I arch light bench presses. I arch every single rep, because it's the only way I feel sufficiently tight through my midsection to start warming up all the muscles I'll be using and properly getting into the groove. Mind you, when I arch, I'm not thinking about arching, I'm only really focusing on getting tight in my lats, traps and rhomboids.
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I arch light bench presses. I arch every single rep, because it's the only way I feel sufficiently tight through my midsection to start warming up all the muscles I'll be using and properly getting into the groove. Mind you, when I arch, I'm not thinking about arching, I'm only really focusing on getting tight in my lats, traps and rhomboids.
"You'll never see somebody arch a light bench press"
...except for the people who arch a light bench press haha.
Maybe I've just never done it the "right" way. The guy that got me into lifting years ago didn't do it, so that's how I learned, so it's kind of stuck in my head to not arch. It's probably just a matter of taking the time to correct myself if I wanted, but then again, I ditched flat bench when I started working out at home anyway.
...except for the people who arch a light bench press haha.
Maybe I've just never done it the "right" way. The guy that got me into lifting years ago didn't do it, so that's how I learned, so it's kind of stuck in my head to not arch. It's probably just a matter of taking the time to correct myself if I wanted, but then again, I ditched flat bench when I started working out at home anyway.
I have home to myself this weekend as Tom is teaching an orienteering class both days, the forecast is good, so who knows, maybe I'll play around in the yard and see what an arch feels like... although I am super excited to hang the rings and start playing, so maybe not. Also considering a favorite local hike... finally feeling like me and all things seem possible!!!!
139.4 After feeling crummy for a week, I realized this morning that I really did feel better and was ready to play. Decided on a favorite town workout - the Buffalo Park exercise challenge course. 2 miles running interspersed with pushups, pull-ups, monkey bars, rings, ladders, rope, parallel & balance bars, and multiple calisthenics stations. Adult recess - YIPEE!
139.4 After feeling crummy for a week, I realized this morning that I really did feel better and was ready to play. Decided on a favorite town workout - the Buffalo Park exercise challenge course. 2 miles running interspersed with pushups, pull-ups, monkey bars, rings, ladders, rope, parallel & balance bars, and multiple calisthenics stations. Adult recess - YIPEE!
Ferocious wind meant that the sunshine and warm temps were not very inviting this weekend so the rings did not get used after all. I did do 2 very long farmer walks with a 50 lb water jug in each hand - managed the whole driveway, 130 steps, without putting the jugs down. Had to take a long break between "sets".
Sunday morning found me hiding out in the house for a while until I decided to just get over the conditions (hideous wind is what happens in northern AZ in the spring: deal with it!) and get myself outside to play. Decided on a hike I haven't done in ages and it was good. Powered up the hill, then turned and had a great run back down. New bargain tunes from the ".69 Hits" category on iTunes were a good buy and a nice addition to my running mix.
138.4 Finally made my way back to the weight room this morning for one of my "some of everything" workouts.
10 pull-ups
4 T2B
25 bw squats
25 squats with 25lb kettlebell
16 landmine twisters, then single arm press of the bar - 8x2 each side
25 squats with 25lb kettlebell
OHP 8x55, lunges, 7x65, 20 squats with 20lb KB, 6x70x2
8 captain chair leg raises
4 pull-ups, 8 pushups
Bench press 8x55, 8x65, 7x65
8 Captain chair leg raises
Hamstring cable machine 2 sets
8 pushups (ugh - dying here!)
Hip flexor work on cable machine 2 sets
Back extensions
Cable calf machine @ 240 lbs
Sitting at my desk, pleasantly exhausted.
Sunday morning found me hiding out in the house for a while until I decided to just get over the conditions (hideous wind is what happens in northern AZ in the spring: deal with it!) and get myself outside to play. Decided on a hike I haven't done in ages and it was good. Powered up the hill, then turned and had a great run back down. New bargain tunes from the ".69 Hits" category on iTunes were a good buy and a nice addition to my running mix.
138.4 Finally made my way back to the weight room this morning for one of my "some of everything" workouts.
10 pull-ups
4 T2B
25 bw squats
25 squats with 25lb kettlebell
16 landmine twisters, then single arm press of the bar - 8x2 each side
25 squats with 25lb kettlebell
OHP 8x55, lunges, 7x65, 20 squats with 20lb KB, 6x70x2
8 captain chair leg raises
4 pull-ups, 8 pushups
Bench press 8x55, 8x65, 7x65
8 Captain chair leg raises
Hamstring cable machine 2 sets
8 pushups (ugh - dying here!)
Hip flexor work on cable machine 2 sets
Back extensions
Cable calf machine @ 240 lbs
Sitting at my desk, pleasantly exhausted.
140.4 -Ate late yesterday - or more likely, this is the result of eating a candy bar and half a bag of jelly beans after finding several mistakes on the part of my admin assistant that have caused $54,000 to be deposited to the wrong accounts... I detest both accounting and personnel issues and this mess is both. Ugh!
I think my rush to sugar yesterday was in part due to not having eaten for several hours when I found the mess and then deciding I had to deal with a related mess and run an errand before having time to eat my perfectly yummy lunch - the errand led to a stop at a store where I bought the candy. So dumb, and now dumb to berate myself for it. So what? Not a healthy choice, but it isn't like I do such things daily or even all that often. However, my overall sugar consumption has been higher than it should be since our week in the Land of Dessert and the spike/crash cycle is not a happy place. Crazy how addictive that substance is to me.
All this introspection is because I heard a story on the news this morning about how when one's blood sugar is low, one is more apt to react badly to a situation: think your spouse is being mean/annoying/hateful - whatever, and one is more likely to be mean in return. I realized driving to work that yesterday's disaster is not a really big deal, I can easily fix it, and yes, my admin assistant is a screw-up, but she has been for years and I am not inclined to do much about it because most of what she does is fine and I tolerate her well overall. See? Blood sugar back where it is supposed to be, and my mellow, sunny state is restored.
Stairmaster level 10 for 35 minutes this morning. HRM says 340 cals (machine said 395), avg HR 150, max 169 (bumped up to level 11 for the last 90 seconds). Then, because we are doing the "Grandview Marathon" (not a marathon but a 26 mile hike in the Grand Canyon with about 5000 feet of descent to the river, then turn and climb 5000 out) on the 26th I decided I needed to get back on a good lunge cycle. BOSU lunges for 5:30 minutes and then the iPod threw me a bone and gave me another 5 minute song instead or the 7 or 8 minute song I was expecting.
I think my rush to sugar yesterday was in part due to not having eaten for several hours when I found the mess and then deciding I had to deal with a related mess and run an errand before having time to eat my perfectly yummy lunch - the errand led to a stop at a store where I bought the candy. So dumb, and now dumb to berate myself for it. So what? Not a healthy choice, but it isn't like I do such things daily or even all that often. However, my overall sugar consumption has been higher than it should be since our week in the Land of Dessert and the spike/crash cycle is not a happy place. Crazy how addictive that substance is to me.
All this introspection is because I heard a story on the news this morning about how when one's blood sugar is low, one is more apt to react badly to a situation: think your spouse is being mean/annoying/hateful - whatever, and one is more likely to be mean in return. I realized driving to work that yesterday's disaster is not a really big deal, I can easily fix it, and yes, my admin assistant is a screw-up, but she has been for years and I am not inclined to do much about it because most of what she does is fine and I tolerate her well overall. See? Blood sugar back where it is supposed to be, and my mellow, sunny state is restored.
Stairmaster level 10 for 35 minutes this morning. HRM says 340 cals (machine said 395), avg HR 150, max 169 (bumped up to level 11 for the last 90 seconds). Then, because we are doing the "Grandview Marathon" (not a marathon but a 26 mile hike in the Grand Canyon with about 5000 feet of descent to the river, then turn and climb 5000 out) on the 26th I decided I needed to get back on a good lunge cycle. BOSU lunges for 5:30 minutes and then the iPod threw me a bone and gave me another 5 minute song instead or the 7 or 8 minute song I was expecting.
I mentioned iPod kindness to a friend yesterday and she said "well you can always just skip to a different song, right?". No, of course not - it is the random rule and once an exercise set is started, well, I just have to finish it except for injury. This woman has no concept of "umph" and the need to maintain it by pushing oneself.
Actually, wasn't pushing all that hard today. Between squats on Monday and lunges yesterday, I have managed to make all the pertinent climbing muscles in my bum and legs sore, so just went for fast walking at an incline today: 5% grade, 4.8 mph for 45 minutes. 139.4 lbs.
Actually, wasn't pushing all that hard today. Between squats on Monday and lunges yesterday, I have managed to make all the pertinent climbing muscles in my bum and legs sore, so just went for fast walking at an incline today: 5% grade, 4.8 mph for 45 minutes. 139.4 lbs.
I remember doing power training many years ago where I where I ended in 1RM and some 'interesting' induhvidual stating I'd be better doing lighter for more reps. Being just after a set when I was still full of aggression I turned declaring that he would be in a better place to criticise when he could lift it. People who go in for moderation for basic aesthetics are fine but need to appreciate not everyone training is happy doing this and shouldn't criticise those who give it all and could easily call them lazy.
Only time I have stopped midset to change music is when my son has been around and I realised the song had profanity in it. Other than that the music is to block out the rest of the world and gets left alone, I tend to only use random when running though as it's easy to push a blip button when doing this.
Only time I have stopped midset to change music is when my son has been around and I realised the song had profanity in it. Other than that the music is to block out the rest of the world and gets left alone, I tend to only use random when running though as it's easy to push a blip button when doing this.
Once upon a time, I did a heavy set of 5 deadlifts, for what was then a PB. As soon as I let go of the bar after the final loud rep, a guy comes over and, without asking any questions, tells me everything I'm doing wrong and corrects it. For the first 5 seconds, I'm really interested, because if I'm doing something wrong while doing a potentially dangerous activity, I want to know about it so I can fix it up. Quickly I learn that his idea of a "correct" deadlift involves straight legs, standing on a box, horrendous rounding of the lower back and holding the bar about a foot away from the body...so long as the bar doesn't touch the ground, it's good.
Also full of aggression, I turned declaring that it's called a deadlift because you take a dead weight on the floor and lift it. Nothing aggressive about those words, but the manner in which I said it had this 6'05" very muscular fellah walking away like a dog with its tail between its legs. As he left he said, "Well, I guess my Certificate 4 in Fitness doesn't mean anything." I could have told him that I'm qualified to use his qualification as toilet paper, but I decided not to be a complete arsehole. After I'd cooled down, I considered maybe I'd been too harsh and went over to apologise. I was met with a spiel about how the calves are super important in deadlifts, slamming weights down damages the menisci in your wrists (if anyone knows where such menisci are, please tell me, I haven't found any wrist menisci in all my years), and 80% of your daily food intake needs to be protein.
Some people.
Also full of aggression, I turned declaring that it's called a deadlift because you take a dead weight on the floor and lift it. Nothing aggressive about those words, but the manner in which I said it had this 6'05" very muscular fellah walking away like a dog with its tail between its legs. As he left he said, "Well, I guess my Certificate 4 in Fitness doesn't mean anything." I could have told him that I'm qualified to use his qualification as toilet paper, but I decided not to be a complete arsehole. After I'd cooled down, I considered maybe I'd been too harsh and went over to apologise. I was met with a spiel about how the calves are super important in deadlifts, slamming weights down damages the menisci in your wrists (if anyone knows where such menisci are, please tell me, I haven't found any wrist menisci in all my years), and 80% of your daily food intake needs to be protein.
Some people.
One of the ironies with the way I have qualified. I Worked to be fitness instructor and PT years ago using NVQ based qualifications. I then shifted to IT and qualified as an NVQ assessor, so I am actually qualified to not only be but assess the suitability of others to be PTs and fitness instructors. I haven't ever done so because the hours and pay on that work sucks compared to the easy life of a desk jockey like me.
It is quite interesting though when PTs ask if I have every studied this stuff because I am not doing the latest craze. Most I smile at, the more obnoxious tend to have their latest craze broken into it's constituent parts and me pointing it out as either a variation of circuit training or exercise to music, which 90% of them are, the few remaining are generally resistance work using new or rediscovered kit.
It is quite interesting though when PTs ask if I have every studied this stuff because I am not doing the latest craze. Most I smile at, the more obnoxious tend to have their latest craze broken into it's constituent parts and me pointing it out as either a variation of circuit training or exercise to music, which 90% of them are, the few remaining are generally resistance work using new or rediscovered kit.
Many of the trainers at my gym are um, chubby. I realize this does not disqualify them as having knowledge and skill, but frankly, if they can't be bothered to take care of themselves properly, it doesn't give me any confidence in them. I also see that focus on the 'latest craze'. I guess as a commercial operation with a general focus catering to a diverse clientele, the trainers are doing what makes sense to make money for the facility. And no doubt I am very biased as taking the advice of a trainer several years ago is what led to my back injury in 2008.
Was supposed to be off work today and flying to Idaho for my nephew's wedding reception on Friday. Instead I am at work and need to call my brother to say I'm not coming.. not looking forward to that conversation. Oh well.
Bum and thighs were still super sore this morning. If the temperature had been above freezing I could seriously have gone for trampoline, but it had a thick coating of frost. Shouldn't be too much longer though...
Did another mixed round in the weight room - definitely in the realm of "whim" training rather than being very focused, but it was good and I'm tired, so counting it a success.
5 pull-ups
10 hanging knees to chest
Bench: 8x55, 8x65, 6x75x3, 8x65 - 15 squats in between each set
100 kettle bell swings with 15lb - easy work in hopes of loosening things up
5 chin ups
Captain chair leg raises 15,10,10
Back extensions with 15lbs 10,10,10 with 5-10 bw before each round with the dumbbell
Dips 5, 6, 4 - was trying to go deeper... I have a long way to go!
Landmine twisters 3 sets of 8 each side plus a set of single arm pressing forward
Cable calf machine 15x240x2
Step ups with 70 lbs, 2 sets of 8 each leg. I've lost ground on these and need to get back at it... or maybe I shouldn't leave them for last when my arms are toast and it's hard to hold the weight.
Was supposed to be off work today and flying to Idaho for my nephew's wedding reception on Friday. Instead I am at work and need to call my brother to say I'm not coming.. not looking forward to that conversation. Oh well.
Bum and thighs were still super sore this morning. If the temperature had been above freezing I could seriously have gone for trampoline, but it had a thick coating of frost. Shouldn't be too much longer though...
Did another mixed round in the weight room - definitely in the realm of "whim" training rather than being very focused, but it was good and I'm tired, so counting it a success.
5 pull-ups
10 hanging knees to chest
Bench: 8x55, 8x65, 6x75x3, 8x65 - 15 squats in between each set
100 kettle bell swings with 15lb - easy work in hopes of loosening things up
5 chin ups
Captain chair leg raises 15,10,10
Back extensions with 15lbs 10,10,10 with 5-10 bw before each round with the dumbbell
Dips 5, 6, 4 - was trying to go deeper... I have a long way to go!
Landmine twisters 3 sets of 8 each side plus a set of single arm pressing forward
Cable calf machine 15x240x2
Step ups with 70 lbs, 2 sets of 8 each leg. I've lost ground on these and need to get back at it... or maybe I shouldn't leave them for last when my arms are toast and it's hard to hold the weight.
140.4 Good run this morning with Tom around Shoe Hill to cap off a good week of training. I've worked my legs hard enough that they were somewhat leaden, but we weren't going for speed. Heart rate was pretty high too, although the average of 145 wouldn't indicate that, strap wasn't reading properly for the first 8 minutes. Spent a lot of time in the high 160's, maxed at 176, and I'm feeling tired from just over 3 miles... sheesh.
Not sure what the weekend holds in store. Since I was supposed to be in Idaho, we didn't make any plans.
Not sure what the weekend holds in store. Since I was supposed to be in Idaho, we didn't make any plans.
Really good weekend, happy to have had 4 days in a row of outdoor workouts too!
Saturday: Walked SHL with Tom, good solid power hiking up the middle mile. Fooling with Garmin settings and found "grade" so noted that most of this loop is +/- 2-3% grades with one section at steady 4-5%.
Worked around home indoors and out. Got rained on (yippee!) for a while Saturday afternoon so just had to take a nap. Sunday morning we took advantage of a bit of softening in the ground and dug out some rocks from the road. I've lost my digging muscles since last summer it seems and an hour of hefting/digging/prying with the 40lb bar left me feeling more tired than I would have liked. Split a big pile of wood as cold overnight temps mean we are still doing fires several mornings a week. Very satisfying work, chopping wood.
Sunday afternoon we hung the gymnastic rings for our first official at home play session. Super fun! Did a little bit of everything including standard TRX exercises as well as starting with some basic gymnastic stuff. Got a really long way to go before I'm doing anything tricky, just holding myself suspended with rings at my side was challenging, forget dips or letting the rings move out away from by body. Pretty sure there is no iron cross in my future! But some somersaults both forward and back while holding the rings went well, as did holding myself upside down along with other stuff like that.
Also got in several laps on the monkeybars, and a first for me: 4 double unders in a row. I can do them with a jump in between, but this is the first I've been able to string some together.
137.2 Ran SHL this morning with Tom, so a great start to the day and the week!
Saturday: Walked SHL with Tom, good solid power hiking up the middle mile. Fooling with Garmin settings and found "grade" so noted that most of this loop is +/- 2-3% grades with one section at steady 4-5%.
Worked around home indoors and out. Got rained on (yippee!) for a while Saturday afternoon so just had to take a nap. Sunday morning we took advantage of a bit of softening in the ground and dug out some rocks from the road. I've lost my digging muscles since last summer it seems and an hour of hefting/digging/prying with the 40lb bar left me feeling more tired than I would have liked. Split a big pile of wood as cold overnight temps mean we are still doing fires several mornings a week. Very satisfying work, chopping wood.
Sunday afternoon we hung the gymnastic rings for our first official at home play session. Super fun! Did a little bit of everything including standard TRX exercises as well as starting with some basic gymnastic stuff. Got a really long way to go before I'm doing anything tricky, just holding myself suspended with rings at my side was challenging, forget dips or letting the rings move out away from by body. Pretty sure there is no iron cross in my future! But some somersaults both forward and back while holding the rings went well, as did holding myself upside down along with other stuff like that.
Also got in several laps on the monkeybars, and a first for me: 4 double unders in a row. I can do them with a jump in between, but this is the first I've been able to string some together.
137.2 Ran SHL this morning with Tom, so a great start to the day and the week!
Not a big fan of heart rate monitors and pedometers. They have likely improved a lot but I had a heart rate monitor years ago that kept declaring 0 for a few minutes then coming back to 200 before going to the 180 +/- 10 I usually train at. Every time I am on a device that checks my heart rate it shows around 180 so I see no real point.
Pedometers are my fault really. Last time I relearned to walk I was impatient to get back to running and artificially extended my running stride giving the illusion of 2 steps in 1 around a half the time according to most pedometers. This means a known mile can register anywhere between 1.25 and 1.75 miles. GPS isn't perfect but it's not that bad.
Pedometers are my fault really. Last time I relearned to walk I was impatient to get back to running and artificially extended my running stride giving the illusion of 2 steps in 1 around a half the time according to most pedometers. This means a known mile can register anywhere between 1.25 and 1.75 miles. GPS isn't perfect but it's not that bad.
I really like gadgets and am enjoying the Garmin a lot, but I don't use them to actually train with... there are all those plans and schemes having to do with HR training zones and such, but who cares? I'm a 50 year old woman with a full time desk job - I exercise to maintain fitness, to push myself into doing something harder than I've done before on a moderately regular basis, and to be able to do well the things I like to do such as full day hikes, a short or long race here and there, and any other activity I get the notion to do. The numbers, averages, and totals are just interesting numbers, kind of like the music in the iPod... you get what comes up.
A couple of people have asked me lately what am I training for now, and honestly, the answer is nothing and everything... if I push hard enough in a few different directions I hope to be ready for anything that comes my way.
138.2 Today has brought personnel issues and a two walks of around a mile each in howling wind, not a great day for exercise or my mental state.
A couple of people have asked me lately what am I training for now, and honestly, the answer is nothing and everything... if I push hard enough in a few different directions I hope to be ready for anything that comes my way.
138.2 Today has brought personnel issues and a two walks of around a mile each in howling wind, not a great day for exercise or my mental state.
If I had a heart rate monitor, I'd probably use it for cardio because it would motivate me to run/ride harder/faster, because I have a few screws loose up top. I used to try and keep my heart rate up at 180, and drop to 160 for "light" parts of intervals, back when I had access to HR monitors. Yesterday I stuck my fingers against my neck and timed things to estimate my HR from squats and from an epic 500ish metre jog. After squats I calculated my HR to be 174bpm, and after running 160bpm.
I've seen similar results, Ryan. I usually don't wear the HR monitor for any kind of weight training but often do for cardio, yet the couple of times I have, I have hit some of my higher heart rates. Last week, I had done 35 minutes on the stairmaster - total steady state cardio - and got into the high 160's (my max HR is about 184 because ya know... I am oldish), but when I did lunges, I started a new HR session and got into the mid-170's. No doubt some of that was heat as I did stairmaster first, and maybe a little bit of creep too, but mostly, I work harder at weights and bodyweight training. Just numbers... just fun.
I get a lot of 'What are you training for?' Normal response is base stupidity and enjoyment.
I have done my organised competing in all honesty, now there are always better things to spend money on, like fitness gear or more often my son, yes he's spoiled. My competition is generally me or occasionally others on this forum.
Yesterday my competition for the latter part of my run was two local retired ladies on bicycles, which was great for encouraging me to go faster than I normally would. Need that more often I think, possibly getting too comfort zoned on the running.
I think training is something most of us long termers do because we can't imagine living without it and don't want to. We just end up finding new ways to make the training more difficult or fun as it's otherwise known.
I have done my organised competing in all honesty, now there are always better things to spend money on, like fitness gear or more often my son, yes he's spoiled. My competition is generally me or occasionally others on this forum.
Yesterday my competition for the latter part of my run was two local retired ladies on bicycles, which was great for encouraging me to go faster than I normally would. Need that more often I think, possibly getting too comfort zoned on the running.
I think training is something most of us long termers do because we can't imagine living without it and don't want to. We just end up finding new ways to make the training more difficult or fun as it's otherwise known.
It works well. Especially when the conversation goes along the lines of
How far did you run?
About 5.4 miles.
How long did that take?
about 42 minutes.
Wow you must be fit!
No just stupid.
The look of absolute confusion when they have paid a compliment and you declare yourself something absurd is priceless.
How far did you run?
About 5.4 miles.
How long did that take?
about 42 minutes.
Wow you must be fit!
No just stupid.
The look of absolute confusion when they have paid a compliment and you declare yourself something absurd is priceless.