Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Workout D #4: Phase 3 is in sight! (Workout 22)

Made all my reps of everything!! Time to move up! 
This was another great workout and I feel like I've done really good things!! I have four more workouts in Phase 2, then it will be time to move on to Phase 3. I'm going to have to do some significant modification of what's in New Rules of Lifting For Life for Phase 3, because I really don't want these workouts to take *longer*. I already take longer than Patrick every time and I don't want to make that worse. I'd also like to maybe take the layout of the gym a bit more into account when planning Phase 3 -- workout C is great as far as that goes, I can do everything with the dumbbells in one corner of the gym. Workout D is silly that way -- I spend a fair amount of time walking around with dumbbells to get the weights I need to the place where I need them. Which is itself an exercise called a "farmer's walk" and it's not a worthless exercise. But not one I really want to be doing. 

I didn't raise the weight on anything today, which does make me kind of sad -- I was going to go up to 35 on the offset-loaded step ups, but all the 35lb dumbbells were in use and I didn't want to wait, so I went with thirty. Next time I want to go up on at least a couple of them, if possible. 

Today's workout was: 
  • Spiderman Plank - 2 x 10 - I did better at staying stable and my feet not slipping doing these today. They're still hard but getting a lot more doable. I finish my sets without collapsing into a puddle at the end. That's some good progress. :D I need to look into how to ramp these up or do a harder exercise. 
  • Coordination Rows - 2 x 10 - (Single-leg, single arm cable rows) My nemesis. I'm getting better at them -- I actually did a few in a row without putting my foot down, which is pretty cool. I've been practicing standing on one foot at work (I have a standing desk) to strengthen the little muscles in ankle and knee that provide support and I think that's helping. That said, this exercise is standing on one foot plus moving which is a whole 'nother ballgame. Anyway, I'm definitely seeing improvement though I'm still miles away from even working on increasing my speed, let alone increasing the weight. Baby steps. 
  • Alternating sets of:
    • Offset-loaded Step Ups - 3 x 10 - As mentioned above, I planned on using a 35 lb weight for this, but went with 30 lbs (the same weight as the last few times) because all the 35lb dumbbells were in use. To keep it hard, I went a lot faster this time. It worked out well and I definitely felt it then (and feel it now) in my quads. Next time I definitely want to go up to 35 lbs. 
    • Shoulder Press - 3 x 10 - I'm not sure why these are so hard and I'm progressing with them so slowly. I've been doing 20 lbs on these for a while, possibly all of Phase 2, and it's still the right weight. I'll stick here next time. I've actually been at 20 lbs for all of Phase 2, it's like I've hit a plateau or something. I might consider doing something else for this push exercise in Phase 3. 
  • Alternating sets of :
    • Dumbbell Squats - 3 x 10 - I did these with 35lb weights again. This is my second time at this weight and it still feels right. Maybe after one more time of these I'll move up to 40 lbs for my last time with this workout. Actually, I like this plan. :D One of the hardest things about these is getting the weights back to where they belong after three sets of these and three sets of the pulldowns. That's a bit of walking with a pair of dumbbells. 
    • Kneeling Lat Pulldowns (cable machine) - 3 x 10 - Last time I did these, I had huge problems because my grip was too wide -- I could barely do 7 or 8 of these at 70lbs with the wider grip. My grip was too wide because I used a different bar on the cable machine. This time I went for my "usual" bar and my usual grip and did three sets of 10 without any trouble. Next time I'll go up to 75, and use my usual bar.  
  • Cardio Intervals - 9 x 20:40 Intervals of Insanity. Still having the quad/cardiopulmonary mismatch on these -- my legs get tired before my heart and lungs, which is pretty much NOT the point. I'm thinking about seeing what happens if I go backward on the machine to rest my quads. There are other possibilities -- I haven't explored the arc glider machine and the treadmill and the stair-machine (which, just shoot me). I'll play around a bit. I want to take a session off from lifting between Phase 2 and Phase 3, because I regret not having done that between Phase 1 and Phase 2 -- that session would be a good time to play around on the cardio machines to find a new one for my insanity intervals. 
Next workout is theoretically scheduled for Saturday -- however, Patrick and I are hoping to go for either a hike or a museum trip on Saturday. So my next workout might be Monday. Or it might be Saturday (if we're museum-ing we may workout first). Or it might be Friday -- I have an appointment after work and might be able to get to the gym between it and when we have some friends over in the evening. Whenever the next workout is the goal for it is to make it as good as my last time with Workout C. 

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