Combo Friday

It was a do-it-all kind of day: started off with thunderstorms and a pre-dawn downpour where one of my pups was apparently having a panic attack (my son told me), but we went to the park and the rain stopped and the blazing sun (and all the biting insects) came out. That pup is also suffering from some gastric distress so 2 generic Pepto (bismuth subsalicylate) pills for him (he got 2 last night and some boiled chicken) and a half can of chicken & rice, then off to the gym. It's Friday and I never know if this means it's going to be crowded or deserted.

I'm wearing new sport pants that I bought yesterday. I tried on 4 different pairs (4 different brands and styles but all of them black) and this was the only one that wasn't uncomfortably binding nor did I need to hem them. As a bonus, it also has pockets! But it is not the most flattering pants I own since it has a thick waist band and billowy pleats around the hips. I'm a short, boxy person with no waist and no chest and I think I just look boxier. I also bought a half dozen "sports" bras for reasonable cost, although the lovely, silky Danskin ones don't really appear to be sport bras. But they are sized like sport bras and they were in the Active Wear section of the store.

What's totally ridiculous is that I'm comfortable in an XL sports bra because the they're not made with cup sizes (I only buy ones with removable pads), and I have a big (powerful) back. But I'm too small a person to wear a medium sport tank. And there are no sport tanks on the rack. Well, there's one set of Medium yoga tanks, but I try it on and it's too big and looks like I'm wearing hand-me down clothes. For sport tanks I have to shop online and hope that they fit. I want a full tank that comes down to my butt, none of this cropped stuff where your belly hangs out. I'm too self-conscious to wear that. And having put on 10 lbs in the past few years has made me not like the look of a lot of my old athletic tanks. 

I can do the elliptical today but I seem to be lagging a bit, probably because I was up until 2 AM and then I heard the dog whining at 5:30 and I got up at 7:30 so that's maybe 5 hours of sleep. I only do one set of pull-ups, and wish the a/c was still on in the Aerobics Room because sweat is running down my nose when doing push-ups. I skip the Wall Squats and the second set of pull-ups because I plan to finally get back to the DB Shoulder routine. Yeah, it's a combo day!

camera distortion gives me
Popeye arms

It's not too crowded in the free weight area and I get to use the inclined breaker bench. There's always one bench missing the Olympic bar and that works for me since I don't have to worry about hitting my head on it. It's been a while so I don't have the same stamina, which is apparent during the last set when I simply couldn't get more than 21 reps for the DB Inclined Press. I was absolutely worried about dropping the DB on my face, and nothing is worth that risk. 

Even though I'm extra careful to breathe through each rep, I still wonder if pushing even these light weights is having a detrimental effect on my eye pressure and peripheral vision. For a moment I was worried, seeing irregular shadows at the top of my visual field, and then I realized that I was seeing my eyelashes. And I have relatively short lashes! Ugh. How do people with long lashes even deal with this?

16 Aug 2023 11:24-1:07 pm
Combo Friday

Precor elliptical #1
Program 2
Time: 30 + 5 (5430)
Distance: 2.79
Cal: 307
Avg Hr: 135, 188

HGPU 15

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
20 Hip Bridges
Elbow Plank 90s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat stretch 12
Fire Hydrants 30 x 2
Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose
Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga


Incl DB Press s/s Lateral Raises s/s Rev Incline Flys
10 lbs x 25/15/25 warm up
15 lbs x 25/15/25
20/15/20 x 25/15/25 x 2
Failure set 20/15/20 x 21/25/25