Workout E #5: I can do reverse lunges again! (Workout 35)

Nothing's scratched out! I did a whole workout! :D

After about 10 days of giving my quads the babying treatment so they would recover from whatever insult they felt they had received, I was able to do Reverse Lunges again!! I didn't push them too hard -- no weight but my own body weight -- but they handled that with no issues at all. So yay!! 

In addition to that bit of excitement, I did well with everything -- I went up with the weights on the Romanian Deadlifts (from a total of 60 lbs to a total of 70) and the the Squat Jumps (from a pair of 20 lb dumbbells to a pair of 25 lbs dumbbells). I continue to improve by leaps and bounds at the Coordination Rows. 

I also got more data for my question about the Lat Pulldowns -- if the type of high pulley (fixed on an arm out from the machine or adjustable makes a difference in how hard they are (which I'm sure is a function of which muscles are being worked).

Yesterday's workout was:

• Cable Half-Kneeling Chop - 2 x 10 - I raised the weight on these for the second set, because they still seem like not enough work. Or too much worko n the arms and not enough on the core. Or something. On the other hand, today, I can definitely tell that my core has been worked, so maybe I'm not doing as badly as I feel like I am. 
• Dumbbell Jump Squats - 2 x 8 - I raised the weight from 20lb dumbbells to 25lbs because I hadn't really felt like I was working hard enough last time. Increasing the weight definitely helped a lot, I must say. Though I might work my way up toward doing sets of 10 of them eventually. 
• Alternating sets of: 
• Romanian (Straight-leg) Deadlifts - 3 x 12 - As mentioned above, I raised the weight on these from a total of 60 lbs to a total of 70. And they still felt really good. I'll stick at 70 again next time -- just because going up another 10 lbs would be rather a lot. I haven't decided what's going to be coming in the next phase yet, but I really like deadlifts so I wouldn't be surprised if I'm still doing them. :D 
• Scaption and Shrug - 3 x 12 - Still doing 10 lb dumbbells and still really having a hard time with them. These are *difficult*. Or I just have no back/shoulder muscles. Which is also entirely possible. The only way to make them stronger is to work them and these are definitely work. I can't say I enjoy them, but I'm getting better at them, so I think they're doing their job anyway. 
• Alternating sets of: 
• Reverse Lunges!! - 3 x 12 - I'm back in the Lunge business!! Well, not really a business as I don't make any money or anything, so I guess I'm back in the Lunge hobby. But still, hooray! :D I had absolutely no problem at all with bodyweight lunges yesterday. They didn't feel like a great big ton of work, but I was happy to be doing them. I've only got one more time with Workout E and will probably do bodyweight reverse lunges again just because I don't particularly feel like pushing my quads too hard. 
• Kneeling Cable Lat Pulldowns - 3 x 12 - As mentioned above, and building from the lengthy babbling about these in my previous Workout E post (from last Saturday), I did these from the adjustable pulley at its highest point, rather than the overhead arm fixed high pulley. They were still hard but from the high adjustable pulley, I felt like I could maybe raise the weight. From the overhead fixed pulley I can barely make my reps. At the same weight. That probably means I should alternate them, so I don't neglect the muscles that are getting used with the more difficult ones. I actually went up to 75 lbs (from 72.5) for the third set. Woo hoo!! I've been at 72.5 lbs for like a month or more. 
• Coordination Rows (Single Leg, Single Arm Cable Rows) - 3 x 12 - I may be moving up the weight on these before Thanksgiving! There was a time when I was thinking I wouldn't be moving the weight until 2016. Improvement is improving! I love it! 
• Cardio Intervals - 10 x 20:40 Intervals of Insanity, alternating Jumping Jacks and Jump Squats during the 20 second Insanity intervals. I may need to stop with the jumping jacks and just do all jump squats all the time -- I'm not getting worn out enough anymore. :D 

So all in all it was a good workout. I'll be doing my last Phase 3 workout next Wednesday so I totally need to get cracking on what I'm doing for Workouts G and H. Before that I need to figure out if I'm circling back around to phase 1 (and thus doing Workouts A1 and B1), but I don't think I totally like that idea.

Next workout is scheduled for Saturday. I'm going to stick with the single leg hip raises for Saturday, but maybe the next time I'll go back to the bench step ups. Goal for the workout: Have a blast -- Workout F is a ton of fun.