Afternoon Delight? Not So Much.

I found a really good Zumba instructor that I like. She's kind of a oxymoron, bc I can tell her style is hip hop based and she plays a lot of hip hop, but is pretty Christian.

Anyway, I stalk her classes, and she had one today (Wed) at 4:30 - I figured that this was a good time bc it wasn't too late in the day and it would help me prepare for my session on Thurs.

I prepped as usual, with my pre-workout and I tried to eat light all day. I didn't eat much at all bc I'm now used to working out on a nearly empty stomach.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel the energy of the preworkout working so effectively as on my usual mornings. I got through the class, but couldn't do most of the high high energy moments.

Well, as long as I got something in, it's better than nothing.

It Takes a Village to Raise a Rope Beast

Well, today did not totally rock the session. I think it is due to going to bed later than I wanted to last night, and also probably not sleeping too well. I had a bad headache and my allergies were acting up. I didn't feel very awake this morning and was a little slow.

Unfortunately, my trainer had a big HiiT day planned for me.

The fucking stairmaster warmup. He busted me doing a 6 and told me to bump it to 8. faaack. The minutes dragged by. I was getting ok with these.

Box Jumps.
I fucking wussed out on these. The platform is quite narrow and while I knew I could get the height, I also knew that my wide stance would have one foot just off the edge enough for me to fucking eat it. I tried. TRIED. TRIEEEEEEED. I couldn't do it. The image of me falling off the damn thing was too vivid. After my 5th attempt, I asked my trainer if I could do it on a step aerobics step. I think he thought I was afraid of the height bc he didn't stack it up as high as the box. I was then able to jump. I had to do one minute of jumps.

push ups > cross the ropes > mountain climbers
This is good, he put the warrior ropes down, and I had to do pushups on one side, cross the ropes and do mountain climbers on the other. Then cross back and do increasing numbers of push ups, cross back and do longer mountain climbers.
Each time he increased the push ups by 2, and increased my mountain climber time by 3 or 4 seconds. I had to do it until I got to 7 push ups.
These are hard but I think I can improve on these.

Squats and shoulder press ups with 15lb dumbbells 20 reps.

Shoulders with 15lb dumbbells. start with them in front of my face, open out, press up. 15 reps.
Shoulder raises 20 - he gave me 8lbs and then was like, that's too light and gave me 10s.
Shoulder wide pull downs on the machine - 15 reps.
Shoulder pulls to the face - 15 reps
Sitting, leaning forward, extended arm raises with 8lbs dumbbells- 15 reps

Warrior ropes - 10 sec alternating arms 10 seconds both arms till we got to 40 sec. then he tacked on 5 additional seconds each.
One of the other trainers was having a session in the same area, and she was all, "Wow, you go with those ropes! You do really well at them!" I don't know if she was bullshitting, I'll take it.

FUCKING STARIMASTER INTERVALS. He upped that shit. 30 sec each. low 8, high 12. I asked if I could walk around the gym on the last 30 and he was all, "what? no one's asked me that before. No."

Doing the 2nd round of the circuit is sooo hard after this.

He increased reps for most of the moves... and doing the pushups/mountain climbers backwards was killer. I must have looked like I needed a push, bc one of the other trainers joined me for a few seconds. It worked, I pushed it harder. And at least got my last push up in properly. I was dying by this point.

Box jumps. jeezus. hard. 1 minute. He called me out to my gym account manager who stopped by to talk to him. I'm going to have to step up my box jump game.

Warrior ropes. 50 seconds, and bonus 5s each. I was failing by the end but he was all, "get it it to wave to the end, you did it before!"

And he said I was The Rope Beast today. This is the biggest props I've gotten from him.
So, while I don't think I performed as well today, I think the warrior ropes might be something I'm good at. I also want to really get better with my push ups.

I also moved my workouts to all be at 11am. instead of 9. They always say to listen to your body, and mine says that I need to fucking get some morning sleep.

Well, this is what a Rope Beast's arm looks like:

I'm Back in BiZnass.

Zumba bizness that is. ok, well maybe not zumba, but back in Dance Fitness. I went to my 2nd dance cardio class tonight. It was no joke. They OPENED with Outkast's BOB. I've never ever heard that fast of a song up in a dance class. High energy, but super hip hop, so it was more like high steppin. It takes a CREW to teach this class. 1 incredibly fit female, and 2 sick fit dudes. I think they were all Zumba certified too.

I haven't enjoyed a class in so long, I was on cloud 9 in this class. I really tried to pace myself and I found myself keeping up with the crew - they did a lot of jumping jacks and squats and high knee hopping. I totally attribute this to my training sessions with my personal trainer, though. He's really building up my endurance and ability to keep an elevated heart rate. I also got to sleep in today and that makes a huge difference.

Then they fucking busted out the RuPaul and Big Freedia "Peanut Butter" song. Have mercy. Pop, jumping jacks, high steppin like mad. It was crazytown.

The most inspiring thing tonight was they were saying good bye to one of the regulars, easily a 200lb dude who went up there and did at least 3 songs and was REALLY GOOD. The crew bought smoothies from the smoothie bar and we all toasted to him. He's moving to Cary, NC and is going to get his Zumba cert! I got to talking with him and he told me there is a ton of zumba activities in town. Maybe I'll get in on the action.

This is the first time that I've really felt an improvement in my performance, I can regulate my breathing, my stamina is increased and I'm getting a bit better in the endurance. I can do all the arm routines without getting fatigued like I used to (thanks to lifting) and I think this is the kind of good that people talk about when they say they feel great after working out. Also could be that this is the exact kind of class that caters to me.

So happy that my knee did not give me problems and I can even jump and hop on it. (still hurts a lot when i have to climb/go down stairs though)
I hope that my remaining time here allows me to keep going to these classes.

Proof is in the Pudding

All that zumba last week + moving my workout session to 11am seems to have paid off. I had a really good session today.

Fucking stairmaster warmup - 6min, started back up at 7. I think I'm starting not to die on this fucking hateful thing.

Toe tap touches on the bosu ball. Hop back and forth on balls of your feet and touch the center of the bosu ball. 35sec. this round was me trying to keep my balance and not crack another ankle.

squats holding 25lb dumbbell and pushing it up at top of squat. 20 reps. I was afraid I would drop that fucking dumbbell on my face. Also, my hands are too small to hold that thing.

10 jumping squats. 3 pulses, 1 jump. I thank Body Pump for prepping me for this one. I owned these.

Hammer curls with 15lb dumbbells, 12-15 reps. Really had to concentrate and not depend on momentum to get these.

Step ups holding weights. - it was on the machine, so I don't know how heavy it was. 8 each leg.

Biceps and triceps on the machines.
classic curls - 15 reps, then drop sets, half the weight and 20 reps.
tricep pull downs - 15 then drop set of 20
tricep high extension. elbows up. 15 reps each arm. tough!
bicep overhand curls, these were weird but i did them 15 reps.
tricep classic extensions - 15 reps and drop sets. I had to go down to lightest weight :( even my trainer was surprised.

THE FUCKING STAIR INTERVALS 30 seconds each. Low-8, high - 11.  I was not dying and he's all, "go to 13" I was like, "fuck" but I did up to 12 and survived (I should have done 13) So something good is happening.

Second round of all the above. When it came to the bosu taps, he was all, "hello. you can go faster." and so I had to pick it up for fucking 35 seconds. I was able to hang and I think I can credit all the zumba. I didn't feel like my ass was so fucking heavy this time. Also, any time I'm asked to do anything on my toes, I can go to town on it.

so, 80% great session. I feel like improved so much on my cardio endurance and I that HAS to be due to all that zumba I did last week.

Why were my tris so weak today?! >:( usually I can rock the tricep days but I was failing by rep 12 on some of them. BOO.

interesting turn of events: this gym is being bought by Gold's. So that's going to be weird. I'll end up having a national membership, so that will be cool, but I know my personal training sessions will go up in price significantly. ugh. And I hope they can grandfather me in on the payment plan bc THIS SHIT IS SPENDY. But worth it. And if I leave here with unused sessions, it will carry over to any Gold's. So ok. Maybe it will work out. I was kind of looking forward to renewing my 24hr fitness when I'm back in the area, but there are sooo many Gold's gyms that I'll always have a place to go.

Dancin' Machine

After Thursday night's super successful dance fitness class, I was recharged enough to seek out some more Zumba classes. My knee was feeling good, and I felt ready cardio-wise to get back into the game. I also did not want there to be a long stretch of days in-between my personal training sessions of not working out so that my Tuesdays aren't just me feeling like I have to catch up.

Friday I had some time in the morning and found another studio that was offering a lot of Zumba and dance fitness classes. It's an all women gym and was convienently close to my other gym and home. It's a gorgeous space, huge HUGE dance studio with an awesome floor. Perfect material, not slippery but not too grippy. I super lucked out, this class's instructor was super fun and she was really choreo based, dance oriented and hip hop flavor without being too aggressively high energy. I had a great time, my knee was not giving me problems, I could start twisting and staying on the balls of my feet without pain. My form was coming back and I was having a great time. I started to really feel like I was back in the groove.

The instructor was super nice as well and she asked me if I was also an instructor, so that must mean that I am really on the road back. I am so super excited.

I may be getting back to form, but I can definitely tell that I have been out of practice. All my tiptoe muscles are hurting from dancing on the toes all of a sudden. One thing that I have noticed is that during my long term stint having to wear flats so I could walk around SF hindered my ability to move around up on my toes and my calves and shins were much weaker. Another reason to keep up my stamina of wearing heels! Because, Zumba!

Then I decided to go again on Saturday. I need to get back into going on as many consecutive days as possible. I will train super hard on my sessions and then go to Zumba on the weekends. Sunday and Monday are my heaviest work days, so I think those will be my recoup days. Tuesday I will try to make it a two a day because The Crew teaches Tues/Thurs. I'm being super ambitious now. I usually nap away my Tuesdays. But I can try. I was at that point once. I'd do the 2 consecutive Body Pump and Zumba classes in the am then go to my then-mentor's class in the evenings. I was so sweaty all the time. But also a size 26. So, there's that. Maybe I can do it. I of course find out all these things a week before go-live hits and my schedule gets unbearable.

Anyway, I get to my Saturday class and it's one of those instructors that are SUPER HIGH ENERGY. The kind of instructors I cannot keep up with and with routines that make me feel too heavy to move fast. I'm not a fast mover to begin with, and I really have a hard time keeping up with all the jumping and running around. I was also a little tired bc I stayed up too late. So I settled in at the back, and prepared myself to have to power through the class. But then the pre workout drink kicked in and then she played one of my favorite songs, and it became a super fun class. She played familiar songs that I liked and was able to mostly keep up. I mean, she's the kind that has major hops in class and can jump super high after every grapevine. I tried it, and all I felt was the anchor that was my hips and ass working against me.

I ended up enjoying the class quite a bit and the instructor was super nice, we talked a lot about how fun Zumba is and she just gets so excited and she does it bc she loves it so. Zumba may be some cult fitness thing, but the magic is that everyone who teaches, loves it. LOVES IT.  And it always shows in their classes. They really get their energy from feeling their style and loving doing it. I wonder how instructors have so much energy for their classes and I guess it's from them really loving what they do.

...And I think I'm starting to feel that magic again.

I'm Back in BiZnass.

Zumba bizness that is. ok, well maybe not zumba, but back in Dance Fitness. I went to my 2nd dance cardio class tonight. It was no joke. They OPENED with Outkast's BOB. I've never ever heard that fast of a song up in a dance class. High energy, but super hip hop, so it was more like high steppin. It takes a CREW to teach this class. 1 incredibly fit female, and 2 sick fit dudes. I think they were all Zumba certified too.

I haven't enjoyed a class in so long, I was on cloud 9 in this class. I really tried to pace myself and I found myself keeping up with the crew - they did a lot of jumping jacks and squats and high knee hopping. I totally attribute this to my training sessions with my personal trainer, though. He's really building up my endurance and ability to keep an elevated heart rate. I also got to sleep in today and that makes a huge difference.

Then they fucking busted out the RuPaul and Big Freedia "Peanut Butter" song. Have mercy. Pop, jumping jacks, high steppin like mad. It was crazytown.

The most inspiring thing tonight was they were saying good bye to one of the regulars, easily a 200lb dude who went up there and did at least 3 songs and was REALLY GOOD. The crew bought smoothies from the smoothie bar and we all toasted to him. He's moving to Cary, NC and is going to get his Zumba cert! I got to talking with him and he told me there is a ton of zumba activities in town. Maybe I'll get in on the action.

This is the first time that I've really felt an improvement in my performance, I can regulate my breathing, my stamina is increased and I'm getting a bit better in the endurance. I can do all the arm routines without getting fatigued like I used to (thanks to lifting) and I think this is the kind of good that people talk about when they say they feel great after working out. Also could be that this is the exact kind of class that caters to me.

So happy that my knee did not give me problems and I can even jump and hop on it. (still hurts a lot when i have to climb/go down stairs though)
I hope that my remaining time here allows me to keep going to these classes.

Leg Day is the Best Day

So, after last Tuesday's terrible session, I rescheduled my Tuesdays to noon instead of 9am.
This made a world of difference. I think I had the best workout ever, thanks to sleeping in. And I didn't even get to go to the gym over the weekend due to work schedule.

Warmup:
That fucking stairmaster. He asked me to start at 7, I usually do a 6 and have to stop halfway through to hydrate (rest). Today, I went the whole time without stopping and I didn't want to die so much.

Warrior ropes: 12 seconds alternating hands, 8 sec Right, 8 sec Left, 10 sec both. I probably could have done faster, but I was trying to just keep a good pace so I could keep going the whole time.
Second round, he increased time to 15, 10, 10, 15. pant pant pant.

Burpees with kettlebells. 35lb kettle bells. 12 reps. sweat!

Box step ups holding 20 lb dumbbells in each hand.10 step ups each leg. kinda sucked. I was more afraid of falling down.

Tricep extensions. I don't know the weight but he did say my form was perfect. 12 each arm. not too bad, I wish I could have gone heavier.

Lunges carrying 20lb dumbbells. I hate lunges.

Deadlifts in the weight room. told me 10, then pushed to 12. It was a bar that looked like a cage, and you put the weights on the sides. Took the back strain out of the lifting and put the work all in the legs. I liked it. Bar - 75lbs, he put on 2 plates on each side. I don't know how heavy it was, but it was fucking heavy.
Second round, he got me to do 15.

Squat machine: first round, 160lbs 12 reps. Second round, 220lbs, 15 reps.

Leg extensions. 12 both on heavy, 5 each leg one level lighter. Getting better at these.

YAY! NO STAIR INTERVALS!
I felt really good today. I know it was that I was able to sleep in that made for such a good workout.

Session Fail.

Today I woke up and exhausted. I couldn't shake the previous two days off me. It was the first time i thought about canceling. But I went and tried to make the best of it.

The fucking stairmaster warmup. I made the 6 minutes and even bumped up the level towards the end. I felt better about today.

But then the rope jumps. 30 seconds of straight jumping from one side of the ropes to the other. I got winded pretty fast, and just the feeling of heaving my thighs and butt off the ground was pretty completely intolerable.

Extended straight leg lifts. 15 reps. Doable.

Man Makers - 8 of these with 15lb dumbbells.

Squats and shoulder presses holding 10lbs kettlebells. 15 reps. Fine.

2nd round, increased rope jumps to 35 seconds. Dying. I was like, "These suck hard" and he was all, "well, I usually make people only do it for 20 seconds at a time" - upside, but can't breathe.

Leg lifts - 15reps - fine.

Man Makers - 8 with 15lb dumbells - I struggled through them which sucked because it's been a while since I have done these and I really like them. If I wasn't winded from the jumping (and so exhausted from working) that I could have really killed these. Disappointed in my struggle.

Squats again - fine.

Mother fucking stair intervals. 3 minutes. I made it through 2 minutes, high at 11, 12 and low at 7, 8 then could not get my breathing, I had to stop and try to regulate. After a while, I did get back up and got one more high/low in but could not make it through another interval to finish out the 3 minutes.
Suck. bc this ate into my lifting time.

Lifting:
Back and biceps today. Got through it, but I feel like I didn't get to finish. My wheezing episode ate into my lifting time. mad. sad and I just wanted to go back to sleep.

Upside -
I did do the 2 sets of man makers.
I do 15s seconds more of the rope jump
He was proud of me that I got back up on the stairs to try to finish out that interval.

I really felt like I was fighting a losing battle with my body today. I'm never not tired, I'm not losing weight even though I've been eating healthy for the last 4 months, and I'm trying to work out more effectively than before but I don't know if my body can do it.
Even my trainer noticed that Tuesdays are hard for me.

I don't know why the stairmaster and the jumping is so hard. I just FEEL so HEAVY that I am not strong enough to bear my own weight when to jump or to lift my legs to each stair.
The messed up thing about this all is that I went to a zumba class over the weekend so that I would not have so much trouble with the stair master and have so much time in between workouts.
sigh. I don't know how to remedy this.

Session: How Does He Find Exercises That are Worse Than Burpees?

Well today was a really killer session, and I wasn't feeling like going bc it was later in the afternoon and i had gotten accustomed to working out in the mornings. I didn't know he was going to bring the pain today.

I've been dreading that fucking stairclimber, but today I tried to face it on my old setting of 7-8 for warmup. I did 3min at 6, and then upped it to level 7. It sucked but I think it's getting slightly easier.
I should not have spent so much energy on that bc he had me do rope burpees. This is what he opened with.
Rope, burpee, rope. x 8. Jeezus.
Single arm Kettle bell squats and swing - 8lbs kb for 12 reps each side. ok not bad. He'll probably up it to 10lbs next time.
12 pushups on Kettlebells. I was afraid I would not balance and roll off those Kettlebells, otherwise, success.
Lunges across the room with 12lb weight on my back. Suck.
2nd round through - he increased the reps. I was able to get to 9 with the rope burpees, and up to 15 on my pushups.

Weights:
Chest and Tris day.
Did some strange chesty thing that will puff up my cleavage. Woot. I was probably only at 20lbs but at 12 reps, it was so hard.
Triceps: single pulldowns 12 reps each - bummed bc I had to lighten the weight after first set bc I was falling apart, form wise.
Chest Fly things 10-12 reps - on the machine they are weird to balance.
Triceps: both arms, with that rope thing and split out at the bottom. 12-15 - I did better at these.
Chest flys again - he may have pushed me to 15. But I probably did 12 again.
Triceps: single pulldown drop sets - 10 reps, then cut the weight and do 20 reps. Did. Not. Like.

Then he threw this in: clock pushups.
Pushup at 12 o'clock, rotate to 3, pushup, rotate to 6, pushup, rotate to 9, pushup, back to 12, pushup. PUSHUP again and then back around.
I made one and a half rotations and my triceps literally gave out.

upside: NO STAIR INTERVALS.
I expressed disappointment in going down in weight with the single tricep pulldowns, but he said: "gotta give credit where credit is due - you have strong triceps"
Improvements: he said my pushups are getting way better.
He asked me how my leg day was. If I was sore today. I admitted that I wasn't sore, so I may be looking at a hard hard leg day next time around. I also said that I didn't like the light weights, lots of reps thing, bc I think I don't have endurance, and he said that my endurance has also way improved. So good.
He also said that today's HiiT sesh was a pretty hard set. I think he did take it easy on me with the ankle thing.

training session rundown

I think I'm on my 3rd week of training sessions, and we are finally back to legs.
My sessions are typically 30 min HiiT training and the rest lifting.
Today's HiiT:
fucking stairmaster. 7 minutes on level 6 (to be kind to my ankle, he usually makes me go up to 8 after 2 min) - getting ever so slightly easier.
walking angled pushups with bosu ball. started out 8 each side, then went to 12 each. Getting better with my pushups.
20lb kettlebells, one in each hand, carry them shoulder level, squat, then push them all the way up. 25 reps. - nasty!
obliques on the hanging over thing - 12, then 16 each side. - Zumba REALLY helped me with this one. All that ass shaking and side stepping is obliques if you do them right.
captain's chair - straight leg raises, 12, then 15. with threat of burpees if I stopped. Didn't stop.
Two rounds of the above, increasing reps 2nd time around.

Lifting.
Since I injured my ankle last week jumping out of a tractor tire, my trainer didn't want me at the big barbell thing, so we ended up just doing machines.
Super Set squats/leg raises
squats, started 140lb, for 10, then went to 160lbs for 15 reps. - he made me do a bonus 5 when I wasn't dying by 10.
leg raise quads thing - 40lbs for 15, twice. Then second set upped it to 60 for 10 reps, halved the weight for 20. That killed. I'm becoming a fan of heavy lifting for shorter reps.
Straight leg deadlifts - 2 sets of 15. I didn't see the weights.

Legs. Burning.

Took the best nap ever after this session, woke up with sore obliques already.

Measurements and Such

This is going to be brutal. But I got my measurements done today at my training session and it's pretty bad. I did a lot of damage in SF.
I'm the heaviest I've ever been at 165, Body Fat at 30%
My chest is 34 (before I started working out, I was a 32)
Waist 34 (i feel like this might be big, it doesn't look as wide as my chest, but it's my true waist at the belly button)
Hips 42 (no surprise there)
Thigh - 26 (what my waist was when I was 18)
Arms 14 (starting measurement- 11)
Calves - probably about 16 - always big.

I have a lot of work to do. I will try to go to the gym for supplemental classes on the days that I do not have training sessions, and stay on this clean eating track, no matter how boring it gets.

Upside: I squatted my body weight today and it wasn't bad
Stairclimber machine is getting incrementally easier, but fuck. Time stops on that fucking thing.
Trainer said that my body fat % was on the lower side of my age bracket. I'm merely overweight and not obese.
I did not want to jump off a bridge at the sight of all these numbers. I accepted them and set my mindset.
I think I'll start recording what my workouts have consisted of so that I can look back and have a reference of what I can do.