Exercise Is Not That Hard…

“Exercise is not that hard, it’s all how hard you push yourself that can make it hard. You can go to the gym and pick up some 5lb dumbbells and work up a little sweat and burn some calories. That wasn’t hard now was it? Now if you really want to build up some muscles and burn some major calories then up those weights, now that was a little harder, but it didn’t kill you did it? You know how you feel after the workout though? You feel great, energized, proud of yourself, accomplished, etc.”

Taken from http://beingfit4me.wordpress.com/2013/11/09/how-can-you-not-love/  Check it out!

Spartacus Workout

My knee is still a little swollen but it’s coming down nicely. I felt like I needed to put it through its paces today, just to see… It held up ok. Hopefully it doesn’t swell back up. I did a medium to hard bike at the gym and then followed it up with (only) 2 rounds of the Men’s Health Spartacus workout. Me so sweaty… The plan is to give it a go at BJJ on Thursday. I’m working evening shift anyways, so I can’t make it sooner than that.

I’ve been eating like crap as usual so no progress on the body. Oh well.

500 Club

500 Club
From Men’s Health Magazine

The aim is 100 reps of each of the five moves. Do as many reps as you can for one minute going from one station to the next without pausing. When you’ve done 100 reps of an exercise you’re finished with that move.

-Mountain Climber
-Dumbbell Thruster
-Swiss Ball Jacknife
-Box Jump
-Swiss Ball Pike

No Pain, No Gain?

Whoever coined the phrase, “no pain, no gain” can kiss my ass. Sore and stiff muscles are par for the course with high intensity workouts for me. I deal with it. I’ve taken a lot of advice in my attempt to avoid it. But really, it seems only rest works for me.

The only part of my body that I’m really bothered by is hamstrings. Every single time I work them, I am hobbling around for days. When I say days, I’m being literal. In fact, I have been in hamstring pain for as many as 5 days. WTF???

It’s not like I avoid putting them through their paces because of the pain either. I work them regularly like the rest of the bod. That’s why I am so vexed. No other muscle group gives me shit like the hammys. God damn they hurt! Getting on and off the toilet is agony. An untied shoelace is my mortal enemy. Having to carry a sleeping child to their bed makes me bitch and whine.

I’ve tried the creatine and glutamine in my protein shakes. I’ve tried a light run at the end of the workout to flush them out. I’ve tried stretching them like a son-of-a-bith (doesn’t work but I do it anyways). Nothing! Please insert your advice here and I’ll try it. If you tell me that blowing a goat will stop the pain, I’ll be at the farm in 10 minutes.

I’m not going to give up working them out. I just needed to rant a little. I just got off the can and nearly cried. Lol. Oh well…

/rant

Pumping Iron

Finally got back to the gym today. As I stated before, it had only been about 2 weeks, but I still felt gross. Now that work will be slowing down during the week and the kids will be in school, I’ll have a lot more time to spend being healthy. I will actually be able to use my scheduled days off as I want instead of going in for overtime. Basically I worked every day (aside from 1 week vacation) in July and August. It was exhausting but it needed to be done. I spent a lot of time staring at the ceiling late at night instead of sleeping, thinking about the money that I owed. After working all my days off and staying for double shifts, I think I have enough time to pay it all off! Phew!

Today I started a new weight lifting routine. I’m pretty good at making them up. I like to mix it up so I don’t get bored. So I’ve started a 3 day, full body, weight lifting routine. The days in between I will do some high intensity conditioning and extra core work. Here was today’s.

• Straight leg dead lifts
• Dumbbell step ups
• Barbell bench press
• Dumbbell chest flys
• Dumbbell bent over rows
• Dumbbell lateral raises
• Resistance band curls
• Resistance band overhead triceps

My whole body was pumped at the end.  It felt great!  I’m looking forward to Wednesday when I create Day 2.