Training day - end of an era.

Well, it's Tuesday. The last Tuesday that will ever matter.  They say that the leading cause of divorce is money, and I think that is absolutely true. today I had to divorce my trainer. Because I have no money* 

(* I do HAVE money, but not in a rich-person-who-can-afford-a-personal-trainer kind of way)

We knew this day would inevitably arrive, but that doesn't make it suck any less.  It was a big decision to start training in the first place, but it was just as big a decision to stop. And a lot harder than i thought it would be. I've learned so much about myself, and so much has changed and improved in my life. and I'm gonna miss hanging out with Jason every week. Sadface.

The best scenario would be to hit the jackpot (or, you know, work really hard and get a raise), then I can train all the time whenever I want!  But for now I'm on my own and will have to finally do this by myself.  I'm hoping that I will keep this up and find ways to motivate myself now that I know stuff. 

So today I got to choose whatever I wanted to do, and somewhere in my messed up little brain I chose legs day.

So we did legs.

So much legs.

To start, the walking warmup across the   room.  then with the lobster band snug around my thighs I waddled back and forth until my glutes were on FIRE.

Then it was time to squat. Yay! I warmed up with just the bar while Jason went around collecting weights, and yelling at bad gym-goers who were slamming weights for no reason and breaking stuff

Then we added more weights and I did more squats and I worked my way up to TWO HUNDRED pounds, of course!! We had to at least get to two hundred for our last day :)

Then we wove through the free weight room to find a box and a 50lb barbell. And I did some new things. With the bar racked on my back shoulders, I did step ups on the box. Then Facing away from the box and the bar racked in front, I put one leg behind on the box for reverse lunge. That was crazy because I totally couldn't see where the box was so needed Jason to tell me how far to stand. And those are hard!!

We finished with those and made our way up front, to do a quick set of swing to goblet squat with the 45 lb blue bell of doom (remember that one time when it broke me? Seems like such a long time ago)

Speaking of breaking me, we ended with Jason pulling out two 27.5lb dumbbells. He set them on the floor with his evil smile spread uncontrollably across his face, and I knew I was about to die. For 25 jump squats. In a row. All at once. While holding 55lbs. TWENTY-FIVE jump squats!! I braced myself, jumped my little heart out, and collapsed immediately after. Like, not even playing around, my legs were SO over this.  I managed to roll around and get some feeling back in my lower half enough to stand back up. If anything just to prove that I could still stand.

Then it was time to stretch. Sad stretch. I'm gonna really miss training, it had become just a normal part of my life and now I don't get to do it at all :(

Boxing Day

Second to last training sesh for the foreseeable future. Big sadface :(

The big wedding has come and gone, so I'm giving myself a mental break from the standard overly critical microanalysis of my appearance. And I'll just have fun for a week before my last session with Jason before I'll be on my own to keep this old body in shape.

So today we just had fun and did boxing. Even though it's been a while, I think I'm getting better, and my hands did not hurt as much as last time (which hurt less than the time before...progress!)

I even managed to get at least one real hook in there, among the sea of terrible attempts. But it was fun to just punchy punch for an hour.

The jump roping not so much, but that's the price you have to pay in order to get to the fun stuff. Like an entry fee

Now I'm racing off to get to the polling place near my house before it closes! Flexing my civic rights muscles. Go vote!

Training day - final countdown

It's almost the end of super crunch time crazy diet cardio weight training insanity week.  This week has been merciless and today's session was no exception.  I pick up the dress tomorrow, and I know it's going to look good. It better, after logging 55+ miles this month and dropping 4 pounds. Yeah, you heard me

So we start with the walking warmup, then go straight to a KB warmup: 40 1 arm swings with the 30lb bell, then skipping over 40lbs, we went straight to one arm swings with the 50lb bell. THEN two hand swings with the 70lb bell. Twice. That was just the warmup.

Then with two 17lb dumbells, Jason proceeded to break me:

Walking lunge with curl and press across the floor, then when I reached one end alternating between tuck jumps and burpees. But traveling burpees. Like instead of jumping up, jumping FORWARD. Like an exhausted sweaty frog. 

After doing those way too many times, J pulled out the ol' medicine ball for me to throw at the wall from a variety of angles. The most fun one was by far the over behind the head throw, that rolls the ball back to you if you do it right

Then, sufficiently fatigued, it was time for vups and backbridge pushups. And stretching, glorious stretching

And now just two more sessions left, MASSIVE SADFACE.

Tuesday training - countdown

It's the week before the week of the big wedding. I've been running my little booty off, and it's time to get some weight training in.

Jason, very pleased to see how much cardio I've been doing, was ready with a full-blown session planned

First, warmup with 1000m on the rower. Then arm pulls with the rubber tube handle contraption (front, overhead, and back)

For the rest of the session we used the 30lb Kettlebell and bulgarian bag:

One arm swings with the bell, spins with the bag.  A bunch of times

Then clean and jerks with the bell, and snatch with the bag

Then side lunge twists with the bag a bunch of times and finished with one arm bent rows with the bell

And 20 vups, all at once. Yikes!!

Tuesday training - dress fitting edition

It's Tuesday! And I finally have a dress for the upcoming family wedding (woohoo!) so, now we know exactly how much work I have to do by the end of the month.

Here's a sneak peek

So much work to do

So, we get right to it and head over to the free weight room. I start with halos with my buddy the 25lb Kettlebell

Then a new thing today using one of the weight machines. It's the one with a handle hanging off a pulley strap contraption, and you sit and pull it down towards your chest. So I did those with 60lbs, staring with a lat pull, and then pulling the bar all the way down

When we had enough of those we took over a free squat rack for squats, obviously. And a quick set of clean and overhead press (using the squat bar. Seriously one of my least favorite exercises. I'm so bad at these)

Fortunately I only had to do two sets then we moved up front for some more fun

With two 25lb bells, a few sets of cleans. Then with one KB, a few sets of snatches. Then back to two bells for bent rows and alternating bent rows (ungh!)

Then to complete my sessionof misery: burpees. By the end, my legs refused to leg. 

Then some stretching and I showed off my dress at all angles, to show how much work we have to do. So much. 

Tuesday training

You know what day it is!! It's Tuesday it's training day!  And it's the last time i'llbe renewing my sessions. MAJOR SADFACE

So before I could start moping, I had to go straight into the warmup: walking lunge, lateral lunge and inchworm. And one hand swings with the 30lb bell

Then a series with the 25lb bell:

5 Overhead press

5 clean and jerks

5 snatch to squat

5 clean and reverse lunge

The first two sets were individual, then the last set was all in a row

Now I'm sweaty

Then three sets of dragon twists in a row

Then, with 17.5lb dumbells, overhead walking lunge (it doesn't look nearly as cool as it sounds, or maybe exactly as not cool as it sounds)

Then, with two of Jason's special purple bells, I did 'farmers walk' which is basically holding these massive weights at your side while walking back and forth across the floor. Something about bone density. I later learned that each bell is 45lbs.

After three sets of that, my arms were nearly about to pop off, but Jason was not nearly finished.  Back to the 17.5lb dumbells for pushup/renegade rows (yay), then goblet sqyats with the huge bell that is very hard to hold. My arms literally popped off. well not LITERALLY literally, but definitely figuratively.

Finally we ended with three sets of V-ups, then streeeetttching!

Weight training with myself

Well, its been a long loooong time since I've had to weight train solo, and it was tough getting back into the groove. Having a trainer twice a week really spoils you that way.

Plus I was training in a new weight room with a weird layout and way too many lunky dudes around. Needless to say, still not a huge fan of the gym next to my office. Not nearly as cool as my gym uptown, but I just can't drag myself all the way up there every day. Even twice a week was becoming too much.

Anyways, I bit the bullet and ventured past the usual stretching area and eventually found the free weights....all the way in the back corner. There is literally NO open space in this stupid gym. The crappy weight machines are packed so tightly, you literally have to contort yourself to navigate across the room (and mind you, I'm tiny compared to 90% of the people using the space)

So I carve out a teeny me-size space between the bench press and emergency exit door, grabbing the 15 and 20lb dumbells on my way over

And proceeded to turn my arms into jelly:

Warmup:

20 Hindu pushups

40 Hindu squats

45 second bridge hold

2x

Workout:

15lb:

manmakers - 5 (don't laugh, it's been a while!)

20lb:

Squats - 12

Renegade rows - 10 each

Side lunge - 10 each

3x

Abs:

12 vups

12 side vups each side

3x

Stretch. Home.