smeyer41’s BodyBlog

Well aside from lack of sleep these days I am feeling mighty good. I am proud of myself. Today I ran 3 miles. Of course I was bored on the treadmill so I went back and forth from the treadmill to the elliptical and then the arc trainer. It took a lot to get me to focus at the gym. I didn’t do anything today but cardio. Yesterday I did my typical day two routine with legs, abs and finished shoulders. I don’t think I pushed my legs hard enough because I was not sore at all when I woke up. I didn’t do lunges like I was supposed to. Maybe I will throw them in my routine tomorrow if I am still not feeling anything from my leg workout. I am hoping next week to get a little sun on my pale white skin! *LOL* I would hate to pay $30 per month just to look tan this year because I cannot make it out in the daylight. We’ll see.

So yeah today my trainer told me he may be leaving! AHH! He had taken the FBI qualification test a year ago and failed the math section. He said there was math on there he had never seen before. Well he is eligible to re-test soon (you have to wait a year) and he is looking into re-testing because this is what he always wanted to do with his life. He said the gym is going no where fast…I can understand completely and this is not the first trainer that worked there to tell me so! What is strange though is the FBI only lets a person take the test twice. If they fail it both times they can never take it again. So this is make it or break it for him. I am happy for him that he is chasing his dream but sad to hear he may leave me. This is the second pt to leave me. I had two others but they didn’t leave they just went to a different shift. This is kind of frustrating because now I have to start with another trainer. I only have a few training visits left anyway and will not be eligible for more until January (we get 10 free training sessions per year). I cannot pay a trainer at this time so I guess I am on my own within the next few weeks.

I had a good workout today. I did chest, triceps and some shoulders (my usual day one). I did try those new abs exercises and loved them. I can’t wait until I see progress there.  I also did the hyper extension for my lower back. It has been hurting lately. I could only do about half what I could usually do. I need an alignment….crap!

So many of you are probably wondering why the title? Well today the word arthritis was thrown around by my trainer. He thinks I might have arthritis in my hips. We were doing inner/outer thigh exercises on a stability ball today. These were different exercises that I have seen in the past. The exercises I have seen or done in the past were all lying on the ground and lifting the hips off the ground. These were were totally the opposite. One exercise involved me standing straight with one leg bent up to make my knee parallel to the floor. The leg that was bent was pressed into the ball without hip movement. This made my hips feel like they need to pop. Another exercise we did was using the stability ball and kneeling on the ball with the ball in between the legs. I had to press both thighs into it. This wasn’t bad doing it until I stood up and my hips were killing me. I also had to do a dumbbell chest press while lying on the floor. I added pictures of these two if my wording is confusing. He had me keep my arm locked, contract my abs, make it to a sitting position, then to a standing position and then roll back down to do it again for 2 sets of 12. Again my hips were not cooperating and creating a pain that was uncomfortable to continue to do that exercise. We did an exercise call "Hello Sunshines" *LOL* It is not pleasant as it may sound like after you do so many reps. I am excited though! I did barbell squats for the first time in my life and I did very well! I did 75 lbs!! I did three sets of 15! He happened to notice my hips were wobbly when doing this and again..arthritis was mentioned. We did a few reps on bench. I am wore out and my hips are not feeling so hot. I think I might soak in  bath for a little bit tonight and decide if I really want to make an appointment with a chiropractor…:(

So today was just the typical gym day. My husband calls this day international chest day. I usually do not like to work on chest at the gym on a Monday because of this. It was somewhat quiet in the gym today though. I circuit trained through today. I did CYBEX incline bench, Stability ball decline push ups, incline bench dumbbell press, dips, flys and press downs. I also did my normal routine of abs. I am going to try a new program for abs this week. It is only three ab exercises. Upper abs (cable crunches three sets of 25), Lower abs (hanging leg raise three sets of 30), and Obliques (swiss ball side crunch three sets of 15-20). I added the videos of these exercises on my page. I have two personal training visits this week. I did much better on my diet this weekend! Even though Michael made this delicious cake I managed to maintain weight. I would have rather lost a few this weekend but I had to try this cake! YUMMY! That was my cheat day.

I saw this video of the magician a friends sent me. It is kinda freaky but you can tell it is fake. Check it out. 

*LOL* No I am not talking about something dirty I had lack of energy today since I had very little caffeine this morning. I live on my morning two cups of coffee but we ran out of coffee.:( I know Michael is probably hurting more in this area than me. Anyhoo, so it was hard to motivate myself to actually walk through the gym doors! *LOL* It was hard enough just to walk since I killed my legs yesturday. I did reverse grip pull downs, pull downs to the front, seated cable row, t-bar row, Supinating dumbbell curl, alternating dumbbell curl, and palms up dumbbell curl. I did that bench exercise that my trainer had me doing last week. It is the one where you are positioned like you are doing an incline push up and you have dumbbells in each hand. I still haven’t asked him if there is a technical term for it. Ha ha ha. I wish our gym allowed us to have cameras because I would so video this exercise. Anyway, I know I could have done a lot more tonight but I just wasn’t feeling it. I actually did my exercises in circuit mode so I could get through it faster. Maybe I will feel much better about it on Monday. I just know  I must get some coffee in the morning!

So it was nice today when I went to the gym. I was glowing with flattery. Three people came up to me complimenting me on my progress. One even asked me for advice! This never happened to me before and I really didn’t know how to react. I just told them what I do on a normal week and told them I hook up with my trainer every now and again to get that extra something in my routine. Now before you get too excited I don’t think this will turn into a workout partner type deal. If it does great and I hope it doesn’t turn into the situation like my husband where the person ends up quitting because they can’t keep up or loose motivation.

I worked on legs today and man did I kill them. You know it is a good workout when you can barely walk stairs let alone out to the parking lot without feeling unstable. I did lunges in a different modification that what I have been doing. The first set I had no weight overhead, the second I had a 5 lb medicine ball, and the third a 14 lb medicine ball. My butt is killing me! I did hack squats, Freemotion calf, leg press and the Freemotion seated quad. I did something a little different with the seated quad that a person in a group I call "the big dogs" told me to try. I did one set of alternation followed by one set together and repeat for three sets of each. I felt like my quads where going to burst out of my skin!  ha ha ha

I am so excited because Michael and I have a wedding to go to in July (thats not the exciting part…believe me) and I tried on several dresses in my closet to see how much work I have to do in order for these dresses to look and fit great…ha ha ha They are all too big! The chest and shoulders fit fine but around the waist they are all big. Most of my dresses are form fitting so it is noticeable that they do not fit properly. I guess I will shop around when it gets closer to the wedding date. I am not about to gain weight just so I don’t have to go out shopping! *LOL* It is awesome that I can notice a difference in the way I look now than I did before pregnancy #1. Now all I have to do is have self control around Michael and his eating habits! *LOL*

Today was such a great day at the gym! It was hotter than hell in there but still great! Ha ha ha I did not get any cardio in today because tomorrow I am taking a "cardio for everyone" class! I am excited. I just hope I can keep up! *LOL* Did a lot of dumbbell work tonight. Dumbbell bench, dumbbell flys, dumbbell raises, dumbbell lateral raises, dumbbell presses. I also did incline bench press, Cybex chest press, Cybex Torso, Cybex Abdominal, Military Press Machine, bench dips and decline push ups. Stability ball core workouts as well. I felt great about myself when leaving the gym but upset that I was not able to get any training scheduled for this week for my trainer! He is a hot commodity at that gym because he is such a great trainer. I scheduled him twice next week to make up for this weeks lack.

So I got up this morning planning my day accordingly and had planned to go to the gym some time in the evening. Well plans changed as the day went on. I had to take my son to his allergist for his 6 month check up. I felt so bad for him this time more than the last. He had to get re-tested on his allergies to see if he out grew some or if new ones had appeared. It took all I had to hold the boy down to do this test. I felt so bad I almost started to cry with him. I have never heard him scream like this before in my life and it was the gut wrenching scream of oww! Anyway by the time we got home Michael was about ready to leave for work and our daughter had not had her afternoon nap. So after Michael left we did our thing just at home. Lili took her nap while I did business I had to do. After she woke up we took a nice walk around the neighborhood. It was such a nice day out I was glad to at least do this. I did a couple ab workouts I could do at home as well as Windsor pilates. It has been a long time since I did these. It was challenging but I think I might continue to do these maybe once or twice a week on my off days from the gym. Hopefully tomorrow I can hit the gym and hit it hard! I have to get rid of the extra pounds from this weekend! ha ha ha. This past weekend was quiet but good. We got the kids outside and took a picture of the two in the sandbox.

I just have to say wow! This site is better than I had hoped it would be for me. I am really glad my husband turned me on to this site. It has been almost a week since my journey began on here and I am enjoying the circle. This site has so many article and references that are helping me revamp my training and also giving me ideas to try!

I was only able to hit the gym three days this week because our daughter has not been feeling very well. Two out of the three I was able to work with my trainer Josh. I told him last week that I was having some issues with motivation at the gym and I also felt lost when I would go. So he suggested instead of working with him one day per week to go two days per week. *LOL* He also has revamped some things to work me harder than he has worked me previously. Monday he had me doing things with the medicine ball like lunges holding the ball over my head and throwing it up in the air. In my training program that was set up for me last year by a previous trainer I was never doing lunges. *LOL* I hate them! But I know they are working. I can already see an improvement in my thighs. I also had to do lunges with no weight but I had to kick my leg up behind me after the lunge. I did planks and pushups on the stability ball and a few dumb bell exercises. Today was a whole different story. I am not sure what the name of it is but I can explain what we did. He had me on a decline bench standing on my tip toes (kind of like doing a incline push up) in my hand I had two 10lb dumb bells and I had to lift one arm at a time straight up in the air while twisting my torso and then back down to the bench. I loved how this worked my core as well. I did lats(wide grip and reverse grip) and seated cable rows with a bar I never used before. I think he said it was a cambered lat bar? I used the FreeMotion Cable Cross machine! I was excited about this because I always felt intimidated about the cables for some reason. Anyway He had me facing one of the cable columns with one foot in front of the other knees slightly bent. One arm was fully extended while the other was bent to the side. He had me move my arms back and forth kind of like skiing and then we would do the same to the other arm. This was fun but challenging. Then we switched to dumbbells and circuit training. I had to do exercises with 4 different weight classes moving back and forth between them. We did shoulder presses, lateral raises, reverse flies, front raises, upright rows, wrist curls, hammer curls, overhead tricep extension, and tricep kickbacks. After the last few my arms were beat. I did have problems with my left shoulder wanting to quit while my right shoulder felt fine. My trainer said from now on I have to carry Lili on the left instead of the right because that will help my left gain more strength. I am right handed! What can I say? *LOL* I am feeling good and I might try to hit the gym early tomorrow to get a little cardio.