Today was my first day off in like...a week. And with the last scheduled gym day, I had skipped it because even at home, I just had nothing. I have no idea how it's connected, but even my sense of equillibrium was failing me without a certain threshold of caffeine. x)
Point being, I intended to make up for that skipped day by kicking solid ass today, and to do so no matter how much the body whined, groaned, protested, tried bargaining, etc.
And to make matters even better, I ran into my intermittent workout ol'buddyol'pal at the place just in time to see how far ahead of me he is at the pressing of benches. This was great for me to see, because...Testosterone is a wonderful thing for making gains of a physical sort and being a general man-beast. And one of the ways you stimulate more Testosterone into production, is through competition. This is also one of (albeit noooot the only) reasons I turn everything that isn't strictly domestic into a competition. Even if I lose, I won't lose for long, and I know it. And in the meantime, what times I've run into like-minded individuals, I only push them to greater heights with my own pursuit. I gotta say, #feelsgoodman.
Now I have a level to keep in the back of my head on that one, to keep pushing myself towards with the kind of dogged determination that I'm beginning to think is going to die out with me.
Bike(Cardio): 30 minutes. Started at level 8, added a difficulty level every 10 minutes. I rapidly fell under 100 RPM today...I should've kept my mouth a bit tighter on "Feelin' good! Feelin' fiiine!" after one (albeit a great) Powernap.
Bench Press (100 lbs): 30 reps, no breaks.
Pec Fly(100 lbs): 30 reps, no breaks.
Abdominal Fuse (100 lbs): 30 reps, no breaks. This one was way too easy. Then again, since I've added another ab intensive exercise to my routine (One I am desperate to get up to par with my bench press for potentially life saving reasons), I haven't been as worried about keeping my grip as close to the base of the machine as I can. So, some ease of performance is to be expected.
Leg Extension(90 lbs): 30 reps, no breaks. Again, surprisingly easy...but who's complainin'? Odds are phenomenal that this is going to be the next one I up to 100. Be it this week, or sometime next.
Seated Leg Curl(90 lbs): 30 reps, no breaks. The range of motion for my reps dropped steadily from rep 20 onward...but I fought it. As a result, only reps 28-30 really saw an 80-91% range of motion compared to what I normally crank out. And before that, I was slamming the weights up. Nothing but octane.
Leg Press (100 lbs): 30 reps, no breaks. I was worried that I was going to puss out on this one. Truly. The first 10 reps were slow and miserable, and it wasn't getting any better. And then...my music playlist hit a good track. POOF! "[SLAM, SLAM, SLAM, SLAM, SLAM, SLAM, SLAM]". Problem solved, set completed with ease and flourish.
Chest Press(90 lbs): 30 reps, no breaks. I was surprised; This is normally one of the sets that gives me the most trouble. My breathing only failed me twice, though. Normally, lately, since it started getting so damn hot...ughh....anyway. Yey. Progress.
Shoulder Press(90 lbs): 30 reps, no breaks. My twiggy, puny girly man arms threatened to fail me from rep 13 onward...but I refused to completely relent. I instead changed the angle I was directing my force. And while still miserable...pushing my arms up and out allowed me to complete the set without falling limp once.
Lateral Pull-Down (90 lbs): 30 reps, no breaks.
Lower Back Fuse(100 lbs): 30 reps, no breaks. It gives me a kick to notice how far my back's come since late last year, where the muscles continued to degenerate until I couldn't even sustain a job where I had to be on my feet for more than 2 or 3 hours. Now...I'm doing things like this...where 30 lbs would've had my back threatening to spasm...and barely feeling like I'm doing anything.
Seated Row(90 lbs): 30 reps, no breaks. After the second time my breathing failed me and I found myself collapsing forward onto the chest pedestal, I looked at the model on the machine for how far I'm supposed to be extending my arms. So, uh...count this as another one for overzealousness. Apparently, my elbows were supposed to be level with the rest of my body. But I've been extending a good ways past that point, and then wondering why I can't sustain my breathing, so my body goes limp, and then I feel like crap for being such a flaming wimp.
Yeahhhhh......goodtimes.
Bicep Curl(25 lbs): 30 reps, no breaks. It was easy until it wasn't. And then good God wasn't it...
Tricep Extension(30 lbs): 30 reps. This one doesn't challenge me anymore. Still, I have a model in mind for how I advance this and the Bicep Curl. I don't wanna deviate from it too much like I do with the other exercises.
Hanging Back Extension: (Draping myself over a machine where from the hip up, I am suspended in mid-air, raising my torso to be straight with the rest of the body, then relaxing again, repeating), 30 reps with a 10 and 5 lb plate clasped together to my chest, no breaks.
Weighted sit-ups: 10 and 5 lb plate together on my upper chest, 30 reps, no breaks. My breathing kept failing me...but that's a hard reality of me being a big whiny snowman in the middle of Summer. Just going to have to get through it, regardless, as I always, inevitably, do.
Incline Elliptical(Cardio): 30 minutes, level 9 difficulty. I had absolutely nothing for this. I kept making tiny little bursts into 170 and 189 RPM, but they were lucky to last 30 seconds, let alone the minute I normally do, each. I kept catching myself threatening to lurch sideways off the machine half of the time, and the other half, it felt like my legs were about to fail me mid-pump. I did eventually stabilize at 129-134 RPM, and that was where I decided to maintain for today. Though I wish I could've done better.
Today's musics are a bit less metal, but with the context I have assigned to it (In line with the media I was absorbing a lot of at the time I began seriously listening to this) I actually found another vein of adrenaline to tap into, albeit not too often.
"Shoebox" by the Barenaked Ladies, from their Greatest Hits Album. In general, I love the energy that comes out in their vocals. I pay a lot of attention to those more subtle vibes coming off of people compared to most, and my ups and downs are closely linked to who is around me and what they are going through, as time and trial will attest. With this band, I could get figuratively drunk on the laid-back feel, positivity, strong-but-humane vibes to their work. And, when everyone around me is putting out shit shit and more shit, I've often had to, at least until the people around me come out of their deep, dark, holes and see the sunshine again.
This one came on about 11 minutes into my time on the elliptical. Right as I was swaying again...I was noticing but not really noticing my eyes lolling in different directions, sometimes just focusing up and behind my eyelids...and then that first jolt of guitar came. I had focus again, noticed the sway...stopped it...started putting some strength into my leg pumps again...and with the first chorus line, exploded into 181-189 RPM for a quarter minute before lapsing back down to 135-140 for the rest of the song.
Anywaaay...the musics.
