Training day - April fool's eve

Well, I threw out my back today. Not from squatting 200 lbs, or landing a backflip wrong or even picking something mildly weighted off the floor. I tweaked it while standing on the train this morning. Yup. It was one of those packed-more-than-usual morning rushes where the train was crammed full of increasingly agitated people, and while I was getting off at my stop, the surge of the irate crowd must have shoved my sleepy body just enough for my back to twist and say 'nope, not this day'...and I've been gingerly massaging it since

Of course it had to happen on training day, but also thank goodness it happened on training day! Jason knows what to do! 

So once he got over the disappointment that I wouldn't be able to do major squats today, he expertly launched into plan B, where I did more work than I would have on my own, all without feeling my back at all! Amazing!

I started by foam rolling my back, which helped loosen it up a bit. Then walking warmup of lunge, side lunch and inchworm, with pushups added. Meanwhile, there was a poor guy doing what he thought was snatches with the 50lb bell, and Jason was quick to jump in and make sure the guy did them correctly instead if breaking his wrists in the process. By the time we were both done, it was time for reverse lunge curl and press with the 15lbs (you know, to keep it easy today), then with the 40lb blue bell swing to front squat. Amazingly my back was fine during all of this, it was the rest in between sets that was killing me!

Next I had to my own snatches to do, but today I did 5 snatches into 5 overhead squats. Then swings with the 50lb bell. Uh, then I think we moved to the box for stepups with two 25lb dumbbells, and finished off with a bajillion sets of one arm rows off the box, with a 35lb db.

Oh no, we weren't finished, I then had to do 20 burpees. Twenty! Venti!

But I survived, and had an agonizing stretch, until Jason helped me relax and my back cracked the most glorious crack of back cracks that have ever cracked. Ahhhhhhh.

And my commute is now making it up to me by giving me every train connection perfectly timed, WITH a seat! Train karma!

Training day!

It's training day! I missed Monday because work went kind of crazy. So today I made it a point to make sure I got out on time 

Although I haven't been getting nearly enough sleep lately - not that I'm complaining - so my energy was definitely down in today's session. That didnt stop Jason from making me do crazy things!

We started at the squat rack. Well, when we first got there, there was a towel thrown over the bar. Apparently it's some sort of free-weight room man-code that I assume means 'mine, go away'. Jason immediately sent me off down the hall for walking warmup, and made me keep going back and forth until I guess he dealt with whoever had been there, because the bar was all cleared off and ready for me by the time I did my last round of lunges.

So, it was time to squat. And squat I did. And there was totally the awkward moment where I was clearly squatting a significant amount more than the grown man next to me. And his buddy noticed. But I was too busy standing up under 205 pounds to bother to answer, so Jason took care of that too. Anyways, Two hundred pounds!! I still can't believe it, and I've been doing it for weeks! Crazy

So we left the free weight room and finished with the kettlebells. Just clean and press with the 25lbs, one arm swings with the 45lbs (technically it's only 43lbs, as written in marker on the top). And finished off with 25 snatches per arm, TWICE. And I was done. My body is tired, my brain is tired. I need a massage.

Training day - Springtime Leg Time

I swear Jason is trying to break me. 

Today we spent a lot of time in the free weight room. Like, deep in the belly of the beast. I wonder what guys think when girls are in there (besides the obvious), and then we start lifting serious weight, and they're like, oh she's not kidding around, this is serious! Haha, silly guys

Anyways we even did warmup, in the free weight room, where Jason sent me on walking lunge and side lunge, ACROSS the free weight room, through the sea of racks and plates and dudes. But sure enough, once I plowed my way down, space magically opened up and I had a free lane to stretch my legs.

I thought I would have to inchworm across the room too, but no, we spared the guys from that distraction. Besides, we had to stay close by the squat racks to get ready to jump in at the first chance we had.

But in the meantime, with two 20lb dumbbells, I had reverse lunge into single leg deadlifts, and a new one: side lunges while holding a big plate over my head. I didn't see how much it was, but I would guess it was about 25lbs.

Finally the squat rack opened up, and today was NO JOKE. I did more reps at higher weights than ever today, and Jason just kept piling on the plates, until I literally hit my max.  Like one more plate and something would probably have snapped. I can already feel that I'm going to be sore tomorrow. I'm not even halfway home and I can feel it. Like, I seriously can't walk normal because of legs day.

Fortunately, I only work with the best, and Jason knows what he's doing, even when I think it's crazy. And I end up lifting way more than I ever would have on my own. I think why it works so well is because he figured out early on that he'll just add the weights and I'll just lift them and there's no reason to put silly ideas in my head like the fact that I have TWO HUNDRED AND TEN POUNDS on my shoulders, and I have to squat down and stand back up without breaking my neck.

Yeah, it's better that I don't know these things until after I'm done. Oh, did you miss that? I squat 210lbs today!! More than 150% of myself! Remember back when I was squatting like 110? Yeah that's basically my cool-down now. CRAZY

Anyways after squatting 210lbs, I did a burn set with lighter weights because obviously my legs hadn't had enough yet. And we were only halfway through the session.

We left the free weight room to go up front to the kettlebells. Where Jason gathered the whole crowd: 45lb, 35lb, and 25lbs

And I had to do:

45lb bell: one arm swing

35lb bell: jerks

25lb bell: snatch

With one minute jumprope in between. Because apparently the only way to get skinny is to torture me with jumprope. Bah.

Stretching today was so necessary, and we took extra time to stretch out my back, and to stretch out my splits. 'Squats AND splits?! Your next boyfriend better be thanking ME' he says. Hahaha, yes I'll make sure whoever that is sends over a gift basket, hahaha!

Training Day - St Patty's edition

Well, another St Patty's day come and gone, and this year I spent it with the rest of the revelrous masses collapsed on a wet sticky floor. Except unlike everyone else, I haven't had anything to drink today. I just couldn't stand up after spending an hour with Jason and his increasingly insane workouts

For the third session in a row, I have ended a set hunched in a little ball of stunned exhaustion, only to have Jason hover over me and cheerfully exclaim, "okay, another set!" ung.

Technically, I asked for this.

We started easy enough, we always start easy, just to trick my body into a false sense of security before the real work begins:

Walking warmup, and then a few rounds of one arm swings (first with the 35, then with the 45lb bell) with a minute jumprope in between

Then I did some clean and jerks with the 35lb bell, with burpees in between (oof)

THEN, 20 snatches (per.arm.), with my buddy the 25lb bell, followed by a minute of mountain climbers in between

...have you ever done a MINUTE of mountain climbers?!? 60 seconds of your entire body unable to decide which part hates you more, your legs, your arms, or your core) the first set was plenty for me. but of course I had to do a second set (after picking myself off the floor) so i somehow make it through twenty more snatches (each) and one MORE minute of mountain climbers ('you dont have to sprint, just dont stop' he says)  

okay by now I'm done and more than happy to proceed to stret---WHAT ANOTHER SET?! full-body shut down. After the last five seconds miraculously count down and I can stop dripping face-sweat on the floor, I huddle into an involuntary child's pose, and then instead of standing straight up like a human being, my body flumps sideways and I have one of those "I like this floor, this is a nice floor" moments.

I really think he's trying to kill me, and I paid him to do it. I MUST be crazy :)

Thursday, it's training day!

Today was not a very great day. But at least I had training to look forward to. No mater what, training day always ends well!

It was a no-nonsense training session, and I was already exhausted from a long day, so it worked out pretty well ( and I worked out pretty hard)

Quick warmup of 3 point lunge, and walkout pushups

Then it was straight to the Bulgarian bag for spins, overhead squat and jump squats (twice in one week! My legs couldn't believe it)

Then clean & jerks with the 35lb bell, follwed by L sits (blahhh...at least I can keep my feet off the ground now)

Then to lighten it up a bit (and by that of course I mean lift even heavier), deadlifts with the 70lb red bell, along with one arm rows with the 25lb dumbbell

Then just 15 burpees, which I actually, miraculously, finished in one set before curling up in the fetal position. Also known as child's pose.

Monday training - march madness begins

Today was legs day. Undeniably, unmistakably, LEGS day.  Mind you, my legs are still sore from last week's legs day (squatting 205lbs, what what!), not to mention my 'fun run' yesterday (it was just so nice out for the first time all year, I couldn't come up with an excuse NOT to run outside)

Regardless, none of that factors in to training, by now Jason is immune to my futile attempts at being lazy. So we started with the usual walking warmup, with an added bonus of walking with the rubber tube strapped to my ankles. Because my legs don't already hate me enough (little did they know what was coming up )

Then we got into the workout, skipping straight over all the usual kettlebells and going straight for the red bell, I think it's 50 pounds, and you almost never see people using it, not even the guys. So of course that's what I start with! Swings of the two hand AND one hand variety (Oof), followed by step-ups (with two 20lb dumbbells), and then push press (with same said dumbbells). And repeat that a few zillion times.

While I was finishing that set, Jason disappeared to the side, only to return holding the ends of the biggest loser rope. D'oh! I know I have to do those later this month on my own and if tonight is any indication, it is probably not going to look nearly as cool as it does on TV. Regardless, I pumped away trying to keep the wave going. (sidenote, if you ever find yourself in a moment that you wish would never end, these ropes are a great way to make 20 seconds feel like 20 minutes!) At least my legs got a break while my shoulders did some work.  Then it was right back to legs with box jumps. But I like those, box jumps are good. I can do box jumps, and even land pretty. Thanks to my childhood devoted to ballet and landing like a butterfly, 'not an elephant'. Hah

So, by now it seems like we've done a lot of stuff, and it's almost time to go, and surely we'll end with a cool down or abs or some sort of stretch and I can go on my merry way, yes?

Sure, all I had left to do were just 10 bodyweight squats and 15 jumpsquats. No weights, nothing crazy, it SOUNDS simple enough, but as I was about to learn, there was a catch. there's always a catch. so here's the catch. I had to hold each squat for ten seconds, then in theory go straight into jumps. The first five squats were alright, the last five squats were not so happy. The jump squats were PURE EVIL. I literally had to catch my breath halfway through, KEEP GOING despite my legs burning infernal flames of agony, and collapsed immediately upon completion. It took all of me to get up and do that shit a second time. I think Jason's crazy is getting worse, and it's starting to rub off onto me!

The last thing I remember was rolling from the fetal position onto a mat that materialized next to me and then laying there for about a minute before I realized that Jason wasn't even in the room.  (He had left to go find a towel. Triumphantly he returned, towel in row, and stretched my poor numb legs while I giggled uncontrollably due to my unfortunate pain-reflex of laughter)

Thursday training - lent edition

It's Thursday, it's training day. It's also lent, and I am paying penance for February big time. 

I managed to get to the gym in time without having to sprint to the locker room to get ready, which was nice for a change. This time I had to wait for Jason to be ready for me!

So we headed over to the free weight room, but today it was more like the oxymoron room because everything was taken. Both squat racks, and even the backup squat machine. So we started with warmups instead, 3 point lunges and swings with the 45lb bell

Then we went back to the squat rack, where some guy was doing deadlifts. Irk. So I did some backwards lunge to deadlift with two 25lb dumbells

Then, FINALLY, it was my turn for squats. A quick warmup with light weights, then we got straight to the point, 205lb squats. 3 reps. My legs still haven't realized what just happened. That will come tomorrow

After many rounds of high fives, we finished with Kettlebell, naturally. With the 35kb bell, push presses, then clean and jerks, and ending with a lightning round of 30 snatches (per arm!) with the 25lb bell.

Since I was the lucky last client of the day, we had plenty of time to stretch, and Jason was cracking jokes left and right which had me laughing through the pain. And we had time to plan my calendar for the month, but when Jason has the luxury to take his time, it means a CRAZY month planned for me. But, after February, I definitely deserve it

Case of the Mondays

Mondays are tough. Training is tough (and fun, but still tough) weigh ins are the worst. Especially after a particularly difficult month. Actually after the fact I'm surprised I didn't do more damage considering I barely did any cardio (we'll blame the fifty snowstorms a little bit on that one), ate whatever was most convenient, and barely got any sleep while completely changing every routine in my life. (New job = new commute = new neighborhood = new schedule = mild anxiety attack = FOOD)

So we measured the damage, and I'm up to 136lbs (eep), 29.5" waist (blergh) and my limbs got a little more fat, but suspiciously my belly fat dropped 2% (maybe he missed the prime pinching spot because there is definitely more to pinch than last month, bleck)

So numbers wise I didn't change that much, it's just distributed strangely over different parts of my body now.

So we skipped putting my calendar together, and went straight to the workout (because clearly I need it)

Walking warmup while Jason gathered the tools (jumprope And kettlebells). Today I got to use his kettlebells! I mean I always use his kettlebells, but these ones are the ones he trains with, they're competition size or something, they're all the same size but weigh different.  So today I worked with the blue one and the yellow one. I forget how much they weigh, but the blue one is lighter than yellow.

So I alternated snatch with the blue (1 minute each arm) and jerks with the yellow (1min each arm) with one minute jumprope before and after each set. I got up to 19 snatches and I think 10 jerks per arm.

Then we ran out of time so I got to skip burpees but also had to stretch myself. Sadface