The news is so sad — another heartbreaking shooting. I am so sad that people will not feel safe going to their places of worship. Heartbreaking and I don’t have solutions, but also just wanted to acknowledge the sadness this morning.
There is no real way to pivot from that, is there? Anyway.
We had some really nice and special moments last weekend. G had a great piano recital, we celebrated with a family trip to Sbux and then Josh and I went the concert with friends (which I talked about yesterday but I some people skip the show notes 🙂 It was awesome though!)
Tomorrow I will celebrate my bday with a mani/pedi followed by a trip to the derm to get my stitches out! Exciting. Hopefully it will look okay once healed!
Fitness Update
Some of you have asked what I’m up to fitness-wise after finishing the Caroline Girvan Iron Series x 2. (And also meeting my Pilates goal kinda early this year – which is good bc I’ve really enjoyed the Level 2 classes a lot more).
The answer: I decided to sign up for Emma Montgomery‘s Shred for May! Not because I’m really trying to do some massive cut or fat loss phase (I recognize that this is not needed) but I figured I could use it to change up my style of strength training a bit and have motivation to be consistent with protein. I would love to continue to work on increasing muscle mass and improving body composition and functionality (ie: be able to do a strict pull up and things like that!).
I’ve done two workouts so far and liked them – I’m lifting a bit heavier esp upper body (to failure) and having more rest between sets. I plan to (drumroll) attempt to bring this into a gym in June once the kids finish school. Emma has both home- and gym-based options, so I figure this is a great time to give some of the gym stuff a try. I do still kind of think I may need a trainer – would a trainer be insulted if I brought a list of exercises I wanted to do and wanted tips on form / choice of weight / setup / etc?! (Probably yes . . . so need to figure this out).
The macros though . . . I don’t intend to try to stick to them fully, especially not for the entire 6 weeks. (And uh, definitely not while I am traveling). BUT I did get 111g of protein yesterday and felt good throughout the day.
Pen Update
Perhaps even more important: I found my beloved Juice+ pens at Simple Paper! So obviously I had to buy some stickers too . . .happy early bday to me. Sharing in case anyone else is similarly smitten with this pens, which are currently sold out at JetPens.
9 Comments
A trainer won’t be insulted or upset if you come in with an agenda – they should ask you what your goals are and start any relationship from there. I started a years long relationship with one trainer by telling him I wanted to be able to do as many push ups as I am old but, because I get tired/bored of doing pushups, I wanted to get there without doing any pushups at all. I have also outright rejected exercises my trainer planned for that day because I just don’t like doing them and (politely) demanded an alternative exercise that worked the same muscle group. I’ve also (politely) demanded entirely new workout routines when I showed up relatively low energy (in retrospect, likely related to normal ebbs and flows of energy during the menstrual cycle). He literally never minded and could always come up with something that pushed and challenged me and also worked with whatever crazy request I showed up with that day. The best part of working with a real live person is the level of customization you get and your ability to tailor the workout to fit your goals.
I’ve been doing Emma’s strength workouts for at lest three years now – based on original rec from Kae. I now pay the annual fee (~$200/year) to get new workouts each month which is reasonable to me. I did the Shred program once and was…underwhelmed. Yes, she gave me macros but pretty much what I would have expected and the “extras” weren’t worth it to me. And I do the workouts at home and at gym. I now make sure I do legs at gym for heavier weights and do upper body either location. I have really enjoyed it and I love seeing the weights increase over time!
yes I don’t necessarily think I’d do the ‘shred’ format again. But I didn’t mind seeing what it was like. Great to know you’ve had a good experience just using the workouts!
Echoing above comment. A good trainer won’t mind – indeed would probably welcome the focus. I’m a little older and a lot more injured than you and my trainer is great about adapting to where I am on a given day while still pushing me, and that’s why I keep paying him.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You obviously have to have cake!!! I’ll be interested to hear how you like the strength program once you get further into it. It sounds really great. I’m thinking I WON’T do another round of the Iron Series once I’m done with this one- more about this in the Weekly Rundown, but I basically had a meltdown during yesterday’s workout, which was like 10,000 hip thrusts. I’M NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN.
hahahah yes some of those hip ones have a LOTTTTTT of hip thrusts (and then ending with the one legged ones – it burns!!!). but i do feel like they give a great glute workout!
I don’t think a trainer would be insulted by your goals. My husband did exactly that for 4 weeks (he wanted to get help on his squat form and deadlift form) and said it was some of the best fitness money he’s ever spent. The trainer seemed excited to work with him on his specific goals and my husband said he learned a lot!
Thank you for acknowledging. That is meaningful.
I really need to get myself on a muscle building workout routine. I run 2-3x a week, but have such a hard time doing any type of cross training because it doesn’t give me the same endorphin hit. I bet if I signed up for some program like this that it would help me!