Greetings From New York

I am back in New York visiting my family and enjoying a pseudo vacation. I'm working on a few projects but otherwise I'm free to chillax with Frank and harass my relatives into taking photos of me.

I accidentally had my Fabletics outfits sent to my parents' house. This is the Highway 74 outfit and I love the mesh palm tee shirt and the white sports bra. The Dili shorts are cool because they have little tabs to tighten the sides.

Wins and Weaknesses Within the Same WOD

There are days when I see wins and weaknesses within the same WOD, such as this morning at the 5:45 AM class at CrossFit Central LI. I get there just in time for the warm-up and I'm a little tired. Had some trouble falling asleep last night. I get through 50 jumping jacks and then I get the 50 double-unders UNBROKEN. This has never happened before and the highest I've ever strung together before was 31, so this is a definite win.

We gathered for a group stretch and I could feel that I have been ignoring mobility work. We had a 3 minute AMRAP of wallballs and I got 50. These were not unbroken but I didn't drop the ball and I only no-repped once. Again, this is a definite win.

I was really psyched for the metcon at Central LI today because I really thought I could Rx it and then I had my hubris handed to me.

Too Many Fitness Enthusiasts

This morning I woke up and headed to the hotel gym and found it packed. I figured my colleagues should be in bed after partying at the CHCI event last night, but the damn overachievers beat me there. And I walked in at 6 AM.

Since no one seems to lift, I took over the weight bench.

I performed chest presses with 20 lbs and 12.5 lbs weights. I did chest flys with 12.5 lbs weights. I also did shoulder presses with the 12.5 lbs, tricep kickbacks with 7.5 lbs, and squats with 20 lbs.

Then I went for a 1.5 mile run outside near the other hotel.

Sofitel Hotel Workout

My dad and I got into DC late last night. We had a delicious midnight meal at Old Ebbitt Grill before I passed out in my comfy bed.

I didn't get up until about 9, although I woke up at 8. The SO FIT gym was said to be located on level B. I got dressed, grabbed my Oxygen magazine and my headphones, and headed on down only to discover that the gym is under construction. It's been temporarily relocated to a conference room.

Given what it is - gym equipment temporarily housed in a conference room - the space is alright.

I spent about 10 minutes warming up a 9% incline power-walking with short bursts of jogging. I did two rounds of varied squats with an 18 lbs body bar, chest presses with both 15 and 20 lbs dumbbells, and shoulder presses with 10 lbs dumbbells. I flirted with the idea of doing planks with a medicine ball before deciding I was done with my quick workout and needed to get. Y day started.

My dad and I hit up the George Bellows exhibit at the National Art Gallery and made a visit to the United States Botanic Garden, where he got lost. We're now sitting in the lobby of 675 E Street NW, waiting out the storm. A nice woman who lives here let us in, and good thing too because I saw the Starbucks umbrellas sail down the street and almost hit a car.

Look at that amazing French manicure.

Group Fitness Substitute Etiquette

Today I went to the Woodbury Equinox for John Kocaj's pureMUSCLE class. We were all set to begin when the spin instructor called in with a flat tire and John was asked to cover her class. Thankfully Steve Ramirez had shown up to be a student in pureMUSCLE and he graciously volunteered to teach the class instead. Steve kicked my ass in METCON3 yesterday and he kicked my ass again today. I am so sore, it hurts to laugh let alone move.

Steve incorporated a lot of yesterday's moves into today's class. He's a great instructor but I don't think this is how pureMUSCLE usually goes. Unfortunately, a few of the regulars got uppity and scowled throughout our workout. Two people left, and that's their prerogative, but really? You can't try something else for one day?

This isn't the first time I've seen bad behavior when a sub takes over a class. And I admit, I've been guilty of it myself. Yes, it sucks when you show up ready to take your regular (and maybe favorite) class, and an interloper is running the show doing something that doesn't fit the norm. I used to get so mad when I expected to spend an hour cardio kickboxing with Yves, jumping in the air, and showing off my hinge kicks, only to find some woman telling me to stand in place doing roundhouse kicks for an hour.

If this happens to you, you have some choices to make. You can either leave immediately or you have to stick it out the entire time. Do not scowl at the instructor or try to make them feel badly. Do not make knowing looks at your fellow regulars or roll your eyes at them. The substitute is not your regular instructor and you shouldn't expect him or her to be. I think it's better when the substitute owns the class and follows his or her usual style. You're going to get a really great workout (hopefully - sometimes the instructor is way out of his or her comfort zone - such as when a spin instructor is taking over a boot camp class for the first time) and it's in your best interest to dedicate yourself to the workout you are given. When a substitute tries to be something he or she is not, everyone is unhappy.

I've been wearing my Micro Tubes 100fit cross trainers a lot.
These are still available on the KSwiss website.

My shoulders are shot from yesterday and I could not do push-ups to save my life today. I had 10 lbs, 8 lbs, 5 lbs, and 3 lbs weights today and ended up having to use each set. We did pyramid bicep curls and at one point the 5 lbs weights were going to make me cry.

Day 2 of September Health Month is going well. If only I can avoid fried food, alcohol, and ice cream for the rest of the day.

Preparing for Hurricane Irene

Today I fully intended to camp out on my couch, and then I received a text message inviting me to workout and then eat lunch at Piping. Well who am I to say no to a sweat sesh and lunch with a good friend? So I changed out of my Hurricane Chic attire and got ready to get my gym on.

Since I had finished my eighteen mile long run a mere fourteen hours earlier, I couldn't spend the entire time on cardio machines. I went through my collection of Oxygen magazines and decided upon a workout from the February 2011 issue. Now the article said to choose one muscle group and do the three sets of each exercise. I was feeling creative so I decided to do one set of each exercise in each muscle group.

After fifteen minutes on the treadmill of sprints and speedwalking at different inclines, I was sweaty enough to start lifting. I proceeded to do the following with 10 lbs weights:

15 reps stability ball bench press

15 reps stability ball chest flye

15 reps standing dumbbell press

15 reps stability ball bent-over flye

15 reps (each arm) one-arm overhead triceps extension

15 reps stability ball lying dumbbell extension

20 reps dumbbell front squat

12 reps (each leg) dumbbell lunge

20 reps dumbbell stiff-legged deadlift

Then I switched to 15 lbs weights:

15 reps dumbbell deadlift

15 reps bent over two-arm row

Before switching back to 10 lbs for:

15 reps seated hammer curl

15 reps standing reverse curl

I also did ten side-plank push ups, 20 of those things when you sit on your butt and raise your legs and twist with a medicine ball (12 lbs ball, twisting to each side counts as 1), and some good, old-fashioned weighted crunches.

I moved onto the abductor/adductor machine. I can still put 200 lbs on it and easily perform the abduction exercises, i.e. the outsides of my thighs are monsters. However, I went from being able to do 200 lbs for adduction to a measily 125 lbs. What this means is that I can no longer fully support my own weight while having sex standing up. This is an issue.

I did about 5 minutes on the bike before succumbing to intense boredom. This is when I pulled my shock and awe move and performed burpee push-ups with a BOSU with a nice little lift in between each rep. This attracts attention. It's also a good workout. Then I did cardio lunges off the BOSU for 1 minute. I finished up my light workout rolling around on the foam roller praying for mercy. I hate that thing but I know it's good for me.

After a shower, I enjoyed a delicious curry chicken salad and a pretty good Bloody Mary. Now I'm back in my Hurricane Chic awaiting the Storm of the Century.

In case something happens to me during Hurricane Irene,
I want to be found wearing this.

Gaining Confidence to Workout Alone and March's Ultimate Arms Workout

I rarely hit the gym floor by myself. Sure, I'll hop on a cardio machine if I have some extra time before a class, or I might use the adductor/abductor hip machines (205 lbs baby, booyah!), but I used to actually show up and lift. It occured to me recently that I don't even know where most of the equipment is located at the 85th & 3rd Equinox location and I used to be there all the time. I subscribe to Oxygen magazine, which is the great women's fitness magazine, that is full of workout advice and exercises. My goal is to be able to perform these workouts on my own when I can't or don't want to attend a class.

A lot of classes are full-body workouts. You can't and shouldn't do a full-body workout every single day. This leads to overtraining, injuries, and late-night binge-eating. I've decided to focus on spin and yoga classes, and then do no more than one full-body workout class a week. I am going to do my own lifting. I tried Oxygen's March triceps and biceps workout yesterday and my arms are feeling it! I used 12.5 lb weights, and skipped the stability ball preacher curl (just couldn't be bothered to run around 3 floors looking for a stability ball when I had a class starting in 10 minutes.)

Triceps Exercises (2 sets of each)
1. Body weight bench dip (12 reps)
2. Lying triceps extension (12 reps)
3. One-arm triceps kickback (12 reps on each side)

Biceps Exercises (2 sets of each)
1. Alternating biceps curl (15 reps each arm)
2. Hammer biceps curl (12 reps)
3. Dumbbell preacher curl on stability ball (skipped but I would've done 12 each)

I chose to superset the triceps/biceps exercises during the first set, going from one triceps move right into the biceps move before resting and moving on to the next exercises. Oxygen recommended this to save time and increase caloric burn.

1 Dumbbell + 7 Moves = Oxygen's Total-Body Workout

Oxygen Magazine's March issue has a great total-body workout on p. 39 that I tried today. All you need is one dumbbell to complete all 7 moves.

Exercises

1. Dumbbell wood chop (low to high)
- This move works your legs, core, shoulders, back and chest.

2. Squat (dumbbell held at chest height)
- This moves works your quads, glutes, calves, and hamstrings.

3. Biceps curl (one arm at a time)
- This moves works your biceps and forearms.

4. Triceps overhead extension
- This moves works your triceps and forearms.

5. Chest press (one arm at a time)
- This moves works your chest, shoulders, triceps, cores.

6. Crunch (weight held on chest)
- This moves works your abdominals.

7. Shoulder press (one arm at a time)
- This moves works your front delts and lateral delts.

I used a 12.5 lb dumbbell. The magazine says to do each exercise for 15 reps, then rest before repeating the seven moves. Let me know how you liked this routine if you try it. (Let's get some posting going. I feel unloved!)