Persistence, Despite Some Obstacles

It’s been several days since I last posted so I need to catch everyone up on where I’m at with my new fitness regimen.  Last week was Week 3 and I did pretty well.  I worked out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I’ve been aiming for hitting the gym 6 days a week, but only made it 4 last week.  Last Thursday, September 24, I intended to go to the gym, which is located on the college campus where I’m a student.  However, last Thursday was the first day of the G-20 economic summit being held here in Pittsburgh, and all the world leaders and other dignitaries were gathering at Phipps Conservatory, located directly behind campus, at 6 pm for an opening night dinner.  Things were crazy on campus last week with security, roads blocked, parking reduced, and so forth.  As if all that wasn’t enough, Bill Gates was at school last Tuesday to give a lecture.  My two Thursday classes were canceled, and I opted not to go to campus and work out that day for fear of getting caught up in the madness associated with the G-20.  By Friday, everything was back to normal on campus and I hit the gym again.  I have no excuse for not working on Saturday other than laziness and a touch of melancholy.

As far as workouts are going, I’m alternating days with different muscle Groups.  I do legs, abs, and cardio three days a week, and I do arms, chest, shoulders, back, and abs the other three days.  Generally, I seem to be at about 60 lbs for my weight on any given machine.  Anything above 60 lbs at this point is sort of difficult for me.  I know that 60 lbs doesn’t sound like much, especially to people who’ve been lifting weights for years.  But to me that’s a lot.

I think my muscles are slowly getting used to working, because 60 lbs is getting a bit easier to lift each time I hit the gym.  Next week, I may ooch the weight up 5 or 10 lbs and see how I do.  I started out doing 3 sets, 15 reps on each machine but have backed down to 10-12 reps.  I don’t want to overdo it right out of the gate.  For abs, I’m doing regular crunches, and 60 crunches on each side.  I must say, I’m doing well with the crunches.  They’re so much easier to do now than they were just 3 weeks ago.  On cardio days, I’ve been hitting the treadmill and doing a warm-up walk for 5 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of mostly fast walking with a little bit of jogging, followed by a 5 minute warm-down.  I seem to be going about 3 miles each time I do cardio.  But it’s not about the distance, more about the time.

I’ve also started yoga which I love!  My friend and I have been to 2 beginning yoga classes on Sunday afternoons.  I find that I’m really sore on Mondays after yoga on Sunday, but the soreness goes away quickly.  Surprisingly, I’m much more flexible and limber than I thought and am able to do a lot of the basic poses pretty easily.  I haven’t really been able to focus on the breathing yet as just getting the poses down is my goal right now.  But I feel really good, relaxed, and refreshed after yoga.  I look forward to getting more deeply into it and think it will be a great benefit, as well as something to do on my day off from the gym to keep my head focused on fitness.

So, Week 4 has begun and I hit the gym today for legs, abs, and cardio.  Off to the gym tomorrow for more – yay!