When the Weekend Catches Up To You

I didn't get into the gym until nearly 11 am, and perhaps that's why my workout was a bit wanting today. Not that I overslept. If anything, I got up early because after the morning routine of coffee and oatmeal, feeding and walking the dog, and getting my son ready for camp, we had to detour into town to pick up Italian cookies from the bakery as a Thank You gift for the Camp Director. My son had been unhappy last week during Camp Olympics because he'd been separated from his friends and arbitrarily placed in a different team. After camp ends, they'll go to different elementary schools so he won't see them again until next summer, unless parents agree to play dates. My son only goes three days a week, but the Camp Director graciously suggested that my son attend all five days this week. Two extra days of camp. For free.

After the camp dropoff, I need to take my car for the NYS Inspection. It's only 9:07 am and my appointment is for 9:30. Too early. So I go to CVS to get a few odds and ends like artificial tears since my glaucoma meds dry out my eyes. I get to the auto shop at 9:30 and still have to wait 15 minutes. My car passes inspection. Yay! But now it's 10:30. I'm tired. My eyes are tired. I've been going to sleep too late since my husband is in Boston working nights because testing the equipment can only happen when the terminals are shut down. My son and I went to the Renegades Baseball game yesterday at Dutchess Stadium because it was a Cub Scout event. And we went to the gym on Saturday where he busted a sweat bouncing from the treadmill to the stationary bike to the rowing machine, and then had me help him with some light benching, and the much more difficult inverted rows. Today, when I finally get on the LifeFitness Cross-trainer, my stomach is growling because I'm hungry. Sigh. I had my coffee and oatmeal, but that was at 7 am.

I feel good on the Cross-trainer and log in over 2 miles in 20 minutes. Maybe too good. The gym is crowded. I don't like getting here so late because all the teenagers are awake now. The Smith and two out of three Breaker benches are in use. I'm stuck with the Breaker I hate the most because it's skewed slightly. When I grab the bar it feels heavy and my right shoulder isn't happy. My benching really sucks today. It's not much better on the Breaker Inclined Bench so when the Smith frees up, I amble over and finish my Inclined Benching there.

There are two posses of teen age boys, 13 yr olds and maybe 15 yr olds. Neither group knows how to spot properly or re-rack. I can't wait until school starts. Really. I use the DBs I manage to grab for all my sets because no one replaces the DBs they're using. So they might be under a bench or on the other side of the gym. School can't start soon enough.

When I look at the big clock it's just past 1 pm and I'd really like to leave, but I still have my 2nd leg of cardio to do. I skip RG BB Curls because my forearms are so pumped from regular curls that I've had to loosen my elbow and wrist wraps. I even skip the Torso Twist machine. But I do a full Mat Stretch even though the last set of Dive Bomber Push Ups are really testing my ability not to fall flat on my face. I can really feel them in my triceps today. Oddly, the Pistol Squats are feeling very easy lately. Last year my quads always seem to feel tight and stretched as I came up, but there's none of that now. I like it but I'd like to understand it better. I finish with a set of crunches and then head off to shower. I have to stop off at the store before I return home, and then I'll just have enough time to unload groceries into the fridge before running off to get my son from camp.

Tomorrow is Cardio Day. Yay! Better yet, my son will be at camp so I'll be able to do a full cardio session and then I'll treat myself to a $5 movie, Get On Up. After camp, I told my son I'd take him to see Hercules because it's probably the last week since it's only showing at 7 and 9:30 pm.

MondayWorkout

Elliptical Training

Calorie :   96 CAL
Distance: 2.28 mile
Speed :    6.78 mph
Duration : 00:20:00

Barbell Bench Press

142.5

Set 1 : 45x15
Set 2 : 95x12
Set 3 : 115x5
Set 4 : 105x10
Set 5 : 95x15
Set 6 : 95x12

Barbell Incline Bench Press

107.67

Set 1 : 45x15
Set 2 : 65x12
Set 3 : 85x6
Set 4 : 85x8

Smith Machine Incline Bench Press

120

Set 1 : 30x15
Set 2 : 80x13
Set 3 : 90x10
Set 4 : 90x10
Set 5 : 90x10

Dumbbell Incline Fly

35

Set 1 : 20x15
Set 2 : 25x12
Set 3 : 25x12
Set 4 : 25x12
Set 5 : 25x12

Dumbbell Lateral Raise

35

Set 1 : 25x12
Set 2 : 25x12
Set 3 : 25x12
Set 4 : 25x12
Set 5 : 25x12

Dumbbell Reverse Flyes

37.5

Set 1 : 25x15
Set 2 : 25x15
Set 3 : 25x15

Dumbbell Bent Over Reverse Fly

37.5

Set 1 : 25x15
Set 2 : 25x15
Set 3 : 25x15

Dumbbell Alternate Bicep Curl

28

Set 1 : 20x12
Set 2 : 20x12
Set 3 : 20x12

Barbell Curl

56.25

Set 1 : 15x15
Set 2 : 37.5x15
Set 3 : 37.5x15
Set 4 : 37.5x15

Elliptical Training

Calorie :   321 CAL
Distance: 2.9 mile
Duration : 00:35:00

Plank

Set 1 : 01:02:00

Dive Bomber Pushup

12

Set 1 : 12 Lap/Rep
Set 2 : 12 Lap/Rep
Set 3 : 12 Lap/Rep

Crunches

50

Set 1 : 50 Lap/Rep

Is Today Really the Most Depressing Day of the Year?

I just read a headline that states the first Monday back from the Christmas holiday is the most depressing day of the year. Well, that might explain why I feel so blue today. Never mind the sudden temperature drop from 53°F this morning to barely 40°F when I left the gym, to the big fat snow flakes mixed with rain that's falling now. Snow kept me from getting much exercise last Friday although I did shovel a bit. And I'm a complete and utter slug on weekends.

Today is Universal Bench Press Monday so I got myself warmed up with 15 minutes of moderately paced pedaling on the elliptical. That's about 200 Strides Per Minute and a bit over a mile and a half. Well, it makes me warm, but I don't feel great. I feel Blah. The chest program I'm following lists Inclined Press, Flat Press, Decline Press and then Pec Dec. I always start with the Flat Bench because it's the exercise I'm the most comfortable with even if I have to drop two big plates on the ground on each side of the bench just so my feet feel level and stable. I'm also well-aware of what I can move on the Flat bench so after a warm up set with just the bar, I start with 125 lbs. I only need 4 reps although I might be able to get more. Because I've got short arms, it takes me a bit to slam the loaded bar backwards into the breaker stays. A fat old guy moves to "assist" just as I catch the bar on the support. I don't even know what he was planning to do but I blithely ignore him. Everything else goes fairly smoothly.

There are two Inclined Benches and only one Declined Bench, but both Inclines are in use. By default, I do my next sets on the Decline Bench. Here I am decently comfortable, enough to know that 95 lbs is safe. I figure I'd see how many reps I can get and then move down from there, adding reps to keep with the spirit of the program. I need six sets so at 55 lbs I'm counting out 25 reps. That's probably a mistake because I have a lot of trouble with the newest exercise, Inclined Press. The bar is way over my head, almost like an Over Head Press which I don't do because I've got issues not only with my right shoulder, but with a tangle of errant circulatory vessels in my neck. The first heavy set is fine, but I can't recover quick enough and I struggle with the next several sets even as I drop the weights. My right shoulder is starting to ache a bit, but I'm stubborn so I just keep grinding through my half sets until I get eight in total. I'm not happy about it, but at least I didn't quit.

The only left to do are DB Flyes, a few sit ups, 20 boring minutes of LISS and then a Mat Stretch. After the flyes, I definitely get a chest pump so I feel a bit better. I do sit ups and knee-in kick-outs because I haven't done any abs in several days. And I know my shoulder isn't going to put up with me playing with the Ab Wheel today. Doing LISS is okay for the first 10 minutes when I check my emails on my cell. But afterwards I'm bored to tears and I'm so happy to hop off the elliptical and do a full Mat Stretch routine.

I'm not happy about the 115 lbs the gym scale registers (okay, sucked down 3/4 of my water bottle so that's over a liter). Or the pile of undergarments and shoes that someone has piled up against my locker. I have a lock on it so it's not as if Miss Piggy doesn't know the locker is occupied. She also has all her gear spread over most of the bench, but she's in the shower. Nonchalantly, I toe her stuff over to the next (empty) locker and retrieve my towel and shampoo while stuffing my gross gym clothes into my gym bag. Everything goes back into my locker because I don't treat the locker room like it's my personal changing room. Half the women who come here have no concept of gym etiquette. She's blow drying her hair when I get back from the shower but she's chatting with someone else. What's she going to say to me, "Hey, you moved my stuff?" I play my retort back in my head "Oh the stuff on the floor piled up against the locker? What kind of slob are you anyway?" Luckily there's no interaction. She's weirdly self-centered and emotionally unstable. Just the sort of person I've learned to avoid at all costs. People like her are the reason I think I'd never be good as a Personal Trainer... I'd just want to do the world a favor but I'm sure she's got a mom who'd miss her. Oh well. Good thing I never talk to anyone anyway.

I had thought about doing Chest and Back today, but there's no reason why I can't do HIIT tomorrow and maybe shoulders because I'll have to make it a short workout. That'll leave Wed for Back and Thurs for Legs, and if the weather hold, another HIIT session on Friday and yes, whacking the Nexersys. That always cheers me up.

Monday Workout:
15 min warm up elliptical = 1.63 miles
Bench Press: 12 @ 45 lbs / 4 @ 125 lbs / 8 @ 115 lbs / 12 @ 105 lbs / 16 @ 95 lbs / 20 @ 75 lbs

Decline Bench: 12 @ 45 lbs / 8 @ 95 lbs / 12 @ 85 lbs / 16 @ 75 lbs / 20 @ 65 lbs / 25 @ 55 lbs

Incline Bench: 12 @ 45 lbs / 4 @ 95 lbs / 6 @ 85 lbs / 5 @ 80 lbs / 5 @ 75 lbs / 8 @ 65 lbs / 12 @ 55 lbs / 20 @ 45 lbs (bar)

DB Flyes: 3 x 15 @ 20 lbs

Flat Bench Twisting Sit Ups: 125
Lower Ab Knee-In Kick-Outs: 100

20 min LISS elliptical = 1.12 miles

Mat Stretch with 2 x 12 DBPUs, 60-second plank, splits and other stretches