Power Week

Good Saturday Morning gym rats! Whew what a week it’s been for me fitness-wise. When I woke last Sunday the outside edge of my left foot was bothering me but I shrugged it off as a mild irritation and went about my morning routine including my fav yoga class. Well, after taking a short mid-afternoon cat nap on the couch I tried getting up and boom! Nearly fell over as putting pressure on that foot was suddenly very painful and was now spread all over the left side of my foot and outer ankle. Great. Another sprain/twist like during my failed attempt at becoming a runner two years ago? I swear, I am just prone to leg injuries. I stretch. I foam-roll. I have excellent posture and lifting form. My body just apparently hates me. I have a sneaking suspicion that whatever has been going on in my shins over the past 8 or so months is somehow related and is probably the result of never fully recovering from one particular strain and continuing to train as normal. Anyway, I went about my day hobbling along hoping it would go away by the next morning. No such luck. Monday was a 2-ibuprophen every 4 hours kind of day, grimacing every time had to get up from my desk as it was always the initial pressure hit that hurt the worse. Tuesday morning it wasn’t any better so I used the little bit of joint wrap I still had left in my bathroom cabinet to make a makeshift wrap until I could get to the drugstore to purchase a better one. Tuesday was supposed to be legs day but that was in NO WAY going to happen. I was so depressed during my workout too as I was really looking forward to moving past or at least matching last week’s squat PR of 105 lbs. Couldn’t imagine putting that much weight on my poor foot though L Wednesday rolled around and still no better so it was day #3 of upper body lifts. Despite the change in routine, my lifts were actually fantastic this week because it was the first “Power” week of my new P/RR/S routine and since the reps per set were all 4-6 I was able to go heavier than ever on almost every exercise. Actually curling 20’s now almost with EASE and feeling super duper STRONG! I also added in tons more core work than usual this week as these new workouts don’t take me more than 30 or so minutes to finish and well clearly I can’t call that a full workout! When Thursday came I actually felt slight improvement, perhaps thanks to the better wrap I purchased Tuesday night and the constant ingesting of Ibuprophen, but I still opted for another upper body day just to be safe. So Friday morning arrives (yesterday), I have the day off from work to make up for that nightmarish 1-day weekend last weekend, and I am feeling ready to give leg day a shot. I figured I’d start with squats and DLs (the hardest and heaviest exercises on my plan) and if those were too painful I’d quit and switch to a core routine. Well, guess what? I blasted through my entire leg sesh, no pain at all (well, not more than usual anyway), and actually hit a new squat PR of 115! That's almost body-weight squats for me! Okay, so that’s probably not that heavy for most seasoned female lifters but I am happy with it. I actually think I could go heavier but I’m a little scared to without a spotter. I’ll probably continue to rep out the 115 until that becomes easy and then I’ll start to increase by like 5-10 additional lbs at a time. So happy with myself right now!

The funny thing is (switching the subject for a minute here), after a week of absolutely ZERO cardio, I actually lost 3 lbs! I wasn’t trying to of course but I still do my weekly weigh-in just to make sure I’m staying on track. Last weekend I weighed myself after having Thai fried rice and a glass of wine the night before as my cheat meal for the week (divine by the way!) so I’m sure those added 3 lbs were all excess water weight held by the sudden spark in sodium intake but isn't it funny how tiny nutritional tweaks can make such a HUGE difference? Moral of the story; don’t be discouraged (or satisfied) by small fluctuations on the scale so long as you are eating and exercising consistently. That small weight gain or loss may just be due to a nutritional change the day before. Or you just took a large shit LOL!

This morning I was unsure what I would do. I do have that dreaded scheduled rest day each week but when I’m off-season and full of carb-loving energy I don’t usually feel like I need it. Since all my lifts were done for the week I decided to do the Saturday morning yoga class that I haven’t done in months. I was already extremely sore from both leg day as well as the deep tissue 90-minute massage I had last night (more pain than pleasure unfortunately but at least I got all of my troubled areas worked on) so I knew this class would be a struggle. This instructor is very good but she is INTENSE. I swear the woman can bend her body like Gumby (maybe dating myself a bit here LOL) and she instructs some moves that my body just does not want to contort into. Despite all of my lifting I am still a pretty flexible person but this class is just way past my level of yogic expertise (is yogic is a word? LOL). I did my best though, returning to child’s pose or downward dog when necessary and still had a great stretch. I loved the class for the most part despite the pace being a little too fast to maintain good form at times. Great music, great energy, and great variety. Really my only complaint were the 3 annoying “Ohms” everyone was supposed to chant at the end. That shit’s just weird. No thanks.

Tomorrow I am definitely going to hit-up my fav yoga class again (pending no further foot injuries) and then start out the week on Monday with the first day of “Rep Range” lifting. I’m loving the variety! So that’s it for my crazy week in fitness. Have any of you tried-out new workout programs lately? Please share below! Xo