Today was a rare day when I decided to allow myself to sleep in 'til the late hour of 7:30 am since I didn't have any major Sunday plans and I've been battling a cold all week. Somehow, however, my internal clock decided that 4:45 was a more appropriate time to rise. Urghhh even my dog wasn't interested in getting up at that time! After tossing and turning, trying to will myself back to sleep, I finally decided that 5:30 was as late as I was going to get. So, up I got, turned on the coffee maker, and cooked up some yummy eggs to start my day. One thing I love about the early morning is that it's so quiet. Everything's still and you can go about your tasks without being bothered. Amazingly, the gym was just as empty when I arrived at 7:00 and the solitude lasted for my entire workout! This was a nice contrast to yesterday when for some reason there was an 8:00-9:00 am weight room mob scene pre-spin class. Odd how people's schedules change for no apparent reason.
Anyway, after a week of trying to stick to my new diet & fitness regimen despite feeling lousy, I amped it up in the gym this weekend to make sure I didn't fall behind. After doing bi's & back yesterday, today was all shoulders, chest & core. Here was the split:
- Standing cable crossovers (3x12)
- Standing arnold press (3x10)
- Front raises (3x15)
- Stability ball chest press (3x12)
- Incline forward crunches with weighted pullovers (3x20-18-16)
- Stability ball side-to-side crunches (3x16)
- Push-ups (3x8) - 1 set with feet on stability ball and hands on bosu / 1 set with feet on floor and hands on bosu / 1 set with feet on stability ball and hands on floor
The first set of push-ups where both my feet and hands were balancing were extremely hard since I hadn't attempted these in a long time but they work your core so well that I am definitely going to do them more often. If you feel comfortable doing either of the other two kinds I mentioned, then I highly recommend trying these! Given that I am now hitting each muscle group at least twice per week, I decided to only do one or two chest exercises each time I do chest simply because chest is not an area I want to get too big...not muscle-wise anyway hahaha! Shoulders and core are way more important to me as they are two areas that are most visually prominent on a fit physique.
Being there so early, I was able to have most of the room to myself and get all of the equipment I wanted which makes such a difference. Although, I think the heat doesn't kick-on 'til mid-morning in that place because it was frigid for the second Sunday in a row. I hadn't planned to do any cardio today but ended up doing a quick 10-minute running interval just to warm myself up in between muscle groups! It also probably didn't help me that I was not feeling fully awake throughout my workout. Today was a morning I probably could have benefited from downing a scoop of pre-workout on my way in! I really don't like the stuff in general (makes my heart race too much and disrupts my sleep when taken prior to evening workouts) but it sure does charge you up for a killer weight sesh!
After I had completed my routine, I went over to the mats to do some all-over stretching and one of the regulars came up to me to say how he'd noticed that I've been making improvements in my upper body muscle-tone! Now, of course he could have just been saying that to make me feel better and give me a little encouragement since he does happen to know the ultimate fitness goal I'm working toward but regardless, that one compliment totally made my day. It also gave me a little extra incentive to bust-ass (literally) tomorrow when I hit my glutes! So, if you see someone deserving of a compliment, be it in the gym or elsewhere, don't be hesitant to pay it forward. You never know what's going on in there life, what they're working toward, or if they're having a shitty day and hearing something nice can totally change their perspective on things.
Now I'm sitting at home having my mid-morning snack when most other people are probably just getting up to have breakfast. Feels so good to have a full-day ahead of me and already have checked so much off my list!
Anyway, after a week of trying to stick to my new diet & fitness regimen despite feeling lousy, I amped it up in the gym this weekend to make sure I didn't fall behind. After doing bi's & back yesterday, today was all shoulders, chest & core. Here was the split:
- Standing cable crossovers (3x12)
- Standing arnold press (3x10)
- Front raises (3x15)
- Stability ball chest press (3x12)
- Incline forward crunches with weighted pullovers (3x20-18-16)
- Stability ball side-to-side crunches (3x16)
- Push-ups (3x8) - 1 set with feet on stability ball and hands on bosu / 1 set with feet on floor and hands on bosu / 1 set with feet on stability ball and hands on floor
The first set of push-ups where both my feet and hands were balancing were extremely hard since I hadn't attempted these in a long time but they work your core so well that I am definitely going to do them more often. If you feel comfortable doing either of the other two kinds I mentioned, then I highly recommend trying these! Given that I am now hitting each muscle group at least twice per week, I decided to only do one or two chest exercises each time I do chest simply because chest is not an area I want to get too big...not muscle-wise anyway hahaha! Shoulders and core are way more important to me as they are two areas that are most visually prominent on a fit physique.
Being there so early, I was able to have most of the room to myself and get all of the equipment I wanted which makes such a difference. Although, I think the heat doesn't kick-on 'til mid-morning in that place because it was frigid for the second Sunday in a row. I hadn't planned to do any cardio today but ended up doing a quick 10-minute running interval just to warm myself up in between muscle groups! It also probably didn't help me that I was not feeling fully awake throughout my workout. Today was a morning I probably could have benefited from downing a scoop of pre-workout on my way in! I really don't like the stuff in general (makes my heart race too much and disrupts my sleep when taken prior to evening workouts) but it sure does charge you up for a killer weight sesh!
After I had completed my routine, I went over to the mats to do some all-over stretching and one of the regulars came up to me to say how he'd noticed that I've been making improvements in my upper body muscle-tone! Now, of course he could have just been saying that to make me feel better and give me a little encouragement since he does happen to know the ultimate fitness goal I'm working toward but regardless, that one compliment totally made my day. It also gave me a little extra incentive to bust-ass (literally) tomorrow when I hit my glutes! So, if you see someone deserving of a compliment, be it in the gym or elsewhere, don't be hesitant to pay it forward. You never know what's going on in there life, what they're working toward, or if they're having a shitty day and hearing something nice can totally change their perspective on things.
Now I'm sitting at home having my mid-morning snack when most other people are probably just getting up to have breakfast. Feels so good to have a full-day ahead of me and already have checked so much off my list!
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