Kick 'em in the Face

I set a goal several months ago to do a pull-up with a 25 lb plate attached to a belt around my waist.  For some reason, this goal fell off my radar as I focused on wide grip pull-ups and pounding out sets of 10 close grip pull-ups. I failed to achieve my goal of benching 135lbs on Monday and was feeling a little frustrated about not meeting the goal when I remembered my pull-up goal.

I knew Tuesday was going to be the day to crush this one the minute I walked into the gym.  I had renewed energy and drive that has been lacking for a couple of weeks.  After warming up with lat pulldowns and wide grip pull-ups, I did one set with a 15lb ball between my knees and then moved up to the 25 lb plate.  I did 4 sets of 2 to 3 pull-ups with this weight.  Oh yeah!  Talk about feeling like a beast when you can actually put a belt around your waist and hang some weight from it:)

Holy Soreness

After a couple weeks of not really feeling it in the gym, I got my money's worth this week.  Monday was a back day, my favorite.  After doing 4 sets of 6 exercises I ended with wide-gripped pull-ups, close-grip chin ups and some other variations.  I tried to stick to 10 reps per set...which means I probably did 70 plus pull-ups of one version or another.  The result?  I was woken up with a lat cramp, not once but twice.  I'm used to getting cramps in my hamstrings, but my lat?  What the heck?  It was not fun, but it was a good sign that I worked as hard as possible!

Tuesday I was able to get in a good chest workout.  I did 7 sets of flat bench with 4 of those sets at 105 lbs (6,5,5,5).  Next week I'm going to try to put 135lbs up once...  that has always been my goal and I think I am close.  I haven't attempted it before, so we shall see!

In the meantime, today is a R-E-S-T day:)  I have a track meet this evening, so I'll be on my feet for 4 hours in the cold rain, joy oh joy!  This is the first year that I can remember having terrible weather.  It's usually a beautiful spring day and so much fun to watch the kids get out there and work hard.  booooo...

OH, and almost forgot to mention that I DESTROYED my obliques Monday morning with a 20 minute workout.  It is hard for me to get my abs sore, but right now I can barely touch my ribs, low back, or obliques without pain.  YES:)