I’m not doing very well with keeping up on this! Which is fine. I’m the only one that said I should post after each workout. I’m the boss of me.
Last Sunday I did my hiking exercises on the ledge of the pool. In flip flops. You know I make dumb decisions, right? Because I do. That was one of them. I did the whole thing, 3 sets of 10 of each move. In flip flops. Never again. Then I did my water aerobics for the full 30 minutes as usual. I finished the day with my shoulder warm ups.
After being at the gym on Saturday and walking for an hour my metabolism must have went into overdrive because I could not get enough food into my body. I feel like all I did on Sunday was eat my body weight in fruit. Which was fine. I still dropped down a bit on the scale. Because I was eating fruit and I’d moved my body and that’s how you do.
Since my birthday was on Tuesday I rescheduled gym time for Monday. So I went to work with Tyler on Monday!
I walked on the treadmill to warm up and did the shoulder warm ups.
Then he commenced to kicking my ass because I was going to be eating cake for the rest of the week and that’s what he gave me for my birthday. An ass kicking. In return? I was whinier than I had been in a long, long time. I don’t know what was my deal but he let it slide. That was my real present. He didn’t tell me to suck it up.
First I had to do hamstring curls which I despise. But they didn’t seem so hard on the first set. Which was fifteen with 40lbs. I told him that felt easier than it used to so he bumped the weight up to 50lbs and good lord doing 15 the next two sets was hard. I suspect he was back there helping. I’m fine with this.
Then he made me do the assisted pull ups. It was easier since it was earlier in the session and my arms weren’t yet dead. But this did kill them. The first set he had the machine set on 150lbs and I was able to get through 10 of them fairly easily. So for the second and third set it was on 130lbs and I was only able to do 8. He did not assist, if I am recalling correctly. It was just me and the machine. And I realized, again, that I am now able to dig down deep and use my muscles now. Like, I know how to engage them or something. Or? I simply have them now and there’s something there to engage. ha!
Now that my arms are nice and dead he took me over to do the vertical chest press. Three sets of ten with 60lbs.
Next we used a totally new to me machine. With new motion and everything. The back flys. At the time I didn’t feel it in the muscle area that he insisted I was feeling it in so he then said that the next day I’d feel it there and he was right. The next two days my back/shoulder muscles and the backs of my arms were sore. Woah. I did two sets of ten with 20lbs. The motion felt weird and then someone jumped on the machine while I was on one of the others and he said we’d skip the third set that since it was new I did good enough work with the two. I believe him. Because, yes, sore.
Then I did the seated cable rows. Three sets of ten. First set with 40lbs and the last sets with 50lbs. This was super hard. Likely because my arms and shoulders were already fatigued from the pull ups. Because this is usually one of those moves that I thought would be hard but I do it easily and had done it with heavier weight before, I thought.
Can’t leave the triceps out so we did the tricep cable pull downs. Three sets of twenty with thirty pounds. At first I thought “This is too easy!” and he smiled and said “You’re doing twenty of them. Wait.” And as I reached 15 each time it was as if the weight became 100lbs and the last five was hard and my muscles burned and he said “Ha.”
We finished the session with me totally not understanding the proper motion to do the medicine ball wood chops. He had to create a pathway with his arm and a bar and I would get it but then he’d move and I’d lose it. And I was swinging my hips just way too much and I told him that my hips like to swing, that I can’t help it. They twerk and they like it and he was all “Don’t make me make you twerk right here” and then I was all “fine, no twerking.” I got serious. That didn’t help. This will be revisited some other time, I’m sure.
Tuesday was my birthday and I did a whole lot of eating cake, answering texts and phone calls and emails and Facebook posts, and hanging out with my friends Wendy and Craig and I did no exercise at all no way.
Wednesday I was going to go to the gym after work but it was hot and humid and I felt slow and sluggish so I just went straight home. I did make myself get into the pool to do water aerobics but I only managed to get in 15 minutes. But Tyler agreed with me that it was better than 0 minutes. Because it was.
Thursday I get to the gym early and decide that I’m going to do a good, solid 15 minutes on the treadmill. So that’s what I did. I varied the incline and the speed. It was good.
Then Tyler took me over to the big assed tires and told me that I was going to flip one over and over and over a number of times!
- First time was him showing me the proper form to use. How to squat, where my feet should be, that I should be using my leg muscles more than anything else, and where to look. The first time was a big surprise with how heavy it was. But then once he showed me the proper technique and I used it, the next three flips were easier. I did two sets of four flips.
- For the next sets he added in jumping up onto the tire then jumping off then flipping. Two sets of four of this.
- The next sets was with a burpee instead of the jumps. Two sets of four of this.
- The last set was with jumping up, jumping down, do a burpee, flip the tire. I got through the first set of four just fine. Then on my second of the second set I tensed up as I was jumping down and OUCH MY NECK OHMAHGAWD instantly upon landing. So, he put the tire away.
This is not a gym injury. I did not injure myself at the gym. But I did aggravate an existing pain in the neck that happens with I get rear ended or jostled or tense, etc. Luckily I have muscle relaxers left from last year when this was aggravated thanks to a dude rear ending my new car. Fun!
But, this session wasn’t over and we did stuff that wouldn’t make my neck worse.
I did three sets of ten roman chair leg lifts. I can’t believe how easy that is. Go abs, go!
Then I did three sets of fifteen yoga ball crunches. These were the hardest crunches I have done so far, I think. I could really feel my ab muscles being engaged and yeah. Hard. These abs are still hiding under some fluff but I bet one day I’ll have a cute flat belly area for the first time ever!
We finished up with some yoga ball wall squats and yoga ball shoulder roll ups.
The first time he had me do the wall squats I hated it and felt like the ball was going to fall out from behind me and I was going to fall on my ass and get hurt. This time I felt steady and strong and couldn’t believe I was ever afraid of doing this move. I have made progress in lots of different ways. I can see that. And? I love that. I did three sets. Two of twelve and one of fifteen.
The yoga ball shoulder roll ups were tedious but he said they’d be good for my shoulders. He only made me do two sets of twelve of these, luckily.
Thursday night sucked ass. Rolling over in bed hurt. Leaning on my elbow to turn off the light hurt. Friday morning my neck felt worse. I took a muscle relaxer and thought I’d be fine. Oh, Andrea. The decisions you make are so funny. I was useless. My brain was moving so slow. Once I realized that I went home from work and then spent the day on the couch. I also did a bit of rolling a tennis ball on the tight area by squeezing it between the wall and my body and then moving my body around like a bear scratching his back on a tree.
This morning my neck felt so much better. It’s not completely better but compared to yesterday it’s MUCH improved. So I did my thirty minutes of water aerobics today.
If my neck is better he told me to bring my backpack to our next session. If not, we’ll do that type of workout again once my neck feels 100% better. He doesn’t want to keep aggravating it. I appreciate that.
I keep looking online at exercise clothes but they are a bit pricey and I am on a budget. So I just made a deal with myself. When I lose weight and what I have no longer fits? I will buy some nicer stuff. Until then I’ll use what I have because it works and I have it.
I’m so damn reasonable…
Couch to Canyon 