Happy Sunday, folks! I hope you had a good week. Mine has been great, filled with kick-ass sessions in the gym, good walks… and kittens.
Jenny at Runners fly mentioned kittens recently. I know the perfect fix if you want one but can’t have one. Create a new Instagram account and do nothing for a while. My new account has a very relaxed feed – since the algorithms don’t know my habits yet, it’s filled with videos of kittens. To begin with I also got Harry Potter, but that has disappeared and it’s just kittens. Such a wonderful laid-back feed. I might have assisted by following some accounts! 😀
I’m back to the Weekly rundown link-up to talk about the week of fitness activities. Celebrating a milestone birthday was fantastic but I’m glad to be back in routine!
The week offered some wonderful, mild temperatures and a lot of spring vibes, but then it turned into winter temperatures again and threats about snow. I know I shouldn’t complain, living in Ireland where daffodils and more are in bloom. But cold weather really drains my energy, and it’s hard to keep the mood up. I did my best to keep my body moving and muscles challenged, and it became a very good and active week.
Here’s a summary of the week, starting on Sunday this time:
Sunday – Walking, 6,94 km
Monday – Gym and walk, 2,8 km
Tuesday – Walking, 6,88 km + some cycling
Wednesday – Gym
Thursday – Short walk + cycling
Friday – Gym
Saturday – Walking, 5,91 km
Sunday – Light strength workouts at home
Sunday
The weather was surprisingly good after a very wet and foggy Saturday, so I finally got my husband to join me for a walk down to Simon’s cove. We had about 15 degrees! My husband went in only a t-shirt and I had a tank top with a thin performance jacket and windbreaker.
Of course I stayed a while on the beach to take some photos!
We took a back road home to include some more hills – in total a good walk of about 7 km.
Monday
This was such a fabulous week in the gym. No new PBs or other exciting things happened but I felt good and strong, got some new exercises, had great chats and inspiration, and improved with the Bulgarian squat. What’s not to like?
Monday got me some good standard moves as well as a new variation.
- Squats, barbell 40 kgs
- Deadlifts, barbell 40 kgs
- Standing dumbbell row (both arms), 12,5 kg dumbbells
- Chest press, barbell 32,5 kgs
- Flyes, 9 kg dumbbells
- Straight arm pullovers, two 9 kg dumbbells
- Bent-over raise, 6 kg dumbbells
- Overhead shoulder press, barbell 15 kgs
I still haven’t managed three full sets of 32,5 kg bench presses. Today I felt great and was confident that this was the day – I did two full sets but on the third, I only made it to about 7 reps. Bummer!
The standing dumbbell row was a new exercise to me. It took me a while to get the position although it’s nothing stranger than what I do for a barbell row, really. But dumbbells add some extra challenge, to stay steady and work both sides equally.
I’m making some progress with the barbell shoulder press. I think? Today I managed 10-7-6 and was very happy to get to 10 reps. This is a hard exercise and I get exhausted quite fast.
I squeezed in a short walk in town the morning too, with those spring vibes.
Tuesday
The Monday gym session worked quite hard on my upper back, triceps and legs! I was sore all over the place and decided to go for a walk instead of going on the bike. The weather was fantastic with 12 degrees (53 F), a lovely haze and birds singing. I planned to walk 4k but changed my mind and did the 7k “cow loop” – the weather was too nice to not walk a bit further.
When I came home, I was tempted to do a simple bike ride, so I gave it a try, a 7,5 km flat route on Zwift. But my legs were NOT happy. I did 4 slow km and then gave up.
Wednesday
This felt like a massive session especially for the back. Some new exercises, and some success with old ones!
- Lunges, barbell 20 kgs
- Romanian deadlifts, barbell 40 kgs
- Good mornings, barbell 30 kgs
- Inclined flyes, 9 kg dumbbells
- Supine pullups
- Cross bench pullovers, one 12,5 kg dumbbell
- Shoulder shrugs, 8 kg dumbbells
- Shoulder press, 7 kg dumbbells
The lunges today were mostly a success although I stumbled a bit during the second set.
With the RDLs I’m still quite careful with that heavier weight, and my trainer encouraged me to try to go deeper. I’m not quite there in my head (my core can certainly do it) yet. But the biggest problem with these are my lower arm muscles and the skin of my hands after 8-9 reps! I need to work up some calluses.
Today there were two new exercises – a supine pull-up to begin with, with the bar places on the lower part of the squat rack (where there are some safety thingys that prevent the bar from sliding off). I’ve done something like this at home and it’s quite tough! I needed to take some breathers here and there but generally it went ok.
The other new exercise was the cross-bench pullovers, when you lie across the bench (think hip thrust position but with hips and core in alignment) and do straight arm pullovers. I used one dumbbell of 12,5 kgs. I certainly was happy to have previously worked up some core strength for this one. Thanks to everyone who has recommended deadbugs!
Thursday
So, the weather decided to go back to winter. Pfff. In the morning we had 3 degrees. But since I have the ambition to walk every day but I almost never get out walking on Wednesdays, I can’t have poor excuses on a Thursday. At lunchtime we were up to about 5-6 degrees (41 F), so I decided to give the outdoors a try. I did a mega short walk but least I got to move my legs.
The bike ride was a lot more enjoyable! I tried the flat-ish route I had attempted on the Tuesday, and finished it this time, 8,2 km. I’ve somehow lost the oomph on the bike and want to get it back! Before Christmas I was doing really well with the cycling so I hope I can work it back up to that level.
Friday
Still 3 degrees in the morning, and rain. I decided that today was no day for the outdoors. But at least I went to the gym.
I really enjoyed this session. I felt in good form, we had some really inspiring chats going on, and I managed to push myself quite hard.
- Sumo squats, barbell 35 kgs
- Bulgarian split squats, 10 kg dumbbells
- Barbell row, 30 kgs
- Bench press, 10 kg dumbbells
- Back extensions with a side bend
- Renegade row, 6 kg dumbbells
- Lateral raise, 6 kg dumbbells
- Front raise, 7 kg dumbbells
The Bulgarian squats, people! Today was the first time I switched to my left leg and didn’t feel unstable. That’s some great success for me!! For the last set I struggled a bit more but once the right foot was in place on the bench, I felt good enough, and with some extra focus I could finish all reps.
For the 6 kg lateral raises, a lot of Jävlaranamma is still involved. They are so hard! But I was quite happy with them today and even happier with how much I managed to push myself. After these I barely had any energy left for the front raises but kept going. My shoulders were absolutely fried when I left the gym!
Saturday
Today we were back to somewhat not-so-wintry temperatures. We had 5 degrees when I got up, but it quickly improved to 8C and with a nice sunshine it was a lovely day. I decided to go back to the nearest beach (not Simon’s) and back. That’s always a nice walk with some good uphills on the way back.
Sunday
My better half was away to do a 10 mile race. I had planned to go with him and enjoy walking around in town, but the weather had gone from bad to worse. This was a good opportunity to do some simple at-home strength workouts in peace and quiet. I enjoyed push-ups, deadbugs with dumbbells, crab walks with resistance band, high step-ups and some twisty bicep curls.
I feel like this post almost is a bit cringy, over-positive, but I really felt great this week! And after last year’s misery, I’m not ashamed, I’m enjoying every moment of success, normality and feeling strong.
How are you? What was your best moment of the week? How’s the weather where you are?
Thanks Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly rundown link-up!
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