Training on a Wednesday!

I had to cancel another Monday session because I was busy hanging out at the clubhouse at citi field watching the meta do their thing. It was pretty cool.

Fortunately Jason could fit me in today at 6:30, and I barely made it out of work on time thanks to people not understanding what a 'hard stop' means. It means you can keep talking all you want, I stopped listening two minutes ago and you're now talking to yourself, as was explained beforehand.

Hellish doesn't even begin to describe this week. I've barely had a chance to breathe, much less think about working out. But Jason was ready for me, and showed no mercy (well, a tiny sliver of mercy, but just barely)

We started with the usual walking warmup, AND lobster-band of evil.

Then a mix of exercises, starting with step up to overhead press, with 17.5 dumbells. Then deadlifts with the HEAVY red bell I think it's 50 or 60lbs. Then over the shoulders with the 40lb medicine ball.

Three times

Then with the 35lb bell, one 10 arm swings, to 10 cleans (each side), to 8 push press (each side)

Also three times

At this point a gaggle of geniuses enter the room and spend five minutes trying to figure out how to get the boxes out of their storage space. And we laughed and laughed.

But then it was back to business. Vups forever, and I just stayed collapsed on the floor and yelped while Jason tried to stretch my legs to unnatural levels of distortion.

And I get to do this again tomorrow! Huzzah!

Thursday training!

We are back in full force! Today's session was brutal, but it's been a while since I've gotten a good ass-whoopin' at the gym.  I barely made it on time, again, and Jason was ready and waiting

Walking warmup, but in the free weight room today, while Jason hovered over the next available squat rack. 

Then some good old fashioned squats. Just a light set today, we worked up to 175.  Then back up front for a killer bulgarian bag workout:

Spins to pushups to powersnatch and a billion squat jumps. Oh my legs. Oh my arms. So much sweat.

Then a quick set of pure evil. I mean squat presses. Or whatever they're called. Basically rack two kettlebells, squat all the way down, then alternate presses. While still squatting. And apparently the 15lb bells were way too easy, so I had to switch to the 25lbs. Somehow managed to survive that, but then we were back to the bag!! For reverse lunge twists, and overhead lift things.

And I'm dead now.

Thursday training

Walking into the gym today, It felt like ihadn't  been there in months, And i only missed one session! Although I did get a pretty good workout on Sunday helping a friend replace a pool liner, that is a tough job!  And I got a pretty sweet tan line out of the deal 

meaning it is not sweet at all, and it's gonna look weird for a while, but at the same time I kind of love it, but I'm strange like that

Anyways once we got over the tan we got straight to business. I was pretty tired today, actually I've been tired all week, so I tried to get pumped up for today's session but most of it was pretty lame (on my part). The usual walking warmup, then straight to Kettlebell work

Warmup with swings, cleans, etc... And then two bell workout of swings, cleans, clean and jerks. It was the jerks that got me, I had to do so many, and my hands were sore and my arms were tired and there were so so many to do.

And after the swings, my left neck knot starting throbbing so we took a quick break to work it out, where Jason first digs his finger in to push it around while I fight the agonizing scream just moments from screeching past my lips. Then he brought out this little contraption that looks like two small cones attached to a stick (like a tiny version of the american gladiators fighting sticks, where they try to knock each other off the pedestal?) except this thing is made of pure evil. I had to lie down on the mat, nestle the evil stick behind my shoulder and lift my arm above my head which while jason ever so gently pressed my hand all the way back. I basically had to tap out after three seconds, the pain is so intense. And I did this five times. After I was released from that death trap, my shoulder did feel a lot better. But at what cost?!

Anyways, we continued with dragon twists and then got super fancy with windmills. And then got more super fancier with windmill with half press things? I forget what it's called, it's where you start with the bell racked then press it up while the rest of you goes down. Then stand up like a regular windmill. Insane. And insanely hard.

Monday training - superhero day

So today I trained with captain America, well Jason dressed as captain America, or at least wearing a captain America tshirt. Which seemed odd that he didn't wear the usual training uniform, but then I saw batman and superman taking a group fitness class, and it was quite normal in comparison.

Today was a crazy hectic day and I was basically running on fumes by the time I got to the gym.  No mercy in training though, plus I have a huge company party tomorrow so I need to get in my preemptive strike today.

Three point lunge and walkout pushups and one arm swing with the bell to warmup

Then we did a bunch of things with the bulgarian bag and bells, in sets of two:

Spins to squats to pushups on the bag

Alternating swing with the 30lb bell

Power snatch to jump squat with the bag

clean and squat with the 25lb bell

Alternating jump lunges with the bag

Reverse lunge twists with the bag

Overhead lifts with the bag

Half snatch with the 30lb bell (yikes)

I was sooooo tired by now I had to power through those last few snatches

Then backbridge pushups, and stretching. My hamstrings are still sore from Mondays deadlifts. Still.so.sore.

Monday training - back to full speed

It's Monday, and kind of gloomy and ominous outside. Which means droves of people flocking to the gym

Good thing I have a trainer so I don't have to fight for the equipment!  Today the first question was how I was feeling. And I'm feeling great. Every day I'm back to normal and eating better and feeling less like a blobby waste of space. Nothing hurts (so far) and I'm ready to get back up to full speed.  Within reason, of course

Today was a moderately difficult session, starting to reincorporate heavy weights with basic (and some not so basic) movements.

Walking warmup then I zipped through the lobster band, a little too quick but I didn't have to do them again so oh well

Then with two 15lb dumbells, walking lunges with curl and presses, then with the 40lb Kettlebell: one arm swings and swing to front squats (Oof). Did those 3 times

Then with the 25lb Kettlebell, snatch to overhead squat to windmill (yep, all in one rep!) followed by renegade rows with the dumbbells (yay! I love those, it's been so long!) 3x

Then with 20lb dumbells, squat to press, aka 'thrusters' followed by 30lb Kettlebell single leg deadlifts. Also 3x

Then 15 vups, for good measure. And stretching!

Thursday training day - bells bells bells

Yay it's Thursday it's training day! It's been a few days back from vacation, and I already can feel my body desperately detoxing itself from a week+ of consumption and revelry. I'm still chubby and lumpy in all the wrong places, but I feel way better already after only a few days back on the regular

Objectives for the rest of the month: -get back on the supplements -get back to full hydration. Maybe next month we'll tackle getting more sleep.

I ranted, well okay whined, to jason about how tough it is to stay motivated now that everything has changed. I used to be at the gym every day and it was right there and so easy and I know everyone and the equipment works. Now it's out of the way and the other location sucks and I don't know anyone and the equipment is crap. So Jason said he would go with me to check it out and help me like it better, yay! It still won't be the same, but maybe I'll be more comfortable if he's there even just for one day

So we started with the basic walking warmup an lobster band, then got busy with a two 25lb Kettlebell workout:

One arm swings to start, then swings with two bells (actually everything after this was with both bells), I could feel a crick behind my neck with the swings, so Jason poked around my shoulder blade and found.the.spot. Apparently I have a 'massive knot' that he pushed around for about an hour (more like a minute, but it felt like eternity, an eternity of deep-rooted agony). We did the best we could and it did help relieve the pinching. Then it was on to cleans, squats, clean and squats, and some crazy stuff (that I swear Jason just makes up), alternating overhead press (with both bells, the first set was a wash but then I actually got the hang of it  and did pretty well with the rest).

Then, the most evil thing I've ever heard of: alternating cleans. My brain was like, 'yeah okay, wait wait...what?' Jason had to show me: from the rack, drop one bell, then as you clean, drop the other bell, and then keep alternating drops while magically keeping the other bell racked. Lets just say my first attempt went about as expected, it looked nothing like what he showed me. I could barely do one at a time, much less all of them in rapid succession. This was pretty much the Kettlebell equivalent of my pathetic doubles with the jumprope. I can keep trying, but it's not going to happen.

So we moved on from that craziness and did a set of overhead squats. It sounds so simple, until you have to get back up. I managed to get the proper muscle groups kind of working (my abs suck, they're so lazy and never want to do anything)

Then a few rounds of snatches (just with one bell, I was starting to get tired by now) and stretching and done! Woohoo!

Monday training - back from vacay

Well, I had a really great vacation, and even got in a few runs! Of course I still ate way more than I exercised and came back a chubby little food monster. Mercifully, we skipped the weigh in today and I'll have a week to detox from my vacation.

But this happened:

SUPER CRAZY AWESOME!!!

I got a surprise birthday present for a skydiving lesson at Skydive Baltimore, and it.was.awesome.

So of course the first thing I do when I get to the gym is make Jason watch the video (coincidentally, the skydiving instructor was also named Jason, which actually made me feel better at the time). Just watching the video again made me all giggly and super excited, perfect conditions to start a workout (since I was feeling kind of blahhhh before)

So, we got right to it: walking warmup, and lobster band warmup. Then a Kettlebell workout with a 25lb bell:

10 swings, cleans, press, and front squat, alternating arms. I think I did that twice

Then 5 half-snatch and overhead reverse lung each side.

Then 10 snatch/overhead lunge/half-drop, each arm

then 15 clean and jerks each arm, twice (the second round really focusing on my form and not sticking out my belly so much, apparently standing straight up is just asking too much from my stupid body)

THEN 15 swing to snatch, each arm. Which then popped off. I mean, I'm surprised they didn't pop off.

Then stretching (and yes, it's finally time for me to join the yoga studio down the street, my lack of flexibility is pathetic at this point)