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I went to the gym this morning. When I got done with my cardio, one of the new trainers commented that I was doing well. I said something to the effect that I always do the cardio first, so I have the weights ahead of me as a reward; if I did the weights first, I'd never get to cardio. She noted that it's also useful warm-up, which I acknowledged. Then I did my first weight exercise, and she said something about my having been making a lot of progress in the last month. I pointed out that I've been going there for several years, and said that I wasn't making progress, just getting back from having been sick.
Then I thought about it a little more. Progress from two months ago counts, even if it's not where I might have been in an ideal universe where I wasn't sick for a month, and perhaps where I was a little more diligent about working out when traveling. And I feel as though I'm making progress on other scales, like actually going to see people, and having gotten a very encouraging reply to an email I sent yesterday about possible work. So I went back and told her "I shouldn't put myself down, I am making progress" (though I didn't include the reasoning above).
The measurable results of the weight work are incremental, and not monotonic: an extra 2.5 pounds on this exercise, but not up to what I'd been thinking of as my fairly stable level on that one. But I know I feel better when I work out, and my partners say they can see the muscle. Certainly, it comes in handy when someone asks me to carry her walker up the subway stairs because the elevator is out of service, and I've got a sack of groceries in one hand (she could climb the stairs using the handrail, but not get the walker up with her).
Cardio, 17 minutes, top heart rate 157
Chest press, 70 pounds, 12, 8
Calf raise, 82.5 pounds, 2 sets of 12; 75 pounds, 12
Adjustable row, 70 pounds, 3 sets of 15
Wrist curl, 35 pounds, 11—stopped there because my left elbow didn't like it. (Wound up not doing tricep curls, at the very end, for the same reason.)
Crunches, 3 sets of 30
Back arches, 3 sets of 17
Tree, 4 sets of {3 on each leg}
Balance lateral raise, 5 pounds each hand, 3 sets of 15
Leg press, 270 pounds, 3 sets of 12 (That was frustrating: 300, which I thought I'd gotten thoroughly good at, was out of comfortable reach, and sets of 15 didn't seem plausible either.)
Bicep curls (straight down to all the way up), 7.5-pound dumbbells, 3 sets of 20
Hip adduction, 110 pounds, 13, 11
Hip abduction, 95 pounds, 13, 11
Balance ~fly, 50 pounds, 15 with each leg forward
Stretches
Then I thought about it a little more. Progress from two months ago counts, even if it's not where I might have been in an ideal universe where I wasn't sick for a month, and perhaps where I was a little more diligent about working out when traveling. And I feel as though I'm making progress on other scales, like actually going to see people, and having gotten a very encouraging reply to an email I sent yesterday about possible work. So I went back and told her "I shouldn't put myself down, I am making progress" (though I didn't include the reasoning above).
The measurable results of the weight work are incremental, and not monotonic: an extra 2.5 pounds on this exercise, but not up to what I'd been thinking of as my fairly stable level on that one. But I know I feel better when I work out, and my partners say they can see the muscle. Certainly, it comes in handy when someone asks me to carry her walker up the subway stairs because the elevator is out of service, and I've got a sack of groceries in one hand (she could climb the stairs using the handrail, but not get the walker up with her).
Cardio, 17 minutes, top heart rate 157
Chest press, 70 pounds, 12, 8
Calf raise, 82.5 pounds, 2 sets of 12; 75 pounds, 12
Adjustable row, 70 pounds, 3 sets of 15
Wrist curl, 35 pounds, 11—stopped there because my left elbow didn't like it. (Wound up not doing tricep curls, at the very end, for the same reason.)
Crunches, 3 sets of 30
Back arches, 3 sets of 17
Tree, 4 sets of {3 on each leg}
Balance lateral raise, 5 pounds each hand, 3 sets of 15
Leg press, 270 pounds, 3 sets of 12 (That was frustrating: 300, which I thought I'd gotten thoroughly good at, was out of comfortable reach, and sets of 15 didn't seem plausible either.)
Bicep curls (straight down to all the way up), 7.5-pound dumbbells, 3 sets of 20
Hip adduction, 110 pounds, 13, 11
Hip abduction, 95 pounds, 13, 11
Balance ~fly, 50 pounds, 15 with each leg forward
Stretches
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