Fifty-Fives

Today's torture was something called 55s.  Although I had never heard of them I had a feeling I wasn't going to like them, but I said I would give it a try.  I really should listen to my gut when I don't think I'll like something.  They started off innocently enough, but it just went downhill from there.  The first set was shoulder presses with pushups.  If you aren't familiar with 55s, which I wasn't, it is an easy concept at least the way we did it.  First you do one shoulder press followed by one push up. You follow this by two shoulder presses and two pushups and so forth until you have done 10 shoulder presses and 10 pushups. I believe that by the time you are finished you have done 55 reps.  I could confirm or deny that fact, but that would take more than I really want to put into it.  Around the 7th round (7 presses/7 push-ups) my arms refused to push me up, so we moved to doing wall pushups (are they still pushups then?).  Even those were killer.  I was allowed a little rest, but we weren't done there.  Following the shoulder presses & pushups, I also did combos of bicep curls and triceps presses and ended with reverse flys, lat raises and forward raises.  When asked my feelings towards this exercise, I accurately commented "I hate them."  As usual his response, with a big toothy grin was "No you don't, you know you love them."  That earned him rolling eyes.

The Sadist showed some kindness and we didn't do legs today, but we weren't done by a long shot.  After more bicep curls & steering wheels we headed off to abs.  I am getting better at the abs and that they aren't quite as bad, but I still don't like them.  For incentive, one of the exercises included doing a sit-up followed by throwing a 6-lb ball at the Sadist. Of course before he would let me do that I had to do a plank for 60 secs.  After all of this, my strength to throw the ball had vanished and as much as I wanted to wipe the smug smile of his pretty little face, I fell just a little short.  Oh, if ever there was motivation to get even stronger this was it.  Just once I would love to knock him on his ass.  He may be good to look at, but he has definitely earned his nickname.

My only hope now, is that tomorrow I'll be able to put my car in reverse otherwise I'll be stuck home.  Maybe I should have the Sadist be my chauffeur for the weekend.  It's the least he can do. 

Goodbye Comfy Couch Corner

The new inhabitants of the infamous comfy couch corner.

For the past two months I have spent less and less time on the couch and more time in the gym, dance studio, and pool.  There are times I desperately miss my couch and its comforts.  I miss just being able to sit there and do nothing, but its not to be anymore.  I actually feel guilty if I am not doing some sort of exercise each day. 

Right now, I don't mind going to the gym as I have it timed so that I show up when the O's start their game and I can bike my way through the first couple of innings.  Once the season is over, I'll have to make due with Jeopardy and my iPod, but it just doesn't hold the same appeal.  This is one of those times when football just can't compete with baseball.  As a once a week sport, it doesn't provide the same exercise motivation. It is more of a ,sit at home and watch it on the big screen with friends, beer and lots of munchies type of thing.  I'm sure others will tell me I'm wrong, but hey it's my blog and I can have my own opinion on the matter.

My trainer, who I affectionately and sometimes not so affectionately call the Sadist, has been great to work with for the most part.  Of course as I do that one last rep and my muscles are cramping and I'm sweating profusely I really don't have those warm fuzzy feelings instead they are something along the line that wouldn't be prudent to post here.   I'm reasonably sure that trainercide is frowned upon in this state or any state for that matter.  I doubt, however, they would say much of anything should a dumbbell or kettle bell fall accidentally from my hands on to said trainer's foot.  So far I have resisted, but there is always a first time to everything.

As during July, I continued to update my FB friends with my various adventures. Below I have posted them for all to see.

August 3: Had my monthly assessment at the trainers. I actually kicked some butt on it, though I still hate doing situps. The sadist tells me my abs love it, but I beg to differ. Although I probably won't admit it to him, I actually enjoy those torture sessions. :)

August 7:  Another Tuesday and another trip to the trainer. I sure hope that this is making some sort of difference long term, cause short term I just feel inadequate. I'm glad my trainer believes in me otherwise I would be back on the couch in 2 seconds flat. For some reason I'll be back in the studio on Friday for yet another session. I'm a glutton for punishment.

August 10: Had a surprisingly good training session with the sadist today. I've been working on coming up with other names for him. So far I've come up with tormentor and tyrant. Apparently, I have made some major accomplishments strength wise and I even did an ab exercise that wasn't horrible. I didn't think that was possible

August 14: Another Tuesday and another visit with the trainer. I got to wear the boxing gloves today and the tormentor made a lovely target which was definitely motivating. Not my best workout but it had its perks today.

August 21: Survived another Tuesday at the Trainers and for some unknown reason I arranged to do this for another 12 weeks. I must be a glutton for punishment cause every muscle I used today is screaming at me. As much as I hate doing this each week, I seem to love it just as much. Crazy.

August 28: As I worked with the sadist today, I really wondered about my sanity. What was I thinking in continuing this ongoing torture? Do I really enjoy it or am I just a glutton for punishment? I can tell my strength is improving but I so miss sitting on the corner of my couch reading a book or surfing the web. The life of the couch potato was so much easier. At least I don't have to deal with the sadist for another few days.

The questioning of my sanity and whether or not I am a glutton for punishment seems to be a common theme this month.  I'm sure that will come up more as I continue along this path I have started.  As part of my staying out of the comfy corner of the couch, I'll head off to Zumba tonight to get in a little cardio.  Although that is a tiring workout, at least I have a little bit of fun shaking my booty and singing along.  The only booty shaking I do with the Sadist is when my legs are so tired that they start wobbling uncontrollably just to hold me up. That just isn't quite the same.

I just hope as I continue to spend more and more time away from the couch that it understands it wasn't anything it did, but that it was time for my butt to see other surfaces.  I still miss my little corner but like they say all good things must come to an end, so goodbye little comfy couch corner, I promise to visit every now and again.

In the beginning there was a couch

The infamous corner of the couch.

At the beginning of the summer, my rear end and my couch had an ongoing intimate relationship.  As soon as I got home from work I headed right for my favorite corner in the couch and stayed there until it was time for bed.  Needless to say this love affair was not good for the rest of my body.  Add that to the fact that I also was consuming copious amounts of desserts and sodas and well lets just say it wasn't a pretty site.

How did I realize how bad it was getting?  The usual way, someone took a picture of me and it was hideous.  I looked like a box and all I could think was that I am turning into my grandmother.  My father described his mother as a 5x5 Polish woman.  I don't mind the Polish part, but it was the 5x5 description I could do without.  

So what was I to do to make a drastic change and turn things around?  The obvious thing is to get myself to the gym, which I had a membership to, and starting moving. Even though I have been paying for it over the past year I had probably only been inside a few times.  I realized that I had sunk lower than low.  Apparently just going to the gym wasn't the answer, so the next thought was a personal trainer.  I didn't want just anyone, I wanted someone who was going to really push me and hold me accountable.  Little did I realize what all this would entail.

On July 3, I started my adventure from couch potato to non-couch potato, whatever that is called.  I found myself a personal trainer and this was the day of reckoning.  I was about to find out just how far had I fallen down the rabbit hole.  What I found was that I was 10 lbs heavier than I expected and embarrasingly unfit.  As I started this path I kept my FB friends apprised of my ongoing experience through regular status updates.  Instead of trying catch up and start from the beginning, I'm just going to repost them here.  I think they provide a pretty good insight to the beginning of my journey.  I've included in this post just the first month's worth.  In my next post, I'll provide the August updates.

July 3:  I survived my first day with the personal trainer . This is going to be a long summer trying to get myself back in shape.

July 10: Survived today's workout with the trainer. Even though the focus was legs, we did arms and abs. Does anyone like doing ab work? It just reminds me how out of shape I've gotten. Now, I'm home watching the All Star Game.

July 13: It has been one of those days that I wish instead of going to work out with my trainer, I was going out for a nice cold adult drink or two or three or four or .....

I am not quite sure I survived today's training session. I can barely move and there are muscles aching that I didn't even know existed.

July 24: Why is it when my trainer says the ab exercises are going to be easy, they end up being painfully hard. I don't believe him anymore.

July 27: Either I am getting to old for this work out crap or my trainer is a sadist. I would like to think it is the latter. His cuteness is not motivating right now but the thought of dropping a weight on his foot is.

July 31: Survived today's torture session and did pretty good. I had problems with sit-ups, could do reverse ones but not regular. I think the sadist broke my abs (if one can do such a thing) on Friday.

I got in my cardio today with 15 minutes on the recumbent bike for 3+ miles and then 20 minutes on the treadmill with 3 one minute sprints.  My next session is less than 2 days away.  I'm afraid to know what torture the sadist will come up with this time. It won't be long before I find out.  :)