Workout K#1 and the pre-Phase 6 walkthrough: Starting strong (Workouts 69 & 70)

This was last Wednesday's Workout. It's been a busy week
with no posts. Sorry 'bout that. 

I'm way, way behind on posting about workouts. Sigh. It's been a busy time -- we're settling in at the new gym, I'm learning how to draw Celtic knotwork, we had a big blizzard, I'm working on a knitting project (actually two, one for me and one for a friend). Life is good, but spending time on the computer just keeps not happening.

I did my Phase 6 walkthrough on January 18 -- I'm taking advantage of some of the things our new gym has that our old one didn't -- Swiss balls, slides (or an ab roller, depending on what I can find), kettlebells. It's a ton of fun. I love having all these options and more.

I did Workout K #1 on January 20, 2016. I *love* Workout K -- it's an absolute hoot! January 20 was a bit of a pain though -- the gym was very very crowded and I had to change up the order on a lot of things. I think these are Resolutionaries working with trainers -- when you sign up at this gym you get two free sessions with one of the trainers that regularly work there. (There are several of them -- I believe they're contractors.) I'm hoping that after they've done their two free sessions, a lot of the Resolutionaries will sort of fade away...

My January 20, K#1 workout was:

• Rollouts - 3 x 10 - This is one where I made a change from what I planned, at least temporarily. What I wanted to do were what the New Rules of Lifting For Life calls Push Aways -- a destabilized push-up position. I've seen the slides for that at the gym before, but they're not always out. (I think they may belong to one of the trainers.) What I can always find, though, is an ab roller, so I figured I could do that if the slides weren't available. (You can see a video of someone doing Ab Rollouts here.) The trick with these is to really, really stretch out and unbend the hips because that's what makes the abs really have to work to stabilize the core. 
• Kettlebell Swing - 2 x 10 - (You can see a video of someone doing these here, except I'm not doing them one-handed.) I'm using a 20lb kettlebell. I think I'm going to have to ramp these up by increasing the volume (the number of reps and sets) because the next kettlebell up is 40lbs and that's a huge jump.)  I do them with both hands, facing a blank wall with an emergency exit door (rather than the mirrors that are on most of the walls) -- that way I've got extra grip on the kettlebell and if it does fly out of my grip it won't hurt anyone or anything. These are an absolute blast -- it's all "Wheeee!!" as the weight is flying around. 
• Reverse Lunge & Cable Row - 3 x 12 - I can't find a video of these but they're a very standard reverse lunge with a one-arm row on the cable machine, not much to look at. I'm using 30 lbs on the cable machine. It's a good exercise -- one that really gets the whole body working, which is nice. This was one that I had to do out of order and was afraid I wouldn't be able to do at all, because every single station on both of the cable machines was in use. Fortunately, just when I was finishing my last rep of the last exercise, one of the machines became free. I'm not doing the Coordination Rows this Phase -- I decided to give those a rest after four months -- and am doing these for a whole body exercise instead. 
• Alternating sets of:
• Back Extensions - 3 x 12 - These are the same back extensions, I was doing in Phase 5, but I'm doing them with a lighter weight and at higher reps. (You can see a video of someone doing these here.) I used a 25lb weight, which isn't hugely lighter than the 30 lbs I was doing these at for 8 reps, but it's enough to make the difference. 
• Swiss Ball Chest Press - 3 x 12 - (You can see a video of someone doing these here.) Basically, these are like dumbbell bench presses only instead of a bench the upper body is on a Swiss (stability) ball. They're actually kind of great -- though they're pretty tricky. I like them. I used a pair of 15lb dumbbells for them and that's a good weight. 
• Alternating sets of :
• Side Lunges - 3 x 12 - (You can see a video of someone doing these here.) With these, I just wanted a variation on the lunges I've been doing basically forever. It's enough of a different move and a different muscle working that I'm using a pair of 15lb dumbbells for these to start. 
• Rear Delt Row - 3 x 12 - (You can see a video of someone doing these here.) These use the same 15lb dumbbells that I'm using for the side lunges. These rows are from the posture article and I'm hoping they'll strengthen the muscles that keep my shoulders back (and by extension, my chest open). 
• Cardio: I didn't do any Intervals of Insanity because of time constraints. I really need to do something about that. In this case, I even cut short the pre-workout warmup to only 6 minutes. 

Even in a crowded gym, this workout is a ton of fun! The Swiss Ball Chest Presses are a challenge, but a really cool one. The Kettlebell Swings are really just pure fun. And the whole thing is just a great workout. 

We did try to get through the workout kind of quickly, because we were doing our evaluations with the  trainer we're working with (Travis) after the session. We'd been planning to do it on the 23rd, but the blizzard was pre-empting that, so we rescheduled for Wednesday after our workout. 

It worked out fine, but we got home very very late and didn't get dinner until late.