My Squat Solution

As many of you know, I struggle with squats using a barbell. I have tried so many different ways regarding my stance, regarding working on my flexibility (forever a work in progress), and so many other things, but it is still something I continue to struggle with. Now this is not saying my squats haven’t improved, but it’s not irregular for me to feel like I’m doing good and then the next time, feel like I’m struggling terribly. So I saw something new and decided to try it.

I went over to the smith machine, and went to squat. I couldn’t believe how easy and form-fixing it was! I don’t have a concern in the world about my squats while I’m on the smith machine. I even upped the weight by 50 pounds in one session, and feel like I could do more. It’s seriously the best experiment I’ve ever done. Try it for yourself!

Week 12 Day 5

I woke up not feeling so great this morning. I’ve been stressed all night about the meeting, and how I know I’m probably not going to agree with some of the consequences determined. However, when I got to school, it was announced that the meeting will be Monday instead of today due to conflicting schedules, and so I was put at ease for a moment.

My students have been asking me for quite awhile to go to gym class with them. They know I workout and live actively, so gym class only makes sense to them. And after this week’s events, I decided today would be a good day.

It was a fun gym class. I had brought my gym bag so that I was able to change. The students were able to postpone their 12 minute run since I was there, but of course, the gym teacher also knows that I like to workout, and so he made us do burpees in a football players form. I’m not sure if there’s a name for it, but it basically was the wider-spread legs almost vibrating/running in place thing that football players do, and then when he blew the whistle, it was dropping down into push-up stance and back up. Oh boy. Guess I was getting in a workout early today! Then we played a type of basketball. It was a ton of fun. I wish I had more time to join them more often. But it is my only prep time during the day, and so I’ll make my best effort to go at least once every two months if I can. The secretary pulled me aside and told me how excited the kids were on their way to gym that their teacher was coming to gym class, so I know that it made a lot of difference to them. And if that’s what it takes to let them know I care, then that’s what it takes.

The rest of the day went alright, although I hit a huge wave of tiredness early in the afternoon. I think the stress wore me out. So I did something I never do. I told the students that if we got all of our afternoon work done quickly, I’d take them outside for an extra recess. Let’s just say, their work got done quickly! And we were able to get some fresh air. I think we all needed it. Today was an awesome day.

Since I didn’t have my meeting, I was able to go home early. My husband and I relaxed a little, talked about a few important things, and decided to have a date night. We went to a new place that we’ve never gone before: a place by the name of Teriyaki Corner. I ordered a Canadian sushi (with cream cheese, cucumber and smoked salmon) and an egg maki (I forget the official name of it). Oh it was so good!!! Yum! I’m in love with sushi again!

Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the gym tonight. But that’s ok. I’ve been so stressed, and so not into my workouts lately that my body could use a day of true rest and hopefully I’ll be mentally back in the game tomorrow.

The Famous “Bounceback”

I wrote a post a long time ago about being sick, and coming back to the gym. How my body surprised me, and the determination of not giving up. Well, today’s post is kind of on that track, but with a different twist. One that even shocked me.

I wrote yesterday of how I badly hurt my quad the night before. I took extra special care of it yesterday, trying not to overuse it, and just watching it closely. Once I finally got outside for morning recess with my students (after a VERY stressful morning), I simply sat on the ground in the shade and relaxed (don’t worry, I could see all the students from where I was sitting, teacher’s duty never ends…).

I got up and noticed it felt mostly better, though not quite all the way. So I decided to do a “sample” squat. It went ok, but I wasn’t sure what adding weight to it would do so I just continued to be careful throughout the day.

As I was on my way home, I began pondering what I should do to workout. I couldn’t really do chest or back or arms and shoulders because they were already done and I needed to do shoulders and arms again the next day. So the only option was not to go to the gym, or take a chance and do legs. Can you guess what I did? Took a chance. After all, it was one of my most stressful days at work. Almost everything had gone wrong.

When I got to the gym, I started thinking about what I was going to do. As is super important, I knew I had to warm-up that leg. NEVER take a chance on stressing muscle groups without some type of warm-up. It’s safer in the long run. For my warm-up, I got on the treadmill for 10 minutes. Normally I’d suggest a 5 minute warm-up, but because I was recovering from an injury, I did double to be sure. I kept it at a walking pace, and only added a small incline after the first 5 minutes. This seemed to go pretty well.

Next, I headed to the women’s workout room. I’m not afraid of working out in front of men, in fact that doesn’t bother me at all. What does bother me is that sometimes the gym is SO PACKED and the women’s room never seems to be that bad, and that was the case last night. Especially with my leg being the way it was, I wasn’t sure how “fast” I’d be according to the men’s standards. The women’s section is a calmer place.

Once I got in there, I decided to jump in a try the squats. I used a very lightweight, 40 lb barbell. I used sumo stance. These didn’t really hurt but instead gave me a feeling to know I needed to still be careful. I actually succeeded in my 3 sets of 20 which surprised me, but I knew I shouldn’t persist past that. No need to aggravate the injury. I then tried some sumo deadlifts with the same weight, but my leg wasn’t having any of that. So I headed for the leg press.

The leg press I used was the type that pushes your seat back. Normally, I would just do normal squats and deadlifts, but I figured the extra support might be a little better for a day like today. What happened next blew me away. The press had been left at a weight of 135. I decided not even to attempt that and dropped it to 55 lb. I did 30 reps. I raised the weight to 75 lbs. I did 30 reps. I raised the weight to 95 lbs (what I normally do on free weight squats), I did 30 reps. I raised the weight to 115 lbs. I did 30 reps. I raised the weight to 135 lbs. I did 30 reps. I raised the weight to 155 lbs. I did 30 reps. I raised the weight to 175 lbs. I did 30 reps. And it was at this point I stopped. Not from pain, not from exhaustion even. But from the simple fact I knew my leg may not feel it now, but it would later. I honestly couldn’t believe it: that I mentally was able to keep going, and that my leg not only held up, but went so heavy! I began thinking that maybe my legs have been under-recovered.

Next, I went for 2-30 second planks. These went by so easily.

After that, I went for the abductor and adductor machines. Adductor was so, so, so good. I haven’t done exercises for my adductors in so long, and it just felt so good. But again, I was doing 30 reps a set and continued increasing the weight until I was raw sore. Phenomenal. The abductor, well, significantly weaker than my adductors, but that’s ok. They still hurt me today, but I pushed them as hard as I could.

That pretty much concluded my workout, aside from the fact I forgot to mention that I did a set of 30-35 reps of calf raises in between each set of squats, but I’m just blown away and still am. That was such a GREAT workout, and only a day after injury? I never do that heavy of weight normally (except sumo squats was lower), and NEVER have gotten up to the amount of reps I used yesterday. I am in awe of what a body is capable of, of what a dedicated mind can do, of the punishment our bodies is able to handle and keep going. We ARE God’s greatest creation, and He must have put so much work into us. How much we doubt ourselves daily, how little our brains allow us to do, and yet here’s our body, just waiting for its orders so it can show us how much more it can conquer.

Love your body. Push your limits. See what amazing things you can do!