Chest Press

Went to the gym yesterday, and part of the workout was three sets of 12 dumbbell chest presses. Usually our chest workouts are either fewer reps, or kind of a pyramid (starting at lighter weights with more reps, and working up to heavier weights and fewer reps.)

Now the flashback. . . just a week ago, I had gone to the gym in the morning, and then went again in the evening with my wife. That day we did five sets of 10 reps of dumbbell chest presses. I complained to my wife that I felt week. In high school, my typical warm-up on bench press was a set of ten with 185 pounds. Then I realized that in that day I had done 100 reps of 100 pounds, and didn't feel so bad.

And back to the present. The trainer said he wanted us to go at least five pounds heavier than we usually do. We have a weird gap in our dumbbells at the gym, we have everything in five pound increments, except 60, 65, and 70 pounds. I usually use the 50's, or 55's when I do chest press, so I decided I'd push myself and use the 75's. I was happy that I could get out 27 reps of 150 pounds. I had to finish the last nine with the 55's.

The crappy part of the workout was that I started in the middle, and went really heavy. Then I had to go back to the first, and that involved a lot of burpees, and my chest was really tired. We also did tri-ball push-ups (both of your feet on one medicine ball, and then a medicine ball for each of your hands), followed by 30 more "atomic push-ups". The atomic push-up is a combination chest and ab workout. You put your feet on top of an exercise ball, or in the TRX, and do a push-up, straight into a pike.

Anyway, my chest is tired today!

Body Transformation Challenge

So the gym is doing a body transformation challenge, or eight week biggest loser. I decided I'd sign up. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I'm half way to my weekly goal already, and it's only Tuesday.

Fun with the TRX

I had to run into the gym this morning, I'm taking part in a body transformation challenge, and one of my friends was showing someone else how they had done a fancy push-up with the TRX. My friend probably weighs 80 pounds, so not as scary for her. I mentioned to Jason, my trainer, how I wanted to try it, but didn't think the TRX was rated that high. He told me that he had done it, and he out weighs me by 30 pounds. I thought I'd give it a try.

He walked into the office to register someone else for the challenge, and I did it. One of the other trainers was in the office and could see me and she got excited. Jason stuck his head out and asked me to stick around for a second. I had no idea why. He then asked if he could film me doing it. This time I didn't get the full push-up done. It felt like the bands were squeezing my shoulders, and my arms were below my chest, so I couldn't use my pecs. It does make a pretty good picture though n

I would like it noted that I was using extensive safety equipment. That mat underneath me is almost half an inch thick!

Holiday recap!

It's time for the first annual holiday recap!

I don't know how much I'll remember, but I'll give it a shot.

My last post was December 14th. In that time, I built a table and a desk set. My mother, who is impossible to shop for, told me that she wanted a narrow console table for her entryway. She told me that I should start building, because I had a year to get it done. (I'll post a picture later.) I had some red oak lumber in the shop, so I decided to give it a go.

My daughter wanted a table and chair for her room. I, being so smart, decided that a desk and chair would be better. So I set out and made an old school style desk and chair. My daughter only got the oak plywood (hers was painted after all.) It is a nice bright purple. (I'll also update this with a photo later.)

That took most of my free time leading up to Christmas. We then had Christmas, which was good. The kids got pretty much everything they asked for, which wasn't too much this year. The oldest got a lot of "cool" clothes. The older daughter got some cooking stuff and art things, and a lalaloopsy doll (don't ask). The younger daughter got a lalaloopsy doll (don't ask), and a desk. The entire family got a Wii. The youngest was totally not interested, and didn't open his presents for days afterward. My wife got some clothes and a huge pan. I got a Roku II.

I'm moving the family away from cable tv, too expensive, and the Roku is awesome. The only drawback is it is hard to get sports. I also had to upgrade the router to make sure that the signal was strong enough. I'm also running Netflix on the Wii, but seem to be having network problems occasionally. I'll probably get a cheaper Roku player for the basement.

After Christmas we had a short work week, and then New Years Eve. I spent a good part of New Years laying down with the youngest. Part of his autism is sleep problems. We give him some medication to help, but sometimes it doesn't kick in very quickly. He was up until 11:20 p.m. I then got up, and played a few games of Uno with the wife and daughters. Then we went down and watched the ball drop in New York. Man, Dick Clark looks scary!

Then the youngest had to go in and have some dental work done. As part of his autism, he seeks for sensory input. One of his favorite is grinding his teeth. This has resulted in some bad teeth. We took him in, and he had to be sedated (general anesthesia). They weren't able to get great x-rays of his teeth in the office, so the first thing they did was take x-rays. They found worse problems than they thought, and he ended up with eight crowns, and numerous cavities. When they brought him out of anesthesia, his mother went back with him. I could hear his screaming from the other end of the surgical center. When they finally called me back, he had blood on his face and was throwing a tantrum on the ground. We think he was upset because he had Novocaine on top of the general. It must have felt like he had a bandage on his face, and he kept trying to scrape it off. I picked him up and took him to the van. He threw one more tantrum before I could get him in, in which he made it to the ground. I put him in, and strapped him down. About half way home, as we were on the interstate, he managed to squirm down in his seat until he caught his chin on the seat belt. I had to pull over so my wife could fix it.

We finally got him home, and he was inconsolable. We gave him his sleeping medication and he finally went to sleep. After he woke up, he was still dazed for the rest of the day. He was also dazed the next day. Finally, around 3-4 in the afternoon, he woke up and started to be himself again. Now he is starting to act normally, but the crowns are bugging him. (They left the crowns on his molars longer so he had difficulty grinding his teeth.)

Well, that pretty much sums it up. I'll update the post once I have the pictures. Hooray for the holidays.