SuperGirl

Friday afternoon, I love Fridays!

Started out with 20 minutes on the stairmill at 5:00 a.m. then stretching. I need to lay off the rower for a while, I can see in this picture that my traps are starting to peek up from behind, I hate that! 

I walked all over looking for my jump rope, I believe I left it at the gym and someone seems to have snagged it. I have another at work, but that stays at work, so it's off to the store on the weekend for another.

I leave work at 11:30 then I drive out to see Roy at BodyComp Personal Training Gym. Today is shoulders, I need to make these delts pop!

I really could enjoy working half days everyday. But that is one of my many fantasies....

First I stretched again and then Roy did some range of motion testing and something he learned from his PICP training, I guess I should know what it is called but I forgot. I was lying on my side, so my upper arm was against a mat, so I could do a little wave with my hand and forearm while keeping my elbow and rest of the upper arm and shoulder stable. Roy would hold my arm down, and I was to resist against it for a while, release, and again, over and over a few times for the rotator cuff.

Then there was the ear squeeze (I am sure again this has a much more impressive name), and the pen on my forearm...you can just use your crazy imagination! I like doing new things and like a massage, you can always squeeze my ears! 

Anyway, it all made me more flexible and increased my range of motion for some odd reason. It has something to do with relaxing the fascia that runs down the neck I think...I will need to ask him on Wednesday when I see him again.

We did:

Seated behind the neck barbell press

Seated front barbell press

~I need to concentrate on keeping my neck straight, don't move forward, avoid smacking the back of my head with the barbell and pushing straight up, not out towards the front, which is easier.

Unilateral dumbbell press

super set with 

Rear delt flye 


Burn outs with a band

Shoulders really are my favorite body part to train, I always feel so powerful when I am doing the exercises. What I like most is doing everything so slowly, I see so many people (mainly men) who swing the dumbbells around like they are almost dancing, although it's a pretty nasty looking dance, more like the chicken dance....

I am sure they think they are doing their body good, in reality they are about to mess up their delicate shoulders for a very long time, shoulder injuries do not usually heal very quickly.

I had an overuse injury a couple years ago, my Doctor looked at the fax of the x-rays and called me and asked me to pick them up and bring them in, so we could "talk". I sat in his office, he asked how I felt and we discussed it for a while. I guess I convinced him of something, and the original x-rays must have been clearer because he told me based on his observations from the fax, he was going to tell me I could never lift weights again.

The fact that I told him I wouldn't listen to his advise at that point may have also changed his mind. But I did have to lay off for a couple months and could only do range of motion exercises. 

I screwed it up by training shoulders three times a week. That was stupid (I have since learned). I was training for a competition, and we all know the delts need to be huge, so that was my way of making them huge. It worked, they looked great, but one side of my body had searing pain running up the arm, and I couldn't even dress myself for a while. There is also a bone spur somewhere in the equation, but I haven't been bothered by it at all. When I looked at the x-rays I could see a bunch of rough, crumbly surface, I was told it should be smooth and clean.

I have learned that although I am strong as hell, and I can run with the best of them, I do need to respect the limitations that any body has, and train properly. This is another reason why I really like training with Roy, he is very concerned about form, so my weights have gone down, but my form is superb! 

In time, the weights will go up again, I am not concerned.

It was another VIB day at Sephora so I had to go to the mall after training, then I had a pedicure scheduled. I didn't have time to go home, so in the picture here I am looking a bit stringy. I had my post training drink, but my body really needed some food. 

I stopped to take a picture for you first though!