Kicking it up a Notch

That seems to be my theme for the next couple of months and I got a head start yesterday! Now that my son is out of school, my schedule is a little more flexible and I am using that time to get some chores done around the house, work on my yard a little (although nothing compared to kick butt yard ovehaul going on over at Diet Chick’s house!), and power up my workouts.

For June and July I plan to lift weights three days a week rather than my usual 2 I have been doing for over a year now. Yes, I’ve made some great gains in both strength and muscle mass, but I certainly can afford to add a little more. Yesterday was chest & triceps. I was driving to the gym, not really wanting to work out. Sonja wasn’t there, and a part of me was hoping she’d be late so I could bail (some days I am so pathetic). But she showed up and we had a totally awesome workout!

Chest: 3 set of bench presses: 100/8, 100/10, 110/6
Incline bench: 20/12, 25/10, 30/8
Dumbbell flys: 12.5/12 (too easy), 15/10, 20/8

Tricep: (cue the Rocky music)
We set up the benches, each took an end, and did 3 sets of 20 tricep dips. I know it sounds dorky, but I usually only do 15, but having her doing them on the other end of the bench really fired me up to push that extra bit. My triceps were singing “Ave Maria” when that was done. Too awesome!
Hammer strength total arm: 2.5/12, 5/10, 5/12
Cable push-downs: 45/12 (too easy!), 60/10

Abs: 2 sets each of the ball, bicycle, and side planks.

I went home feeling on top of the world!

Food yesterday was back to normal after the weekend of doom *lol*.

B: had scrambled egg beaters with bell pepper, mushrooms, and a little beef chorizo for breakfast. (W-M had my beloved soy chorizo but I already had the beef at home in the freezer. I hope they have it again this week!)
S: 2 lowfat string cheeses (I could eat these forever!)
L: leftover creamed spinach (homemade, don’t worry!), poached salmon, and half and ear of corn on the cob.
S: an orange and the whole payday (gotta keep up the strength for that workout!)
D: Cookout at neighbors. 2 pieces of grilled chicken (I removed the skin), ½ c baked beans, and a helping of their homemade potato salad (Grandma E’s recipe). I haven’t had potato salad in ages – oh my gosh! Yum! And a berry crisp for dessert (made with whole berries, oatmeal, and a little brown sugar). Thankfully there was no vanilla ice cream.

We had a very nice visit, but didn’t stay too late since I had to get up and run this morning.

The weather here has been a little cooler and less humid – and the running conditions this morning were optimal. Sunday I decided to try & make my 3 miles runs during the week a little more intense. So, I eliminated 1 walk break, shortened 2 others, and tried to run the running portions faster. Well, by the end my legs felt like “leads”! But in a good way. It felt good to really push it out. And with my son over at grandma’s, I wasn’t worried about getting home quickly to hustle. Hubby’s lunch was already prepared and he was in charge of his breakfast this morning (optimum cereal), so I only had to worry about myself and tidying up the place a bit. I still got to work on time, but felt a lot less rushed, and was so upbeat after such a great run.

I was reading Ron Harris’ daily pump this morning (he is a body builder and free lance writer on body building etc). A friend sent him a note which read “Danger: Cardio is a drug.” How true! He was concerned about doing too much cardio prior to a show and losing muscle - I don’t have that problem. But cardio makes me feel so good, it would be easy to do too much and overtrain, injuring myself. I know lately I’ve been feeling guilty about “only” lifting weights and doing yoga on Mondays and have toyed with the idea of adding additional cardio. But I think that might be too much, unless it was a morning walk. And I don’t want to get up early on any more days than I already do! I think adding an extra day of weight training was a smarter move. We’ll see if it pays off on the scale.