Day 5 of 30

I wasn't as sore today as I thought I'd be. Brian explained to me, before we started today's workout, that purging the lactic acid from my muscles helps minimize the soreness from future workouts.

Today the concentration was on my upper body. We started with assisted pull-ups. A modified pull-up where one end of a giant rubber band is placed on the pull-up bar and the other is placed under my feet. It makes doing the pull-up a bit easier but I was still struggling after the first few reps. We then moved on to shoulder presses with 15lb dumb bells. We alternate between the 2 exercises after a very short 60 second break. Next we moved on to push-ups and lat pulls. (I'll have to clarify in future posts about the names of these exercises since I'm still learning.) Lastly, he had me lay on a workout ball with my head and shoulders resting on the ball, pelvis up, weights in hand slowly bending at the elbows towards my ears then lifting to a straight up position. This is a great exercise anyone can do at home. Not only does it work the arms, but your abs, butt, and thigh muscles get worked as well. This was paired with some work on an ab machine. With my face down and stomach on the machine, I would lift my legs as high as I could and hold for 2 seconds. After a few reps of each, we were finally done! Nothing feels better then finishing a workout. The worst part - the workout. But I keep reminding myself that the pain I'm feeling is an investment in my future health and that keeps me positive.

One thing that keeps my workout interesting is the wide range of exercises Brian has me do. In the 4 days I've trained with him, he has yet to repeat an exercise. It definitely keeps the workout interesting.

So that was day 5 and the end of my first full week. I feel really good about what I've accomplished so far. Writing it all down helps keep me accountable, not only to myself but to the millions of you out there reading this. I just hope I'm not that sore tomorrow. My legs have recovered, but I think that's only because I started running the few weeks leading up to this 30 day boot camp.

Until tomorrow...