A very wet and rainy day here - dogs don't want to go out to pee.
Last night's dinner was great, and the cake turned out awesome, too. I do it mostly from head but I will post a recipe later because it is very light and fruity. I had only a tiny sliver but it was a big hit. My East Indian friend who brought some marinated Indian chicken (heavenly!) gladly took half of it with her so I don't have to worry about temptation calling my name. (What's left I will share with neighbours).
Our core class was cancelled this morning (I found out when I got to the gym) so I did 10 min on the elliptical, 20 min of my own abs exercises and then a FULL HOUR of Zumba. We had a supply instructor so a bit different songs, different moves ...... my abs are already pleasantly sore. (Still love them shoes!!! )
Lydia, did you buy the tank top dress that looked so gorgeous on you? I will smack you if you didn't!!!
Tiki - I was wondering where you were hiding. Good to have you back.
Cheryl is missing in action.
Pat - hang in there! It will get better.
Mel - I sometimes feel like a dork, too, but such insignificant detail is not going to stop me! I loved your description of the training session.
Anne - I love "good sore" - that's how my abs are feeling today. Today's Zumba did a number on them.
Kitty - you should see me when I am done with my legs workout. I can barely descend to the main floor of the gym - my legs feel like they are not mine any more. Sometimes I actually hang on to the railing to make sure I don't tumble down.
Where is Meg?
Calisthenics - here is a link to my favourite YouTube clip. I like to say this is better than porn. See for yourselves: Advanced Pilates and Calisthenics
Wow, clearly the guy is a gymast, ain't no gym training that's going to get an avg joe or josephine to that point otherwise. His gumbi rolls at 2:45 are simply amazing! (or 4:25 i can't remember which now)
Calisthenics............., isn't that what all our moms were doing in the 50's and 60's? Before jazzercise? I love pilates too - there's nothing like it for making laughing and coughing painful!
WOW! Thanks so much for sharing. I think what is so intriguing about watching this is how smoothly he transitions. He looks like one line of muscle. Very cool. I can see some movements in there that would be great to include in my own program but I hesitate to make it look as smooth or chorographical as his video. But wow. That was beautiful.
Today was a fun workout. I met a girlfriend for a workout at one of the local rec centers. Our kids went swimming while we hit the treadmills upstairs which overlooked the pool area. Great fun watching DS2 pounce in the water on the two older guys. We also witnessed the girls getting kicked out of the hot tub. The knew better.
After cardio I did a little lower body lifting. Squats with a mirror in front. This was much better than my experience with a mirror a couple of months ago. I could really see my form this time! The mirror in front of the free weights is positioned much closer than at my gym too. (No track running between the areas) I could actually see that my back was so flat during the deadlifts that I could also see my hips and glutes in the lowered position. How cool is that! Okay. I thought it was cool. It doesn't take much for me folks. I was just delighted to see some of the technical things I've read about but haven't been able to observe in my own form.
A little later during my workout DH and DS2 were walking the track around us. DH made a request to see the chinups. Of course I hopped up and let him critic. Not bad. However, I did notice that my shirt rode up a little during the movements and my belly button was exposed. ~sigh~ Well, knowing this, I will have to wear the looonnng tops when I plan to do my upper body workouts and in the meantime work on leaning out the abs just a bit. It's not bad. But still a little more than I'm comfortable with revealing.
After the workout we changed and sat in the hot tub for half an hour. We ran into another woman from our community as well. Of course the first topic was how wonderful the facility was and why or why doesn't our community have such a place so we don't have to drive 25 minutes in every direction for family recreation. (sorry small rant that refuses to die) After the hot tub I showered and met the rest of the troops. I truly feel like I had a vacation day. We need those every once in a while.
Oh, Alena, I did buy the dress. But I took it back. It was too long. I struggled with the idea of hemming it but I thought it would change the integrity of the dress. However after working on my legs as much as I did I didn't want to cover them to my ankles. Pretty colors and dress though. ~sigh~
I was down to good sore today, and gearing up for SORE again tomorrow and useless for a few days I did my C25K run, week 4, day 1. Then I did NRLW, Stage 1, Workout B1 after. It went very well, except I have no idea what weight to deadlift, and am ill-equipped for that at home anyway. I did have to stop on the lunge set when I felt the sickening ripping sensation in my hamstrings. No real damage, just weakness leaving the body.
It's going to be another doozy of a week. Luckily, I buy ibuprofen in bulk. Sigh.
Ugh...what a bad scale weekend. Maybe this is why I tend to stay off the scales from Saturday to Tuesday! As I said last week, I was doing okay and the scale was fine. I had what I thought was a fine few days...nothing too horrible at all and, given what I know of myself, expected to be up a pound or two. Yesterday the scale said I was up 4 lbs. from Thursday....4 lbs!! I almost cried. Maybe it's like that every weekend and I just don't know about it but it was horrible.
I'm trying very hard to just focus and eat clean for the week and see what happens but it was shocking. This is why I need to be a few lbs. lower than I am. The number on the scale really threw me. I know I can go up and down quite easily but wow!
On to other things...I watched that video (thanks for the link Alena) and holy crap, my mouth just hung there!! I recognized quite a few of my yoga moves but they don't look like that when I do them! A few reminded me of one of my favourite instructors from the gym, but he's an ex-gymnast so maybe that explains a few things.
Lydia - that sounded like a really great day with the family!
Hopefully I'll be back soon with better news...happy Monday everyone!
Hi all, Happy Monday!!! Got a funny gym story for you.
I hit the gym yesterday to get in a back/bicep and cardio workout. Did my warm ups on the bike then grabbed a towel, my gloves and water bottle and hit the free weights. I did four sets of bicep curls then grabbed my stuff and headed to the lat pull down machine. Did four sets there, drinking plenty of water between sets, then moved to the seated row machine. Between my second and third set, as I began to drink even more water I realized the bottle I was drinking from wasn't mine. I spit water everywhere! I backtracked only to find that my bottle was still in the free weights area and I'd been drinking some stranger's water for quite a while.
LOL, Tiki, I am laughing but I can imagine how you felt! I am guessing once at home, you probably went straight for the bottle of mouthwash.
'Good upper body workout yesterday', I thought to myself this morning when I tried to blow dry the hair on the back of my head. My pecs are taking a sick day.
I don't know if I mentioned it here previously (excuse me if I did) but I and my girlfriends had an awesome girls' night out in Toronto yesterday. We had tickets to a theatre performace of Dirty Dancing and it was awesome. 'Baby' and 'Penny' looked like their counterparts from the movie. Penny was actually until recently a ballet solloist, very tall and legs about a mile long, and it showed really clearly that she was a dancer, just like in the movie.
Great dinner afterwards and one of ladies decided to hire a limo, so I was picked up at my house and then carted back at night, all that in great company and with some bubbly (fortunately, I don't like dry champagne so I had barely half of a glass). It was a late night, so I will have to hit the hay early tonight.
Lydia, I don't do belly on display. I found these long-er tank tops with shelf bras at costco. Now, I rarely wear a bra except if I'm running. (then I wear 2 sports bras) These tanks give great coverage. If I'm looking for some boob perk then I do need a bra, but these work great for me! And with all the low jeans and/or short tops-- they are super!
Hi Tiki, how're you feeling after you kidnapped that water bottle? Didja get a cold?? I have kidnapped shopping carts more often than I think the shopping public should know! But I don't lick them... well usually not
Hey sportmom, anne, mel, susan and elisa!
I still want/need to get to that vid.
Here's my weightlifting update. I repeated the jillian michaels power sculpt with losers. And I did double fives for upper body work as she advocated. I noticed my form was a little sloppy so I tried to stay true to good form. I'm not sure how successful I was b/c it was just me and the kids. and they were distracting me a bit.
short story long-- I don't feel much the next days after. Whaddya think, is it my form or do you think I need a longer than 25 min session/vid?
happy monday
edit- just read another thread down here. I'm not doing enough. I need to ramp it up. huh.
Last edited by kittycat40; 11-17-2008 at 03:19 PM.
Hello to all. I'm here, reading, but it's been a hard year or so and I haven't had the mental space to post.
Lydia asked about rowing. I think it's wonderful and it plays two parts in my training.
Firstly, it’s the exercise I do to get back into the gymn when I’ve been away. Hypnotic and mindless, it’s easy after the unpredictability of travel. And it reaches all over my body.
Secondly, I use it for high intensity training on one of my cardio days. (Currently, I’m doing a three-way split for weights, interspersed with cardio.) I’m doing distance intervals: 10 x 200 metres (let’s say 600 yards), 45 seconds rest, resistance 5. I go all out for 200 metres so that I’m desperate for breath at the end of it, rest hard for 45 secs (hardly moving, just enough to move the lactic acid in the legs and bring down the heart rate), take up the resistance when there are just 3 secs of rest remaining and then go at it again. NB I use resistance 5 which allows me to reach that desperate point; using resistance 6 or 7 is hard but doesn’t get me breathless in the same way.
Form has to be right, IMHO. Don’t suppose that will be a problem for you, Lydia, as you’re a bit of a stickler or so I’ve heard. There are some terrifyingly bad examples of form about.
Strap your feet in firmly and use them to brace yourself. Push with them. (They are not a pair of mackerel you’ve just landed, flapping on the bottom of the boat.)
Keep your back straight. Do not round your shoulders. (You were brought up by a Victorian governess and probably learnt to use a backboard.)
Do not flick your wrists down at the end of each stroke. (You are not holding a handbag in a 1950s film.)
Keep the chain taut and running smoothly under control. (You are not in a rowing boat on the Marine Lake at Rhyl; you are training to cross the English Channel, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.)
Don’t loll your head about. (It contains your brain, probably the only one you’ll get, which should be looked after.)
Good luck. Skimming across the water at speed is a lovely thing to do.
It's wonderful to see you post. Wow. You are a rowing expert! Darn, I wish you could join me tomorrow. I will print your suggestions out and secure them in my lifting book just for laughs as I'm practicing. If I should ever be so fortunate to assist anyone else with their rowing I will quote you directly. Midrow the conversation would be "I learned how to row from a woman in Wales..." My rowing is still kind of segmented. I'm thinking a lot about the phases of the rowing. If I don't then I lose my coordination and I'm sliding back before I'm pulling back or I get confused and think it should be that way. Anyway. It will come just like everything else. (Now I'm all excited about trying it again tomorrow : Nice to hear from you and here's to a satisfying upcoming new year.
Kitty: Thanks for the tips with the longer sports tops. I'll keep an eye out for them. It's probably not that big of a deal. But never the less good to know if I happen to hop in there in the mid morning or evening when the place is a bit more crowded. Oh, and if you aren't feeling any type of muscle soreness then it may be time to adjust the workout in some way. I'm unfamiliar with the video you are doing but increasing the time spent is not always the answer. You may simply need to increase the load (amount of weight you are lifting) Good luck.
Alena: Ah, yes, the hairdrying test. Always fun when the pecs are taking a sick day. Just be careful not to try to rub out the soreness of the pecs in public. Some people just would not understand. My achy body part are the bottom of my glutes. (I promise not to rub those out too) It hurts to be sitting on wooden chairs these days. Darn downward dogs. Oh, and what a weekend you had. Trumps mine.
Tiki: I just don't know what to say about that. Just that maybe you might want to think about wearing one of those water bladders and avoiding the whole water bottle thing altogether. Just kidding. My DH has one of those contraptions. http://www.rei.com/product/733668He bought it like ten years ago when he thought he would do some hiking. It totally grossed me out. Just the name of the thing alone would gross me out. I would hide it before we would go for the next "hike" "Honey, have you seen my bladder anywhere?" He would scout around in the state parks with this huge thing strapped on his back and around his chest. "Here, honey, need a drink of water." Ugh. No. Can we just get out of here and get some lunch already.
Elisa: Here's to a really good week. I hate anticipating a bad scale weigh in and feel even worse when it's confirmed. Keep your chin up and be grateful that at least you know. Awareness of the weight is one of the tools that keeps us vigilant. Our weight does fluctuate for so many reasons. Drink a lot of water to flush it out. Hang in there.
Anne: How's the hamstring? Ouch.
My workout this morning...smelly. Really. Everywhere I went all I could smell was garlic. No it wasn't me either so stop it. Seriously. I had to cut my cardio session after the first ten minutes because I was getting sick. (have a serious aversion to onions) I went to do some lifting and it was icky over there too. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day or else I'm setting up my bike in the basement.
)
See for yourselves:
The knew better. 
I struggled with the idea of hemming it but I thought it would change the integrity of the dress. However after working on my legs as much as I did I didn't want to cover them to my ankles. Pretty colors and dress though. ~sigh~
A few reminded me of one of my favourite instructors from the gym, but he's an ex-gymnast so maybe that explains a few things.
Rowing
Strap your feet in firmly and use them to brace yourself. Push with them. (They are not a pair of mackerel you’ve just landed, flapping on the bottom of the boat.)
Wow. You are a rowing expert! Darn, I wish you could join me tomorrow. I will print your suggestions out and secure them in my lifting book just for laughs as I'm practicing. If I should ever be so fortunate to assist anyone else with their rowing I will quote you directly. Midrow the conversation would be "I learned how to row from a woman in Wales..." My rowing is still kind of segmented. I'm thinking a lot about the phases of the rowing. If I don't then I lose my coordination and I'm sliding back before I'm pulling back or I get confused and think it should be that way. 
Anyway. It will come just like everything else. (Now I'm all excited about trying it again tomorrow 
: Nice to hear from you and here's to a satisfying upcoming new year. 
Some people just would not understand. 
My achy body part are the bottom of my glutes. (I promise not to rub those out too) It hurts to be sitting on wooden chairs these days. Darn downward dogs. 
I just don't know what to say about that. Just that maybe you might want to think about wearing one of those water bladders and avoiding the whole water bottle thing altogether. Just kidding. My DH has one of those contraptions. 
