Notes by Nectar

I went to the gym on Sunday and began with one set of the abs exercises Pete suggested I do with my workouts:

• Hanging knee raises x 10
• Side bends x 10 on each side (20-lb weight)
• Abdominal toe touches x 20

I just didn’t feel like running that day. I decided I was going to walk for 30 minutes on the treadmill and then do the next two sets of the abs exercises.

I had a session with Pete on Monday morning. I started with a 1 km walk/run on the treadmill and some stretches. Pete told me I’d be doing some heavy lifting during the session. He also said that I’d be swapping the order of the exercises so that I work the small muscle first and then the bigger muscle. I did three sets of each group of exercises with a 1 minute rest between each set. The first group of exercises was:

• Leg extensions x 12 (machine)
• Romanian deadlifts x 12 (20-lb weights)
• Repeat two more times

The second group of exercises consisted of:

• Arnold press x 12 (10-lb weights)
• Lateral pulldown x 12

Pete had also kept the 3-kg weights handy in case the 10-lb weights were too much for me, but I managed to do all three sets with the 10-lb weights.

The next group of exercises was:

• Hamstring curl x 12
• Goblet squats x 12 (25-lb weight)

When Pete handed me the 25-lb weight to hold in front of my chest, I almost fell over. It was bloody heavy and I really struggled with that exercise – in all three sets.

The last group of exercises consisted of:

• Bicep curls x 12 (machine)
• Chest press x 12 (machine)

I did some stretches after that and staggered home.

I was sore everywhere on Tuesday. And I decided to skip the gym.

I had another session with Pete on Wednesday and I did a lot in that one hour! I began with a 3-minute warmup on the cross-trainer and some stretches while Pete told me what I’d be doing and that I’d have to limit my breaks between each group of exercises to 1 minute.

The first exercise was 4 minutes on the cross-trainer, alternating 20 seconds of sprinting with 10 seconds of an easier pace. I then had a 1-minute break and began an abs circuit:

• Crunches with low arms x 10
• Crunches with raised arms x 10
• Reverse crunches x 10
• Crunches with arms overhead x 10

I did another 4 minutes on the cross-trainer as before. This was followed by another group of abs exercises. I had to use the resistance tube around my knees for this:

• Plank combined with in/out x 10 (5 on each side)
• Knee ins x 20
• Glute bridges combined with in/out x 20
• Toe touches x 20

For the first exercise, I was in a straight-arm plank position on a bench and I had to move my right leg out to the side and back and then repeat with my left leg, alternating five times on each side. For the glute bridges, I did a regular pelvic raise, opened and closed my knees and then lowered down, repeating 20 times.

The next Tabata set was using the ladder and the resistance tube, still around my knees:

• Stepping in/out x 20 s
• Rest x 10 s
• Stepping side to side x 20 s
• Rest x 10 s
• Jumping in/out x 20 s
• Rest x 10 s
• Monster walk x 20 s
• Rest x 10 s
• Repeat

I took the resistance bands off and did the same crunch set as before.

The next Tabata circuit was the dreaded treadmill push:

• Treadmill push x 20 s
• Walk around x 40 s
• Repeat for 4 minutes

After a 1-minute break and some water, I did another abs circuit:

• Mountain climbers x 30 s
• Rest x 30 s
• Russian twists x 30 s (10-lb weight)
• Rest x 30 s
• Double crunch x 30 s
• Rest x 30 s
• Bicycle crunch x 30 s
• Rest

And finally there was 8 minutes on the treadmill:

• Run x 20 s (8 km/h)
• Walk x 40 s (6 km/h)
• Repeat for 8 minutes

I did some stretches after that and went home.

I didn’t work out again in the week though.

Total distance covered this week? 3 km only. And that was walking.

Low point of the week? I wasn’t very motivated this week, no idea why.

High point of the week? Hmm… I can’t think of anything!

Weight loss? None, I seem to be consistently fat.

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