kymberg’s BodyBlog

You have your related family..the ones that come during the holidays offering pies and cakes and cookies and badger you all day about why you can’t just be happy with your figure and why you can’t even enjoy eating anymore.

Then you have your family of friends that appear after their family gatherings wanting to go have a drink or share a tub of popcorn at the movies…

You also have your kids who are out of school and DON’T want to get up and go to the gym because they are out of school and feel it is their God-given right to sit around all day long in their pajamas.

And then you have your gym family…the ones I saw this morning upon my return to the gym. Gosh, I love them. We were all strangely silent this morning. Going about our workouts as if we were on a top-secret mission of utmost importance. A few nods and smiles were all I got as I entered and began my workout.

Within 10 or 15 minutes as we all hit our groove, we started making comments about how we had missed each other over the last 2 days and how we couldn’t wait to get back. An older gentleman that shares my love for whole foods started telling me about his planned trip to the grocery to re-stock for next week and suddenly I felt more at home than I had in days…

People with a common goal and a shared interest are sometimes the best family we can have…Happy Holidays, Everyone! Keep Progressing!

Working out over Thanksgiving Holidays is a challenge…especially when your gym is closed for Thursday and Friday and is ALWAYS closed on Sunday.

Thanksgiving Day found me at home with a pair of Bowflex SelectTech Dumbbells, a Flat bench and a Heavy Chest Workout to complete….

I’ve never been past the 25 lbs on my DBs, but knew that in order to make my trainer impressed with my efforts I would have to, I bit the bullet and cranked the dial….It’s amazing how hard it is to hold 40 lb dumbbells in position while you lay down on your back and perform a chest press. VERY HARD!…so I called my son. I enlisted his help on my right side…that is my weaker shoulder. The girls, hearing the call, didn’t want to be left out and came running to spot me on the other side.

I laid back, took a deep breath, and in typical mom fashion asked, "If something happens to mommy and she gets knocked out…what do you do?"

"Call 911" they all shouted in unison.

With that confirmed, I plunged into my workout, with the best 3 spotters in the room, the voice of my trainer in my head and the reassurance that I had raised 3 kids right.

I’ve always used this term to describe romantic feelings…but today it’s the only term I can think of that describes my leg workout.

Today was my heavy rep workout for quads and calves. Adonis told me last week to quit looking ahead in my workout and saving myself for the next set or for more exercises…Not saving myself? Wow! A concept completely against ALL the teachings of my southern upbringing…

So, I hit the gym floor today with a new mission…NOT to save myself. And I didn’t. On the eighth rep of every exercise I was STRUGGLING…wishing I hadn’t listened to my Abs of Steel guru about packing on the weight and seeing what I had…but I pushed through and I did it…and it felt great!!

Another barrier broken, another successful workout, and another day of realizing that the only thing between me and my dreams is the limits I place on myself.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I’m five days in to my new training regime…We will call this the Adonis Era, in honor of my new workout guru. Today was my first day to re-hit a muscle group…Chest and Tris.

I have to admit, I was not as pumped about the gym this morning as I have been all week long…maybe it’s because it’s Friday, or maybe it’s cause I noticed that I have about 10 loads of laundry awaiting me, or maybe it’s cause it’s light weight , heavy rep day which is my usual form of working out.

Got to the gym and remembered my trainer’s words…go heavy as you can still reaching all the rep goals. So I loaded the plates on the Smith machined and warmed up. When my first working set came, I put my usual 12 rep weight on there and then I stopped…Def Leppard screaming "are you getting it" in my ear…no more same ole same ole…this is the new ME in the gym and I added on 40 more lbs of weight…thinking that if I don’t hit the 12 rep goal, I’ll just unload and not tell Beautiful that I missed it!

Can you believe it? 12 reps…not easy, but I DID IT!! Well, actually is was 11.5 but it felt great!! Hit every set failing on the last one with heavier weights than I’ve ever used before!!

In celebration, I stood in a long, HOT shower and thought about how far I have come in just 5 days. Six weeks from now is something to look forward to… if after 5 days, I can change my mental outlook this much, imagine what I’ll be able to accomplish by then.

What’s holding you back?? Find out, and CHANGE it!!

I experience it ALL the time with my clients..when I tell them to eat more often, they look at me like I’ve grown a second head…but then I explain to them how the body is like a furnace and if you don’t keep your metabolism stoked by giving it something to feed on it will stop burning…most of the time they still don’t listen to me and our efforts in the gym are thwarted by their poor diet. Changing mindsets is HARD!!

A few years ago, I changed my mindset on Cardio vs. Weights and experienced a major transformation in my body. Then, I started the eating every 3 hours and noticed another improvement. Last year, I added on the Clean Eating and Voila! another major change…

But now that I’m on my quest for MUSCLE and LOTS OF IT, I’m fighting another barrier…psychologically thinking I’m a girl and I can’t lift that!!

This week has been such an eye-opener for me. I am so much stronger than I realized and can move ALOT more weight than I have been making myself. After each workout, I have reported back to my resident Master of Muscle, 6Pack99, and given him my numbers….and each time he has followed with the same thing…"Next time, start at a little higher weight and see how it goes." Huh?

Today was back day. The most frustrating part of my workout week…or should I say Weak? I’m just NOT strong on back. Thank goodness my first back workout hit on heavy rep day..HE calls this "light" day but the premise is to go as heavy as you can for 12 reps and then you can drop down to a lighter weight and do the reps again…(Light?!?, my bottom!!)

I started with wide-grip Lat Pulldowns…after my warm-up I put my weight on 60 and did my 12…all the time thinking, this is as heavy as I can go. What am I gonna do on Heavy day when I’m suppose to be doing more weight?

Started my second set..and it dawned on me! I’ve set my own barrier. If I can move 60lbs for 12 reps…why do I feel it’s impossible to move 80lbs for 5?

WoW!! This blonde JUST had a breakthrough!! I CAN do More. I WILL do More. and when I do I’m gonna tell you ALL about it…

It’s great to have someone out there that you want to impress…

On Monday, I wrote about finding my inner strength and pushing through and breaking down barriers and how it made me feel like a Goddess working out for the approval of Adonis…my master trainer….today, after the DOMS has set in and waiting for the legs to scream in agony from today’s workout…I feel more like the one who is suffering from the wrath of the gods…Was it Beowulf who battled the monster that liked to rip people’s limbs off (speaking of which, if I could detach my arms for about an hour, I think I might feel better!! )

It’s been a long time since I read or was made to read Greek Mythology, but I do remember that sometimes you had to appease the gods so they wouldn’t make mush out of you….

I wonder if I offered him some NOXplode if he would leave my back alone tomorrow…

Just kidding….may as well make EVERY part of my body hurt so I’ll be even!! How many more hours till I can take another Motrin?????

I have to admit..I am a soreness junkie. There! I said it. Isn’t admitting your addiction the first step to recovery?

I hope so..because 6pack99’s supplying me with SO MUCH SORENESS that I think I’m pretty close to ODing!!

Can we talk about shoulders? Why you may ask? Because talking is the only thing I can do with them that isn’t going to make me grimace!! They hurt sooo bad! I had to hold my toothbrush steady and move my mouth back and forth on it today because I couldn’t take the pain…

Hugging my kids before they went to school was TORTURE!! I knew they had hard heads, but Good Night, I never realized they were weapons just waiting to push into my chest and almost make me pass out.

My first appointment thought I was mad at her, because I refused to help her with the weight…I stayed back and told her to push through it, because I didn’t want to open my arms to spot her.

and now…it’s time for legs. He wants to know if I want to work Hams and Calves or Quads and Calves….Let’s do the quads…at least I’ll still be able to lay flat and moan tonight!!

but where the heck was it when I was leaving the gym???

Okay…Today, I hit the gym early (in fact, i cancelled one of my appts to make sure that I got my workout in…I’m so pumped about having my new program!!) and I started on my shoulders…after a major warm-up (due to injury in the past) I started. Half-way through, I realized that my chest was starting to get a little sore from my goddess-ness the day before…Wow! That feels good, I thought.

Couple more sets, and WoW! I’m really feeling yesterday…

Finished workout and it hurt a little to shake up my protein drink…no worries.

Dropped the shampoo in the shower..then the conditioner…hands a little too shaky to risk shaving my legs this morning…

Drying hair was a little rough, so I bent over and just kind of shook my head in front of the blower…easier than holding arms over the head.

Picked up my gym bag to leave..and WOW!who put the rocks in there?

And then it happened…that rude guy coming in for his workout didn’t even offer to carry my bag to the car and open up my trunk for me…can you believe that? They really should get some bell service here!!

3 hours later and I’m already worrying about how I’m going to get my shirt off tonight to go to bed…never slept in a turtleneck before.

…Adonis has left his mark!!

I just had one!

No, it had nothing to do with scarves, or lipstick or gyrating my hips to tantric music…in fact, it focused all on HEAVY IRON and pushing it with all I had in me! What a blast! I had no idea how strong I was…or that I COULD do dips…or that when the guy who offered to spot me suggested I go down in weights and "rep it out like a good girl" that I would have the strength to tell him "Absolutely Not! I’m working heavy today. Thank you."

Adonis, My trainer, has shown me what a real goddess does. She gives it EVERYTHING she’s got and can leave the floor feeling even more feminine than when she entered smelling nicer….

It’s a new day…

What motivates you?? I’d like to know….