Let the fight begin
I have been incredibly... bad about getting to the gym and working out. I am just horrible, horrible, horrible about discipline in a lot of ways with working out/eating right/etc. I *want* to lose the weight and I want to be healthy, but getting to a point where it doesn't feel like a chore takes time and I feel impatient when it comes to it. I can be a very patient person in many circumstances; this does not appear to be one of those things. So a fight it will be.
I say fight because it is for me, at least right now. Example: I had my alarm set to get me up so I can take out Anubis, get dressed, crate him and head to the gym. All I wanted to do when I stumbled out of bed was set my alarm for just one more hour of sleep. But I didn't let it talk me into that! I got up, drudge downstairs to take the pooch out, dressed, crated him, drove to the gym, did my workout, showered, came to work. Day 1 of back to working out has been a success.
This will not be the norm. No, that's wrong. I want this to be the norm in terms of getting up and going, but today was just a tiny, miniscule victory in a very large war. No pun intended on that one. I will be fighting myself every day for awhile to get up and go do what needs to be done. With this battle, I decided to change my strategy a bit too.
This is what I *had* been doing:
Today I did this:
I took out the lower back workout on my heavy lifting days. I'm going to focus on the legs, chest and arms. The upper back gets a workout with a few machines, especially the super pullover. On my non-heavy lift days, my plan of attack is to do 10 minutes of cardio, the same weight lifting reps/circuits but on much lower weights, like at least half on a few of them, adding in the lower back, then another 10 minutes of cardio. I am thinking on the elliptical, because that thing gets my heart to pumping something fierce.
A mini-victory as well. With the way the super pullover works is you start with the bar above your head and you pull it down towards your waist. You have to be careful because it goes back so far, you have to use the foot bar to get it back into place properly or you WILL injure your shoulders. Anyways, before when I have used it and pull it down, it would stop at my hips because they were too wide to fit past the bars. Today? The bar still brushes my hips but I was able to complete the full pull down because my hips have SHRUNK.
So chalk up two mini-victories for me today. A lot more to go, but I can do it. Tackling my food intake is another set of battles that I am getting better with, but I want to improve. New set of battles is to ensure that I take time for myself to relax so I am balanced.
I say fight because it is for me, at least right now. Example: I had my alarm set to get me up so I can take out Anubis, get dressed, crate him and head to the gym. All I wanted to do when I stumbled out of bed was set my alarm for just one more hour of sleep. But I didn't let it talk me into that! I got up, drudge downstairs to take the pooch out, dressed, crated him, drove to the gym, did my workout, showered, came to work. Day 1 of back to working out has been a success.
This will not be the norm. No, that's wrong. I want this to be the norm in terms of getting up and going, but today was just a tiny, miniscule victory in a very large war. No pun intended on that one. I will be fighting myself every day for awhile to get up and go do what needs to be done. With this battle, I decided to change my strategy a bit too.
This is what I *had* been doing:
- Vertical chest press- 80 lbs- 6 reps- 3 circuits
- Compound row- 85 lbs- 6 reps- 3 circuits
- Overhead press- 60 lbs- 6 reps- 3 circuits
- Super pullover- 150 lbs- 6 reps- 3 circuits
- Preacher curl- 55 lbs- 6 reps- 3 circuits
- Lower back- 145 lbs- 6 reps- 3 circuits
- Leg extension- 145 lbs- 6 reps- 3 circuits
- Leg press- 175 lbs- 6 reps- 3 circuits
Today I did this:
- Vertical chest press- 80 lbs- 8 reps- 3 circuits
- Compound row- 85 lbs- 8 reps- 3 circuits
- Overhead press- 60 lbs- 8 reps- 3 circuits
- Super pullover- 150 lbs- 8 reps- 3 circuits
- Preacher curl- 55 lbs- 8 reps- 3 circuits
- Leg extension- 145 lbs- 8 reps- 3 circuits
- Leg press- 175 lbs- 8 reps- 3 circuits
I took out the lower back workout on my heavy lifting days. I'm going to focus on the legs, chest and arms. The upper back gets a workout with a few machines, especially the super pullover. On my non-heavy lift days, my plan of attack is to do 10 minutes of cardio, the same weight lifting reps/circuits but on much lower weights, like at least half on a few of them, adding in the lower back, then another 10 minutes of cardio. I am thinking on the elliptical, because that thing gets my heart to pumping something fierce.
A mini-victory as well. With the way the super pullover works is you start with the bar above your head and you pull it down towards your waist. You have to be careful because it goes back so far, you have to use the foot bar to get it back into place properly or you WILL injure your shoulders. Anyways, before when I have used it and pull it down, it would stop at my hips because they were too wide to fit past the bars. Today? The bar still brushes my hips but I was able to complete the full pull down because my hips have SHRUNK.
So chalk up two mini-victories for me today. A lot more to go, but I can do it. Tackling my food intake is another set of battles that I am getting better with, but I want to improve. New set of battles is to ensure that I take time for myself to relax so I am balanced.