Slow Gains on Hump Day

I woke my son up after a quarter past noon. Apparently he was up until 3 am finishing his summer reading book report and weekly science homework. Ugh. Mornings are going to be hard for both of us come September. Neither of us is a morning person! Sunday he goes upstate for another week of Boy Scout Camp with my husband and more members of his Troop. This will reset his circadian rhythm for at least a week.

We get to the gym close to 1 pm and the gym is crowded, especially since it's been raining all morning. At one point, it appears to be raining sideways. We do our basic recumbent bike and treadmill warm up. I tell my son that it's a Pull Day so he'll be prepared for today's agenda. He knows I've been keeping notes of our workouts so that I can refer back to them. I ask him to do a few more than last time, which was Monday. But I don't ask him until the last set. He's tired so at first he reverts back to curling his body up and I tell him legs down. The last set he uses a move I've never seen before to get his reps: he bends his left leg at the knee and holds it forward, as if he were going to run. I get my reps as well, although the 2nd set (the first 15) was really hard. Somehow it gets easier even though I'm breathing harder. Weird, right?

Now that we're thoroughly tired, we retreat to the classroom to do push ups and core. My son asks if we can skip the elbow planks and do the other planks last so we can rest our arms. No problem. He's having trouble with the Side Plank and I suspect it's because his sneakers are falling apart. I tell him next time he needs to wear the brand new ones I got him some months ago. He can't even tell me why he's wearing the old ones with holes in them that make his feet hurt. Boys! Sometimes I go into his room and just throw his old things away so that he can't wear them, especially when I know they don't fit anymore and I'm not sure why he's hanging on to them.

It's Pull Day so we're at the Smith machine. There are two inclined benches at this station! Not quite sure what's going on here so I drag one back to the DB area. The other bench I place behind the Smith so we have a place to sit between sets. We repeat the weights we used last week without any issues so I ask my son if he's okay with adding just 10 lbs. He's fine with it and he does two more sets. Meanwhile, I'm back to pulling 120 lbs but only for two sets. Next week, when I'm solo, I'll shoot for 140 lbs but drop the reps.

We also do sets of Smith RG BB Rows. My son doesn't quite remember how to position himself so I do the first set. We're constantly putting plates on and pulling them off. As long as he feels the correct muscle involvement for the exercise, I'm good with his movements. Then we go to the Lat Pull Down machine and I have him swap the single handle (some kid was doing side bends while seated sideways at this station), for the light aluminum close-grip one. I know my son is tired so we stick with the 70 lbs we did last week.

I like to lean back slightly to bring the handles to my chest. The slight arching helps bring my elbows and shoulder blades back as well. My son is just happy to get the handle to his collar bone. I'd like to use the wider neutral grip handles as soon as I can get my son to be less loose and sloppy. He's better with the seated cable rows. We stick with 60 lbs from last week. I tell him to bend his knees and lean forward slightly but not round his back. It's that all-important hip hinge movement that he's having so much trouble with! He says that bending his knees and hips makes the movement so much easier because now it's a whole body exercise. Well, yes, yes it is!

My IOPs are creeping up as measured at yesterday's eye doc appointment.  Not good. The left eye measured 16, which is higher than it should be, and the right eye is now at 20, considered borderline high. I've scheduled the cataract and micro-stent surgery for mid-September. My glaucoma doc says she's working on learning new techniques to open close-angles like mine. But it's a long arduous process, and I'm not going to rush her on a new procedure.

At least I know what to expect and how long the recovery time really is. Can't say I'm looking forward to it. At least I'll have gone on the class trip to see Come From Away the week before with my son. The sun is blazing by the time we leave the gym, but the temps haven't dropped at all so it's hot and steamy on our first August day. More rain in the forecast!

Hump Wednesday Pull Day

15 recumbent bike
Calories 62
Miles 1.70
Average Heart Rate 96-108

30 treadmill
10% Incline 3 Speed
Calories 264
Miles 1.49
Average Heart Rate 117 (72%) / 212 (WTH!!!)

HGPU 20, 15, 15, 10 (60)
M pull ups 10, 7, 8 (25)

Push Ups 20 + 10 + 10 + 10
M 20 + 10

Crunches 30/20
Bicycles 50
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

Smith RDLs
Bar (30) x 15
M50 x 12
80 x 12
100 x 12
M60 x 8 x 2
120 x 12 x 2

Smith RG BB Rows
M 50 x 12
80lbs x 25 x 3
M 60 x 12 x 2

Lat Pull Downs
70lbs x 12 x 3

Seated Cable Rows
60lbs x 12 x 3

Stretch