<p>My husband and I stayed up until 4 am, working on a project (that’s what you get when run a mom & pop engineering firm!). I was proud of myself for getting 5.5 miles in on the treadmill this afternoon, before I had to take my daughter to her piano recital. Then I got home and discovered a client sent me more info at 5:02 pm on a project - “You can start the foundation plan if you want - the customer wants to start placing concrete immediately.” Now I have to decide whether to work this weekend or not. I will still get my run in tomorrow, though!</p>
<p>I went to the quick care place and a doctor looked at my toes (I felt silly going in, but DH insisted). The doctor said it just looks like trauma - not much to do about it, besides soaking my feet in hot water and buddy taping my big tow and second toe. My shoes really are long enough - it’s running on the treadmill that’s doing it. I keep bumping into the TM with my shoes.</p>
<p>Did my TRX workout last night. I had been using a weight vest for added resistance on chest presses with my body pretty much parallel to the floor (essentially a push-up with my hands in the straps and the straps fully extended) but found that regardless of how I kept my abs tight and watched my form, the added weight was causing my lower vertebrae to “adjust” as I went through each movement. A bit unnerving. So I did away with the vest and tried the chest presses with both my feet and hands elevated about three feet off the ground (my TRX is attached to the front top of a lifting cage and there is a height adjustable rear horizontal cross piece that normally holds an Olympic bar.) Oh my! Instead of doing my normal 3x20 reps with the weight vest, I felt fortunate to be able to do 3x15 reps without face planting. The core intensity required to maintain proper form was intense and the range of motion so deep so as to trigger portions of my chest and arms I didn’t know were there. Definitely a keeper along with the leg elevated rowing I tried last week. The TRX is so much more fun than traditional weights, and I think it is limited only by my creativity in how to engage my body weight and gravity for resistance. Although, I have a copy of my daughters’s instructor"s manual and I have to admit I can’t figure out how in the world you can mount your body in some of the inverted positions depicted!</p>
<p>Home workout. Primarily stability ball, Bodylastics, and a few leg exercises. Added another Bodylastics band and really felt that on the pallof press (shorter holds and fewer of them). No deer, but I did have a pair of cute little puddy cat eyes watching me from her cozy spot in the Costco box.</p>
<p>Anyone have any experience with the MapMyWalk app? I’ve noticed when I’m in the gym, on the track, it doesn’t seem to be able to keep my stats accurately. The gym does provide the information necessary to know how many laps are a mile, but sometimes I like the app for instant recognition of number of calories burned and time elapsed.</p>
<p>Those TRX pushups are tough. Feet elevated would be particularly tough! Thanks for the memory-jog. I haven’t done those for a while. That would be a good push up version to put in my next workouts… I think the regular version will be plenty challenging for me.</p>
<p>The opposite version (feet in straps, hands on floor) isn’t as hard, but is a really good core exercise.</p>
<p>2 hour run done. Longest since the Monkey. Tried to keep it low HR, but there were some hills. Did stay S L O W, which was the goal.Sunny, 53 and windy.</p>
<p>Ran 4.5 on Thurs. Did some wall sits this week. Had neglected to do them in the last few months as I was trying out other things. My legs have been screaming at me for the past two days!</p>
<p>Am suffering from a head cold, so keeping it mild, but meeting a friend for yoga sculpt tomorrow. Motivation has been really “off” since the New Year, but I’m only up one pound since beginning of December.</p>
<p>IDad, it’s some of the advanced push ups with the feet in the handle straps that have me baffled. The ones where either one or both feet are elevated way above your head, so that you form a 45 deg or greater angle to the floor. I still can’t figure out how you even mount yourself in the TRX like that LOL. I was telling my daughter what I was doing and was going to ask her but then she suggested that I should try the push ups with 2 TRXs putting both my hands and feet in the straps a couple of feet off the floor, and then take one foot out and just hold it in place, at which point all I could do was whimper at the thought!</p>
<p>Almost had a temper tantrum today at the gym when I realized my MapMyWalk app had failed again. I’m guessing, based on time and number of laps, I power walked about a mile, then did 20 minutes of the NuStep. Now that I’ve done the NuStep a couple of times, I’m learning how to set goals based on the feedback (calories burned, steps taken) I get from the machine. My goal today was to do 2,000 steps in 20 minutes, and I did it! I picked 2,000 steps because I hear a lot of people set 2,000 steps a day as a goal on their Fitbits. Now, I know, though, if I’d increased the resistance level (you have a choice of 1-10, and I’ve been on 5), I probably wouldn’t have made 2,000 steps, but this worked for me. First time I’ve sweated from a workout in a very, very long time. Also did all my PT exercises, which takes about another 20-30 minutes. Doing those is where I really feel my weaknesses!</p>
<p>I listen to my music on my iPhone when I work out, and it seems like every day, one song comes up during this 45-60 minute period that really makes me want to work harder, so I thought I might try to remember what each song is for that workout and post it here. Maybe others of you will do the same?!?</p>
<p>Motivating song for yesterday - No Sugar Tonight (Guess Who)
Motivating song for today - Seasons of Love (Rent)</p>
<p>Just have to throw this out there since being at the gym four times this week now makes me an expert ;).</p>
<p>I can’t believe how many people are exercising wrong!! And if I can pick it out, it must be really bad. There are so many people who get on climbers/steppers and just hunch over the handrails because they’re so fatigued. People running (thought of a couple of you here when I saw this, and know that you don’t do this) with their legs, from the knees down flipping out to the side on their stride (very visible from behind). People doing weights, hunched over when their backs should be straight and holding in their abs. I guess I’ve just had my trainer (and now my physical therapist) drill in me proper posture when I’m doing things for so long that it catches my attention when I see it done wrongly… “Hold in those abs, squeeze those gluts, push down on those heels, elbows in at your side, chest proud, back straight, knee slightly bent, etc.”</p>
<p>Of course, as the person who was lifting weights wearing Uggs, maybe I shouldn’t criticize!</p>
<p>Teriwitt, have you thought about using one of those fitness bands that tracks your activity and other fitness/health metrics on a daily basis? Might be more reliable than the IPhone app and offer additional useful feature. If you are interested, Channel 6 in Philadelphia did a special report on several of the models available. For some reason, I can’t copy the web address for the video and report but if you go to the site for Channel 6 in Philadelphia and look for the November 22 report and video titled “Healthcheck: Weighing in on Fitness Bands” you should be able to find it. (Disclaimer: my daughter is one of the featured trainers who tested one of the bands but the report seems to cover the more popular models out there and is a good a good place to start if the idea of a fitness band interests you.)</p>
I think the regular version will be plenty challenging for me.</p>