Session 8/14? 8/19-ish

Gah, I'm slacking on recording my workouts. I'm two behind and I'm hoping that I can remember what I did.

The summer temps  humidity or something is getting to me, bc I just can't get moving. This workout was better than the last. Here's what I can remember from it.

...I don't think I can remember anything. Did I even have a session last week? I don't think so, Foursquare says no. So here's Aug 19th session:

Oh god, the stairmaster: warmup bumped up to 4 min on 8, 2 min on 10 hard opener, but I was able to get through it.

25 squat wall balls with 16lb medicine ball. I hate these. It's the smaller ball, so he made me do more. well, no. I don't really hate these. I'm just not that coordinated.
The 2nd time I could only make it to 20 wallballs, my body wouldn't do more.

30 squats with the weighted tube thing. Deceptive. Looks light, but it'll wear you out if you don't pace yourself.
The 2nd time, I bargained for a heavier tube thing and less squats. so he gave me the heaviest one but only reduced my reps to 25.


Biceps:
Bicep Curls - omg I'm so weak!!! I had to go down weight I was so embarrassed :(

#Ropebeast time

8 seconds rope
10 reps each arm shoulder raises - only 10lb dumbbells, but I had to do this combo 3 times.

More embarrassing bicep curls. 20 reps narrow grip, 20 reps wide.

#Ropebeast
Increasing sets
8 seconds rope, 10 shoulder raises. 10x each arm!
10 seconds rope, 15 shoulder raises
15 seconds rope, 20 shoulder raises

Then he gave me some heavy ass bar and I had to do 20 overhand straight bicep curls and then bent wrist curls.

Ended with 20 shoulder presses. Holy crap. These are my weakest and I don't think I finished. I may have gotten to 16.

For not having had a session in two weeks, I think this was ok, even though I got a lot weaker.

FTR, I'm on day 2 and my inner thighs huuuuurt. I then realized I really did like, 100 weighted squats. That's a lot in my opinion. :)

Tired. Solid. Strong.

Thursday workouts are usually my good days. I've had a few days off, I have had some sleep, and I'm ready to go hard. 

This day was not that kind of Thursday. Could be because yesterday I tried to go to a zumba class and I didn't get a proper rest day in between workout days. Could be due to the extra classes I picked up for work on Wed. But I just woke up not feeling like getting out of bed. I wasn't tired or sore or anything, my body physically felt like it didn't want to move. Mentally, I was all about going to the session today. 

So I got up and dressed, and was moving a bit slower than usual. It was also hotter than it has been, or maybe since my workouts are at 11am now instead of 9am, the heat and humidity is higher and making me feel sluggish. 

The universe threw me a bone - both stairmasters were taken, so I got to warm up on the treadmill. 
We then started with the HiiT stuff:

8 burpees with the 16lb medicine ball.

Alternating with

First real deadlifts with bar. 12 reps. 95lbs. Tough but I did it. I feel like I got fatigued earlier than I usually would, but he said that this is really tough and I should be winded.

Abs circuit:
captain's chair - 15 leg lifts. 
obliques on angled thing. - 15 each side
ab pulldowns on machine - 20 reps
balancing on a bench and doing knees to chest - 20 reps augh!
twice through

Kill the legs:
Squat machine. 3 super sets of 20 at a low weight of 160. I wanted to die during the second set. He said that we have done up to 260lbs so this shouldn't be bad. BUT IT WAS, IT WAS SO HARD. SO MANY REPS. 

leg raises on the machine. 
left, right and both. 10, 10, 20. had to go lower on my weak knee but it helped. 

funny machine that did extensions while standing up and your leg was raised and you kick out. Harder than it looks, bc you have to balance on one foot and keep your other leg raised and then kick out. 20 each leg.

We had a good run, even though I just felt very sluggish. I knew that my body would not be able to do a lot of sustained movement. I don't know what it was, but it was a wall.

I did well on the lifting, he said that most girls who had never done deadlifts  would not be able to start  deadlift at 95lbs like I did. So I feel a bit better with where I am in my workouts. I said that my legs and hip area feel very heavy to me (that's why captains chair feels so hard to me) He mentioned that there is a lot of strength in my legs and I've been doing well on leg day. He has also mentioned I'm strong in my triceps and I must have back strength bc the warrior ropes are something I can see myself getting better at.

So even though I felt like my body hit some sort of wall, this was the first workout that I've actually felt strong. I like this feeling. No wonder people want to lift heavy and for fewer reps.
But I guess the fat burning happens when there is high heart rate. I have to be ok with that, since I really don't enjoy moving around.
(posted late, this was for Aug 07 workout)

Body Shock

It's been a good stretch between workouts. I didn't get any additional classes in over the weekend between the long shifts at work and my honey coming to visit for the weekend.

One thing I did notice was that my body was feeling that it needed, yes, NEEDED to work out...so that's a new thing. I think I've finally begun to make my body adjusted to working out. Even when I was going to Body Pump and Zumba a million times a week, my body never felt driven to go work out.
I've also definitely come to get used to working out first thing of my day. NOT MORNINGS, but I am used to it being the first thing that I do.

I felt my muscles were pretty tight and I had a rough day/night on Monday. 12 hour day and some crap messed up at work so I was on the higher end of anxiety. I slept in later and felt sluggish bc of my mood. This is a new challenge for me, to mentally get over bad days and the want to wallow in bad day-ness. I wasn't under-rested, though so it was good. I had moved my workouts to 11am and I think it's the best thing I've done so far.

I got to the gym, and like a trained rat got on the fucking stairmaster. He told me to go 7min. I usually just do 6 min. I realized I did not hydrate very much yesterday either. But I got on and raised the level from 6 to 8, since my last interval low was 8. I had to pause halfway through to drink water but I made it and it didn't feel SO terrible. Had to stretch out my muscles a lot though. Tight Tight Tight. My knee felt good, so that was a good sign.

HiiT part. He's been upping the HiiT a lot lately. I guess this is better for the weight loss, but I enjoy the lifting more.

5 pushups on bosu ball, then 10 sec box mountain climbers 3 times each
25 squat wall balls with big ball. I didn't pace myself, nor am i coordinated enough for this. I think i hit my chin a couple of times with the medicine ball. These were ugly
30 squats with 40 lb? kg? kettlebell. 2nd time around, he gave me 50 lb kettlebell and made me do 25. Heavy!

did chest and back on the machines.
chest 3 different machines, it's hard to describe them...
back
press ups 12 reps then drop set of 15
front pull downs narrow grip - 12 then drop set of 20
crosses 12 and then 20
did these all twice

then back to the HiiT - I was feeling it kicking in after the weights.

RopeBeast!

7 sec alternating / 10 sec mountain climbers on the box / 7 sec rope left hand over right / 10 sec box mountain climbers / 7 sec ropes right over left / 10 sec box mountain climbers / 7 sec both arms at once / 10 sec mountain climbers.
WHEW. I want to get better at these. I kicked up the mountain climbers halfway through when I started feeling my pace.

THEN THE DREADED STAIR INTERVALS. faaaaaack. Bc I had to wait for someone else to finish, he gave me another minute. I wanted to die. Then he and another trainer were talking about "suicides" and I was all, "what are those??" He said, "you don't know what those are? We'll do them on Thursday" DAMMIT. AND I THINK THEY ARE GOING TO BE OUTSIDE. fuck fuck fuck. never asking him what excersises are again.

Then the intervals came. He said that since I had a rest, we go to 4 minutes and he's going to drive. eek. we did 30 sec each. started at 8, went to 12, down to 9, up to 13, down to 9, and finished at 14. I made it and I wasn't as dying as before. I did feel super accomplished and really good about how this session ended. He said I pushed myself and it was a good session.

I am not good at working out through a bad mood yet, since the only way I can work out is if I'm really enjoying it. Today was a good trial in pushing through my bad mood wall, and I had some good milestones in this session despite all of the icky stuff. thumbs up.

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.