Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Long weekend update

Whoops, entirely forgot to update over the long weekend. Lots of working out was had, as well as some good food. Recap:

Saturday I did Week 2 Day 4 on Bodyrock, the Bringing Sexy Back workout. It was tough and good, though again, unmemorable. I keep waiting for another workout as awesome as the punching bag one from last week. I think the main thing I took away from this workout is that the Star Toe Touch Abs are wicked hard and work interesting muscles, so I'll probably bring that back in the abs lineup more often, and also that I am still incapable of doing box jumps.

Seriously.

It's driving me crazy. I just CANNOT make my feet leave the ground at the same time. It's a mental block thing. And it doesn't make sense, because I can tuck jump higher than the damn "box" I'm trying to jump onto! Gah. BOX JUMPS ARE MY EVEREST.

Moving on: Sunday. Gasp, people, I took a rest day. I KNOW. TWO IN ONE WEEK. WHAT. THE FUCK. But really, I think all this extremely clean eating and extremely disciplined working out is making me more attuned to what my body is thinking/feeling, and Sunday, after taking a hilly 1.5 mile walk with my mom and River, and then running around all day doing errands/cleaning/moving out our Christmas tree/etc, I plopped down on the couch around 7pm and just did not feel like squeezing in a workout before dinnertime. Usually I can always make myself do it, especially since it's just 12 minutes I have to devote. So when my brain is just NOT HAVING the idea of a workout, I know it's probably a good day to just take a chill pill.

The other nice thing about eating extremely cleanly is that when you do get to the end of your day and can't squeeze in a workout, it's less "Oh crap, now those brownies are gonna just pile the fuck on my spare tire", and more, "Guess I'll sacrifice any strength gains I would have made, I'll have to really push it tomorrow". AKA, I'm not concerned at all that by not working out I will put on weight. Way less pressure.

K, so, moving on--Monday! That's right, it was a lovely long weekend. Yesterday I walked River and proceeded to veg the rest of the day away in front of my computer. It's so rare that I get a day off. But I did have my rescue shift at 6, and I felt kinda bad for just sitting around the whole day, so I pushed the shit out of my workout. It was great. I did Week 2 Day 5 on Bodyrock, which was a 600 rep challenge called Glory to the Booty. I fucking love the names they come up with.

Shallow note: I love what Lisa was wearing in this workout video. The little cutoff wife beater--so cute. Obviously, way too sexy to be practical in a gym setting, but she looked awesome in the video.

The 600 rep challenge was this:

100 High Knee Skips
100 Lunge kicks (50 each leg) using the Pink Sandbag
100 High Knee Skips
100 squats using the Pink Sandbag
100 High Knee Skips
25 Straight Abs
25 V Abs Left
25 V Abs Right
25 Bicycle Abs

My time: 20:00 ON THE DOT. I think I was more thrilled at finishing with an exact time than I was to finish the workout (not that I'm OCD, in fact quite the opposite, but it was cool to punch the timer button and see a round number). Hah.

This was a tough one. The lunges were by far the hardest part and took the most time--I found that where I was flaming out was in balancing and keeping proper form (90/90, knees over ankles not toes). Holding the sandbag made balancing really difficult. I found it a little easier to switch legs on each rep and just count like "one/one, two/two, three/three" than to do 50 reps in a row on one leg.

The squats were also difficult, but only by way of strength--form and balance were way easier. I ended up splitting up the squats into 4 set of 25, doing 25 high knees after each set. This made the amount more manageable (I mean, are we serious--100 weighted squats?!).

The V Abs KILLED ME. I could only pop out like five at a time. PAINFUL. Will practice those.

After I finished the 600 Rep Challenge, it was time for another of Sean's Weighted Time Trials. This one was cool in that it was only two moves, and the aim was to pop out as many as possible in 3 minutes each. So I did 3 minutes of Bicep Curls and 3 minutes of Bent Rows, and I somehow managed to get exactly 41 reps on both moves, which I found funny. I figured I would far surpass the rows with my bicep curls, because my biceps are pretty strong. Doing either move with that 35lb sandbag was no joke, yikes. I was definitely just popping out sets of 5-7 reps, collapsing for a few seconds, then starting again. I'm actually amazed I broke 30 reps on either of them. It was hard.

Today my arms are SORE. But hey, people, not only do I definitely see some results in the mirror, I also just FEEL way fitter and stronger than I did two weeks ago. Last night climbing on/off the ambulance and carrying bags, it was really apparent. Also, going up stairs is becoming a total breeze.

The quest to attain a pullup continues. I'm on Week 2 of Recon Ron. They're getting easier, but I'm still nowhere near taking my foot off the chair (I'm doing one-legged assisted right now).

Will update later with tonight's workout.

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