Erin Carson’s BodyBlog

So… it’s been a while since I posted a blog but i’m getting back to it

I hit two personal best lifts yesterday and my flexibility is increasing little by little!  Also, I have a new photo gallery at ebony-fitness.com and I’m in the Winter 2007 Fitness and Physique magazine.

Work-out:

Flexibility training for 1h.

Shoulders:

Dumbbell over head press - 20#, 30#, 35#, 40#, 45# (personal best - 8 reps)

DB Lateral raises - 4 sets, 15#

Swan push ups - 3 sets

Cable front raises - 3 sets, 15#, 15#, 20#

Behind the neck press (smith machine) - 10#, 15#, 20#, 25#, 30#, 35# (personal best, 7 reps)

Cable rear delts - 2 sets, 10#

Cardio:  None, I’ve been dealing with some leg issues for a few days but it seems to be sorted out now.  Guess we’ll find out tonight.

 Hamstrings is the plan tonight - i’m gonna go for some more PBs.  Wish me luck!

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I’ve had a couple of off days - feeling tired, exhausted really.  Still going to the gym everyday but slacking on the cardio.  Got back to weights sunday so that feels good.  I don’t feel like i’m losing the weight i need to so i’m gonna have to change it up and get my butt in gear.  Its a work in progress always.  Someone’s forum signature said "if you always stay ready, you don’t have to get ready" (or something like that).  I wish i had thought of that when I got so lax on my off season diet.  Bleg.

Friday was a good day at the gym.  I did my full 2 hours of cardio again so I felt accomplished.  Saturday, I meant to get up at 730a so i could go to the gym and do bodypump.  Unfortunately, I overslept and had to take the next class but i did do an hour of cardio.  After that I watch some of my coworkers play in a charity dodgeball tournament… it was awesome!  Sunday, I went running outside.  I was so excited when i woke up and it wasn’t raining - I’ve been so looking forward to going outside again.  Anyway, I made it thru about 30 mins before I had to go meet my trainer.  Unfortunately, thanks to it being so cold outside I ended up coughing the rest of the day and my lungs were killing me - i don’t think i do very well breathing hard in the cold.  Also, for the last few days I have been feeling a little under the weather, nauseous, etc.  well, yesterday it came to a head.  By the time I got home, I felt awful and i ended up laying down and sleeping the rest of the day.  I think I have the problem straightened out tho - I started fat burners and a new medication on the same day (bright, i know) so I didn’t give my body a chance to get accustomed to one before I added in the other.  I think I’m going to give myself a few days off the fat burners then try again.

In final news, I got my pics back from my last photoshoot and they look awesome.   Anyone who has a chance to shoot with michael yurkovic (physique art) definitely should.  he does wonderful work.

Shorted on the cardio again but not by as much this time.  1 hour 45 mins.  Oops again.  I’ll resume lifting next week.  I also "re-noticed" the imbalance in my quads so I’m really looking forward to doing some isolateral work to get that fixed up.  I also have a 4 hour running/walking plan in mind that I’m eager to try whenever the weather clears up.

I only did 1:20 cardio yesterday, wasn’t feeling very well plus I have started developing shin splints and joint pain from running too much on the treadmill.  I need to start running outside again.  Conveniently enough, it hasn’t rained here in months and then yesterday it started raining again and is supposed to continue thru saturday.  Lovely.  Oh well, I guess i’ll just have to either get wet or drug myself to get thru the pain for 3 days. 

And to make matters worse, since I was feeling so crappy, I didn’t lift either.  2 days no lifting.  Shame on me.  My trainer did give me a pep-talk and told me to stop being so hard on myself over my progress getting ready for this photo-shoot and my off-season gains.  I’m still looking for a workout partner to bust my ass tho.

Lately i’ve been feeling like I haven’t been lifting my hardest while i’m in the gym and I really want to make some gains this year before the next season so I’ve decided so set some lifting goals.  Hopefully if i set them far enough out of reach, I’ll be motivated to work towards them.  I find it much easier to work towards a number, then i can track my progress.  Hopefully, this will also push me past some plateaus.  Also, I need to find a lifting partner, b/c its awfully hard to push poundage past your plateau point without someone to spot you.  I need to quit being so shy in the gym and just ask for a spot if i cant find a consistent workout partner. Anyway, I’ll be updating my progress in my daily workout log.  Wish me luck. 

2.5h cardio - woohoo

15mins walking, 30mins arc trainer, 30mins stairmaster, 30mins run/sprint/walk, 40mins elliptical.

I was supposed to stretch yesterday too but that didn’t happen.  oh well.

2h cardio.  I did a new running program to keep myself amused:

10min walk, 10min run, 1 min walk, 9min run, 2min walk, 8min run, 3min walk, 7min run, etc (you get the idea).  I went down to the 8min walk, 2min run, then finished up on the elliptical. [by the way, if you go all the way thru to the 10min walk, 0min run its a 2 hour workout]

Lifting: shoulders

overhead press (db), lateral raises (db), behind the neck (smith), front raises (cable), wide grip up-right rows (bb), overhead press (machine), lateral raises (machine).  3-4 sets on everything.

1hr running outside - i found a new running path and had a nice, refreshing run.

1hr cardio - stairmaster and arc trainer

Lifting: Back

10.20.2007

3 mile run

1.5 hour plyometric leg workout

1h cardio

10.21.2007

Day off but I still did an hour of cardio.  Blah.