Today was the first workout of my new routine. Not knowing how much time I'd need to get everything I wanted done, I chose to get out of bed a half hour earlier than normal (so 5:45am) and be on the gym floor by 6:15 at the latest. Waking up earlier didn't present much of a problem although my first thought was to go back to sleep for that half hour I missed, but like the trooper I am, I climbed out of a nice warm cozy bed beside a nice warm cozy woman and got dressed.
The gym was busier than i expected, a lot busier. There must have been a dozen or so people doing their thing, when I was arriving at 6:45, i might see half a dozen, sometimes a few more, but to my surprise, there were more people at this early hour. With notepad in hand, I set about this new plan of attack; first would be floorwork: stretching, situps, side planks, front planks, pushups, leg extensions, squats, lunges, etc.
Next up was the weights. This was the moment of truth: would my aching shoulder hold up? How much strength did I still have after months and months of cardio? How much weight could i push without pushing my body too far. I didn't want to hurt myself and my goal was to pump weight quickly: do faster reps and more sets for a good burn. The first thing I noticed was that my legs were exhausted from the lunges and squats. There's a big difference between riding an elliptical for miles where your body is supported and the pressure of your body weight isn't impacting your legs and actually allowing your legs to support your body as you move. This is why trainers generally don't like elliptical machines. Your muscles just don't get the same workout, sure you burn more calories which I'm a fan of, but you don't build core strength and you notice it when you run upstairs and feel the burn in your thighs. Not in as great of shape as you thought now are you?
My shoulder reacted painfully to incline presses with dumbells, it was worse with butterflies. But this is how you build your chest, through bench presses. I gritted my teeth and powered through it, the warrior that I am :-) I worked my back too, my plan was to spend every other day working a different section of my body. The floor work will be daily, but the weight lifting will be chest and back one day, arms and shoulders the next. This will give my body a day to recover before I attack it again. And I went moderate with the weight, enough to make the last couple of reps harder but not enough to risk injury, and I did them quickly.
I was finished by 7:45 which surprised me a bit. But I also cut out a couple of sets due to fatigue so once they're back in, I should be done closer to 8. That'll give me a chance to do 20 minutes of cardio as a cooldown (and a calorie burner) before I shower and head off to work. For the first time in a while, I felt like I had a workout. Sure I was sweaty after doing 70 minutes of cardio, but there's something more exhausting about lifting weights and pushing your body harder. Showering was a bit of a chore as it was hard lifting my arms above my head to wash my hair but I felt a sense of satisfaction in the job I did.
Knowing my body, the pain will set in overnight. I should be sore and slow tomorrow when I crawl out of bed (literally) but I'm looking forward to working my arms and seeing what my shoulder can handle. I'm also going to try and add in the sets I missed today, it was all floorwork, lunges and squats that I cut back on today so I'll see about finishing it properly.
Today's also the day I return to my regular eating patterns, the "lifestyle" change as I call it. Gone again is the bread that vexed me the past month, as well as the junk that crept into my life. I know Red is frustrated too and is wanting to get back to normal; we received our engagement photos on Friday and while there were some cute pics of us in them, we could see the puffiness in our faces and bodies from the past month's debauchery. I think it was a good wake up call. Sometimes you need that. I know we did.
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