Last night I made homemade falafel. It was the bomb. Mmmmm. If you've never made it at home, I found a baked version that is a little less crunchy but SO. Good. I have a few left to go with my lunch salad. Mmmm...
This morning I was up and into the gym - very excited as the pool was open again. The gym opens half an hour before the pool does, so I thought I'd use the time to try out some new stuff I've been eyeing up at the gym, seeing as it's holiday week and the gym is completely empty (it's so nice to not fight for stuff). I found the various step up boxes and did 3 sets of raised knee step ups and some front/back lunges off of the 20 inch box with some 8 Lb weights. Then I did some sets of leaning over one legged dead lifts and tried out what I think is one of the coolest things - the smith machine. It's wicked, because if you're clumsy (like me) and tend to have a bad knee or hurt yourself (like me) or aren't good at balancing weights for squats and work alone so you don't have a spotter (ahem...yup) this machine is the coolest thing. I put 20Lbs on the bar to see how my knee would take it and did 3 sets of deep squats. I loved knowing that I couldn't lose my balance and wrench my knee or strain something because I couldn't come back up from a squat...just rotate the bar and the notch fits back into one of the resting spots on the rack. How cool is that? I always wanted to try it out, but I'm one of those weirdos that needs time to poke at and fiddle with something to get comfortable with it, so it was nice to get used to it and fiddle without knowing I was holding other people up. These butt exercises will definitely become a part of my lower body rotation - I need some new things. I tried to do a few arm curls and straight lifts with the 8Lb dumbells but my left arm is still a bit stiff, so I left it so I don't hurt it again. My plan is to swim my arm back up into shape.
And boy will I. The pool is finally open again and I got in a nice 25 minutes swim this morning. It was so nice being in the pool on a cold winter day. The new lifeguards are being super strict and not allowing flippers for lane swim...which is super super lame, as I am the slowest swimmer in existance without them, but perhaps this will be the incentive I need to actually work on my form and get faster. I'm definitely the slowest of the slow lane, and my arms got a good workout. I used the flipper board half the time for just my legs to give my arm a break after a while, as it was getting stiff, but it was a good solid swim workout. I couldn't do a lot of front crawl without hurting my arm, but good old froggy swimming and back stroke is OK for now. I'm hoping it will be the physio my arm needs to get back to normal so I can get back to weights again...I know it's good for my knee when it acts up.
A nice hot shower and man...I fell like a zillion bucks. :)
I'm off to the lab, my good peeps. Genetic mutational analysis awaits!
Tah!
3 comments:
Why can't you wear flippers?!?!?!
I hate random pool rules! A few years ago we took our (then toddler) son to a pool and they wouldn't allow him to wear his floatie.
Meanies.
But it's great the pool is open again!!!
And I'm no scientist, but genetic mutational analysis sounds AWESOME!
my dad swims like 5 nights a week! i give people who swim like ultra credit because swimming is a seeewious workout! and deadlifts on the smith machine are so much fun! hope you have a great weekend girl and thanks for the b12 tips!
Sounds like a great workout! You're right, the Smith machine is genius! Although I'm confused as to why they don't let you use flippers in the lanes??
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