Off to the gym this morning. There was frost on the car! I was at the gym a little later than normal by 7:30. There were only a hand full of people there. I am liking that a lot. And nobody really annoying either – bonus!
Exercise | Set/rep/weight | Muscle worked |
Barbell Chest Press | 3 sets of 10 with 50# bar | Chest |
Stiff-legged deadlift | 3 sets of 10 with 55# bar | Lower body |
Seated Cable Lat Row | 3 sets of 10 at 50# | Back |
Decline Sit ups | 3 sets of 10 | Core |
Lying Leg Press | 3 sets of 10 at 100# | Lower Body |
Arnold Press | 3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs (20# total) | Shoulders |
Triceps Push Down | 3 sets of 10 at 30# | Triceps |
Standing Calf Raise | 3 sets of 10 at 70# | Calves |
Then a wee bit of treadmill walking before I came home to breakfast!
Lisa had asked me about the bench press and having wobbling happen when using the bar. Here is a video of me doing the bench press:
I love the bench press with the bar because it is very stable once you get use to it. When you first switch from using a machine to either dumbbells or the barbell, you will probably have to drop down the weight. The machine will always do some of the work for you and actually will compensate for your weaker non-dominant side. When you go to free weights, there will be an adjustment period as the weaker side catches up. This is more noticeable with the barbell than the dumbbells as the arms work in tandem. An empty bar is 45#, so work up to that with dumbbells first – or if your gym has lighter bars, then go for it (although they are usually short bars so you won’t have a rack). When you push, concentrate on keeping the bar even and go slow, which will make your non-dominant side work.
Lunch time included veggie time.
I made an omelet with some ham and laughing cow. Broccoli on the side because with dinner out, veggies likely not to happen.
After lattes today, we headed out for a blood donation. They were giving away free tickets to Fright Fest at Great Escape for donors.
Normally I don’t like to talk too much about problems that I have donating because I don’t want to scare anyone out of doing them, but I am finished donating blood.
I had a supervisor do the stick as per usual, but it ended up being a dry stick and pain shot all the way down my arm to my hand. It was a searing pain. She must have hit a nerve. Then she was trying to move the needle and I just told her to take it out. I couldn’t even get the actual donation done, and then I started crying because it hurt- which I absolutely hate to do in front of strangers (or really to do at all). I then got an ice pack and settled down (my hands were shaking terribly). I went to the snack table to wait for John, where I just had water because there were no raisins today.
I have to say that I was fairly traumatized by today. So, that was it for me. I have never stopped a donation before, but it just isn’t worth it. Even for free tickets (which I did still get, BTW). I don’t have to try to save the whole world.
Anyway, after John finished donating, it was time for my football dinner since I won the picks! That perked me up so I wasn’t feeling so sorry for myself. We went to Rock Hill Bakehouse. They bake all of their own bread and use local meats and other products here. There aren’t even big corporate drinks there. No Coke or Pepsi products.
I had a grown-up grilled cheese, which is sharp cheddar and smoked mozzarella and pesto on grilled semolina bread.
Served with cracked pepper potato chips. Man is this sandwich good! John and I then split a maple walnut biscotti for dessert. I forgot to take a picture of that. They are huge biscotti, so you really need to split them LOL.
As you can see, not steering clear of gluten as much this week so far.
Pink item of the day? My sunglasses!
Tonight is Project Runway. We are off to watch that with my mom. We’ll have to kick dad out since he doesn’t like it 😀 Party time!
Question: What is your TV weakness?