Gymmin It: Exercise Diary 2 & Seeking Soundtrack Suggestions!

So, I braved the wind and slight rain to get to the gym for my PT session today... I was slightly early, so I told one of the girls at the desk that I was going to head up to the gym and get started on my warm up and to tell Nacho I was up there when he arrived... 15mins on the cross trainer later... no PT... so I head back down to the front desk to investigate... only to find that, I apparently wasn't in the book... even tho I saw the girl write it in on Monday... in pen... and there was no white out marks, so I think she mistakenly wrote it on last week's roster??

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Anywhos.. the absolutely gormless girls gave me two options.. a) they could call him and I could wait (tho one of the other girls was already on the phone on what seemed like a personal phone call who showed no signs of getting OFF...)  or... oh wait.. that was the only option they gave me.... I said it was fine and I was happy to book another time.. then she asked if I had his number... ummmm, no?  She then pretty much said if I wanted to book a session with Nacho, it would be better for me to phone him and arrange it myself... otherwise she could book me with one of the group exercise teachers.... WHAT??!!!  What the hell do they pay you for if I need to organise my own shit??!! I chose to take his number rather than leave my fate in the hands of someone so completely clueless....

I then headed back upstairs and decided to do some cardio rather than any weight training... so I jumped on the elliptical for another 30 minutes... listening to the awful music in the gym and watching some Top 40 Music Video thing on the tv... I'd left my iPod in my bag and left the house with it low on battery because I thought I'd be listening to a PT at the gym today!

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Anywhos... it got me thinking... do you have a gym soundtrack on your "portable media player"???  What kinda music gets you going at the gym?? What beats keep you company when you're out pounding the pavement?? I'd love to know! I don't have a gym playlist yet and am in desperate need of some suggestions!!

Gymming It - Exercise Diary 1.

So, I finally took my measurements last Friday... it's actually really hard to measure yourself!!

I also thought it would be good to keep a diary of the exercises I have been doing.. mainly for me.. but as I'm too lazy to actually hand write it in a proper journal, I thought I would share it in my "virtual" journal and as an aside share it with you all too!! Lucky you!! :D  I'm also after some inspiration for new things to do!!

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1st Gym Session - with PT - Monday 19th Sept

5min bike to warm up

12 reps dumbell bench press
12 reps bent over row
12 lunge & twist
12 dumbell squat with overhead press
12 dumbell curl and overhead press

3 rounds

10 swiss ball sit ups
10 swiss ball passes
10 swiss ball reverse crunch

2 rounds (I was supposed to do 3, but I wasn't feeling good and I tweaked my shoulder)
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2nd Gym Session - Monday 26th

10min bike to warm up

Same exercises as the 1st session with PT except I did 3 rounds of the mat exercises but did not do any of the reverse crunches.

5min bike cool down
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3rd Gym Session - with PT - Wednesday 27th

10min cross trainer to warm up

12 medicine ball squat & jump with shoulder press (these are seriously the most evil exercise known to man! - well... aside from maybe sitting on the wall.... )
12 medicine ball lunge with shoulder press
20 second chin up, rest 10 second chin up (these are like the arm equivalents of sitting on the wall... feel the BURN!!)
12 bench reverse crunch (these are the ones I really struggled with...)
12 bench pullover holding a barbell weight (I needed help with these! my elbows kept wanting to buckle!)
10 cable machine punch, on each side

3 rounds

5mins bike cool down
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4th Gym Session - Monday 3rd Oct

15mins cross trainer warm up


15 reps dumbell bench press
15 reps bent over row
12 lunge & twist
12 dumbell squat with overhead press
15 dumbell curl and overhead press
10 bench reverse crunch

2 rounds

5min bike cool down
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The last two sessions I have been wearing my sketchers tone up trainers.
Not sure I can say I have felt a major difference but I am also used to wearing FitFlop flip flops and trainers.

I think my major downfall is my eating habits... I don't eat majorly unhealthy.. but I have a severe weakness for potato chips and junk food in general!

What kind of exercises do you do when you're at the gym??  I'm after some inspiration for when I'm at the gym without a PT.. I get bored of doing the same things all the time...

I thought lunges were THE most evil exercise.. until...

the personal trainer made me do these cruel squat jumps.... you start standing, holding a medicine ball at your belly... then you drop into a squat lowering the medicine ball towards the ground, and all in one movement you have to stand up, lift the ball above your head and jump!! Then you drop back into the squat and start all over again.... GAHHHHHHH!! The first couple that I did.. I almost toppled over because I wasn't using my core to keep my back straight...  if you want a full body exercise, give this one a go!

He also made me hold myself up in the pull up/chin up position for 20seconds then 10 seconds... it's like the arm equivalent of "sitting on the wall" (another EVIL exercise btw!)... and reverse sit ups... which I couldn't do properly because I have a keg where I should have a six-pack! *sigh* so out of shape!!

I still haven't got around to measuring myself to keep track of my progress... I am slack like that... I think mostly because I just don't really care... as much as it would be nice to have tangible results... it just doesn't bother me all that much... on the flip side of that.. maybe if I don't take measurements... I can slack and it doesn't matter!

Anyways, I am happy to report I went to the gym on Monday and ran through the exercises the PT gave me last Monday... after giving my shoulder a week off... and I survived my PT session yesterday! I feel like the PT worked me harder yesterday.. (tho maybe I was already sore and tired from working out on Monday)... and almost like the guy I had last Monday wasn't even a proper PT...  I also liked that my PT yesterday is named Nacho... MUAAHAHAHAHA... I really had to try hard not to laugh at that one...

I will endeavour to take some measurements to keep track of my progress.. but I am still deciding whether I want to put them up on this blog or not...

Gymmin' It

So while I was away on holiday I spotted an itison deal for a month's gym membership with 3 personal trainer sessions and decided to buy it... a little motivation to get back into some physical activity after 2 months of vacay style eatin n drinkin n smokin n just being fairly sedentary...

I knew I didn't have a job to come back to, so also thought the gym would be good to get me outta the house..

Well, I had my first session with the PT (one of my friends said, PT = physical torturer! - he wasn't far wrong!) on Monday and I seriously almost died... We did 10 mins on a bike to warm up, then went through some free weight exercises... 3 sets of 12 reps of 5 different exercises including LUNGES... seriously whoever thought up that exercise should have died a slow and painful death... they are E.V.I.L.!.!.!

We did some ab work as well with a swiss ball coz I told him my back isn't the best.. we were supposed to do 3 sets of 10 reps, but something was tweaking in my upper back/shoulders so he let me off with 2 sets of each...

I somehow managed to get my jelly legs back own the spiral staircase, then promptly went to the bathroom and threw up... I have only ever thrown up one time previous due to physical exertion and that was after a championship rowing race back in high school...

I had a quick shower and thought I might sit in the jacuzzi or steam room to try and loosen up my back, but after not even 3 minutes in the sauna I was feeling a bit green around the gills again... I decided that my gym session should probably come to a close at this point!

What is surprising is just how out of shape I am! I mean I know I've been pretty lazy for the past two years since I got to the UK, but I used to walk a lot (mainly out of necessity and cheapness) and living in a hostel that was on the 4th floor of an old building, then living either up or down a floor within the hostel meant I used to do a lot of stair climbing! But I used to walk at least 30-45mins home after work each day even after moving out of the hostel, none of my flats have been on the ground floor and ALL of them have been walk ups...

I attribute the pukeyness to the fact that I didn't get much sleep the night before (oh hello insomnia, my old friend...) and also/therefore waking up feeling not the greatest anyways... so I don't really know if it was good or bad that I forced myself to go even tho I wasn't feeling that well... probably good, coz I think had I not gone.. I would have just kept putting it off...

Tho whatever tweaked in my shoulder/upper back definitely isn't happy about it.. I've had to take a lot of pain meds to even be comfortable and I had a lot of trouble moving around Monday evening... it's feeling a bit better now after yesterday tho I am for sure feeling all the muscle aches (even with the pain meds!)... hopefully after another day of chilling out and resting it, I'll be ready to head back to the gym tomorrow.. at least to hit the bike machine, pool and jacuzzi if I don't get in any weights...

The PT didn't weigh me or take any measurements and I'm not in the habit of weighing myself... tho I did get on the scales at the airport in Calgary while I was repacking my luggage so I have a vague idea of how much I weigh... so I am wondering if I want to weigh myself and take some measurements so I can a) keep track of progress and b) be held accountable or if I should just go with whatever and just do it... and hope that those jeans fitting a little looser is a good enough indication that what I'm doing is working!

I've never been very focused on my weight, I've always "measured" myself with my clothing... and things are definitely fitting pretty snug... I just think weight can be so deceiving... the whole "muscle weighs more than fat" thing... and I think it can be so discouraging when you don't see the numbers dropping as much as you think... and as much as I'd like to lose a bit of weight, I'm hoping to make this more about fitness than weight loss... I want to have a fit and healthy body (as healthy as a junk food addict can be!) and just get some definition back...

I played sport for most of my school career, I fell into hockey a bit by accident in primary school and carried on playing into high school, I made fairly short lived debuts in basketball and cricket before taking up road racing and rowing... then after high school I got into waitressing/serving and bartending so spent lots of hours on my feet running around restaurant floors and lugging ice buckets, kegs and recycling bins...

I've been practicing yoga on and off for the past decade since signing up to a mat pilates/yoga course with Sok, way back in the day... our instructors were hilarious... they made it fun and I was hooked! Then I got into snowboarding and wakeboarding... so I've always led a fairly active lifestyle... I think unbeknownst to some people... (there were a few surprised people on fb when I said I was going to the gym! - most of them runners, because anyone who knows me knows how much I D.E.T.E.S.T. running... I would even go so far as to say I loathe it... "Running is for crazy people who hate their knees" is generally my catchphrase for "those" people!)  I have no problems if you choose to run, and I have a lot of friends who DO run... I just think they're nuts! But all my friends know I'm a few sandwiches short of a picnic so we're pretty much even!! It's not that I don't DO fitness... I just don't DO running.... ok??

Annnnywhos.... well done if you're still reading!

I need your opinion... should I weigh myself and take measurements to track my progress?? Or should I "Just Do It"?? Thoughts on a postcard.. or that comment button works a treat too! ; )