Pump hard……. Pump often

Hit the gym last night for my aerobic workout on the elliptical. Another 55 minutes of sweat pouring, thigh strengthening, ab working, exercising  behind me. Gotta love it. When I think about my endurance level when I first started working out back in May 2007 it amazes me I can now do the elliptical for 55 minutes even with increasing the resistance levels and the only reason I stop at 55 minutes is because of time restrictions. That workout is intense but I get such a rush from it! A great playlist helps too.

In the locker room I was looking at my arms and realizing they are lagging behind in the development department. That’s because with only an hour available for me in the gym during the week I put my entire time into the elliptical for cardio. I add abs if there is time available (I ride public transportation so my available time is based on when I get to the gym and when I need to leave). But after looking at my non defining arms I realized I need to get biceps and triceps worked in a bit more often. My legs and glutes are shaping up well due to the elliptical machine but my arms need attention.

I need to get dedicated to arms and chest. I do them in a sporadic fashion. Once a week here, every other week there type of manner. I decided that one day during the week I will hit the arms and chest and also hit the stairmaster and not do the elliptical that day. And hit the chest and arms again on the weekend. I have hand weights at home and I’ll pull those out as well.

Hit the gym on Friday and realized my elliptical playlist was 55 minutes long. I edited it the night before trying to tighten up the tempo on the playlist and adding some of my recent favorites. The first song in the playlist is a warmup song and I’ve not changed the tempo of it in a long time and decided the night before to up the tempo. When I started my workout it felt like I went from 0 to 60 in 30 seconds. And I was pushing myself the rest of the workout. Felt good about it but I think that first song’s tempo is a bit ambitious. Since the second song’s tempo is slower than the first one I switched the two. I think that will work out better with pacing myself.

So 55 minutes later I hopped off the elliptical drenching in sweat with my leg muscles feeling strong and tight. I felt like I had wonder woman legs and it felt good to feel so strong. There is just something awesome about having powerful yet shapely legs. Makes me feel sexy verses feeling like I have two fat drumsticks attached to my torso.  And that’s how I used to feel and swore that’s how I used to look.

Anyhoo, as I was wiping down the equipment with cleanser (everyone should practice hygiene courtesy to minimize spreading germs) I noticed who was in the gym on a Friday night. I figure there are three types of people at the gym on a Friday night. People who are dedicated to their fitness routine, people who have nothing else to do on a Friday night and people who don’t have the money to go out for the evening. I fit into category number one as that would be my only reason for being in a gym on a Friday night. But I wondered about the others. I actually saw a man in the gym wearing a BodyBuilding.com tee shirt. I felt like waving. He was buffed up so I think he fit into category number one as well. The gym is sparse on Friday nights and what is interesting about my gym is that it sits under a movie theater. The box office is on the ground level and I can see out the gym windows as people walk up to the box office and take the escalators up to the theater.  Those of us in the gym I think are pre-show entertainment for the movie goers.  Some people will press their face close to the window and just stare at us. I wonder what they are thinking. Do they think we’re nuts, are they motivated by us, or are they just getting a chance to see men and women wearing form fitting clothing.

But the view is two way. I watch them as well. They entertain me while I’m on the elliptical. That’s one of the two reasons I go to this gym. I like watching the movie goers as a way to pass the time on the cardio machine. I find it fascinating that they find us fascinating. I wonder if anyone has joined the gym because of watching us on their way to a movie.

Had a great workout considering over the holidays I ate too much and worked out too little. From December 25 until January 1 I didn’t work out at all. That’s six days and for someone who works out at least four days a week that was a long lull. And my body felt like a bag of slug. Amazing how in only a week the body can crave a workout ……badly.  I hit the gym on New Years day as I found it fitting to be in the gym the first day of the year not to mention my body really needed a workout just to feel better. It wasn’t my best workout out but it got me going and I knew that by the next day I would be ready for more full throttle on the elliptical. And that’s what I did yesterday. A full throttle 50 minute go for it all blast on the elliptical. Didn’t matter that I forgot my sports bra and had to work out in my regular bra and my long sleeve sports shirt (verse my gym shirt) in a hot gym full of folks getting their New Year’s exercise/loose weight resolution on. Nothing was going to deter me.

I’ve updated my playlist as I am finding that the songs whose tempo used to be challenging for me no longer challenge me and I needed to add songs with faster tempos. I also increased the incline and resistance on the elliptical for some of the other songs in order to give me an overall more challenging fat burning experience. 

So with a better playlist and a lot of motivation I hit elliptical and 50 minutes later when it was over I felt better physically and mentally. I then hit the mat and did a five minute abs routine. I normally do a ten minute one but I need to work my way back up to it.

I feel back on my game and I don’t feel like slug so I’m now ready to get back into my routine. From an exercise and diet point of view I’m glad the holidays are over!

On a side note I’m curious to how many of the folks I saw in the gym yesterday will be there in a month. The gym is full of people the beginning of the year as everyone wants to loose weight and get into shape but not everyone sticks with it. I hope most of them do.  I’m concerned with this trend I’m seeing in our culture where overweight is considered normal. I’m 5’5” and a dress size 16 and the day someone told me I looked slim (compared to other people) is the day I knew American’s idea of “normal weight” was heading in the wrong direction.  I asked her “How can I be slim at a size 16 at my height?” and she said “girl you ARE slim”.  Oh boy. I’m wondering what is her definition of fat.