It was another good week for me. I did not do nothing out of the ordinary. On Monday, I did my usual: 35 minutes on an elliptical, abdominal muscle exercises, and then on to the weight room. I had little difficultly riding the elliptical on level two on Monday. It was a little more challenging, but I expected that. “The abdominal exercises we did early on built up to this point,” is what Karen told me. I went from having my hands on my legs, to folding them across my chest, to lifting them in the air. All this while keeping my shoulder blades in the air. “Whew! That was interesting,” is what I said to Karen. It was on to the weight room.

We did something a little bit different this time. Instead of resting 30 or 45 seconds in between each set, I did not rest at all. Instead, Karen lowered the weight after each set. “We are doing what is called the pyramid,” Karen said. At first, it felt to be a little bit of a struggle. I was used to getting a break in between sets, not going straight from set to set. It did tire me at first because it was constant. To me, it did not feel like she had lowered the weight each time. If she did, it did not seem like much.

We did, however, skip one part of my workout on Monday. I did two sets of leg press and skipped the hack squat all together. That felt to be a little bit of relief. Although I did not have much trouble doing two sets (10 reps per set) on the leg press, I felt that the hack squat may have been a struggle.

From riding an elliptical for 35 minutes and doing two sets of leg press, my legs were a little more tired than normal. Wednesday, we also stepped it up a bit.

I starting riding an elliptical at level two for about 11 minutes. Karen then came in and raised it to level three. “How do you feel on this level,?” Karen asked me. “I feel fine. I really don’t feel much of a difference between two and three,” was my response. “Good,” she replied.

As we went into the weight room, Karen decided to change things around a little bit. It was nothing major, it’s just we did a rowing exercise first and then the chest press. I did feel a little bit better about her lowering the weight. I guess like anything else, it just took a little getting used to.

I am now doing an extra day of cardiovascular work. I try to go on Tuesday’s before lunch. Pretty soon, however, Karen would like me to come in five days a week. That may be the real challenge.

Until next week, be good to yourself.