Workout 120711: Challenge

After three weeks of no gym and physical therapy ending two weeks ago, I decided it was time to meet with a trainer at my gym again.  I want to make sure that I am still challenging myself.  Plus it is fun to have someone to talk to while I'm working out.  I never cease to learn something.  Today was no different in that regard.

10 min Treadmill Warmup
5 Swiss Ball Passes (Lying on my back I pick up a Swiss Ball between my feet, lift it up and pass it to my hands.  With the Swiss Ball in my hand I lower my arms and legs back to the floor.  Then I reverse, passing the ball from my hands to my feet)
5 Bosu Squats
5 Bosu Reverse Lunges each side
5 Swiss Ball Passes (OWOWOWOW)
5 Modified Pushups
While sitting on a Swiss Ball with 5 lbs in each hand:

3 Sets 12 Bicep Curls
3 Sets 12 Tricep Extensions each side
10 Front Raises
10 Side Raises
10 Shoulder Presses

5 Back Crunches on Swiss Ball (Lying on the Swiss Ball on my stomach, I put my hands behind my head and lift up using my back muscles)
38 sec Bosu Plank (Elbows on Bosu)
30 sec Side Plank each side
2 min Treadmill *
10 Squats *
* Repeat 3 times
Stretch

Wow!  That was a lot!  And I feel good!  The part that made me the happiest was walking downstairs to the locker room afterwards and my knees not hurting.  I was a little worried because I did have to cut the last set of Squats short.  I started feeling my knee pull.  BUT considering I did a grand total of 33 squats!?!?!?!?  That is huge progress!!!

I also really liked the Swiss Ball Passes.  Those are something I read off the Lean Green Been and had to try out.  They are hard and work my lower abdominal muscles which is the same area the Reverse Curls work.  However, I'm getting very frustrated with Reverse Curls because my feet are no where closer to getting under that damn stick.  In time, yeah, but I've been doing them for months.  I needed something new.  Happily I have found it.

A good work out was seriously needed today.  It was weigh-in day and I'm not happy, but nto unhappy either.  The scale showed a 0.0 pounds change.  For a couple minutes I was down.  Then I remembered that I'm coming off party weekend.  Plus last week was my first full week back at the gym.  It will all settle down.  AND no gain means I've still lost 20 pounds.  That is a good feeling.

Disconnect

Surrounded by friends, I heard myself laughing.  I'm not sad all the time.  Or maybe it is more accurate to say not all of me is sad.  There are parts which are still kicking butt and have a grand time.  Even when I feel overwhelmingly sad, not all of me is sad.  Maybe that is what resides in the empty place.  When I don't fill it in, the sadness has a little more space to take up.  It's just a little more noticeable.

That's better than being just sad.  I can deal with that.  I can get back on track and make progress despite this ache that doesn't want to go away.  There's no disrespect implied by setting the sadness to the side for a little while and feeling something else.  It gets incorporated and can stay right where it is in its rightful place alongside all my other emotions.  Why does this one of all of them seem to reprehensible to me?  It's just a feeling.

Today I have PT.  It's my last PT appointment.  Hopefully ever.  I can't say I feel as though I'm finishing strong, but I do feel like I'm done.  Today's appointment will hopefully reaffirm that.  the only very mild regret I have is not getting my abs strong enough to get my feet under the stick in the reverse curl.  That will be a goal in the coming months.  My therapist swears that it is possible and multiple people have demonstrated it.  I just can't quite seem to get there yet.  I will get there.

Next week the kids are back to day care and my life settles back into its usual pattern.  My foot has been feeling pretty good all week, not perfect, but much better.  These are the final excuses I'm using to not go to the gym.  It's time to kick them to the curb.  Plus I have an appointment with the personal trainer on July 11th.  I need to be ready for that.  Next week I'll be back in the gym 3 times per week.  I know it is under my 4 times per week goal, but after a month off I think it is a good goal.

Could this be me getting back on track?  I certainly hope so.

Getting my Butt Kicked

This morning I met with my trainer (it sounds sooo cool to have a trainer) and here's what we did.

10min Treadmill warmup
25 Swiss Ball Crunches
12 Swiss Ball Bridges
5 Swiss Ball Bridges bringing Legs In (meaning: do a SB Bridge; while still bridged bed knees to pull feet in; then extend out and lower back to the ground)
12 Swiss Ball Bridges
5 Swiss Ball Bridges bringing Legs In
20 Bird Dogs (10 each side)
2 Planks with arms on Bosu - 30 sec hold each
Side Planks with arm on Bosu - 25 sec hold each side
12 Hip Extensions
12 Dirty Dogs (this one is funny - it works the Gluteus Medius/Minimus and the motions is pretty much a dog lifting it's leg against a fire hydrant)
12 Hip Extensions
12 Dirty Dogs
12 Adductors
Arm Work - All exercises done on Swiss Ball with 5lb weight in each hand:

Front Raise
Side Raise
Shoulder Press
Bicep Curl

Stretch

I felt pretty low going into the gym this morning.  My husband and kids were all up during the night and I'm the only person who wakes up every time someone else wakes up.  All I can say is at least they all went back to bed easily and I got 3 solid hours of sleep before my alarm went off. I was concerned about keeping up my energy during me workout.

Turns out I had nothing to worry about.  With every exercise I felt a little better.  It felt really good to get moving this morning and try some new things.  I also had two major accomplishments.  One - Check out the 30 sec planks!  That's my longest since removing the knee bent modification a few weeks ago.  Maybe by the end of June I'll be able to do a plank without any modification.  That would be seriously amazing.

My second accomplishment was going to the gym in my running pants.  Back when I thought I was going to run 5Ks this year, I bought an awesome pair of Under Armour running pants.  Given my size I had to buy a Mens XL to fit my butt and I was only willing wear them with a very long shirt or short skirt.  I just felt like there was too much of me showing in those tight pants.

However, in the past month, all my workout clothes have been starting to sag and some are impossible to workout in they are so loose (sooo awesome!).  A friend suggested I wear the running pants.  I tried them on last night thinking there was no way I was wearing them to the gym.  I'm not into showing off my body at the gym.  And those pants were still tight.  Then I noticed my XL t-shirt (just started wearing XL in the past month as well - down from a 2X - Woohoo!) now fits comfortably around my hips!!!  No stretching or pulling at all.  That means a good portion of my butt is covered and the outfit doesn't look immodest at all!  In fact, I might even be looking a little cute.  :)  Very very cool accomplishment.  And it felt much better to workout in pants that fit.

Update 120604: Added Arm Work

The new PT

In the coming weeks I hope the acronym PT leaves my vocabulary entirely.

But on Wednesday I met with a personal trainer for the first time.  My trainer is a Mom who won a lifelong battle against weight and found herself to be a runner on the other side of the fight.  Of all the choices I had at the gym I chose her because she's been where I am now and she has a lot of tools for getting out of my situation.  Also.  Possibly more important.  She's happy to meet with me at 5:30am.

So here's what we did:

10 min Treadmill warmup - 2mph
Circuit Rotation - 12 Reps of each - weight is in parenthesis

Leg Extension (30)
Leg Curl (30)
Leg Press (40)
Adductor (30)
Abductor (30)

3 min Cardio (Elliptical or Arc Trainer moving fast!)
Circuit Rotation
3 min Cardio
Circuit Rotation
3min Cardio
Shoulder work - 5 lb free weight in each hand - 10 reps each

Front Raise (arms moving forward from side to just below my shoulders)
Side Raise (arms moving out to the side lifted no higher than my shoulders)
Shoulder Press

Crunches on a Swiss Ball
Stretch

At the beginning of the workout I was a little concerned.  I'm not a huge fan of the circuit machines and it has been months since I've used them.  However, I really liked mixing the cardio in between sets.  I'd never thought to do that before. By the time we got to the stretch I really felt satisfied with the workout.

The other lesson for me what to maintain my form by supporting all my movements with my core.  I know core strength is important, but maybe my abdominals have been so weak for so long that I really didn't know what it felt like to use them during strength exercises.  It made a huge difference in performing the exercises correctly and keeping the hurt away.  Thankfully I didn't have so much as a twinge in my knees during the workout.  I'm at a loss to describe how big a relief that was.

As my husband purchased 3 sessions for me (I love that man), we meet again this coming Wednesday.  I don't have PT next week, so I'll be attempting to repeat this Wednesday's workout on Monday and she'll come up with a more PT style work out for me on Wednesday.  I can't believe I'm excited about this, but I really am.  I love feeling strong and positive!