Wednesday Workout Update

If it's Wednesday than this must mean that I've made it through another week of workouts - go me! But before I get to my recap, I have to tell you about this "doh!" moment I had a couple of weeks ago...remember the day after Thanksgiving, when I met one of my workout friends at a gym (she had free passes) so we could get some exercise in? Well, I was excited because all of the cardio equipment at that gym has individual televisions and I was looking forward to having something to distract myself while I jogged on the treadmill. So I got all set up, found the control for the TV, clicked to HGTV, got the treadmill started, and turned up the volume on the TV. Huh. I could see the little bars on the screen move, but no sound. So I watched the TV in silence. Now, to my credit, my friend and I were the only ones on the cardio equipment at that early hour of the morning, so it wasn't like we could see what other people were doing. But later on, as more people trickled into the gym, I realized that they brought their own headphones...and oh, whaddya know - there's a place to plug them in so you can hear the TV! Homer "doh!" to the max!

I know I sound like a real dodo-head, considering I've been working out since February, but the gym that I go to has a small cardio room, and while there is a TV in the room, we mostly don't pay much attention to it since we are doing small group workouts. So now I know. And I hope you've gotten your laugh for the day!

Ok, onto the recap. Monday was the Dirty Thirty in the gym - 30 reps of 10 exercises as fast as you can. I improved my time from 40 minutes in September to 24 minutes...but please know that box jumps are one of the 10 exercises, and I spent a lot of time in that 40 minute set trying to do one damn box jump. This go round, I just did step-ups on the box, which was 18 inches high...I am still in awe of anyone who can actually do box jumps, and there were a couple of ladies in my group who managed to do them!

The other fun thing about Monday's workout was that in the cardio room, we did six minute sets on a piece of equipment, with all three trainers (Brad, Andreas and Ellie, our newest cardio guy) posing questions that, if answered correctly, would buy us some easier time on the equipment...if we answered wrong, we got 30 seconds of really intense burn. The questions ranged from "what country produces the most vanilla?" (Madagascar, not Mexico like I answered) to German-born Andreas' "who is the chancellor of Germany?" (Merkel, not Kohl like I answered) to "what is Brad's favorite cartoon character?" (Batman, not Spiderman like we all thought) to "what was the final score of the U.T. vs. Nebraska game?" (13 - 12 - I should have known this as I watched the game!). Anyway, we all had a good time and agreed that the thirty minutes of cardio went by really fast!

Apparently I've blanked out whatever we did on Tuesday, so I'll move on to today - we did a 3-6-9 workout in the gym: 3 squat thrusters holding dumbbells (I had 12 lbs.), 6 push ups (from the toes) and 9 squats - do as many sets as you can in three minutes, rest for one minute, and do it again...and again...and again - for a total of five times. I held steady on five sets per three minutes, which was an improvement from the last time we did these, so I was happy. Brad keeps records of these crazy workouts and it was nice to see that my endurance is getting better - I had some several sets of fours and a couple of fives last time.

Now, you've probably gotten the idea that the whole "group dynamic" thing is a pretty big deal at the place where I go for my workouts. Most of the time we are either working as a whole or in pairs - and I have to say that this really motivates me, especially when I have a partner. Today in the cardio room, Brad had teamed up two people (Hi Jenny! Hi Kathleen!) for a 10-minute workout on the stepper - one person on the stepper, holding the 16 pound ball, which makes you use your core to balance. That person stays on the stepper for as long as they can, and then they switch...but the catch is that every time you switch, Brad increased the intensity of the stepper.

I watched them do this, knowing that I would be next...and quite frankly, was not looking forward to it as I really don't like the stepper very much. But, this is WHY I go to my workout place...to do these crazy things that I would never do on my own. Trust me, after doing this for nearly a year, I know how far I will push myself, and how much further I will let my trainers push me. And there is a huuuuugggggeeee difference! It's worth every penny to me for what I get out of these workouts.

And that's why I was shocked today when the woman that I was paired up with for the stepper workout threw the ball away as soon as Brad handed it to her. He then picked up the six pound ball and that one to her...and she knocked it out of his hands as soon as he offered it up. What??? Why would you come to a place like this and not do what your trainer is telling you to do?!? Color me shocked! So Brad told her if she wasn't going to do the exercise correctly then she wasn't going to do it as all. He sent her off to the rower, and I got on that stepper and stepped like no one's business! Let's just say that I was more than a little motivated to do well after that little scene...I surprised myself with seven minutes before I took a break and handed it over to a different woman, who finished out the set.

I don't know where this woman is with regard to her workouts. I do know that I've tried to make conversation with her over the past six weeks that she's been coming, and have been either shut down or dismissed enough that I pretty much keep it to "good morning" now. So I wonder - why does she bother?