elfs | Entries tagged with gym

I was tragically naughty last week. I went to the gym on Monday, and kept telling myself I'd go again, and again, and somehow didn't go through the rest of the week. By Friday, my knee was killing me; hard to believe that if I miss just three or four days it'll act up again like that.

Went today. Pretty good workout. I don't seem to have lost ground, strength-wise, and my endurance was good. I forgot my MP3 player, so I had to suffer with other people's music, miserable as that was. Apparently no one wanted to watch the market go apeshit as all four TVs in the aerobics room were tuned to ESPN. After I did my five minute warmup I got outta there fast. There's only so much Tiger Woods, Brett Farve, and miscellaneous March Madness I can stand. Did PT on the knee and then did pushups, situps, the usual arms and abs stuff.

Lunch today is Omaha's wonderful corn, leek, and cauliflower chowder with crumbled bacon. Bacon makes everything better.

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Lana Lane, Project Shangri-La

Not too shabby a week; despite the intense time pressures of days without school, I managed to get to the gym three times this week, and have successfully closed in on 30 push-ups with my feet above my head and using a half-ball for my hands, which adds to the balance challenge. My heart rate is down to 145 during intense aerobics, which is where it ought to be for a guy my age (as opposed to 170, which is where it was last year when I started). My mobility is about the same, although I no longer fear falling down stairs from a knee blowout, and I haven't had a neck spasm for months. My dumbbell curls aren't going up in weight, but I've been able to do more reps.

All in all, I seem to be putting myself together pretty well. What was broken is not any longer, and I'm maintaining or improving my strength in most of the areas I care about.

Now if only I could get rid of the damned spare tire. It's only a small bicycle tire, really, but ... dammit.

Oh, and the "January surge" has begun. Yes, I know, it's February. But the Great Grey Lid of Seattle has lifted, the weather is turning nice again, and people are starting to realize that short sleeves and revealing dresses are just around the corner. I think those people who bought membership in January went once, decided it wasn't for them, and now realize that it might be for them after all.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: T'Pau, Heart and Soul

I went to the gym today. That's not unusual, but I haven't been updating my gym journal as much as I should. I did five minutes of bagwork for the warmup then turned to doing mostly legs in the gym proper. I did two circuits through: hip adduction (60, then 70), calf lifts (90, then 115), knee/thigh (60 both times), lower back (110), and the new exercise: deep lunges while carrying 25 pound dumbbells in each hand. To my great pleasure, neither the acid reflux nor the trick knee gave me any trouble whatsoever.

Which is good, because I've been kinda worried the past few days. Last week I was home for large swaths of time and dedicated solid hours to writing. When I write, I sit on the floor cross-legged, and the muscles that stretch over the kees were all stretched out, and they were giving me pain and soreness, but it's all good now. I just needed a few good workouts and some solid self-imposed suffering.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Philip Glass, Secret Agent

I went to the gym and did my usual workout today. My abs ache as do my thighs. At one point as I was loading up the bar I realized, holy crap, I'm bench pressing my own weight! What the heck am I doing putting two forty-five pound weights on each side?

But between the weights and the bagwork, my right wrist is killing me this afternoon. It doesn't seem to be affecting my ability to type but it is surely annoying.

On the other hand, I am developing not just muscles but actual veins. Kinda cool. Too bad they fade after the workout, though.

Current Mood: hurting
Current Music: Debbie Does Dallas OST, Shower Scene

Well, that was dumb of me. This morning I got so wrapped up in a project that I forgot to eat the power bar (Clif Builder cookies & cream, which I can't seem to find anywhere, dammit; I have to go to the freakin' mountain climbing supply outlet to get it!) that I usually have before I head over to the gym. I did bagwork, abs and arms, but when I was done I was so dizzy it was hard to read for the next half hour or so.

After lunch, I was much better, but I need to keep to my schedule. I can't let it go like that. If I don't get to the gym before noon, I have to use the damn elliptical or a bike to do warmup, and the bagwork is so much more fun (yay, beating things up!).

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Ayreon, Back on Planet Earth

I went to the gym today and decided to try something new. Usually, I start my routine with a five-minute hard aerobic kick-start, something to get the blood flowing and prepare my body for the exercise ahead. Given what you typically find in a gymnasium, my usual being about five minutes on a treadmill or elliptical trainer.

Today I tried something different. I used the punching bags. I bought myself a pair of gloves last week for bagwork. I haven't done this since college, and I wasn't serious about it then as a form of exercise. I am now. After five minutes (timed by picking a song about five minutes long on the iPod) my arms felt like lead and stone and there was an uncomfortable buzzing in my wrist. I stopped after the first minute to tighten the wrist wraps: they really do help. The sweat was already coming off of me, and it felt like I had gotten a much better upper-body start than usual.

I did my usual routine (which I managed to do twice last week, too) including some intense abdominal work, which only helps to show just how bad I am at calorie management: even though my abs are much stronger than ever, it still feels like I'm getting the middle-aged spread. Yech. I added more pushups to the routine to get my pectorals involved. I need to add some legwork, too. But all in all, my upper torso looks great. I'm enjoying this. I've been the proverbial ninety-pound geekling most of my life.

[Explanation of the subject line.]

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Juno Reactor, Biot Messiah

Went to the gym this morning with a very generic routine. Unfortunately, I was not aware that one of my headphones was dying: the left one. I tested them and it's not the ipod, which is just fine. Unaware of this problem, I kept playing with the volume, trying to make it "just right" as I went through my ab/leg circuit.

The imbalance gave me a splitting headache, and I was able to complete just one circuit before it drove me off the gym floor. I did discover that I can use the punching bags, but I'll need to find a pair of bag gloves, ones that go up the wrist, before I try that again.

Now for aspirin and protein.

Current Mood: grumpy
Current Music: The blessed silence of noise-cancelling headphones.

All last week, under the stress of doing the single dad thing for a week, I had no time to hit the gym. Instead, I ate poorly, drank too many carbs, and generally lived a caffeine-and-sugar fueled existence.

This week, I returned to the gym, determined to get off the plateau I've been sitting on for the past two months. I've got fabulous biceps but am sitting with a spot on my abdomen labeled "spare tire goes here (someday)" that I want to get rid of. After watching The 300 Workout, I decided to change two things about my workout: vary the daily circuit, and add more full-body stuff.

It doesn't make much sense if I can do a dozen presses of my body weight, but only four pull-ups, and ten push-ups. Something is out of wack. I overstress my biceps (my, they look good) and don't stress the rest of my arms and chest enough.

But I think my quads are the real problem. They've got stamina but no real strength. I put in some squat lifts and a military press to the routine today, and I totally hurt when I was done. Even better, the long-lasting metabolism boost I used to experience is back. I've found where my weak spots are. It's just going to hurt to turn them into not-weak spots.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Threshold, Slipstream

Went to the gym today. Pretty good performance all the way around: my biceps are growing, my lift strength is increasing, and my heart rate has dropped from a top of nearly 172 down to 155 for the half-mile warmup run.

Someone stole the 30lb. weights from the rack, which pisses me off because that's the weight I need. I have to walk downstairs to the other rack to do my chest exercises properly now. And one of the trainers says that they won't be replacing them until January. Arrgh! Added a few reps to the abs crunches, too, which really hurt but in a good way.

How does someone walk out with 60 lbs of weights in their gym bag?

The music at my gym sucks. I have a theory that gym attendance (not necessarily membership) and iPod sales could track pretty closely.

Current Mood: raaaarrr!
Current Music: Enigma, Push the Limits