Prone Jackknife Success!

Today marked the halfway point of this workout challenge. I hope that I’m able to complete the remaining workouts before my progress is properly evaluated. I have definitely found that in the first three weeks the mental battle has been tougher to fight than the physical one (aside from my bronchitis of course).

Workouts 5 and 6 are up to 3 sets but only at 10 reps. I hope that I’ll be able to increase some of the weights. I know that I’m having most trouble increasing my weight with the seated row and lateral pull – I’ve tried the next weight up and my form is totally off, so I guess I just have to gradually build up to that.

Today I completed Workout A of Workout 5. I think it went really well. I’ve now moved over to the bigger weight room since I can’t do the squats on my own anymore. I was going to just do 25 kg, when the trainer that was with me said – No, you can do 30. So I did. It just reminded me, once again, to take a few moments and try and assess – am I not lifting more because I’m scared or because it’s really not something I can do at this point in time without compromising my form/risking injury (notice that I didn’t say ‘is this something I can’t do) J

I went upstairs to the women’s section of the gym to complete the rest of my workout. It was lovely being the only one there … until someone else came in. It was actually a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in over a month so it was nice to catch up – but all of a sudden I felt self-conscious … only because I knew that 3 sets of 12 reps of the prone jackknife were coming up and I was dreading it!! I almost considered skipping it (as I type this I’m thinking – why would I let someone else’s presence affect me so much? It must be a fear of failure and fear of looking stupid. I need to get over this.) … but I didn’t – and in fact, I completed those 3 sets with no hesitation at all. As soon as I steadied the ball, I was able to balance my feet on it without any unsteadiness. My arms felt strong and steady. My core was tight. Away I went. All three sets completed and I felt great. So different from my first try! I was very happy.

I wanted to write a bit more about nutrition today, but I think I’ll save it for tomorrow’s post as I still need to put up Motivation Monday and hop over to FMM to see what’s happening.

Today was a good day J