Sunday, March 15, 2015

My Workouts of the Week + A Rambunctious Pre-St. Patrick's Day

This was another week of doing pretty well at the gym! It's becoming a nearly habitual part of my day-to-day, and that's a habit I'm notttt mad about forming. Just need to make sure that I don't injure myself. God knows I'm prone to doing that, so... knock on wood.

Here's what I was up to at the gym this week:

3/9 (upper body)
3x: 13 seated rows, 37.5 lbs
3x: 13 close grip chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand
3x: 13 bent over rows, 12.5 lbs each hand
3x: 13 chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand
1x: 8 overhead press on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand *too heavy!
2x: 8 overhead press on exercise ball, 7.5 lbs each hand
3x: 13 lat pulldowns, 37.5 lbs
3x: 10 deltoid flys, 7.5 lbs each hand
3x: 8 deltoid raises, 7.5 lbs each hand
3x: alternating chest flys with a 6 lb medicine ball
13 overhead press, 5 lbs each hand
13 overhead press, 7.5 lbs each hand
overhead press, 10 lbs each hand

3/10 (lower body)
5 mins elliptical
3x: 30 calf raises, 17.5 lbs each hand
3x: 15 leg lifts from side plank, each side
3x: 15 deadlifts, 17.5 lbs each hand
3x: 20 side lunges + plyometric push-off, each side
2:15 jumping jacks
3x: 8 single leg deadlifts, 7.5 lbs each hand (I don't know why, but these are SO HARD for me!)
3x: 15 static lunges each leg, holding 6 lb medicine ball overhead
1:10 plank
10 mins hiking* treadmill

3/11 (core)
5 mins treadmill
3x: 15 crunches on exercise ball, holding 15 lbs
3x: 15 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 7.5 lbs
3x: 30 cobras
3x: 30 v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs
3x: 15 dynamic side planks each side

3/13 (cardio)
45 mins hiking*/jogging on treadmill - here's the min-by-min breakdown:
    0-4 varying hike
    4-5 jogging 4.4 mph
    5-9 varying hike
    9-10 jogging 4.5 mph
    11-14 varying hike
    14-15 jogging 4.6 mph
    15-19 varying hike
    19-20 jogging 4.7 mph
    20-24 varying hike
    24-25 jogging 4.9 mph
    25-29 varying hike
    29-40 jogging 5-6mph
    40-45 varying hike/cooldown
30 bodyweight squats + 20 squat pulses

3/14 (upper body)
3x: 10 chest press on exercise ball, 15 lbs each hand
3x: 10 bent over rows, 15 lbs each hand
3x: 10 deltoid flys, 7.5 lbs each hand
3x: 10 deltoid raises, 7.5 lbs each hand
3x: 10 overhead press, 7.5 lbs each hand
3x: 13 lat pulldowns, 37.5 lbs
3x: 26 alternating chest flys with 6 lb medicine ball

* When I go "hiking" on the treadmill, I adjust the intensity and/or incline every minute for the entire duration, making sure to go through the entire range of available inclines (0-15).

I'm trying to increase my arm/chest strength ("pushing" exercises like chest presses) before I increase any of the weight on my "pulling" exercises (seated or bent over rows) so that my chest muscles have a chance to catch up to my back muscles. From what I have learned, if your back muscles are much stronger than your chest then you're not building a balanced upper body. I've moved up to 15 lbs for presses now, and once that becomes easy then I'll increase to 17.5 - probably in a few weeks? And won't that be exciting??!?

Speaking of exciting, here's a sneak peek of the first video I shot with my company's YouTube channel a few weeks ago:

Filming a workout video with Stephen Cabral and Diet.com


Watch out world, there's a whole video coming. (Update: Here it is.)

I made sure to get in a Saturday morning workout this weekend because I knew that there'd be some ridiculousness happening later that day. My friends had planned an afternoon of early St. Patrick's Day festivities!

Around 2:30 on Saturday, a group of us met up at Orleans in Somerville's Davis Square for early afternoon drinks and apps. As I promised on Friday, I did indeed enjoy some Bailey's Irish Cream mixed with iced coffee and topped with whipped cream. Obviously, my kind of drink.

From there, we decided on a whim to go bowling, so we drove/Ubered over to Lanes and Games in Cambridge, which is fo' sho' a recurring favorite place to have fun together.  Ten of us played 2 games on adjoining lanes, and more drinks and apps were had. I bowled a 101 my first game (not bad, for me) and then put in a dismal performance during the second game. I can't remember my score but it was probably less than 60? #facepalm

After bowling, some of the group splintered off, but some of us headed back to "after party" (it was only 8:45pm) at the house of my friends in Somerville. Insert drinks, darts, and dancing over the next 4 hours. It was a good night.

This morning afternoon when I got out of bed, I headed straight over to Donut Villa to fill my stomach with greasy breakfast food and the best-effing jelly donut I've ever had. How do they make them taste so good? The owner of the restaurant, John, told me with a wink that he gets them from Dunkin Donuts every morning, but I shook my head at him and told him I could taste the difference. Sidebar, they all love me at the Villa now. Score!

Anyway, I'm going to relax so hard the rest of the afternoon. You can catch me lounging in the bathtub and then watching a movie - or a few episodes of Game of Thrones. It's that kind of a recovery day, haha!

I hope you had a great weekend yourself. Any fun shenanigans or challenging workouts going on in your neck of the woods?

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{Linking with #FitnessFriday}

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for joining our #FitnessFriday link up! The image of your upcoming video looks super challenging!

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    Replies
    1. That was a challenging move, but I really liked it. I actually started adding a version of it into my workout routine as a result of filming this video! :) Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. omg you're gonna be one of those people on youtube that i watch when i'm at home and too lazy to go to the gym so i try and make myself do youtube exercise videos instead lol. (or when i can figure out how to do an exercise and i need a visual). thats awesome!.

    and man you are killing it (as usual) i still can' make my way up to gym-ing everyday. (probably b/c i'm still doing full body exercises each time) gotta learn to break it up like you do.

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    Replies
    1. I use YouTube to look up demos all the time to double check my form on things! I'm trying to be pretty serious about the gym right now because it takes my mind off of being a Debbie Downer for a little while haha.

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