Monday 12 October 2009

Happy monday to you

Not going to post a whole lot right now as I have pictures from Friday night's celebratory meal and Saturday night's Thorpe Park takeover but I just thought I'd drop in and say hi!

Yesterday wasn't as much fun as the previous days as we had a lot to do round the house, very boring mundane stuff that would make your eyelids droop as you read it... so I'll save your yawns and not relay it all!

One fun thing though was Joe and I nipping off to the gym just before dinner for a quick workout. I haven't used any of my local gym's weight machine in over a month since screwing up my shoulder! The lack of strength was painfully apparent, though not helped by my over-enthusiastic boyfriend's decision to leap on the Max Rack first to do some bench presses. I did my first set of 10 reps at 32.5kg and then thought "nuh uh" so dropped down to 30kg for the other 2 sets of 10. I basically reached failure come the last rep, Joe was ready to grab the bar but I managed to push it up, hurrah!

Unfortunately this meant that I was pretty much knackered for the rest of my time there!

I went on the low row after the bench press to work the opposing muscles and managed 3 x 10 reps at 45kg, but that was a struggle.

Then I went on the seated shoulder press but could only managed one set of 10 reps at 22.5kg and then dropped to 20kg and only *just* managed to squeeze 2 sets of 8 reps out - weakling!

The rest of my pathetic workout goes like this:

Lat Pulldown - 50kg - 3 x 10 reps
Triceps pulldown with rope - 12.5kg (!!) - 3 x 10 reps
Internal shoulder rotation - 5kg - 3 x 10 reps
External shoulder rotation - 3.75kg - 3 x 10 reps

Lesson learnt - if you're planning to do any form of shoulder press - do it FIRST! I usually *always* do that first, because it's the hardest exercise in my routine.

Joe hates it, he can't understand why it's so difficult but then I remind him that we don't generally do that overhead pushing motion in our usual day-to-day life!

One thing I didn't use, which I normally do, is the Pec Deck. I'm not sure if it was *that* that contributed to my shoulder pain as I was reading in the latest copy of Men's Fitness (I'm currently comparing Men's Fitness against the newer Women's Fitness mag to see if they're comparable in terms of quality of research, articles, advice etc) that it's one of the worst machines you can use because of the position it puts your shoulder joint in! I googled for more info and have found lots of articles, like this one called 'The Truth About Exercise Machines'. I think I'll steer clear of the pec deck and try and incorporate dumbbell flys into my new free weights routine. In fact I'd like to probably move away from machines as much as possible. I think I will abandon the seated shoulder press at some point and I'd like to be strong enough to not need the lat pulldown - i.e. be able to do pull-ups! I *wish* we had an assisted pull-up machine in the gym. I'll stick to the cables from my internal and external shoulder rotations though as that would be hard to replicate with anything other than resistance bands.

Anyway, rambling away here, need to get on with some work but just thought I'd share some Maximuscle deals with you very quickly

I'm VERY excited at the way Maximuscle is moving (very rapidly!) forward. There are changes ahead, for the better, which will help to make these wonderful supplements more accessible (and visible) to women who have before just associated them with huge scary beefcake men or women with zero % bodyfat and more muscle on their forearms than the average man has on their entire body!

I can't tell you anymore than that now (but when I can, you'll be the first to know!). I feel really privileged to have been able to catch a glimpse of the 'future' for this fab company that have made me feel like a really valued customer whose opinions matter :-)

Speaking of customers, I was talking to someone who said that most of the people featured in product catalogues, and I think *all* of the men, are actual Maximuscle customers! I didn't realise that but it would make sense to use them, I mean how much more of a glowing endorsement can you get for the effectiveness of their products than people who actually use them on a day-to-day basis?!

So next time you see a catalogue with some really buff girl or guy, remember that they got that way from a) working really bloody hard; but b) supporting their training goals with Maximuscle's massive product range, there really is something for everyone! Just take a look at their 'Ambassadors' Page!

While I was there I also got to see some ideas for future advertising, and also info on a new ambassador who I'll be chuffed to pieces if they get as she's a really fantastic role model for all women and I just adore her!

So, onto current money-saving deals:

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but until 1st November you can get 2 boxes of Promax Crisp Bars for the price of one!! - this means that every bar works out to cost less than 50p each! Now all I have to do is work out whether I buy 4 boxes or 6... and where to hide them from my son while I'm at it!

In addition to this, from what I can see you can still get two boxes of Promax Diet bars for £35, not sure how long this offer will last though so I may just order another two boxes now just to be sure!

Also, if you don't want to fork out for a big tub of protein powder, and you're not sure if you'll like the Promax Crisp bars - you can buy any mini tub of Promax Diet and you'll get a FREE box of Promax Crisp bars (this offer expires on Halloweeeeen)

My favourite RTD shake is also still on a buy-one-get-one-free - click here for Maxi-Milk (Joe and I shared a carton straight after dinner last night before we had our salmon, rice and veg... yum yum yum!) It doesn't look like there's an expiration date for this either so if you like the taste of the strawberry or the thick luscious chocolate you can order plenty more! :-)

There are more offers here like on Viper which is an awesome energy drink that helped Joe get up Mont Ventoux a couple of months ago during the Etape du Tour (public stage of the Tour de France) race - it's like rocket fuel!

Anyway, that's enough for now, go check out the offers on the site and I'll post more offers that aren't there as and when I get them :-)

I'll post another update with pics from the last couple of days a bit later, hope you all enjoy the rest of your Monday :-)

TJx

1 comment:

  1. My shoulder press with dumbells is pretty p1ss poor but I take heart in the fact that I have made gains, no matter how small. Lateral Raise though, grr I really hate that exercise. Gravity sux!

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