Daily Recap

Ian texted me this morning that he wasn’t feeling well, so we pushed back our workout time to 9:30 AM, of course when he arrived I was stuck in several phone calls which caused us to get a late start. 

After a few frustrating minutes on the phone, I was ready to throw some metal around.  Tuesday’s workout with Ian involved pushing, so today’s workout was all about pulling motions.  We started with a quick warm-up of 25 jumping jacks and 25 burpees, yes more fucking burpees. 

After the warm-up he had me start with some core exercises which were variations of a superman, I think he was trying to get blood flowing to my lower back and abs, because as soon as we finished three 30 second holds I started doing back rows from the ground.  While my back was on the ground I had to get my legs in a bridged position, then grabbed the bar on the smith machine and pulled myself upward, we did 3 sets of pulling underneath the bar each one progressing to a more difficult variation.

He had me continue to work with the smith machine doing upright rows with the bar and a couple of 25 lbs plates, and I did what’s called a suitcase dead lift which is essentially a one armed standing row.  We continued down this back workout by doing a few sets of dumbbell bent over rows with a 50 lbs dumbbell, as the sets progressed I had to hold the dumbbell at the top of the row with my back contracted. 

From the dumbbell rows Ian had me continue rowing from a push up plank position.  In this awkward position I followed a progression which eventually led up to doing a one handed back row from a planked position, then while holding the dumbbell at the apex of the row I had to bring my knee toward my opposite elbow.  My brain couldn’t comprehend what I was doing, so I told Ian I can’t do this, he told me that my brain was in revolt and that I could do it.

 As the workout progressed from here I found myself doing standing cable rows, abdominal work, and a variation of mountain climbers while in a planked position.  This workout was mentally taxing to the point that I wasn’t concerned about the overall output, but more about each individual movement’s technique. 

Immediately following my late workout with Ian I had a session with Ali.

Ali also decided it was a day to blow up my back.  He also had me start the session with some bosu footwork, and you guessed it mountain climbers and more fucking burpees.  I found myself doing more dumbbell rows, and more planked dumbbell rows.  I think I spent at least 10 minutes of this workout in a push plank, or elbow planked positions.   We transitioned quickly between exercises and I found myself doing abdominal work along with my back work.

I had to put my mind in a happy place in order to survive a taxing day.  Today is the first time that I’ve felt all of my back muscles.  I can’t imagine what I’m going to feel like tomorrow morning. 

For dinner I made fish tacos with cod.  The recipe is quite simple cod cut into 1 inch pieces with marinated with lemon juice and taco seasoning.  The taco sauce was a simple mixture of equal parts mayo and crème fresh, with 2 tbsp of taco seasoning and cilantro.  I also sautéed some onions, peppers, mushrooms, and cut up some tomatoes.  I ate two tacos with a corn tortilla, most of my dinner though was a salad of spinach, cilantro some red peppers, tomatoes, tossed in salsa.  I had another great dinner, with lots of flavor and it was easy to make.