My BodyBlog

It was hot, hot, hot at the gym last night!  The small air-conditioning unit is broken, and there was no breeze coming through the open windows.  The fans were just blowing around warm air so no relief there.  By the time I finished my first set of power cleans and barbell bent-over rows, I was sweating like I’d just done half an hour of cardio!

I paced myself, drank a lot of water, and had a decent workout.  I think though I may have strained my left arm a little on the downward movement of my last power clean.  I was focused so much on getting the weight up, I didn’t concentrate on the descent and instead of going right to the floor in a smooth movement I stopped part way and that’s when the strain happened.  It’s not too bad though, I’ll rest it for a few days, my next workout is legs and abs anyway.  This just serves as another reminder of how important proper form is to avoid injury.  Always keep focused on what you’re doing!

Right after that workout I did something I haven’t done since last year at a hotel - I went swimming.  I went to our community pool, which is only open in the summer.  Even though I’ve lived here 15 years, I’ve never been to this pool.  It’s a nice spot, newly renovated, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  There were only a dozen people there, so I had lots of room to swim.  I wear contacts so at first I tried to keep my head out of the water, but I love go under water so I borrowed a mask that the pool owns.  It worked ok, and I was able to swim some laps (resting at each end) and fool around swimming to the bottom and swimming across the pool under water.  I used to swim a lot in my twenties, and forgot how much I enjoyed it.  Even though I haven’t been swimming much I haven’t lost the knack for it, I don’t think it would take me long to get back to doing many continuous laps like I used to do.  I went for the enjoyment but of course I want the cardio benefits too, and I think it will be a welcome change from the bike and treadmill at the gym.  Yesterday I went out and bought a proper pair of swim goggles so I can see underwater without any worry about my contacts.  I’m looking forward to trying them out! 

This entry was posted on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 10:59 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.