Rainy Cinco

I'm always tempted to spell "cinco" with a "qu" replacing the second "c" because that makes more sense to me, but not to the Spanish/Mexicans who are celebrating victory over the French, or rather, Napoleon. It is not Mexican Independence Day which happens in the Fall. Today is dreary cold and wet, so not very celebratory although the Mexican restaurant next to the gym actually blocked off an area of the parking lot in anticipation of revelers. Or maybe a private party? 

The gym has more people than I'm used to but I can still access all the equipment I need so I'm not upset. What's upsetting is that I can't turn up the volume of my music with these AirPods, and in spite of its noise-canceling qualities, my own music is drowned out by the incessant grind of the blender making protein drinks. And as much as I like listening to the Stones, I don't need to hear Jagger over my own tunes, especially when I'm pedaling furiously. It's enough to make me consider switching out my AirPods for the MPow Flames and the only thing that stops me is the fact that I'm headed to the Aerobics Room where ambient gym noises are mostly muffled. Mostly. But I can still hear some meathead slamming plates. 

Today there are a few new young women at the gym. Or perhaps I'm only noticing them now because I've managed to get here a tad earlier. They look college-age and work out solo from each other. One is in the Aerobic Room doing Mat Work: she is slender with a lithe dancer's body. The other is in the free-weight area on a breaker bench with a few small plates on an Oly bar. Nice! It's so rare to see women there. Rarer is that she intersperses other exercises between sets, including a few hammer grip pull-ups with the handles atop the Max Rack adjacent to the LF Smith machine. She only manages 4 or 5 per set but she does a full extension so that's impressive. Not only can I not reach those handles, but I also can't get my tiny hands around them thus limiting my ability to pull myself up. That's why I use the bars of the Stretch Cage for pull-ups. Don't believe me? Use Fat Gripz and do a set of pull-ups. 

After the deltoid routine, I still have time so I hook up the V-bar to the cable station and do a few sets. While laying face down on the inclined bench did stress my sciatic nerve a little, it still wasn't as aggravating as doing Rip Skulls. I'll be doing V-bar Press downs for now until something else starts to fail. It's gonna happen. The one thing I will not be doing is Overhead DB Extensions: it's not that I'll hit myself in the head with the iron; it's that my elbows can't take the extreme angle. V-bars seem less stressful. For now anyway... 

5 May 2021
Rainy Cinco Wednesday

Precor elliptical
30 min + 5 cool down
Program 2
HR 148-194, 85
Cal 317
Distance 2.85

Crunches x 60 x 2
Piriformis Stretch
Happy Baby stretch
40 Dead Bugs x 2
Plank 60s
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Push-Ups 50
Mat stretch w Seated Twist

DB raises supersets
lateral standing 15 lbs x 15 x 4
rev inclined flys (w/u) 15 lbs x 20 x 1
20lbs x 20 x 3

V-Bar Press Down
20 lbs x 15 reps
30 x 15
40 x 12
35 x 15
30 x 15