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. 

Workout J#6: Shoulder ouch! Workokout 68

A good workout -- first as an actual member at the Sport Fit,
pity about my shoulder though. 

If you look at my workout log from Wednesday night closely, picking your way through the atrocious handwriting and rather cramped formatting, you'll see that for the third set of Rolling Side Planks I only did 11 instead of twelve. That is because my right shoulder just wasn't getting with the program on those -- I could feel a sort of clicking (not exactly, more like something bumpy moving over something else bumpy) in it as I was rolling onto that side. Honestly, I probably should have stopped them sooner. (I also only did 10 for the first set, but that was a lapse of memory.)

I didn't have any problem completing my reps with any of the other exercises, but my right shoulder did feel a little funky. Like it wasn't moving as fluidly as the other one. It didn't hurt, really, so I did my thing. Though I did back down a bit on the YLTWI raises because those are really surprisingly hard.

Thursday morning, though, my shoulder was definitely hurty. And had that same "bumps moving over one another" clicky-type feel with some movements, though not others. (Row-type moves were okay, but lateral raise type moves were not, for example.)

Fortunately, I have a few days before I really put stress on that arm, Our next workout is Saturday and that will be the raquetball lesson with the pro at Sport Fit. I'll undoubtedly be using my left arm for the raquet, so I shouldn't put too much strain on my right shoulder. So I really have until Monday evening before I am lifting weights again.

That's five days.

I have great hope that my shoulder will be back to normal by then -- particularly if I manage to sleep on my back rather than on my right side. (Unfortunately, on my right side is how I normally sleep because that's the cuddled-up-to-Patrick side.)

Anyway, ouchsome shoulder aside, it was a very good workout and I really enjoyed it. The Sport Fit's weight room was a little more busy -- lots of trainers working with clients (the trainers wear shirts that say "Personal Trainer" which is how I know this). So maybe it just took a little longer for the Resolutionaries to become apparent there. In any case, even with an obviously greater number of people in the workout rooms, I didn't have the slightest bit of problem logistically or crowd-wise doing everything I wanted to do. So yay!

Wednesday's workout was:

• Core Stability - 3 x 45 seconds - I'm not totally exactly sure of the time to the second for each of these. I was at a bit of an awkward angle to the clock on the wall and I might have missed by a few seconds more or less. The 15lb kettlebell was really heavy, though, so I might have had a bit of incentive to, umm, read the clock wrong. 
• Rolling Side Plank - 3 x 10, 12, 11 - As mentioned above, these were a bit of a problem. The first set of ten was because I'd forgotten I was going up to twelve. The last set of 11 was because my right shoulder was just not going to take even one more. And probably shouldn't have been asked to take as many as it did. 
• Dumbbell Push Press - 3 x 5 - Doing five rep sets of these is much more achievable than doing bigger sets. Good to know, thought I probably won't be doing them again next phase. Unless Travis The Trainer thinks it's something I should be doing. I used a pair of 25lb dumbbells and they were hard. I swear I think I was doing more at that weight at one point and not finding them as difficult as now, though I'm not sure about that. There may be some interaction with the exercises that come before also working my arms and shoulders. 
• Alternating sets of:
• Single-leg Deadlifts - 3 x 10, 8, 8 - I used the pair of 25lb dumbbells for this as well. The first set I kind of got in a groove and I think I did 10 rather than 8, but I'm not 100% positive. I was more attentive after that. It's probably a sign that I could have raised the weight, and if I were doing Workout J again, I would. Since I'm not, though, I'm happy with what I did. 
• Pushups - 3 x 8 - I really do think the benches at Sport Fit are an inch or so lower than the ones at Planet Fitness. Though it's possible I'm just imagining that. In any case, I made my reps and was even able to do most of them pretty fast, so I'm super pleased with these. :D 
• Alternating sets of:
• Squats - 3 x 8 - I'm up to a pair of 45lb dumbbells with these and I'm pretty pleased with myself about that. I was able to make my reps with these working fast, which is excellent. I don't think my hands and arms (and shoulders) are up to going up to 50lb weights with these, so I believe if I keep going with these next phase, it's going to have to be a volume increase. Which I was pretty much planning on, so that works out fine. 
• Standing YTLWI Raises - 3 x 8 - These were so incredibly hard last time that I was really worried about them. Particularly with my shoulder being all clicky and weird. They were still hard but doable this time -- I used a pair of 5lb dumbbells for the first two sets and just bodyweight for the last set. I'm not sure if these are going to continue next time. Pondering that sort of thing is a project for this weekend. 
• Cardio - No time for Intervals of Insanity, but I did 174 calories in 10 minutes on the treadmill, so I'm pretty chuffed about that. 

I started this post on Thursday morning and am finishing it on Friday. The Friday Update on my right (clicky-weird) shoulder is that it's doing much, much better today. I slept on my left side (rather than my right) and that seems to have made a huge improvement. It feels more or less normal. My muscles are still a little sore from the hard workout though that's improving as normal as well. So yay! I'm going to continue to be gentle with my shoulder for a while, just to make sure it really is better, but I'm far less concerned than I was. 

Hooray! 

Our next workout is scheduled for Saturday. We're having a raquetball lesson with the pro at the Sport Fit in the morning, which should be a heap of fun. Goals for the workout are: Don't take a ball (or raquet) to the face and work up a good sweat!

Workout J #5: Auditioning a new Gym still (Workout 66)

Back at the Sport Fit for another good workout

I'm behind on posting again, because we had a super busy weekend. I'll get to some of what we did in my next post about Saturday's workout. This is about Thursday's workout -- we got to the Sport Fit for our free trial day kind of late because of work and traffic. I had a good workout, but figuring out how and where to do things made it a little slow. 

It was a good workout though and it was really not crowded at the Sport Fit -- I saw one of their trainers with a client, so they apparently get the New Year's Resolutionaries like Planet Fitness, but they don't seem to make the place as unmanageably crowded as at Planet Fitness. 

Thursday, January 7th's, workout was: 

• Core Stabilization - 3 x 45 seconds - I can definitely feel these in my core as I'm doing them, in a very good way. I went up to 15lbs from 10 last time (using a kettlebell) and that worked well. Probably better than increasing the time would have.
• Rolling Side Plank - 3 x 10 - These are definitely improving as well, It's amazing what a difference it makes just in how I place my arms. It makes it a lot less strain on my shoulders and makes it more possible to feel like I'm moving my whole body as a unit. For J#6 I might go up to 12 per set, just to end really strong.  
• Dumbbell Push Press - 3 x 7, 5, 5 - I had myself down for three sets of five, but kind of got ahead of myself on the first set. Which was kind of a mistake because the other sets were *really* hard and felt like strain. Three sets of five would have been a lot better. I used a pair of 25lb dumbbells, which is what I've been using for a while, if I remember right. 
• Alternating sets of:
• Single-leg Dumbbell Deadlifts - 3 x 8 - I'm still using a pair of 25lb dumbbells for these because I hadn't written down that I was thinking of going up and just totally forgot. Whoops. I did increase the intensity by doing them *fast*, which worked out well. 
• Push-Ups - 3 x 8 - I think the bench I was using at Sport Fit is lower than the ones at Planet Fitness, which is good because I was looking for a lower surface. Not a lot lower, just a bit, so I was still able to go pretty fast with them which was good.
• Alternating sets of:
• Squats (Dumbbell) - 3 x 8 - I increased the weight on these to a pair of 45lb dumbbells (from a pair of 40s). Holy kittens were they heavy. I was able to make my reps, but holding the weights was really hard. 
• Standing YLTWI Raises - 3 x 8, 8, 5 - These were ridiculously difficult. Staggeringly difficult. I barely made my first set with a pair of 5lb dumbbells, which I've been using this whole phase. For the second set, I went without weights and those worked out okay. If they hadn't, I was going to skip the third set entirely, because they were so hard and I really felt like I was over-straining my upper back. For the third set, I went back to the 5lb weights and did 5, which was really difficult but I was able to do it. There was no way I could have done a third set of 8. I am not really positive why these were so hard except possibly the very heavy weights I was using for the squats.
• Cardio - I didn't do any Intervals of Insanity, but I did spend 10 minutes on the treadmill before I started working out. According to the treadmill, that was 170 calories burned. Which may be right.

It was a good workout. Patrick wasn't feeling great and was a bit overwhelmed by the entirely different workout space, but I had a great workout. I really really like the Sport Fit -- it's just very comfortable and I really like the vibe there -- the people talk to each other in super friendly ways and it just feels very homey and comfortable. 

After Thursday's workout, our next workout was scheduled for Saturday and planned to go to the Sport Fit again. That'll be my next post. :D

Workout 65 was vexing

Patrick had to work late on Monday, so our plan to start out one week free trial at the Sport Fit (a new gym near home) had to be delayed. I wound out exercising by myself at a different Planet Fitness from our "home" gym.

I've worked out at this other Planet Fitness before -- it's not a bad place, though it's considerably more compact than our usual one. I don't know that it has been more crowded as far as the machine-to-person ratio, it's just seemed like it because there's a lot less open space.

On Monday evening, between the compactness of the gym and the New Year's Resolution people at the gym (I shall call them "Resolutionaries") it was jammed. Almost no treadmills were free for my 10 minutes of cardio warmup time and the ones that were free needed rebooting. Same with the elliptical machines.

I wound out on an Arc Glider, which totally sucked. All the quad abuse of the elliptical without nearly as much calorie burn or benefit.

It didn't help at all that I was really jammed for time and stressed out about it. I was so short on time (because I didn't want to make Patrick wait for me in the cold at the Metro station) that I wound out doing the 30-minute circuit at Planet Fitness rather than what I wanted to be doing.

I was reminded why I don't like their 30-minute circuit very much -- 15lb weight intervals on the machines. It is very easy to fall into an unhappy valley where one weight is too high to move for a whole minute (or any substantial portion thereof) and the next weight down is too light to be accomplishing anything.

And my back hasn't felt quite right since.

Grrr.

So that's all I have to say about that workout.

Next workout is scheduled for tonight: With any luck at all, we'll be going to the Sport Fit to start our free trial week. I'll be doing Workout J#5 and I have high hopes that it will go well. Goal for the workout: Do it well and smoothly in the new gym.

I hope that Sport Fit isn't completely clotted up with Resolutionaries as well.