jianantonic | Getting pumped

If I'm not going to be sleeping, I should be working. But sometimes you just need to ease yourself in, and this is one of those days. I have time, and it will get done. (To give myself some credit, I have already done two posts today. It's just that there are two others I'm supposed to have done by the end of the day and the two that I did instead were not even on my to-do list. Still, I have worked today.) Anyway, I felt like talking a little bit about working out. I don't recall if I've mentioned anything about what I've been doing lately (in addition to going to the gym when I can), but I sorta feel like talking about it now.

There are two aisles that I cannot walk by without at least browsing in a large store like Target or Fred Meyer, and it requires great willpower for me not to buy anything in said aisles. They are the office supplies (pens! I love pens!) and the sporting goods aisles. In my head, I am a much more active and athletic person than I am in reality. I own lots of workout equipment that never gets used, but that I keep telling myself I will use. In cleaning out my house last week to make room, I unearthed some dumbbells that had been buried under a stack of mail that I was also meaning to deal with, one day.

Looking at pictures of myself lately, I've lost a lot of my muscle tone in my arms, though I never had all that much to begin with...and with dumbbells just sitting there in my house, how hard should it be to get in some good arm exercises each day? Not hard, I say. So I put the dumbbells in a prominent location, and vowed to myself to do a few sets of something each time I walked by them. I did that for the seven days that I was home. At least 3 sets of 15 bicep curls per day (but usually more), and much more variation in the other things I did -- always some shoulders, sometimes some back and tricep stuff. I have 5lb and 10lb dumbbells, and there's a lot you can do with those two weights. I've found it very easy to get lots of arm stuff in every day, and I've definitely noticed a difference in just a week. Not wanting to lose momentum, I asked McKenzie to pick up a set of 5's and 10's to keep in our van in Oregon for me to use when we're here. I remembered something that B wrote about exercising before you eat in the morning and how that can be more effective, so I've been doing at least three sets each of two different exercises (mixing it up) every morning as soon as I get out of bed. Then I still do something every time I walk by the dumbbells throughout the day. It takes just a minute or two to do each set, and while I may not be following a normal regimen at all, I still feel like I'm doing myself a lot of good. Whether this sort of routine would be recommended by a trainer or they'd tell me it's better to just do all my exercises at once, I don't know, but I do know that spreading them out keeps me at least a little active all day long, and it's certainly better than the nothing I was doing.

I'm still a little too lax about getting back into a good cardio routine, but this morning in the hotel room I added jumping jacks and squats (not cardio, I know) to my arm exercises, and I usually do something ab-y each day, too. I'm going to walk around Medford this afternoon, so that'll be a start. It makes me feel good about myself, too, to have something to do every day, regardless of how shitty I'm feeling. It's not a full workout by any means, but it's so easy, and the results are definitely positive. Now if only there were some simple way I could train my butt the way I train my arms. Butt exercises are such a drag.

Peace.