The weekend is over, Monday is past, and today was another workout day. I am writing this 3 hours after the end of the workout and I am still wiped. It was a tough one today with a bunch of new exercises in store.
I knew that today was going to be tough because I was finally able to get even with Karissa. I will talk about that more at the end of this post. She had set a very ambitious plan for today, but it was a bit too ambitious as we weren't able to get through it all. We could only get through 2 of the supersets. Two of the most deceiving supersets ever.
The first superset wasn't that bad...on paper. Once I actually started it though, it got a lot tougher. It was another 3 exercise superset. The first exercises was one where we put a single handle on the cable row machine. I had to hold it in front of me and lift the weight by twisting my body. No shoulders, no arms, no legs, just abs. It's a lot tougher than it sounds. Especially when you have to do 12 per side. The second exercise was 24 t-pushups while holding a weight in one hand - 12 per side. The last exercise was 12 cable rows. We repeated this superset 3 times. The shoulders were screaming at me during the final t-pushup set, but I was able to get through it.
So, if I thought my shoulders were cranky after that, I was in for a rude surprise for the second superset. Again, it was a 3 exercise superset and another piece of equipment was introduced. The first exercises was walking planks down the long hallway and back. To do this, get into the plank position and move yourself sideways down the hallway. Murder on the wrists and abs. The second exercise was done on the RBK platform. Imagine one board attached to another by suspending it over the second board by a spring in the middle. This make the board very unstable - essentially a wobble board that moves in all directions. So, for the second exercise, I had to do a plank on the RBK and twist it back and forth like steering a car wheel extremely quickly. This was done for 1 minute. The final exercise was a sidestep squat down the hallway and back again. To do this, you step one foot out, squat, then bring the other foot to the first. Repeat another 25 times or so, then return back to where you started.
All of that was repeated 3 times. Those walking planks were one of the most painful things that I have ever done. I had to stop frequently as my wrists were killing me. That is a lot of weight to be placing on my wrists for an extreme amount of time.
We did have one other superset planned, but we ran out of time. I think that I am glad that we ran out of time as they sounded nasty.
Now that I have updated you on the workout, here is the story about how I got even with Karissa. As I told her when I started my program, the reason for all of this work was to improve my curling. As she hasn't really curled before (there are pictures of her curling a game, but the form was really bad and sweeping wasn't really a priority) I wanted to take her out on the ice to show her how I curl so she could create my program with that in mind. Sunday was finally that day.
I picked her up and took her to the Saville Sports Centre where I had booked a sheet of ice for an hour. I had already had 1 game and 1 practice under my belt this season, so I already had my "sea legs" and the ice wasn't any problem for me. However, Karissa wasn't ready for it at all. She had also done a killer leg workout on Saturday so she was already sore. This wasn't going to help.
To start with, we just went up and down the sheet to get her used to the slider and the feeling of "slipping" on the ice. After that, a couple of practice slides (where she didn't fall down...until the second one), then it was onto throwing rocks. At first, her position was horrible. It looked like every beginner's slide. I was able to get her into a proper position after just a few rocks. She had her foot behind the rock, trail leg extended, and shoulders square. She looked great out there.
Once we had thrown our rocks to the other end, it was time to show her how to sweep. The first time she went down with a rock, it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I have never seen anyone hold the broom where she did and her footwork was comical. I did have her take off her slider for this so she could walk with the rock as I didn't want to kill her...at that time.
I was able to show her how to sweep properly and how to get more downforce on the broom. By the end of it, she looked better, but there is much room for improvement. We alternated between throwing the rocks and sweeping each others, so it gave us both a bit of a break between sweeping. She was doing fine, until she threw her last rock. She threw it well, but as she went to stand up, both feet slipped and she went down hard. It looked like it hurt - turns out it did. On the drive home, she decided to take a look at her knee and she had a nice big bursa on it. It was swelling up nicely. On a side note, she has awesome legs. Like I mean exceptional legs. Just had to get that out of the way.
I did get an update today on the knee. The swelling has left, but the knee is still a bit sore. It's nothing too bad, but she did land hard. Now, even with that, she learned that the sport is a lot tougher than it looks. She always knew that, but now she also has the feeling for it too. I think that it has given her some ideas on some new exercises to help work those specific muscle groups, so we will see what happens as the workouts continue. Also, she is interesting in hitting the ice again, so I may take her out again later in the season.
I am really going to miss Karissa when my sessions are complete. Not sure how I am going to deal with that day.
No update on Thursday as Karissa is busy and so am I. Off to the 306 on the weekend, so another chapter next Tuesday.
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