Walk Like a Man . . .

Remember Tuesday? Remember I said ". . . in some sort of SICK, SICK way, I'm looking FORWARD (wth????) to tonight when I do lower body…..I can imagine it now…..squats, lunges, ughhhhhh…I can almost feel it. " I'm here to tell you, I'm psychic.

I ended up not making it to the gym Tuesday night due to several factors…mainly because I didn't go immediately following work and got home and got..lazy. I could use any other choice from about 15, but when it comes down to it, I consciously made a choice to not get my fat behind up and go….LOST was coming on you know. Or the kids needed extra homework help… WHATEVER. I can own it. I made the decision. And from where I'm sitting now, I'm not sorry about it one iota J

I did get up and go last night though. AFTER helping my kids with extra homework, cooking a great dinner of Rockfish, tossed salad, spinach, pineapple, rolls (for kiddos only). Heck I even blended up some cinnamon butter for the rolls for the kids. They were in HEAVEN! Fried their fish (is there any better way?) and baked DH and mine. Actually sat down together and ate…..which, unfortunately, doesn't happen as much as it should either. Most of the time I'm fixing kids dinner, they're eating at the counter, we're standing around doing other things and talking to them and we end up eating later…. But anyways….got them all taken care of. Finished homework. Hubby studying for 2 exams this week (he's back in college again)….. and at 7:15p I announced that I AM still going to the gym and will be leaving shortly. Convinced DH to study at the gym with me working out. So I changed and we went to the gym arriving at 8pm.

Got in a quick running session (C25K Week 5 Day 1 AGAIN – cheated by a couple minutes the other day and felt I needed to repeat for myself) and felt good afterwards. Always makes me feel strong finishing a day completely, strongly, and proudly. Then got DH (who had been studying in the lounge area) and headed into "enemy" territory----the weights. And not the dumbbell area. The barbell area.

Felt like I should have been grunting or dragging knuckles as I walked through there J First up---squats. Real squats. No Smith Machine. That went fairly well. But I will tell you the difference between women and men. I'm looking through all the barbells, just checking out the weights and where what I need is located… And I get my area secured and I'm ready to go. And I walk over and pick up my barbell –(40lb--the weights are fixed). And bring it back to start. I get through the first 12 squats and, man, I am feeling GOOD! Wow, that wasn't that bad. Balance isn't bad. Speed will come as I get more comfortable. DH is standing back saying "good job…form is good….getting down low….keep going". I proceed and finish 3 of the 5 sets. And then I turn around and tell DH that I didn't think I'd be able to start with that kind of weight, thought I had been over optimistic but that it's working out not so badly. Said something along the lines of not too bad to start out at 40 is it??? And DH got this strange look on his face……so I asked again, thinking maybe it was a whimpy weight. And then he looked at me and said, how do you figure that barbell was 40lb? And I say…. Its got 20lb written on the weights on each end…. 20+20=40, right? WELL, evidently NOT when you're talking barbells. LOL ………..Yep, I had started with 20 WHOLE pounds. And had went to 25. So on the 4^th set, I upped it to (the REAL) 40lb and then the last set to 50lb. The final set drops back to a low weight (25lb) til exhaustion.

At the time, I was PISSED! What do you mean I was only liftng 20 lbs??? 20 LBS? 20 POUNDS?
20 FREAKIN POUNDS? I wasn't mad at the weight. I was mad because the 20lb was EXACTLY where I should have started and I felt weak….inadequate….whimpy. But I used that…..and complete the entire set/reps and finished strong. Moved onto the leg press, where I did press 150lb. And THAT made me feel strong. I know men do a lot more, but for me starting out, it felt pretty darn good.

Quads were done. Moved on to Hamstrings. UGHHHH. Straight Leg Deadlifts. UMMMM… can we say DIFFICULT. I still relapse quickly into wrong/bad form. I want to hunch my shoulders instead of keeping a straight back. I'm good with the legs, good with the lift, but that straight back…. I told DH I was going to have him cut a piece of plywood out and strap it to my back from my head to my waist with bungee cords. THEN maybe I could keep my back straight. LOL . Somewhere in the lifting sequence, I think I over-extended or pulled my right hamstring. It was SCREAMING by the time I ended. It had been twinging when I was running but I shook it off. By the end of the deadlifts it was definitely saying "You're gonna PAY #(&%(" ………This morning it is getting revenge.

Finished off the rest of lower body and a 4xAb workout that DH joined in on for, and excuse me, but I make up my own names that sound A LOT like exactly what the exercise is………….. 1)Team Throwdowns--- me on the floor face up, him standing, one foot beside each ear, facing my feet. I grab his ankles for a little leverage and lift my feet together up, legs straight, and do a reverse crunch. He then takes feet and pushes them in any direction (I don't know before hand which way) and I have to lower them to right off the ground and raise them back up for another round….total of 50 times……….. 2)Plank holds ………. 3)medicine ball throw sit ups….again a team….he sits on my feet and I do situps while throwing a 10lb medicine ball back and forth with him…….4) reverse crunches with the exercise ball.

I had planned some more cardio after that (CrossTrainer) but DH was ready to go and study some more and he wanted to do it at home…. I felt good about what I had got done….and my hamstring was still screaming, so we walked (okay, he walked, I limped) to the car. Great workout!

One last note--------bought some Muscle Milk as suggested by NROL4W…….Banana Crème. 11oz, 200cal, 25g protein, 9g fat…low carbs………..If you like banana milkshakes------BUY THIS!!!!!!!!! IT is WONDERFUL!!!!! I would HIGHLY recommend it. It's right up there with the Met-RX chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Bar that I ADORE!!!

Both of these are wonderful POST and PRE workout energizers and I'm looking to find them in bulk. If you know of somewhere with good prices on them, please let me know!