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| This was such a difficult workout -- things were surprisingly hard all the way through -- but I really got an excellent workout from it. |
It was just a hard workout. A good one, all in all, but oh, my goodness did I have to *work*!
We were going to go Christmas Eve morning (the gym was open until 1) but we wound out being free Wednesday evening and decided to go ahead and go then so we could relax more on Christmas Eve (we both took the day off). I had one errand to run this morning (vehicle inspection) but other than that and making a dish for family Christmas tomorrow, we've been free. (I even got to watch my one essential Christmas movie (Lethal Weapon) this morning.)
Yesterday's workout was:
- Core Stability - 3 x 40 - I used a 10 lb weight plate for these and did 40 seconds of moving it slowly around me while holding my torso and core very still. If there are 15lb weights available next time, I might move up. If there aren't, I'll go up to 45 seconds per set. These are definitely a challenge to my core, but not excessively difficult. I think I like them. Though they do also put some strain on my arms holding the weight out at arms length.
- Rolling Side Plank -- 3 x 8 -- It's possible that I lost count on at least one of these sets and did more than 8, which is fine. I don't mind going over. I just don't want to not do enough. I did these the way the video I linked to in the first post about Workout J -- with my arms horizontally across in front of my chest rather than sticking out in front like they would be for a regular plank -- is actually a lot easier. Not easier as far as the difficulty of the exercise (which is plenty hard) but easier as far as not feeling like I'm playing a game of Twister as I move around. I think 3x8 will be good again for next time, but I might want to increase the number of reps after that.
- Dumbbell Push Press -- 3 x 5 -- This was one of the exercises that was surprisingly very hard during this workout. I was doing these in Phase 4 with a pair of 20 lb dumbbells and 8 reps, so this seems like it should be totally possible to do 5 reps with 25 lb dumbbells. I think I was doing Shoulder Presses with 25s way back when I was doing those (Phase 2, I think). These should not be so much harder. I wonder if it has to do with what comes before -- those Core Stabilities do work my arms and shoulders a bit as well as my core.
- Alternating sets of:
- Single Leg Dumbbell Deadlifts - 3 x 8 - These were also surprisingly hard. I use the same pair of 25lb dumbbells I use for the Push Presses. Yesterday, my hips were just very stiff and sore. I'd kind of abbreviated my normal warmup routine, because of a lot of people and an abs class back in that corner of the gym, and part of what I skipped was the hip openers. That may be why these were a little extra challenging.
- Pushups - 3 x 8 - The first set was *really* hard and I didn't think it would be possible for me to make my reps with the subsequent sets, but those seemed a little less difficult. Maybe to do with hand placement. Maybe to do with me finding some extra strength somewhere. My money's on hand placement. I'm still working off of the bench. I'd be feeling wimpy about this, except that I've worked down by about 2 feet over the course of a few months.
- Alternating sets of:
- Dumbbell Squats - 3 x 8 - I used a pair of 40 lb dumbbells for these again. I was surprised when posting earlier that I was doing Jump Squats with the same weights (though with fewer reps). Either the Jump Squats are too heavy or these are too light. I'm pretty sure the Jump Squats are too heavy (see my previous post). Though these may go up after one more workout. We'll see. They were hard, but not as hard as the Single-Leg Deadlifts.
- Standing YTLWI Raises - 3 x 8, 8, 5 - I'd been planning to do three 8-rep sets after the previous go-round with Workout J, but the first two sets about killed me. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do a third set at all, but decided to go for 5. A set of 5 was pretty easy, but 8 would probably have been too hard. (I have to decide before I start how many I'm doing because of the way these work -- there are five different raises done in sequence without stopping, so I need to know how many to do for each of them.) As it was I was literally dripping with sweat running off my nose while I was doing these.
- Cardio - Patrick finished before I was done and ran across the street to the Market (thus completing what would have been a Christmas Eve chore early) while I was finishing up. I didn't really have time to do any Intervals of Insanity, though. Which was fine. I did 10 minutes hard on the treadmill at the beginning, which was good. And the workout was really hard and sweaty. Good stuff.
I'm hoping that next time won't be such a grind. Though I'm now half-way through Phase 5, which kind of boggles my mind. These phases seem like they're going faster and faster now. As I mentioned in my previous post, around when I start Phase 6 is when we're thinking of switching to a different gym. We'll have to do some research in the New Year as to which of the other two gyms in town we want to switch to. There may be others that I missed during my research about this last summer. (I'd love to find one like the place in my mother's Teeny Little Town in Georgia -- small but well-equipped and with a fairly small clientele. Though they didn't have an elliptical machine that was totally satisfactory to Patrick.)
Next workout is scheduled for Saturday. Goal for the workout -- workout hard but without it being as grindy-difficult (I don't mind hard lifting, that's what I'm there for, but I don't want to feel like my hips and shoulders aren't cooperating).
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