Thursday - August 6, 2015

Today is cardio...

ughhhhhhh....

I love it, but I hate it. I think from all the videos I watch the YouTubers never do cardio, and if they did, they always complain about it. So I guess it's rubbing off on me. However, cardio is necessary for me! The reason why these people don't do cardio as much is because they are focused on building muscle. I watch these YouTubers for that reason - to get motivation and ideas to lift - but I am still in my fat-burning phase because there's quite a bit of it. I used to love running and that was before I started lifting heavy, but I never saw long-term progress with running.

When I first started running, I lost 15 pounds easy then it just stopped. I guess I plateaued, but I also got bored with it. Lifting is always exciting for me because it feels different every time. I don't know how to explain it, but lifting is just for me. I'm obsessed with it, but not overly obsessed to where I lift twice a day because that is bad for your muscles. I just feel stronger every time, and I am glad that I started this new blog about my fitness journey because I can account for how much I can lift and see my progress through my posts.

Anyways, I just had to get that out there. So today I woke up later than usual because my family was up all night. I woke up at around 10:45 for lunch, and it was a very filling lunch. My mom made this wonton and noodle soup with vegetables. It looked like it could have came straight out of a restaurant. I was already full half-way into the meal, but I managed to eat all of my mom's home-cooked meal.

A little update on my body: I woke up very sore in the booty area and hamstrings. I feel like nails are pushing up both of my butt cheeks. If I flex, I feel it even more. As I go on through my day, the soreness is wearing off. I definitely have to stretch this out before I run.

I started working on my blog right after my lunch. I fixed some glitches within my blog and gave it a color scheme. It used to be all black and white, but I added a bit of mint green to my theme. So, I hope y'all are digging that.

It's now 1pm, and I am snacking on an avocado with salt and pepper before I head to the gym to start my cardio session. My boyfriend is going to hate on me when I say this, but I really wish I had some earphones. I say that he's gonna be hating because I made a big deal about wanting headphones last week. teehee! I just love headphones for studying and lifting, and I prefer earphones for running.

I headed to the gym at 3pm because I had to charge my phone. Remember how I said that it was cardio day? I lied, it is back and a bit of chest day. I am still trying to figure out my week and I know that tomorrow is shoulders, so I had one more day to squeeze in back and chest. However, I did do cardio.

Here's what I did:
Again, I stretched out my legs, arms and back for about 10 minutes. Then, I headed over to the cable machine.

I started with some 20-pound-per-arm cable crossovers (4x10) which are my favorite for chest, especially now that there is a mirror in front of the machine, whereas in my old gym it was in the middle of nowhere. I did a superset of the cable crossovers with 40lb wide-grip lat pulldowns (4x10).

My last workout on the cable machine was the seated row machine, and I did 55lbs, 4 sets of 10.

I moved to the benches and free weights, and I grabbed a 25-pound dumbbell and did one-arm dumbbell rows (4x8-10 on each arm). I tried so hard to keep my form for all 10 pumps, but sometimes when I reached pump 8, it would get a bit rough.

I got to the Smith Machine and did bent-over rows with 70lbs (2x5), which I felt in my lower back. So I moved it down to 50lbs (4x10) which was much better because I was able to do more reps. I need to start bringing my gloves because if I went any longer, I could have gotten blisters. I don't know why I am adding a picture of my hands, but there ya go. Not pretty - they are hard, little red bumps.

I did one machine that was new to me. I didn't quite get the name; I just know that it was labeled MTS row and I did 1 set of 10 with 20lbs on each arm, then I did 3 sets of 10 with 30lbs on each arm.

I really wanted to do bench presses, but they didn't have a set-up for that in Planet Fitness. I saw people do them on the Smith Machine, but I just think you're too limited on your motion with that machine. I would rather do it freestyle than on a machine.

I finished off my day with 2 miles on the treadmill, which was tough for me because it's the day after leg day, so I felt it in my legs when I ran. I did another mile on the elliptical because it's easier to get mileage on there, so I somewhat cheated, hehe. But hey, cardio is cardio; at least, I didn't do the bike because that would really be cheating for mileage. I did 3 miles instead of none so all in all, I'm proud of myself.

I am determined to reach that 5 mile goal on cardio day Saturday so that will be a challenge.

Although, I am in my fat-burning stage and love lifting, it's a struggle to stay hydrated. It's more beneficial to run after lifting - you actually perform better when you save cardio for last - but you don't want to drink too much water, or else you will feel the water jumping up and down inside of you when running and stuff. So, trying to get cardio in is difficult, but I got through it.

Although, I didn't come home to the healthiest meal for dinner, I am still proud of my determination at the gym.

My dinner was a prepared plate of nachos, basically. However, my mom said she used ground turkey instead of beef, which is a plus. It had everything on there! Avocado, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, and sour cream.

It's 6pm, and I should be done with eating since I had a lot of carbs today, but there's a bowl of fresh-cut watermelon sitting in front of me...

Anyways, tomorrow is shoulder day so that shouldn't be too bad. I am just going off what my gym partner taught me last week, so it's a bit different. I may add more workouts; I may not. We'll see.

I'm ending my day detoxing with some cold cucumber-and-lemon-infused water! My water bottle is so cute...

My booty is dead... it's so hard to stand up. I just had to include that because I experienced the pain while getting up from my computer. Okay, here we go...