Jess doing stability/accessory work? What?

[Day 51]

Today's Workout: Gym sesh! 90 mins (:
Summary:

• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 45#, 3 x 8/8/7 @ 85# + 12 push ups to finish (I probably should've kept going but uh they didn't feel too hot and this was an impromptu decision so I just let it go lol)
• Pulldowns: 4 x 12/10-2/8-4/8-4 @ 7 plates
• Leg superset: 3 rounds, no rest
• 15/side steps ups (no weight, just focusing on hip stability; my L is better at this than my R)
• 15 band squats (20 on the last round)
• Shoulder press: 3 x 8/8 @ 25#/15# (the next time you do this, go for 30# no drop, I wanna know if you can do the extra weight, take extra sets if you really feel like getting all the reps in)
• Back superset: 3 x
• Straight arm cable pulldowns: 12 @ 6 plates
• Low cable rows: 12 @ 7 plates
• Leg superset: 3 x
• 10/side alternating single leg bridges (from the bench, again focusing on hip stability)
• 10/side lunge & hops (you need to GET HIGHER and work on single-leg explosive movements more in general)
• Incline bench: 3 x 8 @ 65# (okay this increase in weight came outta nowhere and felt so good it blew my mind, maybe it's just the extra rest between the upper body things and this lift but it was awesome)
• Lateral/front raise superset: 12/12 @ 12#/side and 25# plate
• Single leg Romanian deadlifts: 10/side @ 20# (single DB; you can probably go up to 12 with a little more weight)
• Arms superset: 3 x
• DB bicep curls: 8 @ 20# (well good to know I can do more weight than I've been doing...)
• Overhead DB tricep extensions: 12 (mostly broken somewhere though) @ 25# (Okay what exactly do people do with failing reps on this exercise? Do you just get stuck at the bottom and die? #confused)

Hit Rate: 56/60 (93.3%)

I think the notes say most of what I wanted to say. I did stability/accessory work today! Because I wanted to save my legs for tomorrow. I was actually super surprised by how challenging the stability work is. I usually don't wanna do it because I would rather feel like a badass and move lots of weight around, but I'm realizing that not only is it really valuable but it's really challenging, and that makes me want to do more. Will maybe try and find a way to more regularly integrate this into my schedule. Although my schedule is so packed I have no idea how I could actually possibly do that. We'll see.

The weekly recap!

• 1 swim, 1 swim time trial, 2 gym sessions, 1 run, 1 trainer ride, 1 outdoor ride, and 1 trainer brick for a total of ~10:45 in 8 sessions. 
• Um this was sort of a strange week, because my plans got wonky on Thursday and then everything just sort of shifted around strangely. I've stayed pretty on track though and I'm happy with how the adjustments turned out in the end. It's been good work, nothing to complain about here.

Morning long run with friends in the morning, gonna hit my first 10 miler of 2016. Then just lots and lots of studying and more meal prep so I have loads of food to get me through the week. Happy Saturday!

Much love,

Jess

"The tension is here..."

[Day 26]

"The tension is here between who you are and who you could be."

Google that if you don't know where it comes from, but I figure a lot of you will know what song that's from. Shuffle gifted me with this on the walk to school this morning. It was a nice morning pump up song. Thank you shuffle. (:

Today's Workout: Gym sesh! Upper body stuff.
Summary:

• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 45#, 3 x 10 @ 75#, 15 @ 55 (bonus round! lol)
• The bonus round burned my shoulders sooooooo hard
• Pulldowns: 4 x 12 alternating wide/narrow @ 6 plates (need to go up in this next time...)
• Shoulder press: 3 drop sets with 25#/15#, rep counts of 8-8, 8-8, 5-8/5/2 (going for 15 lol)
• Effort on the last round of this wasn't where I wanted to be...Gotta stay in it more.
• Single arm DB row: 3 x 12 @ 40# 
• Opted for DBs instead of BB today because my back's not feeling super hot today.
• Wasn't getting full range of motion on a few reps on the left side, just something to think about more.
• Incline bench: 3 x 12 @ 55#
• Half of me wants to be like, this is literally no weight I don't know why this has been giving me so much trouble, but it had. I think this is the first time I've hit all 3 sets this year.
• Cable pulldowns: 3 x 15 @ 5 plates (up the weight next week)
• Superset: 3 x
• Bicep curls: 12 @ 15#/side
• Skull crushers: 12 @ 10#/side
• What is accessory/isolation work. Minimal rest between sets. Weight needs to be going up next time (lol if that ever happens again).
• Superset: 3 x 
• 12 lateral raises @ 10#/side
• 12 front raises w/ 25# plate

Hit Rate: 26/27 (96.2%)

I woke up with like a negative amount of motivation this morning, but I did get myself to the gym and do some number of the things, so I'll take it. Need to go heavier in a lot of things, need to not just quit on the terrible volume sets, pretty typical day outside of that. 

Body updates: My knee hurt when I woke up this morning so I axed the rowing I had planned for after the lift, hoping that just babying it today will help it feel better so I can try and run on it tomorrow. It's sort of discouraging that that's going on though. This is my problem with high effort trainer rides: Sometimes your form falls apart and it definitely shows in your body the next day (my knee, my back). My wrists were giving me the business yesterday and in the past week in general. They've just felt real loose and achy, so I was worried about how the lifting would treat them, but for the most part they felt fine during the workout and have continued to feel fine as the day goes on, so hopefully that's not an issue. If the joint issue thing continues to be a problem in the next few weeks I might seriously consider finding a joint supplement somewhere. I have terrible joints. They need all the help they can get.

That's all for today! Test run in the morning tomorrow (top out at 20 minutes easy on the treadmill) and a trainer ride in the PM on the books for tomorrow. Have a lovely Tuesday!

Much love,

Jess