Shaky Legs

The more I do these EPLifeFit workouts, the more I realize how truly out of shape I was/am before! I wouldn't say I'm "in shape" now, but I'm trying, so each day I'm further from where I was. Anyways, today's workout was the first one I've done in about 5 days that didn't include shoveling any snow. I missed throwing around the weights and was excited to get back to it today, and I never thought I'd say that about lifting weights!

I realize I've blogged about running a lot, but not about my actual current workouts, so I thought I'd share them with you--maybe not every time, but some. It's so different from what I've ever done, I'm sure it is different for lots of you too, it might help to "see" what it looks like. Not that I'm taking pictures of myself while I do it, I'm not. But I could, if you really want to see me in my sweaty, huffing and puffing glory.

Anyways, today's workout rolled out like this:

Warm up: A combination of high knees, butt kickers, toe touches, ice skaters and some plyo movements and stretches. It took me about 5 minutes.

Heavy Lift: In my rotation, today was deadlift at 70% of 1RM for 3 sets of 5 reps.
I warmed up with 4 reps at 55# and then 4 more reps at 60#.
Because I don't have a technical 1RM (one rep maximum) yet, I'm guesstimating with how much I need to be 70%. So what I do is start w/ a weight, in this case I started with 60# and did my 5 reps, but it still didn't feel challenging, so after my rest I added more weight until it feels challenging.
My 3 sets of 5 reps ended up being 60#, 65# and then 70#.

When I first started doing Deadlift, I was concerned that my form was off and that I'd hurt my back. The beauty of EPLifeFit is that I could have Kera film me doing a couple reps and then upload it to the forum where Jason/Sarah/John review it for proper form and give me pointers on what to change. I did that and now I can do the exercise with full confidence that I'm doing it correctly and won't hurt myself. That's really important to me.

The heavy lift portion isn't rushed, I take a decent rest between sets and of course mess w/ weights to get the right amount.

After the heavy lift is the "metabolic conditioning" aka metcon portion, which is done quickly w/ good form. The movements vary, but today it was:

8 weighted stepups/leg--I did these with 15# weights in each hand
15 jumping squats
done as 4 supersets w/ 2 min rest between sets.

This is where my legs felt like jello. I thought I had strong legs from all that running, but nuhuh, no way. I fell into a crumpled heap on the floor after this part, and that says something for a workout that took literally only 12 minutes, half of which I was resting.

After I lay on the floor for a few and drank some water, I did my stretching and mobility work. I love the mobility, it uses a foam roller or lacrosse ball to really work the areas of tenderness/soreness. I could almost spend all day rolling around on that foam roller--it's pretty stinkin' close to getting a massage!

I love my workouts, they are fun and challenging and empowering all at the same time. I look forward to seeing what my 1RMs are (I'll get to that part of the rotation in a couple weeks) and to (hopefully soon) being able to do that pull-up I've go my eye on! :)