Monday, January 2, 2012

Slow Start To The Resolution Season

I couldn't help but judge in the judgement free zone today. In my defense, I really didn't have a lot going for me from the start. First, I forgot to take something for my end-of-workday headache and thought I could run it out which trust me, does not work. Then, on my way into the gym some passers-by were chowing on some pizza and I realized that I had forgotten to avoid Planet Fitness on the first Monday of the month, yet again. To my surprise, however, there were far fewer New Year's Resolutioners in attendance than I had expected. There wasn't even a line-up for the cardio machines like there was pre-Christmas and the stretching mat area, typically a sea of people during the 5-6pm hour was pretty empty. What really aggravated my headache however was the worst display of poor form I may have ever witnessed from the guys upstairs in the weight room. Now, I understand that a few of these characters were definite weight lifting novices but most of them were faces I'd seen many times before, swinging their weights and making a horrendous fool of themselves. Then there was the guy on the hamstring curl machine sitting there reading a magazine for, no joke, a good 10 minutes straight. Not to mention the two guys performing the worst squats (we're talking knees a good foot in front of feet!) I'd ever seen while wearing beach sandals and pajama pants. For the novices out there, if you really don't know what you're doing, please ask someone who looks like they do or else think about buying a training session just to get some basic form down. If not for your gym reputation then at least for injury avoidance! To the guys who consistently embarrass not only themselves but also those like me who don't want to admit to going to a gym which such an abundance of dumbasses, please please please take your "moves" elsewhere and stop taking up floor space from the rest of us serious gym goers.

Now, onto my workout regimen for the day. I started with a 15 minute run/walk warm-up. After making so much progress over the past couple of months I ended up cramping up really quickly today. Not sure what could have caused it so hopefully its not a sign of more weak runs to come this week. Maybe I'll have better luck a World's where its not so dark and pizza-smelling! Given that Planet doesn't have a lot of the equipment for most of the things I've been doing lately, I chose to do bi's and tri's today since it's mostly a free-weight workout. Here's the rundown of my routine, including abs:

1. 3 sets of 8 regular bicep curls standing on the bosu ball (one set on both feet, one set balancing on the right foot and then the last set on the left)
2. 3 sets of 8 tricep kickbacks (each arm)
3. 3 sets of 8 hammer curls on the bosu (same leg balancing combo as above)
4. 3 sets of 8 tricep bench dips with feet on a stability ball
5. 4 sets of 8 leg lifts on the standing leg lift machine (2 sets front lifts, 2 sets side-to-side)
6. 3 sets 8 stability ball leg lifts

Afterward, I stretched out on the mats and then called it quits. Unlikely that I'll hit up Planet again for the rest of the week although given the crowds at World's lately (a result of former Planet Fitness "brookies" joining World's after Planet eliminated a lot of equipment) I'm afraid of what tomorrow might bring. It's possible that the Resolutioners had today off from work, thus hitting up the gyms at odd hours, and tomorrow's 5:00 rush will be a nightmare. I'll hope for the best though. Anyway, Happy 2012 to all the Gym Rats out there! Here's to our fittest year yet!

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