You are too funny Saef!
I find the Bosu ball very challenging too.
I just got back from my boot camp class. I love it!We didn't do the Bosu but tonight we did weights, jump rope, boxing (it's boxing boot camp), etc.

I like to try the dance classes at my gym. I often feel very uncoordinated but I always have fun. I do a hip hop class most Thursdays-- it is fun but there are just some moves I cannot do! Must be the white girl in me!

Sept. 20: 60 minutes boxing boot camp

Totals:
18 days
1003 minutes

Let's see if I remember:

Sept 18
6.3 mile run
61 minutes

Sept 19
60 minute walk w/friend and stroller

Sept 20
~4.3 mile run w/stroller
~1 mile walk
60 minutes

Michele, I've wondered if my problem is that I think too much to dance very well. I forget to listen for the musical cues & to move in accordance with them. I also seem to have some kind of spatial visualization problem with my own movements & with putting together a sequence of moves.

Anyway ... Tuesday is my day to go to the gym twice, in the morning & at night. I'll need this, as this is going to be a stressful day at work.

Sept. 21: 15 minutes Concept II rowing machine, resistance at 6, 36 strokes per minute, 3085 meters, for a time of 2:26 for 500 meters
45 minutes weights
45 minute spin class in the evening

21st Sept - week 3/6 - consolidation

Warm up TM 10 mins, 3.1 mph. 1.5 incline

Cardio intervals

Rower 10 distance intervals, 200m, 30 second rest. Strokes/min 32 max, often 30+
X-trainer intervals, prog 2, level 4, 15 mins

Yoga & stretching. Each pose for at least 30 seconds.

I'm really feeling this programme of mine. My L knee is twinging slightly - possibly the increased TM incline.

Wednesday 22 September

back, biceps, shoulders

warm up on Concept 2: 10 mins, level 5, s/m 23-25
single arm row 5kg, 2 x 10
plate loaded lat pulldown, 10kg, 1 x 10 ... and the shoulder started to moan
lateral raises, DB vertical to avoid stressing rotator cuff, not too high, 1kg, 2 x 10
yoga and stretching 20 mins

I arrived at about 0830 with very little in the tank for this workout but decided that it would energise me. This did not work out. My shoulder has started to hurt again which I'm tracing back to Monday's chest and triceps workout, specifically the incline chest press. 4kg, 2 x 10 which was OK the previous week but this is the one which set off Meg's rotator cuff injury again and we think it does for mine. I also did a triceps pulldown on a different machine from usual which ran less smoothly. 10kg, 2 x 10. So it could have been that but I don't really think so.

Today (Thursday 23rd) is an enforced rest day. Not sure about tomorrow. I am extremely disgruntled about this, especially as I thought I was taking things very, very carefully.

Silver, yes, I find that's one of the hardest things to ascertain when communicating with our bodies: Whether feeling tired is their sly way of trying to dodge a workout, when the workout will actually energize us, or whether tiredness means we ought to rest, because our bodies are trying to preserve us & allow us to recuperate. I hope sincerely you have not reinjured yourself and that's a day rest will take care of the twinges.

Sept. 22: 30 minutes Abs Express class
45 minutes spin class

I walked out of the gym feeling ... not good. Incompetent, in fact. I tried something new, a class called Abs Express. I'd asked a woman in the class what it was like & she'd assured me there was no dancing & no use of steps. (I'm not fond of either.) I should have clarified what I meant by dancing. I mean women lined up in a studio trying to synch their movements, as in an exercise video. This class was like a Pilates/cardio hybrid, or something. I am just not good at this stuff, at the turning & the kicks & the twists & the floor-tapping.

I walked into the class 10 minutes beforehand, and the regulars had already grabbed a mat, Pilates ring & two weights & had laid out their mats in an even row. With no room for me. My old gym class nightmares flashed back to me: All the best female bodies in the gym were there. Yes, all the tall, slender, tanned ones. Many blondes. (Saef is short, compact, somewhat hippy, with thighs & calves that cause her much sorrow & yet a slender neck & shoulders grafted on top that really belong on someone with those leggy blondes' proportions.) They just looked up when I came in, then their glances flicked down again.

And they all knew the choreography. And I didn't. I was sort of shoved on the far wall, trying to get glimpses of the instructor from my awkward angle, to follow, and way out of synch, not knowing the moves.

Lately the gym has been a place where I've felt competent -- challenged, but inherently able to "get it" & improve myself, given time & hard work. It was rather flattening to my ego to find something that felt so far beyond me. I would have to break all the choreography down, and learn one move at a time, slowly, on my own time, before I could keep up with this class.

I prefer working my abs through Pilates. One lies on mat & is far quieter, sweating in pain almost privately.

Also I think I could hurt myself in Cardio Express with no one noticing. The pace is such that the instructor can only demonstrate, can't observe & be vigilant & stop people from doing something wrong & potentially harmful. My lower back feels weird today.

saef - thanks for the good wishes. I have been lying about in bed reading the FT. Heaven, really. My mental health is on the up. The jury is out on the physical health, as yet. And, I confess, I have been eating more than recently. (I did write 'normal' but then decided that gave the wrong impression.)

Well done for trying something new. Challenging the old neurons has got to be a good thing. We don't want to atrophy into a Pilates or spin class or weight training piece of sculpture. But ... dear, oh, dear!

I don't like this bit at all. Not at all good, no no no. They do have a duty of care towards you.

And, I suggest, we have a duty of care towards ourselves so that private painful Pilates sweating on a mat does allow you to monitor what's going on. Probably. But maybe I'm not the person to comment, given my current status.

I'm way behind again.

9/17 - dog walk
9/18 - long dog walk
9/19 - walked a mile or so, ran 3 miles, walked 1.1 miles, ran 1.6 miles, walked 1 mile
9/20 - dog walk
9/21 - NRLW S1W6A as follows:
- short warmup jumping rope and stretching
- 3x10 squats, 2 sets @40#, one @45#
- 3x10 push ups at slot 4 on smith machine, alternating with
- 3x10 seated rows @47.5#
- 3x10 step ups w/2x10# dumbbells (first set 2x8#) alternating with
- 3x12 prone swiss ball jackknife
- few mins stretching

9/22 - nothing
9/23 - half of NRLW S1W5B as follows:
* short warmup stretching
* 3x10 deadlifts @70#
* 3x10 shoulder press w/2x10# dumbbells, alternating with
* 3x10 lat pull-down, two sets @70#, one @65#
- 45 min yoga class (which is why I didn't have time for the lunges, will try to do them tonight when I get home)

Sept 22
60 minute spin class

Sept 23
60 minute cardio kickboxing

I haven't done spinning in at least 6 months, and haven't done kickboxing in about 2 months. Doing them back-to-back was a little painful. In a good way.

Sept. 23: 35 minutes arc trainer, resistance at 8, hill intervals
60 minutes Pilates class
30 minutes arc trainer, same

My discovery tonight: The arc trainer is much easier after all the work we do in Pilates in leg lifts for different parts of our butt muscles.

And I spoke with the Pilates instructor about a private half-hour session. We have to schedule it. I'm to text her. (I never text people. I get & write e-mails all damn day, like 200 a day or more, and IMs, since no one picks up their phone anymore at work,but no texting happens) She's much in demand, the most charismatic trainer at our gym & the one with the most cult-like following.

Sept. 21: no exercise due to working 7 am- 6:30 pm and then taking dd to a concert and waiting for her until 11 pm

Sept. 22: 60 minute spin class

Sept. 23: 60 minute hip hop class

Totals:
20 days
1123 minutes

saef

u dnt txt?? nt evn w frnds??

@sf

u dnt txt?? nt evn w frnds??

@slb

No. M 2 old 2 txt. No ad > 21 cn txt.

Sept. 24: 15 minutes brand new Cybex machine at gym.
I wanted to row but someone was sitting on the Concept II trying to figure it out for about 10 minutes & we've just got one at our gym. So I got on the brand new Cybex & discovered that it has what I want to call "vanity resistance numbers," which in my mind is akin to vanity sizing. (Only the numbers run higher, to make you feel stronger, rather than lower, to make you feel smaller.) I was at resistance of 21 or something like that & it wasn't nearly as hard as 8 on the older Cybex arc trainer. So I have no clue what my setting should be on the new machine for me to get a decent workout.
60 minutes weights
45 minutes old Cybex arc trainer, resistance of 8, regular intervals