Asylum Day 13 - Pam

Strength


As usual, on a day I am not working, I procrastinate quite a bit prior to actually pressing play.  Thankfully, I got started about 11am.

I felt great during this workout.  I pushed really hard and saw benefits all the way through.  


During the warm-up, where only one dumbbell is used, I normally use 6.5kg.  ?However, I started with 10kg and immediately upped this to 11kg.  I could definitely feel a difference in the core stability required for halo deadlifts in particular.  Curl squats and side lunges required much more oomph to get back up to starting position, but I coped well with the big weight increase.  I tried this weight for the scull crusher presses but could barely get it back up, so for this I used 6.5kg as I definitely get to failure with that weight on this move.

Next up, the cardio dumbell rotations.  These are tough and challenge your cardio fitness, strength, coordination and balance.  Each round builds on the last, until the third round move, which consists of bicep curl, squat, jump back to plank, push-up, spider left and right, another push-up, plank runs, then jumping back in to rise with the dumbells.  I use 6.5kg on these as I feel my lower back loses a bit of form on the squat when I use more.  I also have to admit to a bit of OCD on this move.  When doing the 8 reps, I finish around 20 seconds after Shaun T.  This annoys me and I spend the entire move trying to keep up.  My solution is to do 2 reps while the DVD is paused, and then press play and continue with good form and stability.  Is this cheating?  I don't care, really.  I get it done with good form and my OCD is satisfied, so all is well.

In the chest/ab section, I lowered my weights from last week's attempt.  I returned to 6.5kg for each dumbbell and felt this much more in my abs, which is what I prefer.  I coped perhaps a little better than I would like for the first two moves.  However, in the third move (legs static at 6 inches with arms doing chest presses), I reached failure after 20 reps, and had to continue with another 2 sets of 10.

I was happy with my performance in this workout.  Every move had either increased weight, greater height or increased reps.  No going back now!

Pam  : )