Pump hard……. Pump often

My flight leaves this afternoon and I’ve been running around today like a mad woman trying to get last minute stuff done. But you know what? I still made it to the gym for some cardio this morning.

Do Work Crew stand up!!

Did 50 minutes of cardio with HIIT and then made it to the punching bag to try out my new gloves. Found out why hitting a punching bag is good carido. I felt that all in my back, abs, and glutes. Did that for 15 minutes and was out the door to race home to finish packing.

I think I have free web access at the hotel. If I do I’ll drop in and post a blog about my trip.

Until then I’ll catch up with all ya’ll when I get back at the end of next week!

au revior (good bye in French)!!

Alisa
There’s a reason it’s called a WORKout!

He got stopped for speeding and said he was a police officer. He produced a badge and after checking the records it was revealed he had not been a licensed officer since 2003. So they arrested him for falsely identifying himself as a police officer.

Hate to see that mug shot of him.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/052309dnmetbodybuilderarrest.c9ebd29.html

Alisa
There’s a reason it’s called a WORKout!

I kid you not. ROFL.

www.bodybuilding.com/fun/incredible_hulk_training.htm

Yep I remember the Hulk from 2003 and then how he looked a few years later. Oh yea his new workout plan created a MASSIVE transformation.  HUGE difference.

BB.com even has before and after photos.

The Hulk’s Incredible Transformation.
Before: 2003. After: 2008.
© 2003-08 Universal Studios.

Look at those striations on the pecs. Look at those traps. Oh my!

ROFL…love it.

Alisa
There’s a reason they call it a WORKout!

Last night I went to Dicks Sporting Goods to purchase some workout gear which included some gloves for hitting a punching bag.

So I’m on YouTube looking up videos on how to hit a punching bag and wanted to know the difference between using boxing gloves and these punching gloves I bought. But I forgot the exact name of the gloves so I decided to go to the Dicks Sporting Goods website to look them up.

Well not knowing the exact url of the website I thought it probably would be dicks dot com since everyone calls the store Dicks. So I type dicks dot com and right before I hit the enter button my brain said STOPPPP!!  Try looking it up in a search engine first.

Sure enough I was wrong the website is dickssportinggoods dot com. I don’t even want to know what would have popped up on my computer screen here at work if I had hit that enter button.

Common sense is golden. ROFL.
Alisa
There’s a reason it’s called a WORKout!

I’ve had such a mind transformation this weekend concerning fitness. I might have had a spiritual moment in the mix of all of it as well considering how enlightened I feel.

Ok…maybe that’s a bit overstated BUT I do feel much more aware.

Especially concerning the concept of having a relationship with food. My moment of awareness came when I went to the movies on Sunday and did NOT GET ANY BUTTERY POPCORN. Guess what? I survived it. Ohhhhh the amazement of it all. I purposefully stuffed myself at dinner with veggies and steamed soybeans so that by the time I got to the movies there was no way I was eating anything else including popcorn. And I still enjoyed the movie. Who knew? LOL.

I have to see food in a different light. I have to  realize that I need to eat the amount needed for a given time. And yes for a little while I will have to endure some hunger pains as my body adjusts to not eating the amounts I’m used to eating. But I can handle it. I remember when I stopped eating meat and felt hungry ALL the time until my body adjusted to no meat. I have done two diet adjustments in my life (from meat eater to vegetarian and from vegetarian to vegan). Getting adjusted to eating less food in a day should be a piece of cake.

Speaking of cake…well carbs anyway….I’m trying out carb cycling.  The idea being to eat more carbs on the days I need the extra energy and less carbs on other days. The days I do cardio I’ll need less carbs than the days I do weights and I’ll need even less carbs on my rest day. So instead of eating the exact same thing all days I’ll adjust my eating to reflect my energy need for the day. I’ll probably start this in full effect when I get back from Paris.

Went into Dicks Sporting Goods store today. I love this store. It inspires me. The store and the indoor rock climbing wall. Tried that once and made it to the top. I need to do that again one day. Anyhoo, I’ve been thinking of how to vary up my workout routine. What can I add different? Decided I wanted to start punching on the punching bag in my gym. I don’t know a lick about boxing but I figured I’ll just punch away until I’m tired. So I bought a pair of punching gloves. Not boxing gloves but punching gloves. Guess what? I got them in black and pink!!

I needed a new pair of lifting gloves as my current pair was wearing through the leather and I was beginning to get blisters. So instead of getting the pretty black and pink pair like I did before I got a set of "pro" pair that were better made (and cost more) with better padding and got them in black.

Add to these two pairs of gloves new workout top and that completed my shopping at Dicks. I’m so excited about trying out my new punching gloves on a punching bag. Just bam bam bam away ROFL. I probably look up an instruction video online so at least I have something that looks like a form LOL.

Here are my new gloves

Alisa
There’s a reason it’s called a WORKout!

Yes I am going to be in Paris for a week beginning the end of next week.

I can’t wait!

Been looking forward to this trip for months. And now the real excitment begins.

What to pack? Where will I eat?  (funny question to be asking about Paris huh).  So much to do how will I decide?

Will I take the elevator all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower? Ahhhh no. Don’t like heights.

I’m going with family so this will be a great trip and I can’t speak a lick of French. LOL. As always I’ve done some research on the exercise room where I will be staying and it looks decent. What I’ve decided to do this trip is give my body a week’s rest from the weights and do daily cardio and abs. Just do intense cardio and work the abs for a week to get my fat burn on.  Which means weight training for this week is on HARD core.

Upping my bench tomorrow to 115lbs to get closer to my goal of 135lbs. Upping the reps on everything this week to crank out as many as my body can produce.  Last night’s leg day will be my last before I go to Paris so no more legs until I get back.

In Paris with the daily cardio with HIIT AND the amount of walking I will be doing I should get a nice workout.

I refuse to let my eating blow out like that man’s stomach in my last blog post ROFL.  So my goal is to keep my eating as tight as possible and as regular as possible. I eat about every 3 hours and I’m trying to figure out how to keep that schedule. My family is like most people. Three meals a day and snacks in between. So I know eating those three meals will be easy for me. It’s when they are grabbing a quick snack from a vendor and I’m trying to figure out where to get a quick modest healthy meal that will be interesting.  And I’m hoping (praying) I can take an unopened canister of protein powder through customs to have my daily protein shakes. If not it’s going to be interesting trying to find a health food store and I can’t speak the language enough to ask somebody.

Any tips?

Now what to pack?……….

Alisa
There’s a reason it’s called a WORKout!

Ahhhhh hilarious.

So after looking at many a progress pics of women being honest enough to post images of their backside almost bare to see what’s really going on back there I decided to take a picture of my backside (no I didn’t post it so don’t rush to my progress pics).  I don’t have a full length mirror in my home and I need to get one. And I always take progress pics in my black gym pants and we all know the color black in clothes has a slimming effect. So when I saw this backside pic minus the gym pants I was horrified. Yes I know women tend to think their butts are as wide as a hot air balloon and over react to seeing their butts for the first time in all its "jiggliness" but when I saw mine my heart just sank.

I know I’ve lost bodyfat and I know I’ve trimmed down. But man I still got work to do to loose more bodyfat. My bodyfat percentage is 34% and logic tells me I got fat to burn but to see my backside in all its brown glory was just a reality check.

The good news is all those leg presses and stair master sessions kept the buns sitting more north than south. Which I was glad to see and I like the overall shape it’s just the width that needs decreasing. And my thighs need more tone.

My grand idea of a two piece bathing suit may be more towards Labor Day in September ROFL. One of these days I want to take progress pics in workout shorts. Maybe in July.

Alisa
There’s a reason it’s called a WORKout.

I should have known last night would be interesting. Tuesdays at my gym is "show off" night. It used to be Monday nights but for some reason it moved to Tuesday. Maybe the spin and aerobic classes changed their nights or something. EVERYBODY is at this gym on Tuesday night. The spin classes are so full that people arrive early just to get their name on the sign up list. Which means you have one class in session and the next class is waiting around. Add to this the people in the aerobic classes and the rest of people in the gym.  Which makes for one very crowded parking lot.

So as I’m walking through the parking lot going towards the gym this guy is riding around with his windows down. I didn’t notice him at first because I thought he was like me and all the other people who come to the gym after work. Just driving around the parking lot in a daze looking for a parking space. But as he drives by me he asks if I’m going to the gym. I say yes and then he begins with his pick up line "Why? You already look good you don’t need the gym. What’s your name? Can I get a number." To which I reply that no he can’t have my number and I already have a man. His next reply would not have endeared me to him if he was the last sane man on earth. "Oh you got a man? You don’t even know if he has someone else. (Then he smiles big) Oh and don’t mind these fake Coach bags in my back seat. I won’t try to sell you one. (wink) So what’s that number?"

WTH???? Yea, my next word was bye.

I get in the gym and I’m doing back exercises. Now I do four sets per equipment. I get on this one piece of equipment about the same time this guy gets on another back equipment. By the time I do TWO pieces of equipment at four sets each he is still on this same piece of equipment. Except he is not working out. And I’m ready to use that same piece of equipment. So I wait and watch. While he is using the seat of the equipment as a BENCH he is surrounded by two women and a male trainer and they are laughing, talking and lounging (and probably flirting). So I’m curious to how long he would sit there.  I start my stop watch. THREE minutes later he is still just sitting there. Remember I’ve already done 8 sets of exercises while he was sitting there. Add that time to the three minutes and he was just parked there. What amazed me is the trainer should have been aware this guy was hogging the machine and not using it.

I give up and move to the lower back equipment and get to doing my WORK (Do Work Crew hollar!).

But I did finally get that back equipment later in the evening. Time passes and its time to do my biceps. I’m curling my dumbbells and this guy who I’ve seen in the gym lately does something I’ve never seen but always wanted to see. He pulls off his shirt and starts practicing his bodybuilding stage poses. Now that was cool. I’ve seen this done on bodybuilding training videos but never seen someone actually do that. He had the ripped and shredded body necessary so I’m guessing he’s entering a competition somewhere. Didn’t even know he had all that under his loose shirt. God bless him LOL.

The last interesting thing I saw was this guy standing up holding a 45lb plate by the handles flat against his chest. He then proceeds to push the plate forward and then pull back against his chest as fast as he could as many times as he could. Forward, back, forward, back. Over and over again. Fast, fast, fast.  It didn’t make a lick of sense to me.

Just another interesting day at Club Fitness as it’s called by a lot of people LOL

Alisa
There’s a reason it’s called a WORKout!

I was thinking about this idea earlier this evening.  I was reading an article in Muscular Development and it talked about the two modern day hardcore gym icons Powerhouse Gym in Syosset, New York and Metroflex Gym in Arlington, Texas. These gyms have produced some of the major names in the competition of bodybuilding such as Branch Warren and Ronnie Coleman from Metroflex and Kai Green, Kevin English and Victor Martinez from Powerhouse. The article talked about what makes a gym hardcore. Not so much a gritty environment of the gym (although that will give any gym the image of being hardcore) but the spirit of the people in the gym. If the people who train there are serious about training and the management is serious about creating an environment catering to serious training then you got a hardcore gym.

Later in the day I was surfing the net and was looking at the website for Ladies Workout Express. It’s a fitness center just for ladies that provides an interval circuit training program. It provides aerobic and strength training in 30 minutes using circuit machines. Looks like a nice place for a woman who may not feel comfortable in other gyms to get her recommended 30 minutes three to four times a week of exercise.

And then you have the mega fitness centers like LAFitness, Gold’s Gym and World’s Gym.  Where you can get your weight training, cardio, aerobics, swimming, basketball game and flirting on all at the same time LOL.

All of these "gyms" cater to a different crowd. The lady who workouts at Ladies Workout Express may never step her toe much less her foot in Metroflex. And the guy who pumps iron at Powerhouse may find the "do not drop the weights" rule at LAFitness absurd.

So what do you look for in a gym?  What keeps you paying money every month to your gym or what keeps you happy pumping iron in your basement?

Alisa
There’s a reason it’s called a WORKout!