Dumbbells are a man's best friend

I haven't been back to the gym since I went with my brother. It's silly, but I do try. I have a gym bag that's packed with all the gym essentials. To be fair, I did try one day, but I wanted to buy a lock first so I can change there. I have a lock already, but I forgot the combo. Don't you hate when that happens? Anyhoot, I wound up spending an hour looking for a lock (I wanted the spinning rings type from Master Lock). By the time I got a lock, it was late and I went home to prepare for work the next day.

Last week was much better. I had a swimming lesson on Monday. That went pretty well, but I learned that goggles are really nice to have. I like keeping my eyes open, but for the rest of the night after the lesson, I couldn't see farther than 5 feet. It was either the chemicals from the pool water or that my eyes tried to hard to focus underwater so it was stuck that way. Thursday night, I couldn't make it to the gym, but I have some nice dumbbells at home that I can set to up to 40lbs each. I did a BBS workout at 30lbs. That was actually quite nice. I did three sets each of side raises, bent over raises, front raises, bent over rows, shoulder presses, biceps curls, and shrugs. I could do more with for the rows, presses, and shrugs, but I hate adjusting the weight mid-workout. Those screw thingys bug me.

Last night while watching the US womens team qualify at the Olympics, I was motivated to work out so I did an improvised chest work out. Did some elevated dynamic pushups, pushups, diamond pushups, and wide set pushups. Then I did some chest flies, triceps extensions, and threw in some situps. I took it easier near the end, because I started too hard with the elevated dynamic pushups and irritated my right shoulder. But it's fine now.

Overall it was an okay week. I didn't make it to the gym, but because I had dumbbells at home, I was able to get some decent workouts in. Also, I was able to fit some mini-workouts during my bathroom breaks at work. Obviously, I didn't do any cardio, so I need to focus on that a bit more this week if I could. I also need to hit the gym more so I can get heavier weights for my chest and back workouts. Ever since starting to workout around early high school, I favored my arms more, so my arm size is a bit disproportionate to my torso.

In other related fitness topics, ski season is coming up (I know that's not until end of November, but if you know me I think way ahead for skiing). I'm pretty excited about that. I had a decent run last season with four trips, but I'm hoping to make it out to the slopes a bit more this season. Trying to save some money now so I don't have to stretch myself to buy lift tickets. Fitness-wise, I'm going to do a lot more leg work during my mini-workouts at work. At this point I usually do body weight jumping squats, lunges, and calf raises for the next few months. This way by the time ski season starts, my legs are kinda ready for all those ski turns. If you don't ski, going down a long trail is like doing squats nonstop for a few minutes. Pretty exhausting.

In general, I'm hoping I'll be down to "fighting" weight by November 1, 2008. I currently hover around 187lb; I was as high as 189lb at one point. I'd like to get back to 172-177lb. That's about 10-15lb weight loss. I think that will come naturally as I increase my workouts and tweak my eating habits a bit. I should get back to doing chinups and pullups too. I used to do sets of 10 every other day when I had a pullup bar. Now I have a heating pipe in my living room that gets quite hot during the winter. Haha. But no pain, no gain!