Today was, as you can probably guess, Back & Biceps and Ab Ripper X. It was my first time doing this DVD and it was a fun workout, though it's always a little hard to follow along exactly during the first time doing a video. Also, I had the tv on so that might have helped in the having to rewind to watch the exercise first and then do it. The only place I still feel it is my forearms, because we ended Backs & Biceps with doing these Hammer lifts or whatever, but since I was using the band (which I will get into in a moment), I did them with a reverse grip instead of the easier hammer grip. I guess now that I just this second stopped slouching over my computer and rolled my shoulders back, I can feel it in my back and shoulders, but if anything that's a negative for these workouts.
The thing about today's workout, and that I've been noticing a lot with these workouts especially the weight-lifting ones, was that things got very difficult during their duration, I would do my reps and really feel the last three, as Tony says, or else would do a few more or make adjustments with my weights. Sometimes I had a hard time lifting the weight I was using (when I wasn't using a band I was using 10 lb weights, which for some exercises isn't a lot but for other moves its a challenge for me), and in these moments the mental workout came in where it's not just about lifting, it's about lifting this thing that feels like it's just not going anywhere at all, all the while keeping the rest of my body still and not swinging my hips to use momentum to lift because that's not really doing much for what I'm trying to accomplish, and my posture good and back flat so I don't injure it, and my breath steady. It's hard! But then I'd put the weight down and shake my arms out and immediately feel like nothing happened.
Then there's the pull-ups, which I still feel insecure about. I have been using my foot/feet in the door frame, because my bar is too low to utilize a chair like the woman in the video does, and I feel (well, know) that that helps me keep up with the people in the video and get more reps in to keep my blood flowing instead of doing one, stepping back, doing another, and sitting for 30 seconds while the badasses in the P90X video keep pumping them out. But I know that when I take my feet out of the doorframe, I essentially just fall slowly to the floor, and I need to work on that. It's not like in life I'm going to have to be doing multiple pull-ups and chin-ups to accomplish something major. Even if I am in a situation where I need to use those muscle groups to get up a wall or whatever, once I'm up there I can use my arms to pull myself up more and really it isn't something that makes too much sense as a life skill but what does. I'm digressing, point is, I want to do these not because I will be embarrassed when the zombie apocalypse comes (or Rapture, which is just 2 days away!) and I can't do the necessary pull-ups needed to get to Level II and Pass GO, it's more about just knowing that I can do it, that I am capable of banging out a couple pull-ups the way I can do push-ups. So I did well today, but that is definitely a goal.
Oh, so, the band thing. Sometimes there are workouts where I need more than 10 or less than 8, or I'm not sure what I need, or I want to putz around with form, or I know that halfway through I'm gonna blow my load and need to ease up, or am not sure how much tension I need and halfway through guess that I'll need more tension. The band is great for this because it's like a lot of weights all in one. The negative is that it doesn't have quite the same feel as a dumbbell, but that's okay. It also can sometimes take a while to find the proper resistance and stick with it, or find the same resistance on both sides, or the same resistance every time you revisit that muscle group or exercise. There's a lot of finesse with the band, and a lot of options for someone who doesn't have a great home gym set-up. I like it a lot.
Tomorrow is Yoga, and it's also Car Free Friday! I don't work Fridays, so I will be taking extra advantage of the free breakfast (yes, those of you not from/in this great city, you are reading that correctly: a free breakfast for bicycle commuters), and then I was thinking of spending all that saved money at Amazing Yoga, a favorite hot power yoga studio in town, to switch it up a little from my usual yoga routine. I'm still feeling it in my legs from Plyometrics yesterday, so it should do me good, so long as I drink enough water well beforehand.
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