crlgrl’s BodyBlog

I’ve been doing the same basic work out for the past month or so and can tell my legs have adjusted. So today I just did basic compound movements in a little bit heavier range than normal. Hopefully it will just give my muscle a bit of a shock and get them confused again! BB squats with wide and regular stance, walking lunges with DB’s, deadlifts, leg press and front squats. I did abs in between all leg sets: weighted ball crunches, weighted vups and hanging leg raises. I may do some type of cardio this evening to alleviate the guilt of eating my sons birthday dinner. He asked for homade fried chicken, mashed potaoes with white gravy, biscuits and ice cream. (:

All I really want is one very simple answer concerning what type of cardio is best! This morning I read an article about HIT and an hour later read a blog about low intensity 45 minute cardio being the best, then I hear on the tube that doing spurts of cardio here and there during the day is just as effective as other cardio. I mean do you do it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, before weights, after weights, high intensity, low intensity, HIT, interval, spurts?? AAAAAAH! All this thinking is too much work! Does it count as cardio??

A Native American boy was walking with his grandfather.

"What do you think about the world situation?" he asked.

The grandfather replied, "I feel like wolves are fighting in my heart. One is full of anger and hatred; the other is full of love, forgiveness and peace."

"Which one will win?" asked the boy.

To which the grandfather replied, "The one I feed."

(origin unknown)

Legs are still my favorite body part to work out, that has remained a consistent in my 12 years of working out. I remember back in the day, before low carb anything and when Susie Curry still ruled, my leg work outs were so elementery. Today I started out with some heavier than usual walking lunges just to let my legs know it was on! 4 sets with 35# DB’s. Then I did sissy squats, 1 legged BB deads for 2 sets and 2 sets with DB’s so I could go heavier. Then I did leg extensions super-setted with front squats. Finished up with the roman chair and a 25# plate. The roman chair has got to be the cheapest high ever; I know I’m going to pass out on that thing one day. I get dizzy every time I finish a set. I though about doing some outdoor cardio since it is going to rain the next 2-3 days but I think my legs have probably had enought today. I also did some calves.

Today was so great!! My friends, Matt and Christy; my son, Landon; and some local kids got to go out rock climbing for most of the day. With gas prices the way they are, we need some where a little closer than 3 hours away. The 2 local guys we went with climb there alot so they took us down. It was really cold, maybe 60, so the rocks were freezing!! 2 minutes into the climb you would lose pretty much all feeling in your fingers and fingers are kind of necessary in climbing. Needless to say, I didn’t climb very long, but I found plenty of things to do. Hopefully, the pictures I took will show the beauty of this place but I doubt it. I’m really looking forward to going back in warmer weather!!!

My gym time has seriously suffered this week!! Monday I took Landon to see the eye Dr. He recently took his drivers test and was barely able to pass because his eye sight was so poor. I had no idea and neither did he! Anyway, he had to have glasses or contacts and of course, being a 16 year old he chose contacts. Now he is working on us caving for some of the freaky ones with cat eyes or totally white?? Then Tuesday started my 3 days of work. Thank goodness, the flu seems to have tapered of some and the moon cycle changed because the ER has finally slowed down. We set an all time record for # of patients seen in a month in Feb. I got my 36-40 hours over with in 3 days but that is about all I did. I honestly don’t know how people work out and have a full time job esp. if they do 12’s and work out on those days! I guess if I worked full time I would find a way. My oldest son, Tailor, and his gfriend of a year broke up. Thank goodness I just spent 140.00 on a tux for him to wear to the prom that matches her yellow dress!!! (:  Yesterday, my husband and I started doing some prep work iin the boys bathroom and discovered a leak in the shower, so we ended up ripping everything out and we will have to redo it next week. Oh, and when I say we….I mean him. I was supposed to paint the tile after he prepped them but they are in the dump, so I got out of all the work. Thank goodness we have 2 other bathrooms!! The weather has been gorgeous this week! In the 70’s and sunny. As soon as the trails dry out some…I’m there. My sister and her family fly in today and stay for 10 days and it is Spring Break!!! YAY!! I did actually end up going to the gym 2 days last week. Monday I did back and yesterday I did legs. I hope this week is a little less dramatic and I go to the gym more!!

P.S. I forgot…Tuesday our dog, Quincey, got sick and we found out at the vet he has heartworm’s!! ):

I’ve read about sissy squats for years but never tried because….I was already doing squats and how much could some exercise that contained the word sissy in it’s name actually do for me??? I found out today! I started my work out with a 25# weight plate and an area in the far back room, just in case I fell.(: After 1 set of about 20 I realized these are not for sissy’s. They really put the burn on my quads. After 3 sets, I had to drop down to a 10# plate. I did 2 more sets of these. Next I did overhead wide stance squats. You hold a weight bar overhead where your body basically looks like an X. After these I did good mornings and finished with leg extensions. Which I really had to drop the weight on due to the sissys. I’ll keep on using these frequently! If you’ve never tried ‘em….give ‘em a try!!!!!

Sunday, my son, Landon and I got to go mtn. biking again. We did a little trail called SpringHill, which is a not too tough approx. 8-10 mile track. The weather really cooperated with us so we made the most of the day and after Springhill and a stop at Wendy’s to eat, we went to our second track, Ben Geren. BG has several trails of varying degrees of difficulty. Landon, of course, wanted to do Hog Hollar, which is enough of a challenge for me that it’s not that fun. Let’s just say I reach my weekly cussing quota in a 1/2 hour!!! (: He rode the trail and I rode up the paved part to meet him and do a part of the trail we’d yet to do. So we start off on the new trail and it has some pretty difficult climbs and creek beds and MUD!! After a few miles…..I was done!! The mind was willing (sortof) but the legs were saying NO!! So we called it a day.

I went in to the gym yesterday to lift but I had already hit all my body parts and normally I would just start over but  that would have made me up for legs and I didn’t want them to be sore or tired when I hit the mountain biking trails this weekend. I finally decided to do an overall upper body work out, excluding back since I had done it the day before. I tried to use all compound movements that also hit the other muscle I’m working. I ended up with over head BB press (shoulders), close-grip bench (tri’s), BB curls (bi’s) and bench press (chest). I tried to use weights that I could get at least 12 reps with but the further along I got the less the reps got. I did these exercises back to back with about a 2-3 minute rest/stretch period in between. I did a total of 6 giant sets in about 35 minutes. I really enjoyed doing this type of workout and may incorporate something similar into my routine weekly. I read a little blurb in the new Flex magazine about hitting all body parts 3 times a week for strength, which got me to thinking about maybe increasing the # of times I hit my parts maybe to 2 times a week. I wouldn’t mind building up some more strength but it’s not my #1 goal, so we will see. Anyway, like I mentioned, I get to hit the mountain bike trails this weekend and I can’t wait!!!! Spring fever is definitely hitting already. I’ve been thinking about hiking, biking, canoeing and rock climbing alot lately. Have a GR8 weekend!!!