Weights and Body Balance

I headed to the gym tonight, trying to work out what sort of work out I'd do. I was invited to a cookware party and I was in a bit of a dilemma about being a good guest and arriving on time, or going to Body Balance and being late. I chose the 'almost a good guest' option by phoning ahead to say I was running late. I also didn't tell the hostess that I'd chosen a gym class rather than arriving on time.

I realised that I couldn't get through my whole program and get to the class, so I opted to do half of it, and hopefully do the other half tomorrow. You get an abs workout in Body Balance, so I skipped them without feeling guilty.

I've been trying to work my butt when I'm doing lunges. I have to really think about it, so I'm not sure I'm getting it. At the moment I'm doing static lunges with one foot on a step while I hold a weights bar between my legs. By the time I've positioned my feet, set my shoulders, locked my abs on, remembered to breathe and relaxed, clenching my butt seems like one too many things for me to do.

I felt like I was on top of the triceps exercise today, so I might put the weight up. I'm lowering that one towards my forehead while I lie back on the bench, so I want to be very sure that I can manage the weight. Going around with a bar shaped indentation in my forehead isn't a good look. I use the same weight for bicep curls straight after, and they are well under control. I was even remembering to control the bar on the way back down when I got to the end of the second set, so I've got room to move there.

The classroom for Body Balance was a little cold, and I had forgotten to take a long-sleeved top with me, so I was relieved that I warmed up fairly quickly. It amazes me that you can get warm doing a few Tai Chi moves. They are so graceful that I expect them to be effortless. I was definitely doing better with the balance moves today. I'm only wobbling a little as opposed to a lot. I even managed to get through the odd routine without touching down.

I'm very glad I did Yoga before I did Balance. In Yoga, it seems to me that you take longer to get into a pose and you hold if for longer. In Balance you move from pose to pose quite quickly. I think it would be easy to hurt yourself. Speaking of which, I had to pull out of a Swan pose as my right knee seemed too stretched. I think I was in the wrong position as I didn't have the same problem with my left knee. Mind you, it's taken me a while to work out what to do with the Swan pose. It finally clicked last week.

We did quite a lot of lower back work and my back is tired now. Typically I don't have back problems, although, like most people who work at a pc, I carry tension in my back. I don't remember ever working so hard on my back before. My inelegant bum lifts on the fitball work my butt and my lower back, but that's pretty much it as far as I remember. It was a good workout.

The other thing I like is that we do a fair bit of twisting. As a driver, that's important. I can see a real difference in how far I can turn towards the back to look over my shoulder now. That's got to be good.

Tomorrow I'm going bush walking in the afternoon. I am planning to run in the morning, but I have to decide if I'll meet up with the girls and run around East Basin (16 km) or if I'll run to work and back to see what it's like (10 km). I'm leaning towards the 10 km run.

I've definitely decided against City to Surf and I've booked myself to come home to Melbourne that weekend. Once I made the decision not to go I wasn't so daunted about running, so I think it was the right choice for me.

I discovered today that there's a clash with the Canberra Times Fun Run and the first Spring into Shape session. I think I'll do the Spring into Shape run though, as that weekend is when I'd like to celebrate my birthday with my family. I thought I'd do the Runner’s World Run it Off Challenge and use the last of the SIS runs as my run. Anyway, that's the current plan. As ever, it's subject to change. :-)