Finally! I Woke Up!

This morning I actually got up and out of bed early like I'm supposed to be doing every day! Of course, I did make Drew promise to wake me up, but he really didn't even have to give me a hard time. He woke up first and went downstairs and I woke up about 10 minutes later. Even though I got up later, I was ready to leave first. I'm not sure of everything that he does in the morning, but I know it involves getting dressed, eating a bar, drinking some creatine, making Muscle Milk for the gym, and just some general putzing around. But, for the life of me, I can't figure out what takes so long about all of those things! (In truth, it's the putzing that takes a long time, I think).

Either way, we made it to the gym a couple minutes after 6 and I headed straight for the weight room. I had wanted to lift weights yesterday, but that was a failure on my part, so I had to make up for it today. I asked Drew to help me with my first lift, bench press, so I could try to do a little more than I'd feel comfortable doing on my own.

This was the workout:

Bench Press: 1 set of 12 reps @ 55 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 65 lbs / 1 set of 6 reps @ 75 lbs
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 1 set of 4 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 8 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 6 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm)
Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 1 set of 12 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 6 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm)
Tricep Pushdowns: 1 set of 12 reps @ 30 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 40 lbs / 1 set of 6 reps @ 50 lbs
Crunches (with weight): 3 sets of 20 reps @ 25 lbs

The bench press went pretty well. I needed a little bit of spotting from Drew to get to the reps that I reached on the second and third sets. I only wanted to count the ones that I actually did 100% on my own, but Drew said that would be selling myself short as he only took off a couple of pounds at the most and the reps that are hardest for me to complete are those that are most beneficial for my muscle growth.

The incline dumbbell bench press was not easy. Last time I did this, I made a mistake and did decline bench presses, so I tried using the same weight as the decline bench. Um, massive failure. The first set was horrible. I think I was just so surprised that I couldn't really do what I thought I'd be able to do that my muscles (or my mind) just gave up. Once I accepted that it'd be really hard, I got better on the second and third sets. I didn't bump up the weight since I figured I was probably about at my max anyway.

I felt really good about the tricep pushdowns. Last time I did this workout, I could only do 5 reps at 50 lbs and I feel really good that I was able to add one more rep into that last set. Little by little, I'm getting stronger!

After the weights were done, I headed over to the cardio area. Drew was on the Arc Trainer, but I thought I'd climb some steps this morning. I really enjoyed the Aerobic Training setting I had done last time I used the stair mill, so I decided to do that again. And I still really liked it this morning. I was definitely nice and sweaty by the time I was done with the cardio and ready for some stretching!

Weight Lifting
Time: 41:46
Calories: 158
Maximum HR: 138
Average HR: 102

Stair Mill
Time: 35:00
Distance: 3.16 miles (151 Floors)
Pace: 11:04/mile
Calories: 353
Maximum HR: 162
Average HR: 152