A big thank you to drop sets..

Well, I took it upon myself to do some leg press drop sets in my routine yesterday, knowing full well that Martin was taking legs, bums and tums this morning.  You may all be chuckling away to yourselves and thinking that lbt is nothing but a half assed class for girls who like to say they've worked out rather than actually working out!

This lbt class is not for the feint hearted, or the physically infirm (me today basically)

With my lovely stiff quads and ever resistant to change, illiotibial band, I dutifully dragged my sore ass out of bed and along to Martin's class... Oh the joy of squats and lunges whilst nursing my poor, poor knees.  The PT's at the gym have got used to me now, Martin claims that I am fragile, I think he might be onto something there; either that or I'm just a massive baby! I tend to be nursing some sort of pain in every class, unless I have had a few days off for whatever reason.

Martin is really keen on technique and bio-mechanics and I have seen a vast improvement in my stability and general strength since doing his Tuesday classes of X-Fit and abs blast and he has given me a number of exercises and a theraband to help with my squatting technique. .  he is covering for another PT who is away, hence him taking this class.

To add insult to my already 'injured' legs, he is a massive fan of front jump squats too.. Not sure of the proper name, but you jump up and have your legs in the position they would be if you were sitting down, land flat footed and absorb the impact down into a squat.. and repeat!  I tend to go at it like a crazy thing to start and then end in a horrible mess on the floor.  I have to pay special attention to my land and squat, as my instability is really apparent at this point.  If i can, i do it in front of the mirror and monitor how my knees are tracking and this helps no end.

Although my legs were sore, I am used to this issue, its my latest shoulder joy that marred my efforts today.  Whilst away in Scotland, where +Tom Burgin proposed to me, I slept funny on my left hand side and woke up with a very stiff shoulder girdle area (I think that's what its called), this is over a month ago now.  It affects me when I do side planks, downward dog push ups, soldier push ups etc. I can do normal push ups fairly pain free but I notice it.  I have a docs appointment on Tuesday to see about it as its over a month ago now, although my injuries do tend to take about 6 - 8 weeks to heal i have noticed.. I need to get using my health insurance cash plan though, so now is as good a time as any.. knowing docs though, they will just prescribe me some anti-inflammatory or other and make do!

So our routine today was

• Sumo squats with side leg crunch (I am basically making these names up, I'm sure there are technical terms for them!)
• Squats to front kicks - making sure you are extra aggressive with the front kicks
• Backward lunges to leg crunches - I have to take extra care here as lunges are brutal on my knees, mirror is a must.  I have only recently started doing lunges again
• Press ups with a two second pause at the bottom.. At risk of blowing my own trumpet, I rock at these now as I have been working hard on my technique.. nose to the floor and perfect body position! I take every opportunity to boast btw, as i have put so much blood, sweat and tears into my progress so far
• Tricep dips of a step with a 2 sec pause at the bottom.  Shoulder tested my patience here so I was pretty pathetic!
• Soldier push ups. The less said about these the better
• Jump squats
• Jump lunges - These are way too dangerous for my fragility currently, I did deep lunges with 2 bounces at the bottom instead. oooo, feel those flexors (another previous injury!)
• Lateral raises with 3k and 2 sec pause. Feet together and arms lifted no further than 90 degrees to body
• Front raises with 2k and 2 sec pause. Feet together etc
• Burpees with a medicine ball and raise over head instead of jump. I have a love hate relationship with burpees and my knees, today was quite hateful so I had to do my best around the twinges.
• Spinal roll to standing - looks easy - isn't!! its taken me a few weeks but I've just about got it nailed. I couldn't even come close to being able to do it at first but I refused to let it beat me and now.. bingo! 
• Downward dog push ups - agony of all agony today with this stupid shoulder injury. I tried different arm positions and everything, in the end I just had to not go as deep. 

This was done 4 times, starting at 30 sec on 30 sec rest, 40 sec on 20 sec rest, 50 sec on 10 sec rest, 55sec on 5 sec rest.. beautiful. 

On a plus note, Martin said I was looking stronger than ever (ignoring my gammy shoulder) and my press ups kick ass! (ok, made the last bit up.. but they do!)

Now, I just have to get that into fitocracy.. seriously need a way to have it integrated onto this page.. Will get super geek Thomas onto that one.