Hurts So Good

Week 2!

I'm currently eating blueberries because apparently berries are a good carbohydrate to eat after a workout.

Today I had my second training session and I may need to go buy a Jacuzzi to sooth my aching body. The workout we did today were simple - not easy, but simple - and extremely satisfying. I came in about 20 minutes early so that I could get a decent warm up before powering through the next 30 minutes. (Not to mention that I was feeling extra motivated to get up and move, so I walked around the man-made lake near my house about an hour before my workout) I started on the bike for about 10 minutes and then spent the last 10 stretching out my muscles.

Once we started the actual workout, my trainer Matt went through the plan he created for me. For the first 4 weeks of training we'll be doing a full body workout, alternating between legs, core, back, and arms. I like this because whenever I would create my own workout plan, I wouldn't ever change it, and I would get bored super fast and just give up all hopes of becoming fit and ripped (I don't really care about being "ripped" though...).

Basically, for the next month, my workout is broken into 5 different sets/circuits which I will do 3 times a week. The first set is a nonstop rotation (meaning no breaks in between sets) of pushups, bended barbell lifts, and squats. For the first week I have to do at least 3 sets of 10. From there, if I feel like I can do more next week, then we'll bump the repetitions up to 15. Right now, as of today, I'm feeling like 10 is fine. I didn't mind the squats and lifts, but for some reason - that reason being that my arms are weeeeeaakkk - I couldn't do more than one and a half sets of pushups. That's right. I was that girl who had to use her knees haha.

The second set I liked a little more. We  walked over to the dual handled pulley machine and did some resistance training for my core and back muscles. The first exercise in this set is kind of like a butterfly stretch for the arms/back. After setting the weight, I had to bring the pulleys to my chest, walk forward a bit, and the extend my arms forward with the weighted pulley. From there, I had to outwardly extend my arms until my shoulder blades pinched and then bring them back to the front. We did this 15 times and then moved on to the next exercise. For the next exercise in the set, we did standing lunges. Basically the standing lunges are regular lunges without the walking - which I honestly like these better. These were really good to do with a trainer because I was able to have an outside professional tell me how to improve my form. (Because of my knee surgery, I am always worried that my form is not what it should be, so it's really nice to get that extra coaching and a watchful eye). Again, we did the lunges about 15 times per leg and moved on to the last exercise for that set. The last exercise was a core/arm combination on the pulley machine. I had to stand next to the pulley machine (so instead of having my back or front facing the machine, my shoulders were perpendicular to the machine) and use both arms to pull the pulley out in front of me. I then had to hold weighted pulley and slowly bring it in towards my chest. Again, we repeated this 15 times and then switched to the other side. This exercise was a little too easy at first because my stance was too wide, which allowed my arms to do most of the work rather than my abs. After shortening my stance, I was able to feel the buuuuuurn in my non-existant abs. We did this set 3 times for a total of 60 reps for each exercise.

By the time we were finished with this set, our session was over and I was sweating buckets. I was a little disappointed that we were done because I felt like  I was really getting into things, so my trainer encouraged me to continue the rest of the exercises we didn't have time to do. The next set of exercises consisted of assisted pull-ups, kettle bell swings, and supermans. I got through that set and quickly lost my motivation to finish the last set which included stair steps and the row machine. I was a little disappointed that I quit so close to the finish, but considering that I could hardly walk after my workout, I later felt like it was justified. Whether or not it was...well I don't feel like discussing it so we'll leave it at that haha.

The bottom line from today's workout is that I pushed myself to old extremes. I say this because this isn't anything I haven't done before, it's just been a really reeeeeeaaalllly long time since I've done this. But at the end of the day, I'm proud of myself for sticking it out to the almost end ;) Am I sore as hell? Oh yeah. But it was worth it, and I'm excited to see where this all goes.