So I’ve been a bit slack with updates recently, but it’s not because I’ve stopped working out. Quite the opposite in fact, I’ve been finding that after working out and cooking dinner, I really can’t get my brain into gear to actually tap out a blog post, so here’s my exercise log for the past three days.

Monday

Type: Gym
Duration: 1 hour

My first gym session went surprisingly well, although I have to work on a few of the little details, like where to put my drink bottle on the exercycles. Started out with 30 minutes of cardio cycling, then moved onto weights which highlighted two things for me.

Firstly, my upper body is pretty weak, and secondly my right arm is considerably stronger than my left. During my final set of chest presses (does that sound dirty to anyone else?) I struggled to get my left arm up for all my reps and actually failed to do my last three reps because both arms gave out. And by gave out, I mean shaking muscles that refused to lift any more.

The other amusing thing that happened was as I moved from the weight machines to a mat to do some ab exercises, I got down on my hands and knees when my left elbow gave way, instinctively I shifted my weight to my right arm to avoid slamming my face into the ground, only to have my right elbow give way too! Fortunately I managed to stop myself with my nose.

Tuesday

Type: Run
Distance: 7.69km
Time: 43:21 minutes

Switching from weight to cardio, and rewarding myself by listening to the final chapters of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on my iPod, was actually pretty good. My arms and chest had been a bit achy from the weights so it was nice to switch to something that didn’t strain them. Unfortunately, about three-quarters of the way around I discovered that my running motion does use my shoulders quite a lot as my muscles cried out in protest. But other than the stiff arms afterwards, a good and rewarding run.

Wednesday
Type: Gym
Duration: 1 hour

I managed to get to the gym a little earlier than last time, hoping it would be less crowded but alas there were actually more people there. Having to completely rearrange my program to get onto the machines that were available meant I ended up doing two lots of ab exercises back to back. Talk about sore, luckily for me the soreness had gone by the morning. I also have to confess, I left the shoulder press out of my workout entirely, after three failed attempts to use the machine and with the clock working against me, I headed home to cook dinner for my wife and I. Personally, I think my wife and my shoulders will thank me for that too.