Here Comes The Heat!!!

Gotta love SoCal weather, right? First heat wave of the summer. I love beach weather… but I absolutely hate  dislike with a passion the dreadful heat. If I lived near the beach, I would not mind it so much. But living inland sucks buttermilk. “But I thought you were from Hawaii”… Yes, I am. But I lived near the beach. And nice cool breezes in the shade. And stepping outside didn’t feel like walking into a huge oven.

With that said. It made it difficult for me to get into beast mode this afternoon. I didn’t want to leave the house to drive to the gym… so that meant working out in my garage. In this triple digit weather heat. Yeah we have fans in there. But still. It was a definite mental battle to get my butt up and into workout mode.

So did I workout? Yup. I did. The heat didn’t bother me much once I got started. Thank goodness.

My workout today:

• 5 sets 10 reps squats with 115#
• supersets – 4 sets 10 reps step ups w/glute kickback with 20# (each leg)  followed by deadlifts w/115#
• supersets – 4 sets 10 reps bulgarian squats w/20# followed by sumo squats w/20#
• 5 sets 20 reps calf raises with 20#

Pretty good workout if I do say so myself. Sometimes I don’t give myself enough credit when it comes to my workouts. I always feel like it’s never enough and I’m always pushing myself harder because I’m not satisfied with my progress. Ever. But on occasion, I run into a co-worker from my old store – who’s also a guy by the way – and he’ll jump in and do my workouts with me in between sets and he’s sore for days, he tells me. So that makes me feel pretty good about myself. And it tells me I’m getting to be pretty good about working out on my own. Without a personal trainer. Hmmmm….a career change maybe? 😉

*sigh* Anyway, enjoy your weekend! With the exception of going to the store for some groceries tomorrow, my butt is staying home. Gonna try and keep cool. 🙂

5 Minute Plank Conquered!!!

I finally did it!!! On Sunday, June 9, 2013, I held a plank for 5 minutes. With perfect form. It was THE LONGEST 5 minutes of my life!!!

So let’s rewind back just a little. I began the challenge on Tuesday, May 9, 2013. My start time was 1 min and 20 seconds. Each day after that, I’d increase my time by 10 seconds. Sounds pretty easy, right? Yeah, I thought so, too. But 10 seconds is a long time! I took a break from this challenge maybe once a week… because I had been working out hard at the gym, sometimes my body just needed a rest. I felt my body getting stronger…my abs much, much tighter. But doing the plank on top of my daily workouts became a struggle once I had made it past the 4 minute mark. Rest days (just for the plank) became more frequent especially on the days I worked out the upper body. My arms were just too tired to hold a plank for too long.

On June 4th, I held the plank for 4 minutes and 40 seconds. My longest time EVER. And then it became a mental battle after that. A friend of mine challenged me to just skip 4 minutes and 50 seconds and go for the 5 minute mark. What’s 20 more seconds, right? Yeah, that’s a lot in plank world. Seriously. I was determined to do it. But I just couldn’t. I failed miserably the day after. I don’t even remember my time. Tried again the day after that. Failed. I knew it wasn’t because I couldn’t do it. I knew it wasn’t because my body was tired. I failed because my mind gave up before I had even begun. I’d set myself up for failure… already thinking I wouldn’t be able to do it. On June 7th… my time was 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

The day I finally conquered the plank, I had decided to just take that entire day off from working out. I figured that maybe I just needed to relax and get my mind right before I attempted the plank again. And that’s what I did… I rested. All day. Until about 5pm. The husband came in from the garage, after having just finished lifting weights with his bro, and said “get dressed, you’re gonna do that 5 minute plank today and I’ll do it with you.” My reaction? WTF? Yup. But he wasn’t playing. So I changed into my gym clothes (just to do a 5 min plank) and came out to the living room. I turned on my music and then it was on! I started to think that maybe I wouldn’t last… but then the thought of my husband out-planking me was something I couldn’t let happen. Hubs couldn’t hold it past 3 minutes. When he went down, I thought about giving up but he kept yelling at me to keep going. Every second burned. My arms, my abs, my back… everything was on fiyah! But he wouldn’t let me quit.

I conquered the 5 minute plank. And I couldn’t have done it without the husband. Him challenging me…then him doing it next to me…and then afterwards, him rooting me on to finish. I’m so glad he was there to help me accomplish this goal. I’ve attempted this challenge so many times, but never made it past 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

Wanna know what else got me through the plank? This video:

Seriously. This is the only song that could get me through it. No wait, scratch that… it was this video and only this video that could get me through it. No joke. I’ve tried listening to just the audio of the recorded song… I’ve tried a couple of my favorite covers of the song… I’ve even tried other songs. But none held my attention and focus like this video did. Watching the performance helped. It’s kind of embarrassing to admit but it is soooo true. So I guess JT gets credit for my accomplishment, too. 🙂