16 April 2013

Resistance Training

For those that know me, you know I’ve been eating healthier and working out a bit more seriously for the past few years than I have previously. I have gotten into a routine of walking almost 3 miles a day, on average. As much as I enjoy the walking, I thought I was missing “something” and needed to add something else to my workout regime.

So, on the advice of one of my doctors, I decided to use the “resistance band” method. So this past weekend, I went down to the local sports store to see what they had to offer. Imagine my delight in finding a complete set of bands, CD, and “complete gym in a bag”!!! Hot dog!!! We’re off to the races now!
So Sunday afternoon while Mike was away at work, I decided was as good a time as any to start this new routine. I watched the CD that came with the set; took out all the straps and bands and figured out what they all were; set up the apparatus as explained on the CD; did a couple of exercises as it went thru the “How To” section; and prepared to do the work out with the CD.

Ready? Set? Go!
I wasn’t too far into the work out when I started having conversations with some muscles I have spoken to in quite some time, despite the 3 mile daily walks! My inner thighs, although not often heard from on my walks, was the first to speak up and the last to shut up! “What are you doing”? They wanted to know. “Hip adductions, hip extensions and hip abductions” I repeated to myself.  I continued with my workout, ignoring as much as I could the discomfort the a fore mentioned muscles were giving me; then they spoke again. “Hip adductions, hip extensions and hip abductions?!  Seriously?!”  My inner thigh muscles promised revenge as I continued with the workout.

I finished the lower body workout on wobbly, but still standing legs! I was so proud!

Then came the upper body workout. I was so glad to see that I could keep up with the smiling instructor on the CD. Her two companions were smiling, too. 
The decline chest press, the incline chest press, the high row, the low row, the stiff armed lat pull down… I was able to do all of these with no problems. Then the instructor whipped out the second level of exercises. Since I was doing so well so far, I followed along.

What an idiot!
About 1/3 of the way thru of doing the overhead tricep extensions, I heard from another muscle I haven’t heard from in a while.  My triceps! The lateral shoulder raises and the frontal shoulder raises introduced me once again to another group of muscle I haven’t spoken to in some time either-  my shoulder muscles! Together, these muscles decided that they were mildly amused with my attempts at doing these second level activities; but not happy. They, too, promised revenge.

After sweating thru ½ hour of twisting, turning, pulling, pushing, shoving, bending, stretching, lunge-ing and grunting, I came to the end of the workout and reached the stretching session. AHHHH! I could handle this! Sitting down on the floor, I followed along as the instructor bent her body in half over her right leg. Like that was going to happen! NOT! I did my best, but still had a good nine inches between my nose and my knee. My inner thighs were laughing at me by this time just begging me to try to go lower! And it wasn’t long before my shoulders joined in the laughter.
Finishing the stretches, I turned off the CD while the smiling instructor was wishing me a good day.

This was Sunday.
Monday morning I woke up and felt fantastic.

Until I moved!
My inner thighs threatened to take me down until I promised to stand and move VERY slowly! My arms and shoulders didn’t want to cooperate with me to do anything if it included having to move them.  And my triceps yelled at me every single time I went to pick something up!

Deciding to take a day off from this new found activity, I picked it up again this morning (Tuesday). Although I heard from the same group of muscles, they didn’t seem quite as pissed off as they were a couple of days ago. This made me very happy!  J 
As I finished up the stretching activity today, I was slower to turn off of the CD and heard that smiling instructor tell me that in order to get the most benefit from this workout, it should be done TWICE in a row!

I heard my muscles say, “Try it bitch!”

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