Time to Lift Sh!t…HEAVY

Okay so it’s Wednesday night, day 2 of this lift heavy shit massacre. Me and the homie are headed to the LA Fitness to make it happen. Today it’s leg day but not like the woosy machines stuff, keeping you confined to proper form; oh contraire, it’s the olympic bar and plates leg day. It’s time for the action, the “if you have no control and no core, you don’t need to be here” game play. I love these kind of days because I get to play in the yard with all the tough boys. Often time, playing just as hard as them. 

So we pack our gym bag in our locker and pull out the Dot Fit amino’s, wraps and super bands. We are going heavy tonight baby. Mind you, neither one of us have lifted heavy in over a year, so this bravado is just excitement and curiosity of what’s to happen tonight. We scope the metal yard, it’s a lighter crowd in here than Monday, to find our bird cages. It’s fight or flight in bird’s den tonight. But each one is crowded by young teens and 20’s repping out for bragging rights. We just want to lift for our sanity. It’s been a rough week already and it’s only hump day. 

Settling for the Smith Machine, I jump in first. My goal tonight is to squat and dead-lift my own weight in metal. We park a bench between my feet just inches away to catch me if I lose myself or get handcuffed under the bar on descent. “Rack 45’s on that” I state so confidently. I just need to make parallel, I keep telling myself. I have never squatted this heavy even in my prime days. I attribute my leg strength to years of volleyball, lawn-mowing and no car as a kid. I’ve been told I look like a sprinter but my lungs usually give out way before my muscles do. 

With my purple  jacket layering the bar to comfort my already stressed high traps, I assume a wide position, locking out my traps, lats and rhomboids to prevent injury to my t-spine, slowly I descend… and then I rise. 

1. Taut lips breath out a sigh of relief. 

2. I look up to my right, thinking sh!t this doesn’t hurt

3. I adjust my feet to ensure I am pushing out with all my external rotators might.

4. Keep the core tight, back rigid.

5. Look to the horizon, don’t look down. Focus on the clock in the mirror.

6. Yeah! That’s it!

I rack the bar and look over to my partner and he’s amazed. He remembers when I couldn’t even squat to 90 with no weight. He nodded his head in confirmation and said “do it again!” 

And I did.

Wednesday’s workout:

• Smith Machine Squats - Back loaded, 4 sets: 6x 90, 6 x 100, 6 x 120, 6 x 140
• RDL - 4 sets: 6 x 90, 3 x110, 1 x 110, Failure

Back in the Saddle… again

So spring has officially sprung and everyone is itching for that bikini body again; everyone but me. I’m itching to fix some god-awful compensations and alleviate some workplace injuries attributed to hours on my feet, deteriorating posture and a weakening core. 

It officially started this week on my other blog and my 30 Days of Pilates challenge to turn back the hands of time on my waistline. It also began with my new membership to an LA Fitness in the area with later hours and a crap-load of weights/machines/cardio equip coupled with awesome hours of operation. Literally, I was sold the moment they said closing was at 11 pm. I could have cared less what the cost was; I just need my evening workout night cap to put me sound asleep. And on Monday, that’s exactly what I did. 

Started with 4 sets of Leg Presses

• Seated Leg Press (Foot Plate moves) Pyramids: 6 x 130, 6 x 145, 6 x 160, 6 x 175
• Seated Leg Press (Chair moves) Pyramids: 6 x 130, 6 x 145, 6 x 160, 6 x175

With all the knee issues I’ve had over the years, I wanted to see if my knee would be aggravated in one machine versus the other. Hence the reason why I pressed the same weight on both machines. To my surprise, no issues :)

In my new gym, all the machine are upfront and in the rear are the heavy weights - my favorite place to be. I knew I was beat from being up since 4 am, working since 6 am and working out at 10 pm, so I didn’t want to push it. But I grabbed a 45 and 50 pound dumbbell and Goblet Squatted. 

• Goblet Squat (elbow to thighs): 6 x 45, 6 x 45, 6 x 45, and 6 x 50

As if that wasn’t enough, because I was feeling so damn good, I completed 4 sets of 1 arm rows with the same weights. 

• 1 Arm Row (in “lawnmower” split squat stance): 6 x 45, 6 x 45, 6 x 45 and 5 x 50

I looked up to see a several dudes and few chicks looking at me like whoa. So I gracefully picked up my two 50 lb weights and racked them back, proceeding to the assisted pull-up machine.

My acupuncturist made a point very clear: be conscious of my imbalances while training. My right side is way stronger than my left. So I have to train really hard to make my posture even and hopefully my budget too :), accupuncture is expensive! So when I couldn’t perform 4 pull-ups on the assisted, without muscling it up. I knew I was finished.  I scurried the next day to unknot my back by my fabulous therapist Cynthia Mustafa (MyMeTime.com) and she concluded that the back was way too knotted to endure a hardcore back workout. My hams take a beating for my lower back’s despair. So my prescription is adding a little bit of pre-stretching before heavy lifts, more regularly scheduled deep tissue for realigning and of course more water for hydration.