Adaptation

It's true: do anything long enough and your body adapts. I'm not a morning person but I've adjusted my routine to include time to feed and walk the puppers. I have an alarm set but often I'm awake (annoyingly) before the sound of chirping birds fills the bedroom. My abs aren't really sore from the core exercises I do 5 days out of 7 (no exercising whatsoever on weekends unless you count dog walks and trudging through state parks during Scouting events) and I even look forward to the cardio warmup when I arrive at the gym.

I won't lie: the backs of my thighs are sore. Not horribly but enough for me to notice when I'm pedaling on the elliptical, or doing stretches at the Cage or on the Mat. Soreness is something to work through, not a reason to sit like a spud. It's a stale excuse that gets re-used countless times in the locker room, mostly by middle-aged women who have already mentally aged themselves into frailty.

I was worried I'd screwed up my stats for this morning's cardio because my fingers fumbled the volume switch on my earbuds and caused my tunes to pause. There was no way to restart the music without climbing off the elliptical to fish the iPod out of my gear bag (tucked under the front of the machine) to manually hit the start button. Ugh. Luckily, the elliptical's programming allows for short pauses. It just tells you to pedal faster. On other machines, like the Step Mill, you actually can't pause. You have to stop. And then you lose all your data. Ugh.

Sweat has been leaking into the earbuds too, causing them to behave erratically with static. I hope they don't short out since the most vulnerable part of these inexpensive ($20) items is the power port, which is made "sweat-proof" with a tiny rubber flap. It's sweat that killed all my previous iPods. This relic is stashed safely in a bag full of lifting gloves and grip pads. I can't imagine using my phone for tunes. The battery life is already suspect because it's an old iPhone 6Plus, and using it to port music will just shorten it exponentially.

Friday is no long Cardio Friday for me since I only do one cardio exercise. It's the same as Monday and Wednesday except that I do a few leg movements instead of pushing or pulling weights. Two sets of pullups and a set of pushups seem to be working for me so far. I'm not confident enough to attempt Pistol Squats yet. I remember my quads clenching painfully the last time I tried, but now since I'm able to do a Reclining Hero Pose (some might say the ultimate quad stretch), that might not be an issue. The body adapts!

Frigid Friday and Legs

30 min elliptical + 5cd
Program 3
Miles 2.93
Calories 330
HR 153-192 (89)

Cage Stretch
HGPU 23

Elbow Plank 60s
Crunches 60
Sideway Scissors 60
Crunches 60
Bicycles 60
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Push Ups 30

Walking Lunges
30+30=60

2:1 Seated Leg Curls
15lbs x 15
30 x 12
35 x 12
40 x 12

HGPU 23

Mat Stretch