Gym

[redbird]

In the course of today's workout, one of the trainers said something like "I see you here a lot, what's your name?" She told me hers is Liliana, and we talked a bit about my workout. She said something about squats, and I mentioned never having done them and asked her what they do (gluteus and abs) and to show me how to do it. Mostly, I found myself using my quadriceps (great big muscles in the front of the thighs: mine get lots of work and hence are all ready to take on a new task rather than leave it to less-exercised muscles) instead. She also showed me some stretches; I told her I'll probably ask for a refresher on all this next week.

There's stuff I do now that works those muscles; from my viewpoint, the advantage of squats is that at the basic level, they need no equipment, so I can do them at home (and while staying with out-of-town friends), as well as at the gym. The same is true of the crunches and yoga "tree", though I don't actually do so very often.

Workout details:

Cardio, 22 minutes plus one minute of cooldown, top heart rate 145
Chest press, 70 pounds, 10, 9
Calf raise, 80 pounds, 13, 11; 70 pounds, 13
Adjustable row, 70 pounds, 15, 5: stopped because of a twinge in my left elbow
Leg press (the plate-loaded one, my usual), 250 pounds, 3 sets of 15. Glad to have it up to sets of 15, but I was panting a bit after each set.
Balance ~fly, 50 pounds, 15 with each leg forward

Crunches, 3 sets of 30
Back arch, 3 sets of 17
Tree, 4 sets of {3 on each side}

Balance lateral raise, 5 pounds each hand, 2 sets of 15; 2.5 pounds each, 15. The trainer came over during this, and one thing she suggested was standing with my knees bent a little; I hope she realized I was sincere when I said "that's more difficult, thanks"--because I want to keep working on/pushing the balance part of this.

Squats, a few, fairly basic. At one point the trainer mirrored me and had me hold her hands lightly as we were both in the squat position. We also tried "wall squats", leaning against a wall, but the bottom edge of the photo on the wall was rubbing against bare skin (the exercise tops I wear expose my midriff). I need to figure out how to use my glutes instead of my quads or hamstrings to rise back to vertical from squatting. Liliana also showed me how to use something very like my back arches (the "bridge" position, yoga people call it) as a glute exercise, by getting into it and then tightening those muscles.

Bicep curls, 8 pounds each hand, 2 sets of 20.

Stretches.

I think my quads are feeling this workout more than usual, but that might be from increasing the reps on the leg press, or from the nice long walk with cattitude after exercise and lunch, rather than from the squats.