30 minutes treadmill, alternating 3 minutes running from 5, 5.1, 5.3, 5, 5.3, something like that, finishing with 5.7, with one minute in between walking at 3.5
The woman on the treadmill asked me, "What were you doing? What was that workout? It looked great!"
Which surprised me, as I am such an inept runner, still off-balance and lame in the right leg, but I can tell you that it feels better to run fast on the treadmill than to run slowly
Jan 25: rest day
Jan 26: 25 min on arc trainer, assisted pullups, chinups and dips, DB Arnold curl/presses, DB incline bench presses, DB side lunges
Jan 27 AM: 20 min on stairs, 50 Roman chair leg raises
Jan 27 PM: 5 min on arc trainer, assisted pullups, chinups and dips, 100 45# weighted glute bridges, 5 x 10 KB deadlifts @ 28 kg, 3 x 10 KB deadlifts @ 32 kg, planks, side planks, DB Arnold curl/presses, 5 x 5 DB renegade rows
Jan 21:
-20 min on arc trainer, 20 min on stair stepper, 100 45# plate glute bridges
Jan 22:
-DB bench press, lat pulldown, barbell face pulls, leg press.
Got some MAJOR hip tightness going on. :\
krampus, what did you do to loosen up the hips? I'm having the tightness quite a bit at the moment. I do that 'kneel on one leg, other one up, hold in the abs, be tall and rock the kneeling hip up' thing. I also sit with the soles of my feet together and let my knees drop for about a minute.
Does anyone else have any sure-fire hip loosening ideas?
20 minutes StairMaster in my gym Upstate, which has a different, newer model of StairMaster, though same brand, and there was no way I was gonna make it for a whole half-hour as usual
60 minutes chest, shoulders & triceps, having to go up on some weights, because this set didn't have 2.5-pound increments in between, which is always a revelation. I also tried a free-weight bench with an Olympic bar rather than fixed barbells.
My Upstate gym has a capacious and well-stocked free weight section, which consequently has attracted a lot of ladies who lift. Downstate, they're into the slender dancer or yogini body, and very few lift -- I am somewhat of an anomaly. Upstate, I just marvel at the women training near me. They're deadlifting, squatting with barbells, doing weighted curtsey lunges, and that's just with the personal trainers. The self-training women look even more awesome. It's all the equipment that attracts that population and one of the female PTs being a competitive body builder.
saef - they make us hardy up here, you know that! Makes it easier to carry a calf in from the field
Jen, I think that each gym has a different culture & atmosphere, like a clubhouse, depending on who frequents it. So it's less a regional thing than a very local thing. This one's got the competitive female bodybuilder and the great free-weight section, so it pulls in those women. My gym has a relatively older crowd -- I'd call them affluent empty-nester housewives.
Wednesday, 29 January
60 minutes hard going on the arc trainer, hill intervals, resistance at nine
Some squats afterward with a 40-lb barbell, just to try out this movement without a Smith machine
krampus, what did you do to loosen up the hips? I'm having the tightness quite a bit at the moment. I do that 'kneel on one leg, other one up, hold in the abs, be tall and rock the kneeling hip up' thing. I also sit with the soles of my feet together and let my knees drop for about a minute.
Does anyone else have any sure-fire hip loosening ideas?
I try to roll around on tennis balls when I have access. But honestly I just contort myself, twist my legs about, and try to "pop" them by spreading my legs so far apart it hurts. I'm not sure I could say I am successful.
Silverbirch - I would suggest Fire Hydrants and Clamshells. You can also do the easy hip swing where you hold onto something and just swing one leg straight front and back slowly as far as is comfortable.
So saef - I was last at a gym in college! But I'm guessing that by how you describe the population is it cardio galore??
Silverbirch - I would suggest Fire Hydrants and Clamshells. You can also do the easy hip swing where you hold onto something and just swing one leg straight front and back slowly as far as is comfortable.
Was just about to post to you Cherrypie. If your ears are burning every day, it's me on the foam roller thanking you. Even though it's excruciatingly painful, it feels almost like scratching an inaccessible itch. I'm working on upping the time--currently can barely tolerate half a minute. Thank-you thank-you thank-you!
Was just about to post to you Cherrypie. If your ears are burning every day, it's me on the foam roller thanking you. Even though it's excruciatingly painful, it feels almost like scratching an inaccessible itch. I'm working on upping the time--currently can barely tolerate half a minute. Thank-you thank-you thank-you!
Oh, yeah - it does hurt SO GOOD! But it does reach deep into the muscle - and much cheaper then going to a masseuse!
January 29: Cathe Friedrich Crossfire (60 mins)
50 minutes weight lifting (legs and back) - including 120 20 lb kettlebell goblet squats - OWIE!!!
30 minutes foam rolling
So saef - I was last at a gym in college! But I'm guessing that by how you describe the population is it cardio galore??
Well, not necessarily cardio. There are solitary strivers who spend a long time alone with cardio machines. (On some days, that would describe me, too.) But many of these women like taking the classes the gym offers, which makes the time go faster and enables them to socialize and feel like part of a group. So it's Zumba, spin (in which I join them) and a lot of whole-body-style classes with aerobics and low weights. They are just trying to stay active & move their bodies. I am far harder on myself than that. I often wonder what it would be like to feel less driven, to enjoy myself more, as they do.
As for me, Thursday, 30 January:
Treadmill run, 5.3 for five minutes, walk 1 minute, 5.3 and walk again, then 5.0, 5.1, 5.0, and at the end, 5.6 and walk, for a total of a half hour
Not my best workout, partly due to my miserable head cold, which I think makes me breathe less freely and therefore I am not so good at cardio.
Also did some barbell squats with fixed 40-lb barbell, since I can get that overhead and up over my shoulders freehand without a problem. Anything heavier & I'd need a rack.
