As I stated previously, I decided to re-sign for online training until the gyms are allowed to re-open. I found that the online training was the only thing that kept me somewhat consistent. Without it, I was starting to struggle.
So, without further ado, here’s Week One’s recap:
- Week 1, Day 1, Glutes – Having taken a break from my online workouts, I was ready to hit today’s workout head on. As usual, we started with glute activation. I tell you, sometimes this is harder than the workout itself. Sometimes people scoff that a band work does nothing, but it really does burn when you do enough reps. The main exercises included single-leg deadlift, reverse lunge, curtsy lunge, and side lunges. Once that circuit was completed, we did an exercise that I just cannot do. Not because I don’t want to, but because my right knee is just not having it. Try as I might to adjust my angle or make sure my knee was tracking with my toes, it just didn’t work. Instead I did a half-assed attempt with a barely-there rep. Hey, at least I didn’t quit. Throughout the night, I could feel the DOMS setting in, as it started to impact my sleep. So, I was sore going into Day 2’s workout, but I was not going to let that stop me.
- Week 1 , Day 2, Upper Body – Boy, are my arms tired. We started with a banded arm warmup and abs to prep us for a shoulders, biceps, and triceps workout. Shoulder exercises included overhead presses, upright rows, and lat raises. Triceps included overhead triceps extensions, bent-over triceps extension, and another exercise…I’m not sure what it’s called, followed by triceps dip. For biceps, we did a superset of curls with forearms in a diagonal-type angle, regular biceps curls, and hammer curls. In between that circuit was a set of bent-over flys. For cardio there were some high knees, mountain climbers, and burpees thrown in. I did not do the burpees and did a touch-the-floor-reach-for-the-sky type of thing instead just to keep moving.
- Week 1, Day 3, Full Body – My goodness, this was challenging. There was a bit of cardio added in, in the form of high knees, shootouts, jump squats, and side shuffles. There was plenty of ab work in the form of v-ups, scissors, Russian twists, glider twists, high planks, low planks, and side planks. Body work included kettle bell swings into squat and rotating press. I did not rotate the press because of my back, so I pressed it straight up instead. Whenever I attempt a weighted twisting exercise, my back seizes. It’s a no-no for me. Other exercises included single-leg deadlifts.
- Week 1, Day 4 – Glutes – It’s another glute day and let me tell you, this one left me super sore. Well, not so much sore, more like pain. Hip pain to be exact. I ended up taking the next couple of days off. I honestly don’t know which exercise caused it, but the rest seemed to have done me some good, because it only took a couple of days for me to feel like I could have it again.
- Week 1, Day 5 – Conditioning – I did not complete this one (see above).
I did get in two other weighted workouts not associated with the above, so all in all, I think I had a very production 1-1/2 week. Much better than previous weeks.
Food was half-assed, so not much to mention there. As it happens, GOYA has started a Summer Snatch Challenge. Coincidentally, this challenge starts, in what would have been, my second week of on-demand. Because I am already enrolled in the monthly on-demand workouts, I am able to participate in the challenge. I decided to go ahead with it. Why not? Who couldn’t use a $500 prize? This is exactly what I need to help keep me accountable and consistent.
I took my “before” photos. If I see a big enough difference at the end of four weeks, I will take my “after” photos and officially submit them.
I will recap my first week of the challenge in next week’s summary post.
NOTE: Picture was taken October 2020 during a very short (one week) attempt at gym re-opening, before we were ordered into another lockdown.
The 50 Edit 