You Can't Always Get What You Want . . .

. . . but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need. I had a fabulous workout with Seann today. We did lots of push-ups, tricep extensions, dead lift squats, lunges, and fun ab work. It was the first time since I broke my leg that I could do actual lunges without some kind of support.

Here's the crazy thing.  I've been feeling like my workouts with Seann weren't hard enough. First, I dismissed it thinking that he's starting easy and will make it more difficult as he gets a sense of what I'm capable of. Then I've been justifying it by focusing on the parts of the workout that were harder. But I really knew I wasn't working out like I wanted to be, and I wasn't saying anything. I was more worried about Seann feeling bad by me telling him I wasn't working out hard enough than I was on getting what I wanted. I realized yesterday that I'm half way through my two month training, and if I really wanted to accomplish my goals, I needed to say something.

So I told Seann today. He was fine about it and immediately gave me the kind of workout I wanted. It was hard to do and know I'm going to be sore tomorrow, which is what I want. Afterwards I realized that I was somehow expecting Seann to read my mind--to know what kind of workout I wanted. That's really crazy, and I wasn't being fair to either Seann or myself.

Do you want to hear something even crazier? When I use the Wii balance board to weigh myself, it always asks me if I want a fitness tip. Usually I say yes, but lately, I haven't had much time in the morning, so I've just been weighing myself, and saying no to the fitness tip. And I know part of me is worried about hurting the Wii's feelings because I don't want its tips. The WEii's feelings--and I think that even though I know the Wii doesn't have feelings. Hmmmm--I think I was too well socialized as a female and as a Minnesotan. It's a bad combination. Because most of the time, in order to get what you want and need, you need to be able to ask for it.

Lord of the Rings

Yesterday was Day 2 of my training. My quads and glutes were still sore from Wednesday, but I figured after 160 lunges Wednesday, we would be doing other exercises. I would be wrong. I did lunges, along with squats and rows, but this time it was all done with rings.

First, I started with 20 lunges. The secret to this exercise is that I'm pulling myself up with my arms.It's effective--my forearms, triceps, and back muscles are all sore this morning, along with my quads and glutes.

     Then I did 20 squats, again pulling up with my arms.

 Then I did 20 rows. For this one, I balanced on my heels with my arms fully extended, leaning backwards, and pulled myself forward to the position on the right. After doing 20 of those, I started over and did another set of each--who would only want to do those exercises once--not the Lord of the Rings!












Then, the most fun exercise of the day--I forget it's real name, but I'll call it the flying lunge on the rings. I don't remember how many sets of 10 I did--was it a hundred? No, maybe 2.

Looking at that movie, I know I'm going to be in incredible shape in 2 months! We rounded it off with a bunch of planks--can't ignore the abs--and cobras, so I'll have a nice, erect posture. I've only done this ring workout once before, but I have to say, it's really fun and one of my favorites.

Taking the Lunge

I did my first workout of my new training program today. The first thing I learned is that when I'm working with a trainer 3 days a week, we really focus on specific muscle groups each session, as opposed to the whole body workout I'm used to with once a week training.

After warming up, here are the two things I did:

160 lunges. That is a lot of lunges. I am anticipating problems sitting down and standing up tomorrow. My quads, hamstrings, and glutes were burning by the time we were done. Here's a picture of me doing a lunge while Brandon makes sure I have no form breaks.

I can't do lunges without the pole yet because of the stiffness and soreness in my left ankle and foot, but I can reassure you, it didn't make it easier.

I also did 71 presses, alternating between 10, 12, and 15 pound dumb bells. That's a weird number, isn't it. My triceps already are sore, and I didn't even know I used my triceps to do presses. Here's a lovely picture of me exhibiting classic signs of muscle failure.

I love feeling sore after a hard workout, so tomorrow will be a good day.

I also did an assessment of my overall fitness. It's the 7th assessment I've done since I started working out at Fitness Together in 2007, and my last one was in April, right before I broke my arm. It's really interesting to see what sitting around for 6 months has done to my fitness level. I read once that you lose the effects of training in 1 month, so I thought after 6, I'd be completely out of shape. My overall fitness level is 63 (I have no idea what the top of the scale is). That's down from 71 in April, but is still above average, and higher that my fitness level in 2007 and the beginning of 2009, despite being at my highest weight!

The most surprising result is that my resting heart rate is 62, which is well below the average rate, and the lowest I've tested. I'm attributing that to the excellent job I did resting in my chair for 6 months Here I am, with the boot on my leg and splint on my arm, working away on my resting heart rate. Look at that--I'm wearing my same workout clothes!