After my weekend yoga retreat, I woke up on Sunday feeling absolutely exhausted so I decided to take the day off. After all, I’d done ten workouts the week before!
I had a session with Pete on Monday. I began with a 10-minute warmup on the cross-trainer at a steady pace followed by some stretches. He told me that we’d be doing weights in the session. I did three sets of the following groups of exercises:
- Chest press x 12
- Bicep curls x 12
- Combined knee-up/twist x 10 on each side
The second group of exercises was:
- Romanian deadlifts x 12 (20-lb weights)
- Leg extensions x 12
- Elbow to knee crunches x 10 on each side
The third set of exercises was:
- Seated low row x 12
- Shoulder press x 12 (10-lb weights)
- Situps x 10
And the fourth set consisted of:
- Goblet squats x 12 (20-lb weight)
- Hamstring curls x 12
- Plank raises x 10
The plank raise simply meant me lying on the floor and then lifting myself into a plank position. I did some stretches after that and was done.
I ached the following morning – my shoulders, my hamstrings, my thighs. I went to the gym and tried to run but I was tired so I walked for 20 minutes. I also did three sets of the abs exercises (hanging knee raises, side bends and abdominal toe touches).
I had another session with Pete on Wednesday – he’d warned me that it was going to be interval training so I was (not) prepared for it. We got to the gym and my warmup was a 1 km walk/run on the treadmill – but when I started the treadmill it started making a really weird noise. We weren’t sure what the noise was but we thought it would be best to use a different treadmill. So I moved over and began on that – but I found it much harder than the other treadmill. Or perhaps I was just tired – I feel like I’m tired a lot these days! After the 1 km, I did some stretches and began with 4 minutes on the treadmill, alternating 30 seconds at an easy pace with 30 seconds of sprinting.
After that I did an abs circuit:
- Mountain climbers x 20
- Toe touches x 20
- Russian twists x 20 (10-lb weight)
- T leg raises x 20
I had some water and then did three sets of the following exercises, without any breaks:
- Kettlebell swings x 20 (8-kg kettlebell)
- Combined squat/side raise x 10 (alternating 5 on each side)
- Jumping jacks x 20 (ugh)
- Combined bicep curl/shoulder press x 10 (3-kg weights – I think?)
I did three sets of that in 6 minutes and 30 seconds. After some water and a rest, I did another abs circuit:
- Crunches x 10 (arms by my sides)
- Crunches x 10 (arms above my legs)
- Reverse crunches x 10
- Crunches x 10 (arms overhead)
And then came another 4 minutes of intervals:
- Treadmill push x 20 s
- Walk around the gym x 40 s
- Repeat for 4 minutes
Ugh – I hated that! I was sweaty and out of breath when I was done. I had some more water and did the final abs circuit:
- Combined situp/twist x 10
- Plank and feet out/in x 10
- Scissors x 20
- Dead bugs x 20 (10 on each side)
In the first exercise, I had to do a situp and then twist my upper body to the right and then to the left and then lower back down again, ten times. In the second exercise, I started in a plank position and then moved my right leg out to the right side and then my left leg out to the left side and then move the right leg back in, followed by the left leg. Scissors, well – scissors are scissors. And you can watch the dead bugs video if you want to!
I did some stretches after that and was done for the day.
I was a little sore on Thursday but I went to the gym. Again, I didn’t run as much as I wanted to but did 20 minutes of walking/running on the treadmill as well as three sets of the abs circuit.
I spent the entire weekend at home, mostly in my pajamas – so on Saturday afternoon I decided to go to a Hatha Yoga class at Eco Yoga Sanctuary. I hadn’t been in weeks and needed to do something! It was a good class and I’m glad I went.
Total distance covered this week? Only 4.5 km.
Low point of the week? Not being able to run very much – I’m not sure what’s wrong with me!
High point of the week? Making it to the gym four times and yoga once.
Weight loss? I have no idea what happened this week. Apart from Sunday lunch I ate every meal at home and didn’t even drink at all during the week so I’m not sure why my weight went up again…
Read more updates here.
Notes by Nectar 