Gleefully Sore

This is the 3rd day in a row that I've managed to snag the elliptical. Not only do I consider Program 2 to be the hardest because of the steep double peaks, but I'm actually tired and sore before I even start. It's been a long time since I was sore and with not much weight being pushed.

I cut a set of crunches to buy a skosh more time later when I plan to do a few light sets of Reverse Incline Flys. Super setting saves time. I hadn't figured out how to do the Reverse Flys when I got driven out of the Aerobics Room by a staff member setting up for the Body Pump class that starts an hour later. He didn't drive me out; it was the club music pulsing the walls. My earbuds can't compete with a Zumba sound system.

The DB area is free so I drape my hoodie over the incline bench. I stick with the tiny 10 lb DBs for both lateral raises and the reverse inclines. The slight achy sourness in my shoulders tells me that starting light is perfect. No doubt I'll be upping the weights in the next few weeks.

10 Nov 2021
Mild Wednesday

Precor elliptical
Program 2
Time: 30 min + 5 min cd (5514)
Distance: 2.82
Cal: 312
HR: 147-188, 84

HGPU 12

Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat/Camel stretch 12x
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Child’s Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25

Mild Mat stretch w 3 Eye Yoga

DB Lateral Raises s/s Rev Incl Flys
 10 lbs x 15 reps x 3 sets

Big Unexpectedly

Lazy Pedals is pedaling on the stationary bike when I get on the elliptical this morning. He's also chatting so he's not pedaling terribly fast but at least he's not draped over the console. After cardio, I do a slightly abbreviated core and stretch routine in the Aerobics Room because I want time to push a few weights. I increase the Seated Cable Rows to 70 lbs to see how sets of 15 reps feel. It's a bit challenging and I'm hoping that there will not be any painful repercussions tomorrow morning. 

It takes me a while to find the magnetic discs because they are not where I'm used to seeing them. They're stuck to the DB racks along the mirrored wall instead of the solid state BB rack or behind the front desk counter. This is the only way I can do sets of Rip Skulls with 25 lbs, with discs stuck to the 20 pounder. I get 15 reps without issue but I'm cautious about my elbows. Yep, I'm prone to tendonitis everywhere. Still, I'm probably going to try 30 lbs next time.

I'm not happy that I'm having such a hard time losing these few extra pounds. At least I still have clothes that fit. When I strip down to shower, I happen to glance at my shoulder and am surprised to see my biceps looking thick and round. Actually, my whole upper arm looks thick and round from just a few sets. That takes the sting out of being bigger, but I'd still like to be lean enough to wear my old clothes. I wonder if I'll be sore tomorrow.

9 Nov 2021
Frosty Tuesday

Precor elliptical
Program 1
Time: 30 min + 5 min cd (5536)
Distance: 2.82
Cal: 312
HR: 145-194

Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat/Camel x 12
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Child’s Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25

Mild Mat stretch w 3 Eye Yoga

Seated Cable Rows
50 lbs x 15 reps
70 x 15, 15, 15

Rip Skulls
25 lbs x 15, 15, 15

Rare and Maybe Bad

There may be some truth in ancient wisdom that states different blood types leave you more or less susceptible to different ailments. I read an article over the weekend that suggests those with the AB type (one of the least populous type at 4% of the general population, with AB- accounting for less than 1%) have a greater likelihood of developing esophageal and stomach cancers, blood clots (due to a stickiness factor associated with type A), a higher risk of dementia and memory problems (increased levels of a protein called "factor VII"), but at least we're also less likely to have a bleeding disorder (that'd be type O). 

But most importantly for the current pandemic, type As have a greater risk of developing Covid, again, due to a stickiness factor that increases viral susceptibility. One of my old GPs used to complain that I had sticky blood when he tried to draw a sample. The Red Cross wasn't too thrilled with me either since it took three times as long for me to fill a pint bag. To the point where I was told not to bother donating anymore. I always assumed that was due to my tiny veins or "poor circulation."

I first discovered I was type AB back in HS bio lab when we got to prick our own fingers and place the blood on a glass grid where we used different reagents. Under a microscope, we were able to watch whether the blood clumped or not in reaction. Later, the Red Cross donation center confirmed my blood type. ABs are born from one type A parent and one type B. I know my dad was a B. Two ABs might produce the gamut of As, Bs, and ABs. It bothers me that I don't know what my son's blood type is because that's a special request and not a standard test, which I think is crazy. It doesn't help that my husband can't remember whether he's type A or O, nor does he care, and he's not about to donate blood because he doesn't like the fact that people are generating fees and revenue for something he's asked to give away for free. You can probably guess his feelings about recycling and global warming too.

The end of Daylight Savings means that the sun is already peeking over the horizon by the time I get my son in the car and it's fully morning when I park at the gym. I manage to beat Lazy Pedals to the good elliptical today. He drapes himself over the other one. I squeeze out 15 pull-ups before heading into the Aerobics Room for stretching and core exercises. At the last minute, I add a few hammer-grip curls with the 10 pounders already in hand. It doesn't feel like anything. The only thing that concerns me is some elbow tenderness from the super light Rip Skulls last week. I can't go heavy anymore but I seem to also be prone to RSI (repetitive stress injury) because of my shallow joints and tendons. Ugh. It's hard to find the sweet spot when the spot keeps moving.

8 Nov 2021
Morning Monday

Precor elliptical
Program 3
Time: 30 min + 5 min cd (5518)
Distance: 2.82
Cal: 312
HR: 150-186, 84, 89

HGPU 15

Crunches 60 x 2
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat/Camel stretch 12x
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Child’s Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25

Mild Mat stretch w 3 Eye Yoga

DB Lateral Raises
  10 lbs x 15 reps x 3
DB alt hammer curls
  10 lbs x 12

Just a Skosh

I spend 10 minutes in the car looking over email with my phone plugged in so as not to lose any battery power. (The old iPhone really needs a new battery but I'm sure the Apple store will want to sell me the latest one instead.) Then the coffee kicks in and I need a few more minutes in the restroom. It's science: coffee stimulates the colon and voila! By the time I get out to the exercise area, both ellipticals are in use. I didn't work up a great sweat on the stair climber yesterday so today I use the cross-trainer. It doesn't count steps but I got mileage. The gym is cold and the back door open to let fresh, 30F air inside. I keep my hoodie on until I get off the cross-trainer.

Wary of losing an opportunity to do pull-ups (who knows when or if Snow Bird will show up), I do a set before hitting the Aerobics Room. My arms are slightly sore but I only notice while stretching. It's probably those super light Rip Skulls that had me arc my arms overhead. It's not the rowing since only my traps and upper arms have just a skosh of discomfort. I look up the word skosh to check for spelling. All this time I thought it was Yiddish, like bupkis, so I'm suprised to learn that it is Japanese in origin and was used as a nickname in the Korean war by American servicemen.

5 Nov 2021
Finally Friday

LifeFitness cross trainer
Program Manual
Time: 25 min + 5 min cd
Distance: 3.34
Cal: 239
HR: 112-145

HGPU 14

Crunches 60 x 2
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat/Camel stretch 12x
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Child’s Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25

Mild Mat stretch w 3 Eye Yoga

DB Lateral Raises
10 lbs x 15 reps x 3

Lazy Is As Lazy Does

It's dark and frosty cold when the alarm goes off this morning. A wee voice in the back of my brain begs me to stay in bed but I ignore it because my son needs to be on his school bus by 6:35. I get the car warmed up enough to defrost the windshield without having to scrape it. I park near the grocery instead of outside the gym just to remind me to pick up the garlic powder I forgot to buy yesterday.

A woman I forgot about is on the elliptical I favor. She's constantly on her cell so I'm glad that Lazy Pedals is on the other elliptical. I can't hear her on the step climber and I spend 20 minutes there. Granted, walking up the stairs for 20 minutes doesn't even tally a thousand steps, but it is over 55 floors. Not sure how that compares to 5500+ steps pedaling. I warm up but not enough for me to remove my hoodie. Later, I see that same woman at the Lat Pull-down machine and she has her head cocked to the side with her cell wedged between her shoulder and cheek. It gives me a cramp just thinking of it.

I do an abbreviated core and stretch in the Aerobics Room. Push-ups and Air Squats are relatively easy today. I'm already bored doing 15 reps at the lighter weight so today I do a mild progression at Seated Cable Rows. Unfortunately, early morning means the chatty bros that Lazy Pedals hangs with are draped all over the free weights. Literally. Normally I'd plant myself on a breaker bench for Rip Skulls because I can put my feet on the support bench behind the bar holder. But it's too crowded there. 

I drop my gear on a regular flat bench in the DB area and retrieve a solid state bar. The bars are in 10 lb progressions but I can't locate any of the magnetic disc weights. Lazy Pedals is curling the 30 but standing right in front of the rack. (Blocking the rack is another pet peeve of mine.) The 20 is misplaced on the other side, with the heavier bars (60-90). But I'm okay with using the 20 today because it's been several months since I last did this movement. I doubt if I'll be sore tomorrow, but who knows? 

When I return the bar to its rightful position, Lazy Pedals is leaning on the rack with an arm draped over the other bars. I think I rolled my eyes. (Yep, he's the one who leans all over the elliptical console, hence my nickname for him. If he could lean on the treadmill while it was in motion, I'm sure he'd do it.)

And more good news: apparently one's metabolism doesn't crash and burn until you hit your 60s. Does that explain the 3 pounds I put on over Halloween weekend? Maybe. But eating out and snacking on candy is the more likely explanation.

4 Nov 2021
Frosty Thursday

Matrix StepMill
20 min
Speed 5 (45-48)
HR 180?
Cal 138
Steps 919
Floors 57

Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat/Camel x 12
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Child’s Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25

Mild Mat stretch w 3 Eye Yoga

Seated Cable Rows
50 lbs x 15 reps
60 x 15
70 x 15

RipSkulls
20 lbs x 15 reps x 3

Rethinking

I wasn't sure if Snow Bird was going to be using the Stretch Cage after I was done with the core exercises but since it's happened at least twice, I needed a new approach. I could work out faster and get to the Cage before his arrival. Or, I could do my pull-ups right after cardio, before I even head to the Aerobics Room. I'm still sweaty and breathing hard when I get off the elliptical, but my arms and hands aren't tired so it's all good.

A lot of glaucoma specialists believe that primary glaucoma (unlike secondary glaucoma which is caused by medications or trauma) is a circulatory deficit issue, especially with normal eye pressures. The recommendation almost always includes exercise, especially cardio. Weightlifting not so much. I've cut back close to 90 percent of the weightlifting movements and I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss them. I'm toying with the idea of doing some light Rip Skulls sometime this week. Because I don't think the occasional push-up is doing much for the triceps. And my sciatica is much better although the Cat/Camel stretch still makes the arch of my left foot twang like a plucked cello string. That can't be good.

A friend in her late 70s has a type of macular degeneration, which causes central vision loss. It's frustrating to her, but not as much as her perpetually sore and stiff neck (MRI shows arthritis but we ALL have arthritis), and the fact that she'll need a hip replacement for the other side. If she gets the bad length of her "fixed" hip dealt with, she'll have to re-sole all the shoes she had a cobbler fixed to make up for the full half inch discrepancy that the first hip replacement caused. I know another woman who is recovering from breast cancer, was just diagnosed with emphysema in spite never having smoked in her life (she's blaming 2nd-hand smoke from an ex-husband), and is now looking at needing to have her knee replacement redone because it's failing after just a few years. I feel lucky to be in pretty good health but I'm still young. Or, at least I feel like I am.

I skipped the gym yesterday: too much to do! I made sure I had time to vote, took pups to the park to play with their friends, went grocery shopping, did the supremely uncomfortable mammogram (and ultrasound because even though I've got a tiny bust they're apparently very dense and fibrous), dropped off a defunct printer at Staples, took my son to his kung fu class, got back in time to go to his Troop's Open House & Halloween Party postponed from last week when we got that nor'easter and bomb cyclone, cooked him raviolis after we got home, walked the pups with my son, fed the dogs boiled chicken & kibble with beef broth. I know that for some folks, yesterday's routine is an everyday occurrence. Today, I feel downright lazy.

3 Nov 2021
Wednesday Hump

Precor elliptical
Program 2
Time: 30 min + 5 min cd (5578)
Distance: 2.84
Cal: 315
HR: 151-198

HGPU 15

Crunches 60 x 2
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat/Camel stretch 12x
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Child’s Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25

Mild Mat stretch w 3 Eye Yoga

DB Lateral Raises
10 lbs x 15 reps x 3 sets

Not Quick Enough

I don't mind working out in the morning except that if I dawdle I miss out on the good elliptical, there are more folks in the Aerobics Room, and worse, I can't do any pull-ups because Snow Bird had begun his vigorous 20-minute routine in the Stretch Cage. Luckily, I did get the "good" elliptical, and there was only one other person in the Aerobics Room. But I missed out on the pull-ups. Next time I've got to be quicker!

The Halloween weekend was busy with changeable weather and several events happening simultaneously. Which meant very few kids actually went Trick or Treating Sunday night, although my son and one of his friends managed to wrangle two more friends into soliciting candy. They came home happy with a good haul of sugary treats.

I'm not sure if I'll get to the gym tomorrow since there are local elections (the polling place is in the opposite direction of how I normally travel), plus I have finally scheduled my mammogram (ugh) and since the radiologist is en route to Staples, I plan to offload my defunct Lexmark printer. Large electronic chain stores have to take back e-waste here in NYS and I'd feel too guilty putting this machine in the trash. It'd also be illegal to do so.

The Lexmark worked fabulously well when it worked, even when inks were no longer manufactured and I had to resort to 3rd party vendors. But now it needs a new drum and that's impossible to find for a decade-plus home printer. We bought a new Epson printer which is slower, the inks are more costly, the printing isn't as accurate (especially when using label templates), but it supports Apple printing so I can print emails from my ancient phone for the first time ever. At least that's something to cheer about.

1 Nov 2021
Monday the First

Precor elliptical
Program 1
Time: 30 min + 5 min cd (5536)
Distance: 2.82
Cal: 312
HR: 149-203

Crunches 60 x 2
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat/Camel stretch 12x
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Child’s Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25

Mild Mat stretch w 3 Eye Yoga

DB Lateral Raises
10 lbs x 15 reps x 3