Weekend training!

Aargh I was halfway through writing up today's post and then it got deleted. Blah.

That is yet another example of the craziness that has been this week. Quitting my job was more work than the 8 years of actual work I put in while I was there!  After a week of unravelling myself from the office, I fully intended to spend Friday night cleaning the apartment and packing in preparation for my whirlwind trip to see family. Instead I fell asleep within minutes of arriving home (lights on, TV blaring, I was OUT), which left me a mere two hours this morning to do all the laundry, clean all the dishes, take out all the trash, and pack everything for my two leg tour of the east coast.

And get the gym by noon.

I made it there by 12:07, suitcase packed and in tow. I fortunately had the insight to be already dressed in my workout gear so all I had to do was slap on my sneakers and I was ready to go. Jason watched in calm amusement while I burst into the gym and scurried around getting ready to train.

By the time I caught my breath and was ready to focus, it was only 12:15, and I was definitely already warmed up so we actually had a pretty normal session.

We started easy with squats. I worked my way up to 185! Jason was a meany pants and made me do math to count how much weight was on there. 135, plus 50, uh 'one, uh' (five six seven eight) 'eighty uh five?' Yeah? Oh, yeah!! Haha! I'm fifteen away from 200!

After maxing out my brain power, we moved on to pullups, starting with the inside grip. I made it almost to 5 by myself, but my shoulder started getting pinging pains, so Jason did his magic stretching and it started to feel better. But then I had to do the rest as regular pullups and they are so much harder!

We finished the session with 20lb dumbbells and squat to presses. And the  uni-wheel of abs, where I start in a forward bend, roll out to plank, and roll back in.

I admittedly got very distracted by this point because we had moved in front of a TV that was blasting breaking news of a mass shooting at the Columbia Mall in Maryland, which is exactly where I am traveling to TODAY.

"That's where I'm going! That's my mall!' I yelled. I went to that mall almost every day in high school, and I'm staying just down the road from there this weekend. It was not (and as of now is still not) entirely outside the realm of possibility that I may know someone involved, so i definitely had only half of my attention on what i was supposed to be doing, but J was good at keeping me focused. 

(I called my family as soon as i was done to make sure they are okay --they are--so just hoping for the best and definitely sad for the victims and their families)

Big day! Training Day!

Oh man, SO MUCH has happened between last week and this week. And not even a full week!  Since Thursday I've gotten so much amazing news, I still can't really process it all. Most importantly, I got an amazing new job! And it's a real job that pays real money that means real training that means TWICE A WEEK TRAINING!!!!! (whaaaa?!?!??????)

I was SO excited running to today's session (literally running, the maintenance guy was concerned I would slip and fall)  and I almost burst from excitement once I saw Jason to tell him the amazing news!!! I'm usually excited to train anyways, but today I was SUPER-DUPER excited!!! I think everyone in the whole gym knows that I have a new job and exactly how high I can jump, hahaha

Of course there will be some logistical things to figure out, like i don't work down the street anymore, so I can't train during the day, but the new place is only a few stops away so I can still go after work and it's not that far, AND Jason can train in the evenings again, so it works out perfectly!

This couldn't have come at a better time, it's a new year, it's a welcome change, and I'm just so energized and excited to start my new life. The past month has been a lot of hard work and tough decisions and most of it was completely out of my control, and I was a rollercoaster of emotions and couldn't focus on practically anything (this blog being one of the victims of my lack of attention)

But in the past week, everything I could possibly want has turned out in my favor, and I am savoring every millisecond of it, because it is so rare that life ever fits so perfectly.

So, once I came back down to socially-acceptable levels of enthusiasm, we were ready to start working out!

A whole lot of new things today, starting at the rack. J had a series ready for me, starting with an empty bar, then working up to 60lbs and then something even heavier than that.

I did (8 reps reps first, then 6 with the weight):

Deadlift

Row 

Clean

Overhead press

Squat

Good morning

....he had me up until 'good morning'. What?  Ok basically it's like a deadlift, but with the bar across your shoulders (like for squats). Sounds simple enough, except that means when you bend forward, the very heavy and weighted bar is across the back of your neck, so you have to have great form and control otherwise I bet you could do some serious and probably permanent damage. Especially if you're doing this yourself. This is why I have a trainer!

Next we did on another new thing, still with the bar, not the usual parallel-to-the-ground way, instead one end of the bar was braced on the floor, while I hoisted the other end around in front of me. Like a standing, over-exaggerated Russian twist, and I'm sure there's a real name for this but I'll call it the heavy stick swinging thing. I didn't really 'get it' until J said to use my core, and then it all made sense why I was doing this (oh yeah my core, that thing)

Next we moved up front to the training area (with a slight detour to gather a few bells) and J had me finish the session with:

2x25lb bells:

Clean and squat - 10x3  ugh.

25lb snatch - 25 each arm. Ugh ugh.

50lb bell - 10 swings each, 2x.

Meanwhile the only other people there today were practicing knife fighting skills, and it was hilarious (in the cool way, not the ridiculous way)

Finally stretching! And my left side is insanely tight, like ridiculous. Like I actually really need to do yoga, seriously.

Training day - post sick day edition

I was supposed to train on Tuesday, except that Saturday night I caught a mild case of the coughs, which by Sunday morning turned into a total body shutdown. By Tuesday I was still miserable, and even had to leave work with mere hours left to go

By today I felt mostly better, at least the horrifying cough and half-hourly sneeze routine subsided. But I was definitely drained, even before the session started!

Jason took it easy on me today, and even that was a struggle, it was like bizzaro world! And that was even with the extra time we took to finally set up my calendar for this month (yes it's halfway through, but better late than never)

I started with the walking warmup, then I had to do some arms exercises holding the stretchy bad thing (where you pull your arms apart, we did from the front, overhead, and then archery style, like you're pulling a bow. That last one burns!! So much!)  and then walking with the band, side step and Godzilla style. Yeah sorry if this makes no sense, I'm still pretty beat after this week

We ended with a mildly-intense series with the 25lb Kettlebell (which today for me became ridiculously intense, especially since I just got back to being able to breathe without hacking or sneezing):

10 per arm, alternating between each:

Swings

Cleans

Squats

Press

Snatch

And 'recover' with one minute of jumprope. 

I only did two sets, and even that was enough to make me want to curl up in a ball and sleep forever. And I think I was originally supposed to do more like 3 minutes of jumprope, but Jason had mercy on my pitiful wimpy self. Just for today. Next week I'll be back in full swing

Training day?

Oh boy today was interesting. First this week's session was bumped up a day, and then I was so deep in 'auto-pilot' that I headed to the gym at the usual training time, except as soon as I got there I remembered that I think we also bumped back the time by an hour. And sure enough, I was an hour early. Which was fine I just left my stuff there, went back to work for a bit and came back for the right time. Phew.

So, after a quick walking warmup, it was time for squats. Front squats. On the rack. 'If you can front squat it, you can clean it' he says ominously. We started easy with just the bar and then worked up to squatting 115lbs.  Yikes!  

And then we moved the bar down for cleans. Obviously. I did okay with the lighter weights, but J kept adding more and more weights and I was getting more and more tired. So he coached me through the last few sets before telling me it was 105lbs. !!! No wonder it was so tough!

The last thing on the rack was overhead presses, and those were the hardest of all, not because of the weight, I probably could have lifted more or at least done more reps, except that coming back down was killer on the wrists. So we wrapped that up and headed up front to finish

And Jason pulled out the regular box for box jumps. Pretty standard. But then after my first round he put that box away and brought over the BIGGEST box I have ever seen. I mean I've SEEN this box before, unused, in the corner, generally ignored by everyone. But to see it up close with the intended purpose of jumping on top of it, I actually didn't know if I could do it. And I have a feeling neither did Jason.  So there i stand, in front of a box that is higher than my waist, and I need to hoist myself up high enough to get my feet on top of it. So I count down in my head, ignoring all the worst case scenario warning flags waving frantically in my head, and launch myself up.....and I did it!!  Hahahah

We ended the session with 25 snatches (each arm) with the 25lb bell (and Jason let me use the chalk, yay!). And then finished with 15 superspeed snatches, that was crazy!!!

Followed by super speedy stretching

New year, still training!

First training sesh of the new year today!

I was gleefully greeted by my trainer, who had quite a doozy of a workout planned out for me

First I had to weigh in, which I still think is a terribly unfair thing to do immediately after two weeks of holidays. BUT despite Christmas and New Years, I actually didn't change by much. I believe I'm starting this year at 135 and 25% bodyfat. Which is about average for me.  I just need a recovery week and then I want a recount!

This year, I hope to get back on track and figure out how to control my munchies and try to get more sleep. And keep getting stronger, but stay streamlined. And get skinny. So yeah, basically the same things that I've always been going for.

So we started the workout with a quick walking warmup, and some arm band things

Then it was off to the freeweight room. And I didn't do any squats! Instead we did upper body today, specifically forearm stuff. I think Jason also just wanted to see how much I could deadlift, out of curiosity. (155lbs, btw)

Then I tried some chin-ups and I actually did okay on the first set by myself. Then the second set Jason pushed me up and I had to control my way down (by the last set it was a pretty fast drop)

By this point my forearms felt like jelly, but were also getting pumped which STILL freaks me out, and also made it nearly impossible to do the next workout.

I was supposed to do clean & jerk with the 35lb bell, but my forearms and grip were so pumped and fatigued by this point that I couldn't even swing it back. Jason mercifully took a minute to massage out the pump (ew) and then I was able to manage the 25lb bell. So we focused on technique and J had some really good pointers, as always. There were also spins and snatches with the bulgarian bag, and after a few sets of those it was time to stretch.

Ooowwwwwwwwwwwwwww

New resolution: more yoga!!