The weekend was rough. A friend came back into town (not due to the best circumstances), so there was alcohol had...and bad food. But I'm back in the game! Went food shopping yesterday so there's food in my house again (recipes/grocery list to follow). I just really need to make sure that I'm keeping my metabolism up this week since I think I started undereating again.
Monday was back to the gym day. They took it easy on us again which was highly confusing.
Strength:
20 rep back squat, increasing weight from last week
Midline:
3 rounds not for time
10 barbell good mornings
15 GHD sit-ups
1-2 min. front plank hold
Mobility/Recovery:
8-10 min. easy row
Last week I did 75 pounds with the back squat, so this week I did 85. It hurt a bit, but not too bad. He said we needed to be struggling by the end of it, which I was, so I guess I did it right. I almost want to do my 1 RM again just to see what it's at now, because it's definitely no longer 135.
I am so happy they've been doing more midline work lately. I used 65 pounds for the barbell good mornings. Little heavy but not bad. The GHD sit-ups were a little nerve-wracking just because you're suspending your body off this little contraption and hoping it doesn't tip over. I can't extend all the way back just yet but I'm at least able to go a little past parallel. Planks I did in two 30 second intervals just because a minute is a bit of a tall order. My midline is actually a lot stronger than I've been giving it credit for. I think having to use my abs to stabilize myself with the powerful lifts definitely helped. Abs of steel comin right up!
Spent the rest of Monday at base just chilling before Rothberg asked me if I'd like to go on a walk when he got out of work. He's gotta walk like 10,000 steps a day or something. Well I soon figured out that 7,000 steps is 3.5 miles. I was so tired by the end of it, yet Mack thought it was the best thing in the world. I swear, I'm just going to tie that dog to a sled and make him pull me around. Would save so much money on gas.
Tuesday I went back to the gym. I think Mack is getting used to these early morning routines: Get up, go out, eat food, then wait for mommy to crawl home from the gym.
Skill:
3 rounds not for time
8-10 handstand push-ups
10-15 pull ups
10-15 GHD hip extension
Metcon
30-25-20-15-10-5
Kettlebell swings
Double Unders (4x singles)
Midline
2 x 50 abmat sit-ups
Yesterday was another skill intensive day. Honestly I'm not going to complain about it because it gave me the chance to actually work on some stuff. I can't do handstand push-ups just yet because I can't do a handstand, so I worked on getting myself as vertical as possible on the wall and holding it for 20-30 seconds. I finally got it so my hands were only about 6" from the wall, which means I was just shy of fully vertical. The only problem with doing something like that is I'm facing the wall so I can't just let my legs drop. Maybe next time we do them I'll try and get a handstand the normal way. I really gotta work on those pull-ups though. Jack wagons.
The MetCon kind of sucked. Now that I've started using the 35# kettlebell, I've been trying to stick with it, so it got really tiring fast. Not to mention if you weren't doing double unders, you had to multiply by 4 for the number of singles you had to do. Didn't help that I think I used a jump rope that was too short for me. Those sit-ups were killer. I didn't realize how sore my abs were until I started getting the sit-ups done. I started out with sets of 20 and then knocked it down to sets of 10. 100 sit-ups later and I'm finally feeling it today.
I've been feeling kinda sluggish these past couple days. Getting up in the morning has been a little rough (to be fair, I've been going to bed too late), and I usually don't wake up until about halfway through the work-out. It even feels like my muscles are still asleep. Once I'm awake though, I'm up for the day beasting through work like I normally have been. It's weird.
Alright, so, my grocery shopping list. This week I'm keeping it super simple. I've really been feeling hearty "comfort-type" foods. I'll be making my favorite crockpot beef stew recipe, except instead of potato gnocchi, I'll just use cut up sweet potatoes. I'd love to figure out how to make paleo sweet potato gnocchi, but it's very ingredient/labor intensive. I love a thick creamy stew so the gnocchi usually serve to absorb any excess beef broth, so I'm hoping the sweet potatoes can accomplish that. I haven't used my crockpot in so long! I'm so excited. I'm also going to make another batch or two of the zucchini fritters. To add on to that, I'm going to make sweet potato pancakes as well. I like having foods that are versatile - meaning I can eat them with anything. They can be a quick side to a dinner entree or can be eaten with breakfast. I'm going to make shrimp cakes, which I'm very excited about. There's also a simple zucchini and ground beef recipe, which is just zucchini and ground beef sauteed together. Seems very simple and filling. I also found a bag of mixed frozen shrimp, calamari and scallops. They say you can just cook it in a pan and do whatever with it. I'll be very psyched to try it out. I'll post recipes as I'm doing them since I'm sure I've forgotten a few that I wanted to try. I also threw together a quick frittata last night to have for work this week.
I'm not going to the gym today since I've been working all day. I definitely got my exercise this morning doing CPR, so I'm not complaining. The plan is that I'll go for a walk around the RIT loop once I get out so that'll be some easy exercise. Provided the weather holds up. I'm working again tomorrow so I'll be going to the gym later in the day.
I'm still feeling pretty good overall. I know part of the sluggishness is the fact that I'm now demanding even more from my body on a weekly basis so I know it'll take a little getting used to. Especially since I was dumb and spent this entire challenge only going to the gym twice a week. Sometimes it wasn't my fault, but damn. I have to say I've totally become that awkward person that pokes myself where I can feel new muscles. My arms are seriously toning up. Like woah. My legs are a little more toned as well but I know those will take some time. My tummy area I will always be overly critical of, but I'm sure it looks different too.
I'm very thrilled about my overall experience with this challenge. I will be continuing it (although Sunday will for sure be a celebration day), but like I say to anyone who asks me, I'm not going to go crazy over it. I'm not going to go buying pounds of pasta at a time, but if I happen to go out with friends or whatever, I'm not going to stress. I'm very excited about this new lifestyle. I went from eating boxes of pasta all by myself to eating entire zucchinis. Kind of reminds me of this gem:
G'night all!
No comments:
Post a Comment