Fitness Successes

I've documented quite a few times about my ankle injury completely sidetracking my fitness journey, derailing my exercise regime, and putting me in a pretty darn crappy spot in general.

Surgery was not a sure fix for the ankle injury, but it was pretty much a last resort option. And while it feels better, it is definitely far from perfect and acts up occasionally. Unfortunately, I am still largely unable to do pre-injury activities, namely running.

So while I have talked a lot about that, what I haven't talked about extensively ye is the success I have found since that bump in the road.

Pilates

Club Pilates

I absolutely love Pilates -- for a number of reasons. First, it is a no-impact practice that I can do without aggravating my ankle.  In fact, it is therapeutic for my injury. When I had my final post-surgery appointment a year ago, my surgeon suggested additional physical therapy. I told him that I did Pilates several times a week and described the footwork routines, and he essentially said that was better, more beneficial than physical therapy.

Another reason that I love Pilates is because, similar to yoga, it is such a mind-body connection for me. It is truly my therapy, a way to both center and ground myself. Each position, each exercise requires so much focus on so many different things: breathing, muscle movements, tiny tweaks in positioning, stabilizing, etc. It's nearly impossible to let my mind wander on anything other than what I am physically doing at the moment.

Third, I have found such a community in my Pilates studio -- Club Pilates Woodbury.

This is not my studio, but it looks almost identical.

I started at the studio in Maple Grove because that was the closest to where I used to live and the closest to where I work. But then I moved to St. Paul, and shortly thereafter, the studio in Woodbury opened; I immediately jumped at the opportunity to switch clubs, and I am so, so grateful that I did. First, the instructors are incredible. I workout mainly with Georgene, who is incredible: she is supportive, encouraging, and super challenging, always pushing me to try new things (and assuring me I can succeed in those new things).

For instance:

I was the only person in class the other day, and Georgene was super excited about me trying a new exercise: a (modified) walkover on the Cadillac reformer.

Here's a video:

I was so, so proud of myself. While I feel like I did something very similar on the monkey bars nearly every day of my elementary school career, I haven't tried anything remotely close to this in recent memory. Also, while I am pretty darn adventurous (and fearless) with exercises that involve my legs, I am less confident in my arms' ability to hold me up; so, this was quite the feat.

And while I'm at it in showing off, here's a video of me doing one of my favorite exercises, teaser:

This is a move that is supposedly incredibly challenging, but I have always excelled at it; truthfully, I don't find it difficult at all, which makes me wonder if I'm doing it incorrectly. :) This is also an exercise that I am continuously trying to perfect. Like everyone else, I started off doing modified versions, including bringing my legs to a table top position (bent at the hips, shins parallel to the mat). Now, however, I have graduated to straightening my legs as much as possible; I clearly have work to do, though, in making them even straighter, which is my next goal.

In addition to the incredible instructors at my Pilates studio, I love the other members. I have made amazing friends, people whom I miss when I don't see them for a while. Those relationships make working out even more fun.

This is precisely why, even though a studio opened in a much more convenient location (in the middle of my commute rather than 20 minutes in the opposite direction), I cannot bring myself to switch clubs.

Personal Training

A few years ago -- in the midst of my "fitness prime" -- I went to a personal training session with Laurie. She had been working out with Tyler for quite a while and could not speak highly enough about him, so I took advantage of a free introductory session and loved it -- despite nearly vomiting on the drive home.

Fast forward a couple of years: I was going to Pilates several days a week, but I knew I needed to add something to my fitness regime if I wanted to see similar results to what I had seen pre-surgery. I found a "CrossFit Lite" place via Facebook and signed up for that -- and attended three times, until I was sexually harassed by the head coach.

Laurie -- again-- convinced me to go to Tyler.

And this time, it stuck. I have been hanging out with him for an hour each week for a few months, and it has been awesome.

Titanium Performance

The full-body workout lasts approximately 40 minutes, and it's so challenging that there have been times where it has been nearly impossible to hold my cell phone to my ear afterward: my muscles are utter jello.

Essentially, Tyler (and the other trainer, Morgan) focus on High Intensity Training, lifting to Momentary Muscle Failure. And they are super knowledgeable in everything health- and fitness-related, which puts me at ease. They work especially well with injuries, which is something I clearly need as well.

I also love how encouraging Tyler and Morgan are -- and how much they validate me. (I thrive on external motivation, and #validateme is a real thing.) They tell me how strong I am all the time, and sometimes they have way more faith in me than I do in myself. For instance, last week I leg-pressed six hundred and forty pounds: yes, 640 pounds -- with my legs -- several, several times.

This video shows a great preview of their space, and the 0:32 mark shows exactly what I'm talking about with the leg press. (Here's a video, too, of Morgan demonstrating.) It is much more challenging than what I was doing at LA Fitness -- and approximately 300 pounds more than what I was doing there as well.

Slowly but surely, I'm on my way back to being my strongest, fittest self:

Emmy, circa 2016

Or, perhaps even stronger, even fitter.

Either way, I'm super stoked and really, really proud of myself.

An Active Weekend

This weekend was absolutely wonderful. First, I got some major quality time with my boo, and second, I spent so much time being active.

The weather was absolutely beautiful, which after the winter we had (including a mid-April blizzard), was much appreciated. It was so warm and sunny that it was impossible to not be outside.

On Saturday, I woke up around 8:00 and decided to hit the gym while Jesus was still asleep.

Today was bench day. I started off with a warm-up: 10 reps at 45 pounds followed by 10 reps at 55 pounds. I then started building up: two sets of 5 reps at 65 pounds, two sets of 5 reps at 75 pounds, and three sets of 3 reps at 80 pounds. Pre-injury (and in my lifting heyday), 85 pounds was the maximum amount of weight I could lift without a spot. So, I am pretty darn proud of myself that I was able to lift what I did today. (Had I had a spot, I could've done more weight and more reps, but I wanted to be somewhat conservative.)

Muscle memory must be real. These pecs remembered what to do.

After that workout, I moved on to close-grip bench. While the movement is similar, the grip is way closer (duh) to the middle of the bar, which means that the triceps are really worked; therefore, the amount able to be lifted is much less. But, I lifted pretty much what I did before my lengthy break: five sets of 10 reps at 55 pounds.

Today, my muscles are feeling like they did something yesterday.

After my trek to LA Fitness, I headed down to Harriet Island Regional Park, a beautiful area that borders the Mississippi River about two minutes from our house. It's also my new favorite place to run/walk.

I love the Wabasha Bridge, and the blossoming trees were so beautiful.

Everything is finally green!

In my pre-injury days, I loved running; half marathons were my favorite. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get back into it too much yet. I want to change that, however, so I decided to try Couch to 5K. (While I can run/walk on my own for 30 minutes -- shoot, I used to run for a couple hours at a time -- I thought it might be helpful to have the verbal cues of when to run and when to walk.)

So yesterday, I did the second day of the first week of C25K, and it went super well. I ended up going about two miles.

Shortly after I got home (and inhaled a turkey sandwich), Jesus wanted to head out for some more outdoor fun. We prepped our bikes and hit the trails -- again, down by the river.

I can't even say it without thinking of this sketch.

It was great; we rode across the bluff overlooking the river, and then we headed down a crazy-huge hill by our house. (I was riding the brakes nearly the entire time -- and also dreading the climb back up.) Then we paused a few times in the park to check out the water, the scenery, etc. We even rode down to Raspberry Island, a spot of land smack-dab in the middle of the Mississippi.

Don't worry: my helmet was buckled when we were actually riding.

Then we decided to ride further and headed into Lilydale. When we were a couple miles into that jaunt, I noticed a sound coming from my tire. I thought that maybe something was just stuck in it, so I stopped, bent down, and attempted to remove whatever it was.

Well, nothing was stuck.

Instead, my tire was leaking air.

Ugh.

We stopped, pulled out the extra tube, patches, and bike tools -- and attempted to change this darn tire. Thankfully, cyclists are the nicest people on the planet, and every single person offered to help. After far-too-long, we had the tire replaced (and our kind helper was well on his way), and we were pumping it up.

Unsuccessfully.

We could not get the tire to hold air.

And then it started to rain.

Finally, we basically said screw this, and I started walking my bike home (and likely ruining my clips on the two-mile journey) while Jesus rode up ahead (taking a "short cut" that involved three massive massive hills) to get the car.

Then, my phone died.

So, I was by myself. In the woods. While it was raining. With no phone.

Have I mentioned that I've been obsessed with Criminal Minds and My Favorite Murder? Yeah. Not a good combination.

Eventually, at the bottom of the afore-mentioned hugest hill ever, Jesus (in the car) and I met.

I tried filling up the tire with my foot pump today, and I still couldn't get it to hold air. We took it to the bike shop, and while the tech initially thought I was just super dumb since the shop pump was working, realized that once he put so much air in, it all leaked right back out. Something was wrong with the valve stem, and they are replacing the tube as we speak.

While we didn't get to attempt a longer ride today, I instead went to Pilates and did a kick-butt class this morning. It was a class with one of my favorite instructors, and dang, she made me sweat profusely. All she has to do is verbally cue (or even physically adjust) minor tweaks in my form, and I want to die -- in the best way possible. It was a great stretch, and I know I'm going to be feeling it even more tomorrow.

Getting back in the saddle (quite literally, in fact) has done such wonders for me -- physically, yes, but even more so, emotionally. I am in a much better place than I was even two weeks ago, and I am so thankful for that.

Yay, endorphins!

Peace,

A Return to LA

While I wish this post was about a trip to Los Angeles, it's not; however, I am honestly nearly as excited as I would be about a trip to Cali.

In December 2015, I joined LA Fitness, as it was inexpensive and across the street from my apartment. I loved that place and was quite the gym rat, spending upwards of two hours there each day, skipping happy hour with colleagues to lift weights, making friends with other "regulars." I loved it so much, in fact, that I started working there part-time, simply to spend more time at the gym.

However, I ended up working much more than fit comfortably into my schedule, and I was therefore unable to workout as much as I liked. And, that whole ankle injury was quite a hindrance to my lifting regimen, too.

I stopped working at the gym this winter, and I never reactivated my membership. After all, I had found Pilates, and let's be real: I didn't want to have to pay the initiation fee again. But, I really, really missed lifting -- and I really, really wanted to get back into it.

Long story short, after talking to my former boss last week, I got my membership reinstated (free of charge), and I switched my club to one much closer to my house.

Today, I worked out at the gym for the first time in months.

And it felt incredible.

I started with my favorite -- deadlift. I was going to keep it fairly light (135 pounds), but on my second set, a woman approached and asked if she could alternate with me. That has never happened to me at the gym, and I was all about it. It was really nice having partner of sorts.

I ended up doing three sets of five at 135 pounds, and then we started increasing: one set at 145 pounds, two sets at 155 pounds, and then a set of three at 165 pounds and 175 pounds.

I. Was. Pooped.

And it felt incredible.

Then I moved onto the leg press, where I did two sets of ten at 298 pounds and three sets of ten at 388 pounds. When I stood up to add the plates between sets two and three, my quads definitely let me know that they were being worked. I almost had to take a lengthier break just to get them to stop firing.

But I pushed on.

Finally, I did five sets of ten good mornings with a 30-pound barbell on my shoulders. That is one of my favorite lifts: it feels fairly easy, but it works those hammies and glutes like you wouldn't believe.

Just being in the gym -- lifting, sweating, working hard -- worked wonders for my self-esteem, for my mental health. I already can't wait to go back.

That being said, here's my workout plan for this week:

Monday: Pilates
Tuesday: Deadlift + Leg Press + Good Morning
Wednesday: Pilates
Thursday: Pilates + Walk/Run
Friday: Bench + Close-Grip Bench + Shoulders
Saturday: Squats + Lunges
Sunday: Pilates + Walk/Run

I'm excited to talk more about the walking/running I have planned, but friends, it was a hard day of lifting, and I'm pooped. So, stay tuned. :)

Peace,