Thursday training - back to it!

Today we made up for my pathetic excuse of a workout on Monday. Wasting no time, we marched straight to the pull-up bar. for 5. I think I did mostly one by myself. And then complained for the rest of them (fifteen total, by the last one, I could barely grip the bar, much less hoist myself up there). In between sets I did halos with the lighter bell, and my forearms were already getting pumped (in the actual blood-engorged way, not the really-excited-to-be-here way).

And that was just the warmup. We moved deeper into the freeweight room for some good old fashioned barbell clean and overhead presses. With 50lbs, then 70lbs. Then 80. Jason tried to show me a new technique with the 80 where you push off with your knees or something? It looked cool in theory, and was not going to happen in reality. So we scrapped that idea.

Someone was hogging the squat rack, so I had to use the huge machine instead. I'd rather do squats. Oh well.

Then we moved up front to finish the session with some easier stuff. So swing to squats with the 40lb bell, snatches with the 25, and over the shoulder hoisty things with the medicine ball (throw overs? Overshoulders? I forget what they're really called)  and even though it feels easy, and it sounds simple, by the end I was sweating buckets. Ew

Then some stretching, and now I'm on vacation for a week! Woohoo!

Monday training - birthday recovery

Yesterday was my birthday. Today was rough. As soon as I walked in to the gym, Jason knew this was not going to go well. So while I shuffled off to change, he came up with an easy workout and we got through it together. 

Walking warmup, then leg band warmup.  Then we stuck with my buddy the 25lb bell for the rest of the session, and I just focused on getting through in one piece.

One arm swings, with decreasing reps each set (it's a birthday miracle!)

Then cleans, with an extra set of swings in there because Jason wasn't paying attention, and I forgot what I was supposed to be doing.

Then presses

Then clean and presses

Then snatches

And finally, clean and squats.

Oh, and vups. 

Then stretching! I survived! Now I can finally go home and curl up into my bed and never leave it ever again.

Thursday training - end of a decade

Welp, the time has always been looming on the horizon, and today was that day. The last session of my young and spritely twenties.  Yes, by the next time I'll be writing up a session post, I will be an old and wizened grown-up. 

So, as a rite of passage, today's theme was 'lets see if she makes it out alive'. And I did, just barely.

We started with jumprope, and Jason has regressed from counting down the time, to just telling me how long to go, to now just telling me to start and stopping me when time is up. And guess which method works the best (hint it's the last one. Apparently I function well in blissful ignorance). But I did five minutes without stopping!! Haha! So we were off to a good start

Then a quick warmup with the stretchy band, pulling it open with my arms extended in front of me, then with my arms overhead, and finally pulling it from behind my back. That one is killer on the shoulders

Then I did a whole bunch of stuff with the 17.5lb dumbbells: reverse lunge with overhead press, and alternating side lunge. 

And then he tried to kill me: with the 17.5lb dumbbells racked, 15 deep squats followed immediately by 15 jump squats (yeah, STILL with the dumbbells). You know it's crazy when the other trainers are staring in disbelief. 

I do this thing after a crazy set where I walk in a circle around the weight. After this set, I was doing laps around my trainer. jump squats are mean. Weighted jump squats are pure evil.

When I had recovered (barely), we continued with bent over rows and walkout pushups (this is the workout equivalent of having breakfast for dinner)

While I was doing my last few walkout pushups, Jason gathered the mat and towels per our usual time-for-stretching routine. But it was not time for stretching. He was preparing my deathbed.

Leg raises. Toe touches. V-ups. Dead.

Monday training

Today we took it pretty easy. And easy means the 32lb and 42lb kettlebells, with some medicine ball thrown in, just for fun

Also, everyone was distracted by the World Cup match playing, the one where USA scored a goal within the first minute

So, we took it easy:

Warmup, walking warmup across the floor, which was pretty empty and easy for me to barrel down. And even more walking warmup with the lobster band strapped above my knees (my butt, it burns!)

Then one arm swings with the 30lb bell while Jason recounted how well he did during his KB competition over the weekend (woohoo!)

Then cleans, then jerks, then clean and jerks, all with the 30lb bell

And then we moved on to the big guys: swing to squat with the 42lb bell. Then for the grand finale, I had to take the 40lb medicine ball, hoist it up above my head, then slam it down as hard as I could. Unwieldy is putting it mildly. By the end I was getting the hang of it, but I'm not very good at slamming things or making big noises, so it took a couple rounds to really get it right

Then just a few back bridge pushups for good measure, and then stretching time, and we really dug into my IT band today (ouchie)

Thursday training day

So, a funny thing happened this morning. I was groggily going through the usual get-presentable-for-public-interaction routine, and right when I reached the point of folding up the cuff of my pants (yes I'm short, lets move on), I stood up and immediately felt a surge of hot pain shoot up my right knee. So I hobbled around in shock and agony, and it seemed like I could bend my leg just fine in any direction, and even stretch it out with my toes pointed, AND even stand on it on my tippy toes. But as soon as I tried to stand flat on the ground, the same intense hot pain came back again.

And I still had to get to work. Somehow I was able to find a pair of shoes that I could walk in without looking like an injured foal, but I definitely was concerned on how I would fair during an actual workout.

It's a good thing my trainer is super awesome.

'Yeah, that's not good' he says when i recount my eventful morning. so he had me start with the foam roller to loosen up my legs, and then use the pain-ball to really dig into my hamstrings.

Then we started with walkout pushups and windmill arm things with 5lb weights (dont let the light weights fool you, those things are tough)

We did a lot of new stuff today, that's what I get for missing a session!

For the first set, we used 17.5 lb dumbells, and I did these things where I press the weights up while going down into a lunge. I bet they have a name, I just have no idea what it would be. Then with two 30lb kettlebells, I had burpees. Yes, burpees. Of course, it was more like burpee down, deadlift up. The hardest part was keeping the pushup steady on the handles of the kettlebells, I kept trying to push out instead of straight down.

Then for something completely different, with two 25lb dumbbells, I went into a deep squat, Korean-style, and did overhead presses, yes, while still in the  squat. Which immediately sparked a debate over whether this was actually a real thing or if jason was just making it up. Expert witnesses were consulted, the results were inconclusive (Apparently it's real, he googled it, a Sots squat or something)

Anyways, I banged out a few of those and my back could really feel the effects (not to mention my arms, yeesh). And we finished off with good mornings, Kettlebell style. With the 30lb bell, bring it behind your head like a halo, but lower it down until its resting on your back holding onto the handle, then bend forward and stand back up again. All was good until the end when I had to 'dismount' the bell. By now my arms were so tired that I couldn't pull the bell back around my head! Good thing Jason was there to help me out of my predicament.

We finished with a few sets of v-ups, then stretching, woohoo! I made it through the whole session with no pain in my leg at all. One of the perks of training with the best :)

Thursday Training - Super duper easy peasy

Thursday, June 5, 2014

It would help if I actually published this when I wrote it! Sheesh.

Thursday, it's training day. Work was crazy. And not just for me. I think both of us needed an easy session today, so I just did a bunch of heavy lifting, without toooo much cardio.

Just three minute jumprope to start. Blah, my entire legs were on fire. Like, I could feel my thighs tightening in the burn as I finished time.

Then, with a 17.5lb dumbbell in each hand, I walking lunged my way back and forth across the room. Fortunately it was pretty empty today, so I didn't have to dodge too many bodies. And some clean and presses thrown in for good measure

Then, with two 30lb kettlebells, I did deadlifts and one hand alternating swings (with just one bell of course. remember that time I threw out my back doing those with the 45lb bell? Fun times)

And we finished with holding one of the 30lb bells goblet style while doing side lunge and cross reverse lunge backward curtsy things.

And then we were basically out of time (we were a little chatty today), so I just had v-ups and quick stretching, and done!  Quick and painless (well, some pain, but less than usual)

Monday Training Day - Holy Hip Opener batman!

It's Monday, you know what that means, training day! And after this weekend, I needed to get my butt kicked into shape.  And Jason was more than happy to oblige.

It is also the first training sesh of the month which can only mean one thing: weigh in. Argh. I know I've been bad this month, and haven't worked out nearly as much as I should, and eaten way too much, including the clean eating challenge (it may be clean, but it was still over 1300 calories per day!)

So, I weighed in the heaviest ever, at just over 139lbs (I still think the bar was tipping lower, but whatever). But my measurements dropped (by a sliver) and we ended up at 26.5% bodyfat. So even though I feel like a hefer, to most people I probably look exactly the same. Oh well.

So we got right into it with the leg bad of deep dark doom. Seriously, this thing is beasty. Picture the rubber band you put over lobster claws, only human sized, and it goes around your thighs. And then imagine walking across the room with this band tight around your legs, and then also side-stepping across the room. And then imagine that as you are stomping your way down, someone lit a match inside your legs, and now the deep insides of your muscles are smoldering and the fire is spreading. And you still have to go back. That was the first exercise

Then we continued warmup (we haven't even gotten to the workout yet!) with the 35lb Kettlebell for one arm swings.

Then, still with the 35lb bell, clean and jerks,  followed by 2 minutes jumprope, evil evil jumprope. We also did swing to squats with the 45lb bell. Again followed by jumprope. At first Jason was counting down the time, but it kept throwing me off and I would trip because the mind games would psych me out. So for the last few rounds of jumprope I asked him to only tell me when the time was over, and I made it the whole two minutes without tripping!

Then I did snatches with the 35lb bell (yikes), and by the last set I was exhausted. Like, beyond exhausted. Like, it almost went flying out of my hand once because my grip had given up. And the last set of jumprope, I couldn't make it ten seconds without tripping, my feet just would not get off the floor. That's what I get for letting myself get lazy and blobby.

So we finished with the usual stretching, with some new stretches we've been doing, such as holding down my knees in butterfly until my hips feel like they're going to pop out. Super duper hip opener. Like wow

Clean Eating Week: Food Prep Sunday

Okay, so everyone was much amused by my buzzfeed Clean Eating challenge, and although I didn't make it to the second week, I'm surprised I made it as far into the first week as I did.

But, as I mused on my summary post, the worst part about the clean eating challenge (besides surviving without coffee) was how much work and cooking time was involved. Not very practical or realistic for a working girl who hates cooking.

I have my own version of clean eating that is both reasonable and affordable.  It's basically an example of 'if I can do it, you can probably do it better'. Because I'm lazy.

So. My typical week of clean eating usually involves $50 or less of groceries, and 3-4 hours of food prep (per week, NOT day! That would be ridiculous!)

In a nutshell, I try to do all the food prep on Sunday, divide it up into containers for each day, and then I'm done with cooking for the week! Huzzah!  The downside is, if I don't prep everything on Sunday, I'm much less likely to do anything until the next week, and my diet completely derails. D'oh.

I usually get 90% of my food from Trader Joe's but this weekend I wasn't able to make it over there, so I got everything at the local grocery store in my neighborhood (so it was a little pricier than usual, but still under $50)

Grocery list for the week:

Breakfast:

32oz plain non-fat yogurt - $4.99

Bob's red mill honey oat granola - $3.99 (won't use the whole thing this week. I usually get TJ's praline granola)

6 oz Fresh blackberries - $2.50

1 lb Fresh strawberries - $2.50 (I never find strawberries that don't look like a mushy hot mess. These looked spectacular, I couldn't not get them!)

Snacks:

2 apples - $1.85

2 pears - $2.75

2 forelle pears - $2.54

Baby carrots - $1.50

8 oz Hummus - $2.79

5 Bananas - $2.04

Lunch:

Small Lettuce head - $1.00

Nappa cabbage - $4.96

1/2 lb Sun dried tomatoes - $3.68 (I used half, save the other half for next week)

2 sweet potatoes - $1.52

3 limes - $.75

Dinner: 

1 lb Frozen mixed veggies - $.99 (there was a sale, so I stocked up on these for the month)

2 broccoli stalks - $2.49

Things I already had:

quinoa

Frozen chicken breast

Almonds

Spices, oil, etc...

Storage containers

Not too shabby, and easily carried home by myself.

It took about three hours to prep all my meals for the week.  I'll try to write up the prep guide and recipes for what I did with all that food!

(Here's a sneak peek):