oblivious to me. Yellowjackets! Surprise! Okay, that's my cue to stop. No harm, no foul. We've had many wasp nests in the yard over the years and have never been stung. Don't plan to tempt fate now.
My hands are sore from 3 hours of weed whacking, but not as sore as the back of my shoulders. Trying to pinpoint specific muscles gets me as far as rhomboids. I have never been sore there before! It must be all those pull ups I did on Wednesday, and I'm surprised, because I really thought it'd be my lats and forearms. Well, they're sore too, but not as much as right behind the armpits. That's new!
Today I waffled between whacking the Nexersys and doing something, anything else. Whacking the machine won. Because my son and hubs come back on Sunday. So today's my last solo gym day until a week in August when they both go off to a Scout camp upstate. I do my usual warm ups and wrap my hands while sitting in front of the right side machine, the one with the dead Power Dig and funky Cross. Since I haven't done this in over a month, I'm easing back into it by only doing some Beginner Follow Me rounds. No Sparring. No Intermediate rounds. But I do 7 rounds, and I'm sweating and panting by the end of the session. My endurance is crap! And the glare on the screen from the windows hasn't gotten any better.
I'm also too quick for the Jab/Cross combination and the machine doesn't register my Cross half the time. Nothing more frustrating than having to pause for a split second just so the machine can catch up. Of course, there are other combos where the machine blithely skips over the first blow and immediately flashes the 2nd, so you're constantly trailing by a second. This does wonders for the Accuracy score. But I don't really care about that although I take a quick photo.
What I care about is how many pull ups can I do afterwards. Not immediately afterwards, as I still have to unwrap my hands and stretch out a tiny bit. I'm also feeling a little guilty about not doing any core since Wednesday so I knock out some quick bicycles and crunches in the classroom. My hands are tired and sore. I feel a bit weird too. Maybe low blood sugar? I had coffee and a yogurt before I left the house so I don't think it's that.
Doing a series of pull ups is definitely easier on the forearms and elbows than trying to muscle straight through. After the first 20, I'm panting a bit so I take a swig of water and rest for about 30 seconds. Perhaps I should be timing my rests between sets? I'm not quite that anal yet, but perhaps I should be? I don't know how many I can get on the next set: my head says 10 and the rest of me is just spacey. A voice in the back of my mind says "Naw, at least 12, maybe more." I get more. Surprise!
The next set is an actual 10. It's weird though because I feel almost lightheaded. Like I'm not quite connected to my body as I do the reps. This is the first time I've ever felt so disconnected from my body during a workout. (I have, in the past, been worried by feeling "disassociated", but I've always chalked that up to low blood sugar. Investigating this phenomena further has me a bit concerned, but I have a lot more reading up to do.) My last set gets me 8. I suppose I could've gone for one more set, and probably gotten 5 or more, but going to failure doesn't serve any good purpose and risks injury. I'm really hungry by the time I get out to my car and I'm so glad I packed a (16 gm) Hi-protein Ensure® in my cooler. It's hot out, but I need to pick up a few things from the grocery before heading home to walk the pup.
I also debate going back to Kmart to pick up yet another 2 bags of salt for the water softener. My son and I put in 4 bags last week, but that wasn't enough. I got 2 more bags yesterday. Still not enough. Another 2 bags and the tank will finally look full. I hope. But I'll do that tomorrow. Before the storms roll in... I did indulge myself in a store-made chicken pot pie. I've loved pot pies since I was a kid, when my frazzled mother would buy Swanson® TV dinners and pot pies as a special treat.
I've made my own in the past, stripping meat off chicken carcasses to mix with frozen peas and carrots, and a creamy chicken broth sauce, topped with pie crust. But it's too hot to turn on the oven, and too much work for just me. I look at the label and almost gasp. Surprise, surprise, surprise! The whole pie, only 6 inches across, is considered one serving, supplying twice as much fat as protein and more than enough sodium. Not horrid amounts, but enough to take heed. At home, I cut the pie in half and I'm pleasantly surprised that it's solid and not soupy. It also tastes pretty good. I save the rest for tomorrow.
Whacking Friday
10 elliptical Calories 92 Miles 0.82 HR 163/192
T, Y & I Raises 3lbs x 15 5lbs x 15
Mid Band Pulls 15 High Band Pulls 15
Nexersys (right side machine with dead power dig pad) 7r Beginner
Yesterday was too hot and humid to actually do any yard work. Plus there was that threat of thunder, lightning and torrential rains. Not a good time to be outside with an electric weedwacker! I know the gas ones are cheaper and more efficient, but I'm just not big enough to handle one. (Picture giving one to your 10 year old!) Instead, I sat down and did a few chapters on the coursework I've been procrastinating to finish. Never mind the fact I've had the materials for nearly a year. Well, at least I'm getting it done. The rains did come, with wind, noise and flashes of electricity. Luckily, the storms didn't impact our grid although counties to the north and west got hit pretty hard.
It's a torrential downpour behind the tree character. Tiny lights to his left are actually on the other side of the Hudson River.
Later, the weather seemed to clear up so I went out to a theater production called The Heart of Robin Hood with a girlfriend. It was held in a big, open tent at Boscobel in Cold Spring, NY. You can see the Hudson, and even West Point from the vast gardens. After the intermission, the winds kicked up and the dark sky opened. Torrents of rain continued throughout the rest of the play. Sometimes so loudly that we couldn't actually hear any of the dialogue! It was still raining when we left. Thank goodness I always carry a flashlight, and was actually wearing boots and a raincoat. I'd also thoroughly sprayed myself with DEET and picaridin, because when it's not raining, the bugs are biting. Especially me: I have over a dozen bites on just my legs and feet from being inside my own house. Gnats, no-see-ums and sneaky mosquitoes all wend their way inside. It also doesn't help that we live on wetlands. Yesterday I tossed a couple of "mosquito dunks" into the standing water behind my house.
Today it's actually nice outside! But I'm headed to the gym. I can weedwack tomorrow. I don't actually get to the gym until a quarter past noon. Not as crowded today, probably because it's nice out. There's no one on the ellipticals so I get on the 2nd one, which is also the best of all 4. These machines are old and in need of servicing, but they'll probably get replaced with something less accommodating. Like what happened to the cross-trainers last year. Lately I've been refilling a disposable 20 oz water bottle. At least that fits in most of the cup holders, unlike my 3 liter one. Today I just about suck it dry. Even thought there's plenty of A/C inside, I'm still busting a sweat with all my exertions. Yeah, so much for easing back into my routine. It's that Gym Rat nature...
I confess that I was the tiniest bit sore yesterday from Monday's workout. That could've been so much worse! Elliptical Program 2 is a bit hard and I'm annoyed again that the heart rate monitor seems very sporadic in taking readings. I'm trying to stay within the accepted guidelines but find that nearly impossible when the monitor can't tell me what my heart rate is half the time. Ugh. And I don't wear trackers because nothing stays on without having a limb go numb.
At the Stretch Cage I decide that I ought to see how many pull ups I can do. But not necessarily all at once. I've never tried this approach before with pull ups. But it is how I used to do my push ups back in college. Start with getting 20 or 25. Rest. Try to get 15. Then 10. Maybe 5 next time? It adds up. (I told my brother to use this approach but of course, he didn't listen and consequently has injured himself. But at least the dietary advice seems to have made an impact, and he's less "skinny fat" although I'm sure his wife is upset that's he's lost 4 lbs. He's 6' 2" and barely 170 lbs. Well, less now.)
Baby weights on the Smith
For the 2nd round of HGPUs, I get to 10 and drop down. In the back of my mind I think I could've done 12, but not entirely certain of the form. I rest for a minute and go back for 8 more. Okay, that's more than I normally do in one set, so I feel pretty good. Push ups don't feel so great though. When I put my arms in their proper positions, my left elbow clicks painfully until I rotate it out. It's not totally perpendicular, just about 45° from the body. I only do 25 to save some energy for planks and the rest of my routine. I had my coffee this morning, and I had a dose of SuperBeets before anything else. But again, a scoop in 6 oz of water was tasty, but made me a little queasy afterwards. It did pass before I left the house though. But I wasn't in any mood to actually consume food. (Which of course meant my stomach was growling loudly before I get to shower later.)
There's not many people in the free weight area, and no one at the Smith. I decide I'm going to do RDLs there, but super light weight. Super light is all I can handle! I have to be careful with bouncing the plates off the Smith base at the bottom of the movement. Even though I'm pulling slightly less than my body weight, I'm sweating profusely, and breathing hard. Damn am I out of shape! Luckily, I don't feel that way when I move on to RG BB Rows. Breathing hard because it's 25 reps, but it's still the same 80 lbs I did 6 weeks ago. My arms feel quite tired by the time I get to the Seated Cable Row so 30 lbs is quite enough for me. I decide to stretch a bit afterwards to let my arms recover before attempting my last set of pull ups. Because I didn't quite make 50 reps today, and I'd really like to.
I don't even know if Gym Owner is going to replace the big blue mats. But stretching out on the tiny memory foam ones really kind of suck. And doing splits on the wood floor sucks too. My knees feel all bruised up so I stop after just a few stretches. Time for one more set of pull ups. And I'm so happy that I get more than 10, more than 12. Yeah, I'm probably gonna feel this tomorrow.
Solo Wednesday Pull
30 elliptical Program 2 Calories 235 Miles 2.75 Average Heart Rate 132 (79%) /171 Oops!
HGPU 20, 10, 8
Push Ups 25 Bird Dogs 2 x 60s Side Planks 2 x 60s Elbow Plank 60 Bicycles 50 Crunches 30/20
Smith RDL Bar (30lbs) x 15 80 lbs x 12 reps 100 x 12 x 2 reps 80 x 12
Smith RG BB Rows 80lbs x 25 reps x 3 sets
Seated 1-Arm Cable Rows 30lbs x 12 reps x 3 (Surprisingly tired after set1)
My girlfriend tells me she bought two tickets to see The Heart of Robin Hood at the Boscobel Shakespeare Festival. It's not really Shakespeare, but promises to be fun if the weather holds up. Severe thunderstorm warning are in effect for tomorrow. She tells me that I'll have to age a couple of dozen years to pass as a Senior Citizen, but hopefully they won't be checking IDs too carefully. I haven't had to look older since I was a kid. Technically, a senior is at least 65 years old. I'm 58 so that's less than a dozen years away, but of course, my friend is 70 so I'm a kid compared to her. AARP tries to seduce you into their fold at age 50, but the price for getting all those discounts is that they sell your name to countless marketers of hearing aids, incontinence pads, walkers and funeral plots. Good grief!
Still, I'm no "spring chicken" and can be pretty set in my ways. The last 6 weeks has been an eye-opener for me, showing me just how little exercise I can get away with and still maintain a reasonable weight. I was convinced that I'd balloon up and pop out of all my clothes, but that hasn't happened. I'm so relieved. However, I'm fairly certain that I've lost strength and endurance. It's really hot today, the humidity makes the air feel thick, and there's an air quality alert. Well, there goes my plans to weedwack parts of the yard. I'm tired of looking at the big pile of split logs in front of the garage, but I have to clear the overgrown empty racks before I can stack. I had the logs split last Autumn as a present to my husband. He makes a lot of grand plans, but the follow through is a bit lacking most of the time. Gee, that seems oddly familiar. Cue: reference to Hoarders TV show.
Now I'm planning to stack wood so I can finally get the dumpster we've been talking about to clean out the garage. I guess binge-watching Hoarders has had an effect on me. And not just the resolve to clear up a lot of clutter. After watching the familial interactions of dozens of mentally-ill people, I've discovered a few personal insights as well. Both my hubs and I have the hoarder mentality: saving things because we can use them later, whether we actually do or not. I grew up with a grandmother who had lived through the Depression and both World Wars. She saved paper bags, wrapping paper, all sorts of jars, clipped coupons, redeemed booklets of S&H Green Stamps (which apparently still have value!) to buy shopping carts and umbrellas, baked her own pastries, sewed her own clothes. Of course, she was only 4' 8" so clothes were impossible for her to find, and with such tiny feet, she hoarded any shoes she could find that would fit her. I don't really have any of those excuses. But I constantly feel guilty about tossing things away. My husband has other issues and insecurities that have nothing to do with grandparents. At least this week he and my son are away at Boy Scout Camp, enjoying outdoor life, bugs, sweat and camaraderie.
I get to the gym around noon and am surprised to see how crowded the cardio deck is, with folks on most of the treadmills and cross-trainers. I get on an elliptical. There's a mother and son on the first two ellipticals, and the third one doesn't actually have a reliable console to tell you how fast you're going or what program you're doing. The one I use has a slight thump that I eventually stop noticing. The only thing I'm annoyed with is that the heart rate monitor says it's reading your pulse because the red heart symbol is pulsing, but there are no actual numbers. When I'm done, I feel warm and sweaty.
At the Stretch Cage I feel slightly nauseous and I suspect it's because I drank a dose of SuperBeets® right after my morning coffee. Tomorrow I'll try drinking it earlier (like before I walk the dog) to see if that changes anything. I don't feel any more energized drinking it and the nausea is disconcerting. Luckily, it only lasts for 10 minutes, as I'm doing planks and push ups in the other room. But not before I finish with pull ups. Today I get 20, and although it was a little stressful, I wasn't winded when I got done. I don't want to puke on the mat while doing push ups so I only do 30. I have to adjust my left elbow with each rep because of the painful clicking. Finally I find a good angle but I'm not sure I can replicate it tomorrow without a lot of trial and error. Ugh.
Today is my first solo day back and I'm easing into a "normal" Push routine. Which means light weights for everything, including the Smith Inclined Press. I have to drag the bench away from the wall and it suddenly occurs to me that this is why there's a big hole under the mirror. Because idiots have slammed the bench into the wall trying to get it into position. Ugh. I'm definitely weaker than I used to be. Luckily I think I'm looking at surgery for the right eye in September, so that gives me 6 weeks to recover some if not all my endurance and strength. Am I being overly optimistic?
There are a lot more women in the free weight area today, and I'm pleased with that. I see a few regulars, one guy with his noodle-arm son. No Mayor. Whew! I added a few songs to my playlist because I got some digital currency back from Amazon in exchange for No-Rush shipping. Which means I can get a few MP3s for free. Of course, I'm like a teenager with my music choices so now there's pop hits like Shawn Mendes (Stitches, It's In My Blood) and Train's Play That Song. Whatever makes me happy and willing to keep moving, right?
I drop my DB superset down to a pair of 15s because I don't want to risk injury by using weight I'm not prepared for. I think about doing Seated DB Laterals and then realize that the weights have to be soooo much lighter to do that. That's silly. I stand up, and only sit down for the Bent Over Reverse Flyes, resting my chest in my lap as I perch at the edge of a flat bench. I should probably keep my back straight, but being short means my legs don't sit flat on the floor in front of me. It's too awkward and I can't keep my balance, so I drop my torso to focus on the delts. I put one DB back and consider doing Tricep DB Extensions, but I don't trust the left elbow. So I put the other DB back as well. Instead, I grab a 30 lb solid BB and do Rip Skulls. Halfway through the 3rd set, I feel my left elbow start to complain. Well, at least I wasn't wrestling with the 40.
There's still no replacement for the big blue stretch mats so I retreat to the classroom. There are sporadically other people scattered throughout, doing their own thing with the plastic DBs, jump ropes and weight plates stored along the wall for the Boot Camp and Power Pump classes. I grab 3 foam mats, place them along side each other and jam the edge up against the wall. It's the only way to keep the mats from sliding out from under you! I have to adjust some of my Mat Stretch because it's nearly impossible to drop into a split on this memory foam, as the material has too much friction for a glide. The wood floor is too hard. I ease into my positions and get a halfway decent stretch.
In the locker room, a woman has taken the bench and dragged it to the vanity so she can apply her makeup while seated. Which means no one else can use the bench. I don't say anything, put my gear on the floor in front of my locker and use the toilet. Because I always have to pee before I shower! She's still at it, applying foundation and powder and what not when I return. I look at my selfies. I always have a RBF unless I concentrate on smiling. My first impulse is to be snarky to her. But then, I decide that I need to be kinder. I tell her that she's done and doesn't need to do any more because she's already beautiful. She laughs embarrassed and says she's trying to cover her acne scars and points to her throat. She is, actually, a very attractive woman.
"No one can see that!" I tell her.
It's the truth. She finishes up and puts the bench back. She's smiling and happy, and wishes me a great day. Wow, pretty cool. (I know I've got to get this chip off my shoulder, the one that makes me mean and hard to deal with.) It's hard-wired, ingrained in me, but if I take a moment to breathe, I can change. I've changed this body, I can change other things too.
Push Monday Solo
30 elliptical
Program 1
Calories 244
Miles 2.84
HGPU 20
Push-ups 30
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Elbow Plank 60s
Bicycles 50
Crunches 30/20
Smith Inclined Press
Bar (30lbs) x 15 reps
50 x 12
60 x 12
70 x 12
50 x 25
DB Laterals s/s Seated Bent Over Flyes
15lbs x 12 reps x 3 sets
I can see that my son is starting to dread me waking him up to go to the gym, and I only do it 3 days out of 7. However, he's going away for 8 days of Boy Scout summer camp where he'll be up at 7 am instead of 10, and in bed by 9 instead of the wee hours. Hopefully he'll be more receptive to gym time when he gets back as there's a few weeks before the next session of Scout Camp. Because I'm not letting him spend all his time on the couch playing video games!
My left eye has been achy when I wake in the morning. And it looks slightly red. I know that my IOPs rise in the darkness because the pupil dilates, forcing pressures up. There's not a lot I can do about that. The Travatan® is suppose to work best when administered once daily at night. Azopt® also works to lower IOPs but through different biochemical means. The oldest medication, pilocarpine, works differently by causing the ciliary muscle to contract, forcing the trabecular meshwork to expand and increase eye fluid drainage. It stings, like being squirted in the eye with grapefruit juice. I've pretty much exhausted the medication checklist as I've tried several and have developed allergic reactions to Lumigan® (bimatoprost), timolol and brimonidine (Alphagan®).
I haven't lifted heavy in over a month and my IOPs are not any lower, so maybe pulling heavy weights isn't really having any deleterious effects. But I don't really know. My IOPs used to be lower, but my workouts used to be more intense. There's not enough information to tell me whether resuming heavy (for me) lifting can be beneficial. Only cardio seems safe. I get my IOPs checked in 2 weeks, so I'll compare them. They were the lowest when I did nothing at all on the days immediately following the operation. But I can't do nothing. Seriously, that's just not healthy.
Yesterday my son helped me lug 4 bags of water softener salt into the basement. We actually needed 6 but I didn't know that when I bought them. The bags are 40 lbs apiece and we have to climb over the knee-high sandbag wall before descending three steps into our wet half-basement. I take a bag out of the back of my car and hoist it onto my shoulder. I still need to walk along the side of the house to get to the back. My son just grabs the bag and hugs it to his chest. "Isn't it easier to carry it on the shoulder?" I ask him. He says it isn't, and I'm surprised. But he's got almost 40 lbs on me, several inches in height, and much bigger limbs. My face is red and I'm panting by the time we're done. He doesn't look tired at all, but he complains that those bags were heavy. I don't know what to think.
Today he's tired. I let him sleep until 10 am and then off to the gym we go. He says he couldn't get to sleep until well after 4 am for no apparent reason. I offer to make him chamomile tea for tonight. I know that when he gets to camp, the routine there will reset his circadian clock, but it'd be nice if he wasn't totally exhausted by the time he got there.
Because we're at the gym slightly earlier than usual, it seems crowded. We do 30 minutes on the treadmill first, then 15 on the StepMill. When I first touch the heart rate handlebars, the screen shows me a HR of 94 and then climbs slowly. Meanwhile, SquareJaw is blathering loudly to a guy with shoulder-length hair I don't recognize. My son and I both agree that if the person isn't wearing headphones but is still yelling, they must be deaf. At the Stretch Cage, I turn off my tunes and pull out my headphones so that I can speak to my son in a soft voice. The gym is blaring This Is America, the controversial Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover) hit song and video. I'm not a fan and I wish I had my tunes turned on. Apparently I'm not the only one, because halfway through, the channel changes abruptly. Yaaay!
I tell my son I'm expecting 10 pull ups from him. He rolls his eyes (he wouldn't be a normal 13 year old if he didn't) but actually gets them done. Great! He's not comfortable enough to drop into a full extension at the bottom of the movement, but I'm not concerned with that. His forearms ache a bit afterwards, but that discomfort doesn't last. I keep an eye on his joints because he's a child (with tender growth plates) even though he's bigger than I am. I suspect that I'm actually stronger. But that might only be because I know what I'm doing, and he doesn't. (Also, his fast walk is faster than my fast walk on the treadmill and stairs.) I do 15 because that's what I can do without feeling too stressed. I make a point of monitoring my breathing as well! We go to the classroom to do our push ups. I want to challenge him so I tell him that at the end of 20, we'll rest in the top position and then see if we can get 10 more. Not a problem!
Since we did flat breaker benching on Wednesday, I have my son do Inclined Benching at the Smith. No shoulder stuff today since that's already included in this movement. The first set at 60 lbs is cut short because he's unhappy with a wider grip on the bar. The next two sets are better, but he complains that he's tired. Yes, I know. Just three sets of Lat Pull Downs and then lunges. He doesn't remember starting at 70 lbs last time, but he did. His form is getting sloppy and loose because he's tired. I think I'll have him do this movement first next time. Maybe even lighten the weight so he can use better form. He'll be happy about that part, and maybe I'll actually join him in some of these exercises, but at a lower weight. At least if I work in with him, it'll give him a resting pace. He's so anxious to get things done that he doesn't rest enough between sets.
He rolls his eyes again when I tell him Lunges. But he marches across the floor. He feels them more in the front quad of the trailing leg, instead of the hamstring and glute. It's probably because he's not actually performing a Walking Lunge where you bring the back leg past the front leg, instead of stopping at the front leg, then stepping forward. That's just a lunge. It carries a different momentum and stress when using an actual walking gait. It also emphasizes balance. He's still frustrated by the stiffness of his hips and legs, but I encourage him to do what he can. We discuss the scissor machine and how it can make the leg adductor and abductor muscles so tight that stretches become more difficult. Next time I'm going to have us try the Dead Bug pose. It looks silly enough to be fun.
Friday the 13th
30 treadmill 5% Incline Speed 3 Calories 191 Miles 1.50 Average Heart Rate (94) 109/126
15 StepMill Speed 3 Floors 31 Total steps 509 Calories 82 Average Heart Rate 122
Max pull ups 10 HGPU 15
Push ups 20, 10 Bicycles 50 Crunches 30/20
Smith Inclined Press Bar (30) x 12 Max 50 x 12 60 x 6, 12, 12
Max Lat Pull Downs 70 x 12 85 x 12, 12
Lunges Max 27 Me 32
Side Planks 2 x 60s Bird Dogs 2 x 60s Elbow Plank 60s
I don't find much information regarding exercise and glaucoma treatments until I specify pull ups. Then a whole slew of exercise-related cautionary tales emerge off the web, including:
I avoid doing head stands and similar movements, but now I have to rethink the hip and posterior chain stretches that have me placing my elbows on the mat in front of me... Ugh.
And the only reason I'm doing further research is that after I got home from the gym, I noticed my left eye seemed bloodshot. It had been achy even before I went to workout so I wasn't horribly worried, but hours later I was concerned enough to administer a few drops of anti-inflammatory meds. Thank goodness for left over medications!
However, overall, it appears that cardio exercise produces lower IOPs in most people so it's only exercises that might require greater exertion, and holding one's breath (VM, aka Valsalva Maneuvers) that are a cause for concern. That includes bench pressing and dead lifts. Actually, that probably includes pull ups too because it's hard to inhale properly when doing this movement. Ugh.
The NIH article rightfully concludes that it's not possible to know currently whether exercise is beneficial or not because activities that raise IOP may cause lower IOP readings afterwards, but it's not known whether the subsequent lower pressures are enough to mitigate any damage that occurs during the actual exercise itself. There's also the pre-workout, which for me is just a cup of coffee. Caffeine is shown to increase blood pressure, heart rate, and IOP, but I'm not about to give up my breakfast beverage. Besides, it's just one cup.
However, I will have to look at the SuperBeets® that my hubs swears by. I had a dose yesterday before going to the gym. It has a very pleasant beety taste (one tsp in 6-8 oz of water), and is suppose to increase nitric oxide in the body, which enhances blood flow and increases circulation. I'm told that a dose is the equivalent of eating 3 whole beets. Recent online literature suggests that nitric oxide might be useful in lowering IOPs by targeting the trabecular meshwork of the eye.
The Valeant pharma drug Vesneo, renamed Vyzulta and marketed by Bausch & Lomb, received FDA approval last November. Unfortunately, recent studies show that the new drug only drops IOPs by 1mmHg, which is not a lot. On the other hand, this occurred in 50% of the participants, so it's not a statistical fluke. The other participants were on plain ol' latanoprost, which is what I was on before my doc decided that the brand name Travatan® was a better drug. Personally, I don't think there was any difference, and the generic latanoprost is cheaper. As it is, my IOPs have been rising steadily over the past year. High IOPs are anything over 22, so Tuesday's right eye reading of 19 is rather alarming. Realistically, I don't think there's any way my IOPs will ever drop to <10 mmHg.
I guess I'm going to give up heavy (160 lbs+) RDLs because I really don't want to exacerbate my glaucoma. Any weight that has me holding my breath to move it is potentially sight-threatening, so that's that. Sigh. High reps and middling weights are okay for me. As long as I'm doing something! I can even make peace with the bike and the treadmill, but I'm going to sneak in pull ups, and some push ups too... Gym Rats are adaptive.
I really like my glaucoma doc, which is why I'm willing to look past her unprofessional staff even when their actions make me furious. For example, if you are scheduled for a 2 pm appointment, the office should be open at 1:55, or earlier. The door should not be locked, with people waiting in the hallway, while you can hear the staff moving about and talking inside. At 2:01, I pound loudly on the door with my fist. I'm pissed off and I've only been standing there for 10 minutes, not like the two elderly women who have been in the hall since 1:20. A new staffer (who thinks I'm 40 yrs old) takes my eye pressures and tests the vision in my left eye. 20/20 and egads! IOPs of 18!
Eventually the doc does the pressures herself and they are better and worse: 14 left eye, 19 right eye. Another staffer tells me I still have to pay an additional $1450 to satisfy the insurance deductible because the first $1500 is not applicable. Ugh. When I get the 2nd eye operated on, I will have to shell out an additional $1500 on top of that! But if I act before the calendar year is up, my deductible will have been satisfied and I shouldn't have to pay anything further. Yeah, we'll see about that... I ask the doc about options should the iStent not be suitable for the right eye. We discuss shunt surgery, which requires cataract surgery first. Because it cannot be done concurrently with cataract surgery, I'm looking at a long recovery time. Ugh. Shunts make me nervous because they drain into a synthetic reservoir placed under the surface of the eye, toward the top back where it's not noticeable. Ugh. My left eye feels achy and still itches.
My doc wants me to wait until next week before resuming normal exercises. She only says this after asking what it is exactly that I want to resume. She's a bit concerned when I tell her HIIT cardio, weights, pull ups, push ups and kickboxing the machine. Considering the patients in the waiting room, I'm not surprised since half of them are so elderly and out of shape they require walkers and other assistance.
Today I decide I'm going to ease back into some things, but not others. My son and I do cardio first. The heart rate monitor jumps to 200 the moment my fingertips touch the metal bar then drops down to 109. Well, that's going to skew my average ridiculously. WTH? I'm warm and slightly damp when we exit the treadmills. My son is not very limber and struggles with the Cage stretches. However, he does knock out 9 pull ups today. Hurrah! His left forearm always aches afterwards, but I can't convince him to do hammer grip pull ups instead. Today, I do my first set of pull ups in 5 weeks. I'm nervous that I won't be able to do any. Still, I do more than 9, but not as many as I used to do. Instead, I get to just about half at 15, and that seems more than reasonable.
We got into the classroom to do push ups and other core exercises. My son is happy to do just 20 and I join him, then decide out loud to "oh, let's do 5 more!" and he does 5 more. So we both do 25. Then we both discuss our frustrations with various plank positions while performing them. Hands, elbows, shoulders going numb and falling asleep. Yep. We ease into the free weight area through a side door from the classroom. Luckily the place is fairly empty. Earlier I saw The Mayor with his kid again. But they were done before we finished our cardio. I see a few other regulars, mostly Little R and Maroon.
Since I'm trying to teach my son and still keep the workouts interesting and fresh, I have him do movements with variations. Three days a week means cardio plus full body exercises. Today we're on the flat Breaker Bench for just 3 sets. But I have my son change his hand position each set, starting with a standard shoulders width, then a wide grip to stress the chest, and finally a narrower grip that emphasizes arms. We're still just using the Oly bar but at 45 lbs, it's enough weight as my son struggles to stabilize the bar while pressing. I don't actually tell him where he should feel the stress until after he's performed the set, and then I ask him. When he confirms, I tell him he's done it correctly.
He's less than thrilled to be doing DB Shoulder Presses, but feels better about it when he's seated at a stand-alone seat. The backing helps his posture and he's able to focus on the shoulders. I tell him to rotate the DBs as he presses up to change the feeling. The only thing he resists is bringing the two DBs together over his head to make the little clinking noise. Because like me, he doesn't really want to call attention to himself. Lastly, Seated Cable Rows and I start him at 60 lbs because I know he can pull more. He complains when I up the weight to 70, but he's still able to do two sets without breaking his form. That's enough. After some hip stretches, time for me to shower. He's happy to just change his clothes, dab on some deodorant and wait for me. He says the Mens Locker Room smells yeasty. Yuck, that's pretty gross!
My son and hubs go away to Boy Scout Camp for a week, and I'll be left to my own devices. I'm planning to ease back into weights, starting as if I was a newbie. Because 6 weeks is a long time. But since I was able to do half my pull ups, and half my push ups (probably could've done more, but I don't want to discourage my son), I'm less worried now.
BTW, Ant-Man and The Wasp was actually a very entertaining movie, with so much going on (including the requisite Stan Lee cameo) that it'd be worth seeing again. Those familiar with the Marvel® universe know to wait until after the initial credits roll to see the quickie cliff-hanger that ties in to the Infinity War movie. Sadly, we missed that one, but once it's streamable, we'll have to catch up. Seriously.
Wednesday Humps
15 Recumbent Bike
Level 1
Calories 67
Miles 2.23
Average Heart Rate 115 (68%)
30 Treadmill
5% Incline
Speed 3
Miles 1.49
Calories 191
Average Heart Rate 121 (72%) /200 (!!!)
Max Pull Ups 9
HGPU 15
Max Push Ups 25
Push Ups 25
Bicycles 50
Crunches 30/20
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Elbow Plank 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Max Flat Bench
45 lbs (bar) x 12 x 3
Max DB Shoulder Press
10lbs ea x 12 x 3
Max Seated Cable Rows
60 x 12
70 x 12 x 2
My son likes the Lateral Raise Machine and does 3 sets there, and then asks if he can do something with legs. "Like the Leg Press?" While I don't do them, I let him do a few sets at a fairly light weight. He's a thick boy with large thighs, which makes buying him pants a challenge as he's only average height for his age. I've known men with big ill-proportioned thighs and they had terrible self-esteem issues. While I don't discourage my son from Leg exercises, my feeling is that all the different cardio movements we do are enough for the summer. He's already struggling with stiffness in his hips and getting thicker won't help that at all.
Wednesday we'll be more focused on Pulling, so that's back and biceps. I won't give him any bicep exercises until he stops telling me that his arms are tired. What would be the point? Last night my husband noticed how much bigger my son seems when he's standing next to me. I notice it when I hug him goodnight, because my chin has slowly slid from the top of his head to his ear, his shoulder, and now, just below. Sigh. I hope he'll at least be average height. Short guys have a harder time and life is already difficult.
