Today’s Mental Workout
I had mixed emotions about today’s planned workout. It was primarily a leg workout. I did it last week for the first time. And while it was challenging, I felt so good afterwards. So I was excited to do it again. However, the 3 leg exercises involved were far from my favorites. I admit I procrastinated a bit, but eventually got my ass down to my home gym by 6:00am.
After a 10 minute warm-up on my elliptical, the first exercise up was triangle lunges. I noted that I used 25 lb DBs last week for this one, but that seemed too much this morning. If I used them last week, that means I could do 10 reps/side with them again this week. These lunges have 3 parts to each rep – 1 forward lunge, 1 angle lunge, and 1 side lunge. So 10 reps really = 30 lunges. Needless to say, it takes a while to complete 1 set. Sometimes I lose count (was I on 6 or 7??), and if I do the consequence is defaulting to the lower number. If I want to avoid doing extra reps, then I’d better pay attention! Never works… I still don’t keep track very well.
Moving on to the second exercise in this superset – stability ball push-ups with feet on the ball. The target is 20 push-ups with my feet on the ball. I’m getting in position and see the dried sweat drops from yesterday’s workout… another good but tough one. As I easily do 20 good reps, I’m reminded of why I drag my ass down to the garage every morning by 6:00am. And as I gaze down at my abs and see my sixer showing through clear as day, I’m reminded of why I eat what I eat day after day.
Next up is 1-leg DB deadlifts. I love doing deadlifts with both legs and a BB! But I’m not as excited about this 1-leg DB version. I don’t have a BB, plates, or rack in my home gym, so this is the only challenging option. My balance is good if I can focus and establish a good cadence. Otherwise my balance sucks and the reps are not to my satisfaction. So if I lose my balance, I start that rep over and do it right. I remind myself how good these feel AFTERWARDS.
The second part of this superset is dips w/ my hands on the bench and feet on the stability ball. But of my somewhat OCD ways, I have to do the number of reps I put down in my plan. I put down 20, but could do more. So instead of doing more than 20, I count #18 and #19 twice. In my third set of these, after 5 reps I decided that my feet weren’t out far enough. So I adjusted and started over.
Now I’m onto the last leg exercise and it is the one I dread the most – pistol squats. Last week I was able to do 15/side. This week I was able to do 16-17! Not only was I able to do more, I’m getting better at them from a balance and form perspective. Maybe I’m starting to like these after all!
The pistol squats were followed by stability ball push-ups with my hands on the ball this time. I’m sticking with the 20 rep trend on these too. I don’t count a rep unless my chest touches the ball. I have rules for everything in my life.
Last superset is stability ball roll-outs and elevated side plank reps (side plank position w/ feet elevated on a step and I’m dipping my hips down for 15 reps/side). I can still only manage 15 reps on the SB roll-outs, but I remind myself that I’m rolling out further each time and holding it longer before rolling the ball back towards me. So I’m increasing the difficult of the exercise. As I catch a glimpse of myself in the shiny part of my car’s bumper, I notice how long, straight, lean my body is. Another sign of good form and difficulty level.
I’ve been at it for 64 minutes at this point. I really need to get my son up and ready for school. But what’s 5 more minutes? So I jump on my elliptical and do a final set of elliptical sprints. I don’t bother looking at my stop watch to see when the 45 second sprint portion is up, or at the light indicating I’m at my target level. I know by now about how long 45 seconds is, and I know how hard I need to be working to hit that upper number. So I stare straight ahead and just go for it. When I think it’s been about 45 seconds, then I glance down and notice 48 seconds had gone by. That means only a 12 second recovery before I kick it into gear again.
70 minutes later… mission completed and I remember why it is all worth it!
