Friday, August 17, 2012

Gotta Brag, Y'all!

I just finished my workout and I have to say, I'm proud of myself! I had to dig deep to get moving.  Really wasn't feeling it at all today.  I didn't work out yesterday because I had a massive headache that wouldn't go away, but this morning I woke up headache free, so I knew I had to get going.  I usually do my workouts around noon-ish, even that is pushing it a little since I usually am awake by 9 on my days off from work.  Today though, it was 2 before I got my butt down there.

I strapped on my mp3 player and picked my current running music of choice Mindless Self Indulgence's cd "If".  And started my treadmill. Once I got moving it was on!  I did Week 1 Day 2 of the Couch to 5K, which will hereafter be referred to by C25K W1D2. I noticed some pleasant changes from the first day to this one.  My top speed did feel quite as taxing, and my walking speed felt too slow.  So I increased my walking speed from 2 to 3mph.  For the last running burst, I wanted to see if I could bump the run up any faster, so I nudged it up a hair... from 4 to 4.2 mph.  Not a lot, but I'm not feeling suicidal, just testing my limits! ;)  I managed it, but was pretty out of breath and I'm not sure if I can sustain that for a full 20 minute workout, not alternating with the faster walking speed.  So I will stay with 3 mph for walking and 4mph for jogging for now, until I feel less winded. But hey... I did it, and increasing the walking speed did increase my heart rate pretty well. Come on W1D3!

After I did my C25K, I gave my TV and dvd player the stink-eye for a minute, and gulped some water. I pondered stopping my workout there, but shook it off.  I am trying to build muscle too, because I think I have lost a loooot of muscle from being so sedentary; muscle that I sorely need to be strong enough for patient transfers and such.  So I sighed and made a face, but I turned on my TV and did my Power Sculpt dvd.  I'm soooooo glad I did, too because I saw some gains here too, and I'm almost as euphoric about this as I am just from "exercise high" LOL

The warmup portion of the dvd ends with a set of 10 star jumps (jumping jacks, but I like the British name so much better, so I have adopted it :p ).  Now this is the 5th time I've done this dvd, and today was the first time I didn't modify these.  I actually jumped!!! I'm very lumbery and heavy and it's not pretty to see, but I DID IT!!! :) My feet left the ground!  

Part of the actual sculpting workout was a little bit of yoga... a nod to vinyasa (sun salutation) that involved a Chataranga (I've no idea if I've spelled this right).  I CANNOT do plank.  Not yet.  So I've been going down to my knees before doing the pushup.  I have been very frustrated with this part, and not sure how it was strengthening my arms.  Well I found out that I was totally doing it wrong! :p I was going into table and trying to lower to the ground from there.  Durrrrr! I fixed that and had my legs extended behind me with my knees and shins and tops of my feet touch the ground, and THEN lowered into the pushup and it worked so much better, I could feel the burn in my arms, and I wasn't as taxed and frustrated by it...  because after the pushup you go into up dog, then down dog, then roll back up to a standing position, which was really REALLY hard to do the way I was doing it. SUCCESS!

All in all a pretty damn good workout considering I had to drag my ass into it.  If I do say so myself.  But this is the kind of thing I need to help keep me motivated. My belly is a bit smaller, and my knees don't hurt when I climb stairs, which is good since I workout in my basement! LOL I'm noticing some small changes.  More inside than out at this point.  My weight isn't changing much, but that may be because I'm building muscle too... ?  But yeah, go me!  I can do this!

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