Workout F #3 (Modified): Oh, that was good! (Workout 32)

The main modification I made was getting rid of the High
(Bench) Step Ups. But the replacement worked me hard , so
it was all good. 

I'm still babying my quads, specifically my right quad, though it hasn't actively felt weird in several days, so I'm working on a modified Workout F right now. I replaced the High (Bench) Step Ups, which put a lot of work on my quads, with Single-leg Hip Raises, which worked my glutes and hamstrings really well but didn't transfer any work to my quads. 

One of my warm-up stretches is a quad stretch where I go down on one knee and lean to stretch the down leg. On the left, I could get a very good lean and stretch going. On the right, I could feel it as soon as I started and essentialy had to back off a bit from "starting position" not to feel like I was doing too much to it. 

So that leg is not right at all. It just didn't stop me being able to get my workout in. 

That is a very happy thing indeed. 

The official trainer who works at our Planet Fitness (I think her name is Janet or Janice) was doing an abs class in the same corner I was working in when I was doing my front squats and rear lateral raises -- when we made eye contact she told me I was doing good. That was nice. :D 

Yesterday's workout was: 

• Crossbody Mountain Climbers - 2 x 30 - Sets of 30 was definitely right for yesterday evening. I was able to work fast and really get going on these though and they went well. I'm going to work on speed and stick with 30 for next time, but I'll probably go up to sets of 35 for the nest time. 
• Alternating sets of (notice this is out of order): 
• Dumbbell Front Squats - 3 x 12 - I'm finally getting to a point with these where I can feel how they're working me that's different from the squats I've been doing. I'm still using a pair of 15lb dumbbells for these and I could feel last night how hard my core was working to keep my form good and my back protected. I could also feel how hard my quads are *not* working -- most of the exertion is when I'm squatting down (keeping my torso as upright as possible) not when I'm raising my body and the weights back up to standing. So these are being more of a core exercise than a quad exercise at this time, but I'm cool with that. My core needs the work, for one thing. My quads are a bit tender for another. AND I get other quad work with the jump squats I'm doing as part of my Insanity. 
• Rear Lateral Raises - 3 x 12 - I went up to 7.5 lb dumbbells for this one and that worked really really well. It was hard -- I was dripping sweat off my chin onto the floor -- but it was good. (During these sets is when the trainer noticed me and said I was doing good.) 
• Explosive Elevated Push-Ups - 2 x 10 - I would normally have done this before the first pair of alternating sets but got a little mixed up and, well, didn't. Whoops. They went well. I'm pretty sure I'm not ready for a lower bar on these, so I just need to focus on being more explosive when I do them. 
• Alternating sets of:
• Single Leg Hip Raises - 3 x 12 - (You can see a video of hip raises (they call them glute bridges) here, but I"m doing them with one knee held to my chest.) I started these with the working foot on the floor for the first set and that was too easy. For the second and third sets I did them with the working leg on a weight bench, so I have to lift the weight I'm lifting higher. That was a lot better. This and the step-ups it's replacing (whether those step-ups were to a box or a treadmill deck or a bench) are in the workout as Hamstring/Glute exercises where I'm working one leg at a time. I've never really felt that, exactly, from the step-ups. I've always felt they were more of a quad exercise, even at the lower heights. This finally felt like I was really working my hamstrings and glutes. Perhaps it was a bit too isolating (I prefer to work muscles in concert with one another than in isolation), but it was nice to feel the work in the target area. 
• Cable Chest Presses - 3 x 12 - I moved up from 15 to 20 pounds on these, though there was a bit of a mis-step at first with the machine due to there being two different kinds of "high pulleys" on the cable machines -- the adjustable pulley moved to the top and the ones with a fixed pulley on an arm sticking out from the top of the machine. Working with the fixed high pulley these were virtually impossible at any weight and clearly going to do Bad Things to my shoulder (I gave about two test pulls and stopped). From the adjustable pulley moved to the top, they worked great. Huh. 20 lbs was a good amount of weight, but not too much. Yay! 
• Coordination Rows - 3 x 12 - I'm doing these in both of my workouts right now because they're doing me a world of good. The whole body/combination exercise I was doing in Workout F involved a lunge movement and that's not going to be happening for a while. So I'm just doubling up on the Coordination Rows. What I'm getting from them is about the balance and coordination, not so much the rowing, so I don't think I'm overworking anything. 
• Cardio Intervals - 10 x 20:40 Intervals of Insanity alternating Jumping Jacks and Jump Squats during the 20 second "go like crazy" intervals. Those are a pretty good combination of exercises to do for this, though the Jump Squats are a lot harder than the Jumping Jacks. Maybe I should do 30:30 intervals with the Jumping Jacks and 20:40 with the Jump Squats. I wonder if that would get too confusing around minute 8 when I'm starting to get pretty cooked and negotiating with myself over how much more I can do. ("I can do one more round of Jumping Jacks, they're not so bad." One minute later: "Heck, having done those, I know I can do one more round of Jump Squats.")

So that was my awesome workout. Moving to Thursday to avoid the crowds Wednesday evening worked well (though with only one data point, we can't really say anything for sure). It did have one unintended consequence, however -- Patrick didn't run into any traffic jams on the machines he was using, so he was able to go straight through his workout really fast. He was done with his entire workout, including the cardio (though he doesn't do the Insanity business) at the end, before I'd even started the Coordination Rows. So he had around 15 minutes to hand out and wait for me to be done.

Next workout is schedule for Saturday. I'm doing a modified Workout E. I'm going to see what happens if I replace the Reverse Lunges, which I'm not even going to be trying for another week, probably, with another quad exercise that works each leg individually. I'm looking at a Single Leg Stand Up (where you sit on a bench with one foot on the floor and the other sticking straight out in front of you then stand up using only the one leg). I'm not sure I can actually *do* those -- there seem to be some balance and center of gravity issues, among other things -- but I'm going to give them a try. I can also try Single Leg Squats, but a few test goes with those seem like they're going to be rough on my knees unless I can figure out how to modify them. (And seriously, my whole body weight is a lot to lift with one leg.) Anyway, goal for the workout -- sweat and be awesome without aggravating my quads.