Health & Fitness - My Gym Workout Regimen

Top of the morning good people! I am in a fantastic mood, possibly because I am still energetic from dinner last night. I slow roasted beef top roast with carrots and celery and added a side of rice and steamed vegetables. The meal was a hit and I am hoping there are leftovers for lunch today. :-) *hungry much*

Well, if you follow me on IG@LWCOUNSELS you would know that my car stopped working on Sunday while attending my Anniversary brunch. Womp, womp! With that said, my transportation to the gym has been severely limited. It turns out hubs was able to work from home on Wednesday so I asked for a ride to my home gym at Planet Fitness. It is just a few miles away. Honestly, I would run/jog to it, but with this Cleveland weather? HARD PASS!

I love running, so what I try to do is incorporate running as the cardio in my workout. My workout follows a pretty basic pattern: Cardio (10-20 minutes), Weight Training (20-40 minutes), Cardio (10 minutes) Floormat work/Stretch/Cool-down (5-15 minutes) My gym time duration is approx. 45minutes-1.5 hours tops. I  never exceed that in one day unless I am watching something on tv and completely lose track of time. That only happens when my clients are in the afternoons/evenings or if it's a weekend day.

My gym workout this week was a bit amended. Why you may ask? Because I recently straightened my hair and when I engage in cardio (I can go hard at cardio at times), I sweat and my hair turns from being straight to curly ringlets. While, I'm fine with wearing ringlets, I would like my hard-earned money spent on a press to last longer than a week. #sueme

So, here is what I did on Wednesday morning:

Cardio (Step Climber machine for 20 minutes) I switched up between stepping on every other step, donkey kick steps and just regular stair climbing on the machine. I felt a bead of sweat coming and that was my cue to lower the speed and decrease the intensity.

Weight Training (Smith's machine, Leg press machine & Free Weights w/ a bench) Let me break this down a bit for you. Currently, I squat 140lbs. (I weigh approx. 110 +/- 5 lbs) Yes, I'm petite. I stand tall at 4'11. (This is for those readers who have no idea what I look like) I used to squat more but due to medical issues, my doctor advised me to take it down a notch. Meh! Health practitioners make the worst patients. :-)

1. Smith's Machine 140lbs. including bar - 6 squats/10 lunges/50 toe raises to work out my tiny calf muscles - 3-4 sets
2. Leg press machine 115lbs - 20 full reps (all the way up and down), 25 pumps (hit midlevel of press, hold and do quick short pumps at mid level), 25 toe raises - 3 sets
3. Free Weights 20lbs each arm - 10 bicep curls, 20 bulgarian split squats (this is where the bench comes in) - 3 sets

This day, I went straight into floormat work not finishing up with cardio - again to reduce sweating in hair. I ended up going to the ab machine to do some quick ab work. Next, I did side toe touches (20), pushups (25), basic plank (60 sec hold).  I stretched the hammies mostly, but also stretched my back then called it a wrap. I do enjoy working out. In the cold weather, not so much but once I'm in the gym, I get pretty zoned in and can go hard. I do not do this heavy of a workout everyday people. I do this tops 3 times/wk. I like to mix in an Insanity workout here or there or my fave fitness youtuber, Pamela RF (I wrote about one of her videos recently)

I remember a time when squatting the bar on the Smith's machine was a good workout, but as I aged and continued working out, I was able to build on that. I also recently started bicep curling 20lbs each arm. For awhile I only did 5-10lbs., but I needed to build on that. Do not think for a moment that you cannot build your lift weight. Start where you can, remain consistent and slowly build. If you need more encouragement to workout or perhaps you are anxious about working out, I can provide counseling/life coaching to address those issues.

Visit my therapy website at www.lpctservices.com to send me an inquiry. Happy Friday!