Day Seven

Thank you Tara for the kind words and support!  I appreciate it and I look forward to seeing you today!!

Good Morning!  Yesterday morning started off great!  I experienced one of the best workouts in my life.  Tess introduced me to Dave who has offered to train me to obtain my goals.  He stresses functional fitness that works the whole body, not just isolated muscle groups. 

The workout started with a rowing machine, and he taught me the correct form for the machine.  After each row the screen would display an estimated end time, and my goal was to reduce that time with each stroke.  It was amazing. 

Next we jumped to squats.  Now, I've been doing squats for a long time, however I didn't know how low I could go until yesterday.  Dave put a low step bench behind me, and I had to touch the bench with my booty everytime I squated down.  At the same time my weight was to be on my heels keeping a straight back and then shooting up to a standing position.  We did eight sets of 9, 20 seconds for each set, with a break of 10 seconds in between.  At the end, he asked where I felt the muscle fatigue, and I told him in my quads.  That's when he told me, that had I been keeping correct form the shakiness would be in my butt.  Good to know.  Dave said that most people are over developed in their quads which leads to knee problems due to the imbalance.  Very good to know, because my knees definitely have issues.  I will be working on my squat form!

Then came the pull up bar.  I am not at the place that I can do a pull up, and Dave knows this.  He told me to jump up there and hang, just hang there until I fall.  After 40 seconds of shaking, I fell.  Funny enough, it was my hands that hurt the most, but I could feel the stretch in my whole body.  Then he had me get back up there and pull my legs to my chest 10 times.  After that it was over to the assisted pull up machine, and I had to pump out 20 pull ups.  It took me 4 or 5 rests, but I did it and my arms were tired.  :O)

The last exercise was something I've never done before.  Dave gave me a bar and told me to lift it over me head, and I'm thiking okay overhead chest presses, I can do this.  But no, Dave says you're not using your arms to get the bar over your head.  I'm thinking, please no more squats.  Nope, I had to jump and use the power in my legs to push the bar above me head.  I will admit that this seemed like a cool down to the rest of the exercises, but it was a great revelation that I can use my legs to get weights in my arms over my head.  Hopefully, this makes some sense because it sounded a little strange to me until Dave demonstrated it.

The funny thing is that Dave talked for about 30 minutes of our workout giving me info on form and function.  On Monday I'm supposed to get more of a workout.  I'm worried, but excited.  :O)  Of course I will be filling all of you in, because this is the best exercise I have ever experienced.

Initially after my workout, I was pretty excited.  I called my Mom and Dan and told them about the workout and how great it was.  Really, I want to share it with the whole world, because it is so effective.  Then I kind of let the day go downhill from there.  Negative feelings were creeping into my head, I was comparing myself to other people, I wasn't feeling attractive, and I could go on, but I won't.  One of my issues is just keeping my eyes on the road in front of me and not worrying about everyone else.  This is my life, my path, and my hope is to be a better person in all ways from who I was the previous day.  I'm out of my funk, I just needed a little wake up.

All of you have a wonderful day!  Today is going to be a GREAT day!!

Day 7 Recap

Movement: The Dave workout

Nutrition:

Breakfast - Ham and Cheese Omelet

Lunch - Chili and Rice

Snack - Banana and Almonds

Dinner - Cheese, Crackers, Apple, Deli Ham, Wine

Dessert - Popcorn

Goals for Day 8:

Long Walk, 20 classic push ups, practice squat form, practice rowing machine form

Goal Recap for Day 7:

Completed the Dave workout, excited for Monday!!

Comments

[Donna]

Maureenie, I'm kind of visual and I was trying to visualize you pushing this bar up over your head using your legs...but I need to know how heavy was the bar? I've seen weight lifters push the weight up..but it was hundreds of pounds. I'm looking forward to reading about Monday...love you!!dÜ