Form and Function: Upper body strength

A few months back Livingsocial made me a deal, that I just couldn't refuse, a 2.5hr class consisting of Flying Trapeze, Silks and Trampoline, topped off with a cupcake tasting at the Trapeze School of New York- Washington, DC.  That is like my perfect evening!!!  So I signed up, so did my sister in law, Miekspeak, and my friend and fellow blogger, CO.  After months of anticipation, we ran off to join the circus yesterday. 

Ready!

I LOVED it; I believe Miekspeak and CO enjoyed… parts of it.  LOL.  Apparently, after climbing the ladder of death, they spent some time on the flying trapeze platform cursing me for suggesting they join me on my circus adventure.  I know this because when I climbed up the 2^nd time and the new guy asked my name, he said something to the effect of “OH!! YOU’RE Candydiva04, your friends are loving you right now!”  We had a brief chat about my circus interests and why I was there, and then I was off soaring through the air again.

Ecstatic!

From a fitness perspective, these activities require a ton of upper body strength, and I was reminded that women in general lack the upper body strength of our male counterparts.  The guy in the background of the photo above us, looks skinny but easily has more upper body strength than the 3 of us combined.  Believe me; I know building upper body strength isn't fun, or even sexy, but I think the ability to support your body weight is important.  Not just for “extreme” activities like Rock Climbing and Aerials, but upper body strength is great for general fitness, and every day activities like lifting heavy objects, opening jars, carrying heavy purses, or bags of groceries.  Before I started lifting my “shoulders” (I now know this muscle group to be my traps) were always sore, I mean ALWAYS! A few months ago, I realized that for the past year, unless they were sore from a good workout, my traps no longer hurt, likewise with my lower back.  

Don't be this guy!

 After all, how many of us have chuckled at cartoons or gifs depicting men with a HUGE muscular upper body and little scrawny legs, mocking the fact that most guys don’t work out their lower body.  It looks funny, but if we don’t work on the muscles above our abdomens, we’re essentially doing the same thing!  Ladies, we gotta do better!!  So grab some dumbells and come join Michelle Obama and I at the gun show!

For those of you new to lifting or unsure where to start here's a little video from fitsugar.com with some great arm workouts, to help get you started.

Armed and dangerous,

Candydiva04

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The Gym Search

So I am such a slacker. It took RR asking about the blog to make me remember that I haven't posted in ages. Basically, I fell off the wagon and stopped posting, and it took me such a long time to catch up with the wagon and get back on that I forgot I even had a blog! SMH

So I'm back, as is some of my weight. I buckled down on my diet before my birthday and dropped down to 135lbs then went on vacation to an all inclusive resort and lost my mind. I was 148 when I got back on my scale. I've been yo-yo-ing ever since, but I haven't had the will power to get my diet in order, either.

The fact that my gym is closing and RR and I have been shopping for a new gym doesn't help. Finding the right gym feels a little like being Goldie locks from Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears.  There are no franchise gyms like Golds or Bally's near by, not that I have any interest, but RR likes the idea. The Y(MCA) is popular here but overpriced and chock full of people in there for social reasons so that's out. We've narrowed down the search to about 5 gyms, RR made a spreadsheet, lol.

Gym#1 - we both hated. Its past our neighborhood so we'd have to fight the urge to just go home after work. But it was small and had a weird layout. Not mention the creepy guy who oogled me, and the crappy treadmills.  RR liked some of the equipment they had that our gym didn't, like the laying down ham curl machine, which left my hams SUPER sore for 4 days. I literally couldn't straighten my legs! RR liked the power squat machine. But one day of working out there was enough to rule it out.

Gym#2- My fave. The clientele is nothing but serious fitness folk, no annoying resolutioners. There are several competitive bodybuilders/fitness/figure athletes who train there, plus some of my fave ppl from my old gym are also transitioning there. Its semi close to the house and I like the vibe/atmosphere. RR's biggest complaint was a lack water fountain, and he had a bad dumb bell experience. And it had "less equipment" than our old gym. I disagree.. I think it just had different equipment but that's his opinion.

That's all we've checked out thus far, we have 2, maybe 3 more to go. The 3rd one might get skipped because they haven't returned a single call, email or fb message RR has sent...

We'll keep you posted!!!

Candydiva04

P.S- that last post about spiking my protein shakes made me literally laugh out loud and shake my head.  Oh the mistakes we make!

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The Struggle

Today, is a "Struggle day", you the type of day where fitness is the FARTHEST thing from your mind, and even if you fight through and make it into the gym, you don't feel better even after you start working out. You literally have to just struggle through it until you've satisfied yourself (or your trainer) enough to go home... Well that's what today is for me, I'm seriously channeling Bruno Mars, his Lazy song is my anthem today. Its my day off and I slept in until RR literally dragged me out of bed, made me put on work out clothes and hit the gym. We've switched up my workouts so that they're more cardio based than strength based. But being groggy and being put the ringer of Robsanity workouts was NOT fun. I got through it, although not without a lot of whining and complaining, and some cursing after I hit myself in the tooth/newly tightened braces with a 5lb weight. OUUUUCH!

Anywho, thank goodness for RR, because even though I hated EVERY second of today's workout, I'm glad I got it in, Without him I'd probably still be in bed, eating a slice of rum cake I brought back from JA. Speaking of which, life is really messing up my fitness goals. I went on vacation last week, I think i was 140lbs when I left, and I was 148 when I got back. Miekspeak says its water weight from the plane ride. Which sounds funky but might be true since I hit the gym all week, ate reasonably well (spiked my post gym protein shake with Coconut Rum cream a few days this week) and was 142.6 yesterday morning. Not sure what I am today since i was too tired to even think about the scale when I was fighting RR to get back in bed this morning.

So when I have a struggle day, I have RR to motivate/force me to work out, but how do you deal with struggle days?

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Kicking and Screaming

The security guard at work who sees RR and I entering and leaving the building together everyday, made a comment to me about how I'm losing weight and looking good. True to form, I jokingly responded along the lines of "Well you know... I do what I can..." He laughed at me and almost immediate turned to RR and said "Its clear you're taking good care of her, keep it up". After some ribbing about why he attributed my weight loss success to RR and not my own hard work, we parted ways.

Later in the car, I realized that I really can't take too much credit for my fitness success/progress. I mean I can but... to do so would downplay AAAALLLLL of the the hard work and effort RR puts into helping me achieve my fitness goals. And that wouldn't be fair to the man who drags me (occasionally) kicking and screaming to the gym everyday, and (usually) refrains from rolling his eyes at me when I say things like "Man, I feel soo much better now that we've worked out, aren't you glad I made you come?" as we leave the gym. It goes without saying that, I'm a horrible workout partner, I complain about everything from his weight choices and constantly pushing me to do a seemingly infinite number of "just one more rep", to trying to get me to making healthier food choices (more protein, less cupcakes). He really does take great care of me, and I'm lucky to have him as a work out buddy/personal trainer/boyfriend.

So loyal readers do you have an RR in your life? Someone who will push you to reach your goals even when all you want to do is go home and pour yourself a glass of wine. If not, I sincerely urge you to go find one!! Because you won't make any progress at home on your couch, regardless of what those diet pills tell you!! Trust me, I've tried almost all of them! ;)

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