A Look Back Two Years To the Beginning

You all know me.  You’ve seen me doing chin-ups, read about me doing push-ups.  You know about my love of upper body routines and boredom with abs and lower body work.  I think you know I’ve lost over 40# of fat in the past 2 years, and built some remarkable muscle during that time.

But maybe you don’t really know the story.  Just in case… today is the 2nd anniversary of my first workout.  It was 25 minutes long.  In blog posts, I detailed my weight and measurements and described the pure torture I went through that day.

My original plan was to video myself doing these exercises as I did them them (I even contemplated wrapping myself in cotton batting to simulate the extra girth), then show how I’ve progressed in these years to doing more advanced versions of these moves.  When I hurt my shoulder, that plan has gone on the back burner.  (If ya’d still like to see it, hit me up in comments and I’ll make it later…).

Instead, I share the blog posts that I wrote that day:

Today is the start of new phase. Last week I signed up for 24Hour Fitness’s Six week program. Today will be my first workout with Guido who aims to help me strengthen and stabilize my core muscles, and in doing so strengthen the whole me. A stronger me should be a fitter, thinner me. I figure if 60 is the new 40, then I’m 36. And this body isn’t.

So along with the exercises and my daily walking (which hasn’t been working enough), I’m back to watching what I eat and keeping track of that too. (I use FitDay to record this stuff). The bottom of the posts will show previous day’s steps (still), calories, and the good or bad choices I made that day.

And the ugly starting numbers:
Weight: 158#
Neck: 15.5″
Bicep: 12.5
Forearm: 11
Bust: 42.5 (I really would love to get back to my 36B size. A major hope.)
Waist: 36
Hips: 40
Thigh: 22.5
Calf: 14.5

STEPS YESTERDAY? 8875
CALORIES YESTERDAY? don’t know
GOOD DECISION/BAD DECISION? Good decision: starting.

Later I described the actual half hour:

Unfortunately, I arrived a bit late for my first workout. An accident completely discombobulated the traffic near my house. Still, I arrived and got to work.

Now I thought for a moment that the long walk to the back of the club, down the stairs and through the locker room so I could pee would be enough warm up, but no… ten minutes on the treadmill started things off. Walking slowly at about 2.5 MPH and a slight incline. Walking on a treadmill is different than walking the sidewalks. Not better, worse or harder. Just different.

Then we played with stability exercises.

We started with what I thought was the yoga pose: Plank.  Started on the floor, face down, balancing on my toes and lower arms, with the trunk suspended above the ground. Extend one leg, then tap the knee down to the floor. Do 20 reps, keeping the back straight. Rest for 5-10 seconds, then repeat with the other leg. Rest, and simply hold that pose for 20 seconds. Sounds easy. Ain’t.

Then I flipped over onto my back. A bridge pose variation (not so arched) and a similar kind of leg movement thing. This time, I extended one leg straight out, then tap the toe back down. Again 20 reps, rest and other side. And again, then the pose held for 20 seconds. Again, it ain’t as easy as it sounds.

We went on to balance work. Have I told you that I have poor balance? I do. Guido doesn’t care. If I touch my “free” foot down, the movement does not count and I have to do it again. Damn.

So we did a simple balance move: stand on one foot and raise and extend the other leg. Again 20 times (without falling down). Again rest and repeat. Fortunately he didn’t make me just stand there on each foot. (oops.. I bet he adds some variation of that in the future). Someday I may actually be able to do Tree Pose!!

We worked with a stability ball next. Rolling down from a standing position to a sitting position with the ball to help stabilize me. Here’s where having a trainer helps. I’ve always followed the directions you can find on websites and such, and my knees kill me. I get tension and pressure running across the knees under the cap. Guido adjusted my stance, and suddenly I wasn’t in pain. I could complete the set as designed.

Better yet, when I mentioned the really tight spot on my back (yeah, it hurts frequently), we started stretching the hamstring. You can stretch a muscle a whole lot more when someone else is stabilizing your knee and pushing the muscle through the stretch. All I had to do is say: push it a bit more… and stop right there. And breathe. Definately a good thing.

We did 2 sets of these in the time we had. And let me tell you, I felt it. I was weak and bit shaky at the end (and these were only 1/2 hour sessions.. not the normal 1 hour training sessions), like I had no blood sugar circulating. Hopefully this means my body was deciding to metabolize some of my extra fat cells.

Home to get some housework done. After eating lunch, the dogs and I took the Crest Walk, but shortened it a bit to the 2 mile variation. Still 2 hills… at 3.25 MPH. I’m feeling a bit sore… a good start.

STEPS Monday? 10,026.
CALORIES Monday? 1394 eaten/2436 burned/1043 extra burned (according to FitDay).
GOOD/BAD DECISION Monday? Pay attention to the whole picture.

I was sore for 2 days after this workout.

LIKE IT HURT TO MOVE SORE.

FOR. TWO. DAYS.

Yet I came back, got over the day I almost/would’ve/nearly quit and ended up persevering.

To that I say, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY.