I Killed It Today! (Or, did IT kill me?!)

I guess I’ll find out one way or the other tomorrow.

I shocked myself with how great today’s workout was! So, yes, this post is going to be a bit of a bragging session, but considering how far from this I was last week at this time, I think I’m allowed.

One of the PE teachers at school (who also happens to be the wrestling coach) has taken me under his wing (more on this later, and no, nothing like that, it’s totally platonic!) and today he messaged me on FB and said, “when are you hitting the gym today.” Not if, WHEN. And boy was I glad that I had an immediate answer, because I was planning on going. What follows is our conversation:

Bella: At 10am – do a bit of weights and then elliptical for 45 minutes or so.

Coach: Warm up 15 minutes follow with 20 minutes of weights incorporating full body lifts power cleans, snatches, squat press, curl press, lunge curl, at the end isolate muscles that you haven’t worked this week. Then hit cardio….

{At this point I wasn’t sure what the hell he was talking about. Power cleans? Snatches? That sounds so dirty! I looked it up on YouTube, and saw that he was talking about Olympic weight lifter/CrossFit kind of sh!t What? ME?!}

Bella: Thanks for the plan. I just looked up power cleans and snatches on YouTube, and I’m going to do my best, but I’m not sure how well I can do those. That’s way out my normal realm, which is what I know I need. Plus, my knees are fairly weak, so I don’t want to over do it. Is there any alternative that would let me build up to those? I can do the rest of the things you mentioned. And legs was exactly what I needed to do today.

Coach: Half clean don’t take it to the ground just to the thighs. Use dumbbells or medicine ball if you have to. Or use upright row to snatch then return to the front.

So off to the gym I went. And like any good “project,” I did what I was told, or at least tried to.

15 minute warmup on the stationary bike. Is a 5.5 minute mile good? I wish I had some way of measuring?

Next it was time to hit the weights.  I started small with the nautilus machines.  Sorry in advance for the blurry photos – at first I only snapped them so that I could log it all later.

3  sets of 15 reps: seated leg curl, 75 lbs.

3  sets of 15 reps: leg press, 140 lbs

Then I moved over to the area of the gym that is usually considered a “sausage factory,” if you know what I mean.  Still, I wasn’t intimidated in the least, and just acted like I did this all the time.  Fake it ’till you make it.  I even asked one of the trainers how to use this next machine, hoping he could help me adjust it (because I’m only 5’3″) but alas, the machine didn’t adjust, so I did.

3  sets of 15 reps: squat press, 100 lbs (2 25-lb weights on each side). This one was hard for me, not in terms of movement, but because my legs are so short and I had to scrunch way down in the seat just to get low enough to be able to push the weight to my full extension.

3  sets of 15 reps: hack squat station, 90 lbs (45 on each side).

Next I made a sad attempt at those half cleans and snatches.  I used the barbell because I figured that dumbbells would be two different things to worry about flayling around.  I felt like the barbell gave me a bit more control.  I felt like a complete fool doing these, and I swear people were looking at me strange…or maybe they were just impressed that a big girl like me was trying this CrossFit shit out.  Who knows?  I didn’t take any photos.

Next up, I did 100 crunches, and 30 leg lifts.

To finish off, I did 33 INTENSE minutes of intervals on the elliptical.  I was so thrilled that I’d completed this killer workout that I totally forgot to take any photos of the workout summary.  I know I was under a 15 minute mile, but I don’t have my actual distance.

Sweaty face: I felt like a BEAST for finishing this workout!

After all of that sweating, I came home, ate, and took a fast shower before heading to my hair appointment.  I always feel like it’s part beauty, part therapy because Dez is really more of a friend than a stylist to me.  We gabbed about everything under the sun.  She worked miracles on my hair (no more sparklers!), and she even blew it straight for me.

I felt like a new woman!

Then, when I got home, I talked to ScaleWarfare (lots of fun stuff in the works that I had to update her on, I’ll fill you guys in once it all becomes official) and then took Sofi for a walk.

All told, I got in 103 minutes of exercise and burned 1401 calories!  I really was a beast!!

Pray for me tomorrow morning when I feel all the results of this hard work and determination.