Recently I asked you dear readers to tell me what your favorite weight lifting move was. Lori suggested I try the Cable Squat-to-Row. I immediately Googled it to find a video.
Check out this demonstration:
Looks pretty awesome, right? Well I tried it Saturday morning at the gym! But let me back up a bit first…
After my vigorous swim and amazing Greek dinner Friday night I slept like a rock and even slept in a bit too. It was nice to get some extra rest because I knew I’d be running around like a crazy woman all day Saturday. I went to the gym and hopped on the treadmill for a run. I got sucked into Back to the Future on the TV and realized I was already at my mileage limit! It was so cool to run and not be SUPER FOCUSED on my body the entire time. I just zoned out and ran. Awesome. I cannot remember the last time I ran and DIDN’T think “Oh my god is my IT Band hurting?” “Is my leg okay?” “Is this going to hurt my knee?” Incessant worrying. I know.
Guess what else? I felt so good on my run I DIDN’T WANT TO STOP! I looked down and realized I was almost at 2.20 miles–which is my limit for this week–and I felt SAD I had to stop!
I thought “Maybe I should listen to my body and KEEP RUNNING?” I was sooo tempted. But I want to be able to run for real and not have a set-back with my injury. In fact, Friday night Michael and I chatted about our bodies and various injuries and he said, “Wouldn’t rather be able to run 3 times a week at a medium distance and pace instead of only 1 time a week at a hardcore distance/pace?” And he’s right. If I overdo it now and hurt my body to the point where I have to stop for a week I’ll be more depressed than I am now. So I’ll be a good girl and follow Doc’s orders.
After I got off the treadmill I did some stretching before I headed over to the weight room. I didn’t do a lot of weights like I usually do–instead I focused on using just 4 machines and really working those parts of my body extra hard: my chest, my back, my triceps. Then I did as many crunches on the Ab machine as I could do (in the 100’s). I was feeling a good burn when I headed over to the free weights to do my Plie Squats.
I grabbed the 15 pound weight and did 30 Plie Squats. I had a little bit of a quiver in my quads but I didn’t have the burning pain like I did on Wednesday (when it was too soon to be doing them again). I finished with the 8 pound Medicine ball for the Russian Twist, did my stretching and then headed home.
Gym Stats:
Time: 1:36
Calories Burned: 713
I had a great workout. I love my Saturday morning workouts because time usually isn’t an issue. I can spend as much time in the gym as I want, it’s usually not too crowded, and I get to try new moves. Like the Squatting Cable Rows. If you watched the above video clip you have a pretty good idea of what I did. I had some difficulty in the beginning putting the two things together. Have I mentioned I’m uncoordinated? Well I really am. It was a struggle to coordinate the squatting motion with the upper body row motion! I finally figured it out and I did the Single Row instead–focusing on one arm at a time while I squatted, then I switched to the other arm. After I master this I will try doing both arms at the same time.
QUESTION: What is your typical workout at the gym? And have you tried the Squatting Cable Rows?
Lori Lynn
I have a fitness room at my apt complex, but it doesn’t have as much as a regular gym, so sometimes I feel a little bit limited (and b/c I don’t quite have the knowledge to come up with workouts to compensate, other than the basic ones). Usually do upper body weights, squats, lunges, leg lifts, 2 leg weight machines, than do cardio- treadmill, elliptical, and stationary bike. Will sometimes add some crunches. I have a small medicine ball that I’ve found some ab exercises for that I’ve used as well.
Carbzilla
So I was thinking about your workouts this morning (what? Is that weird?), and, besides being totally impressed with your dedication
as always, I was wondering how you come up with your routine. When you decided to do weights did you make up a series? Do you go in knowing already what you’re going to work on?
Lisa Eirene
That’s too funny!
To answer your question when I started doing weights it was solely to keep me busy while I couldn’t run. I was injured, depressed and I knew I needed something other than swimming to incorporate into my workouts. I focused solely on the upper body because of my injury–and even now that I’m healing I still don’t do much lower body weights. Maybe in the future.
When I go to the gym I know I want to try to run on the treadmill. Depending on availability I do that first (or last). With the weights I focus on my “trouble” areas. For me it’s my stomach and my triceps. I found the machines that worked those parts and focused solely on that — building up the amount of weight slowly. It wasn’t until recently that I started trying new machines and different work outs (and scouring Youtube videos for ideas)!
@irun2befit
Yay, congrats on the great great run you had!! Glad you were able to get a worry free run in!
When I used to have a gym membership I would do 30-45 minutes of cardio & then visit the weight machines.
I haven’t tried the squatting cable rows, I’m sure I could rig up my resistance bands to do something similiar though!
Lisa Eirene
I bet you could. I never thought of using resistance bands!
Having Dinner with Dexter Morgan
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