Eff you, prone jack knife!

I got ambitious and decided to go ahead and do my workout without Erik.  I pushed myself hard, but not so hard that I feel like I won't be able to push harder next time.  My arms, however, are so jello-y that typing is pretty difficult because they are shaking so much....


This is what my workout looked like last week...

Squats, 2 sets, 15 reps......................10 lbs/15 reps    18 lbs/15 reps
Alternating sets...
Push ups, 2 sets, 15 reps...................45°/15 reps        45°/12 reps
Seated row, 2 sets, 15 reps...............13lbs/15 reps     20lbs/15 reps
Alternating sets...
Step up, 2 sets, 15 reps.....................bw/15 reps         bw/12 reps
Swiss ball crunches, 2 sets, 8 reps......bw/8 reps           bw/8 reps

This is what my workout looked like this week...

Squats, 2 sets, 15 reps......................45 lbs/15 reps    55 lbs/15 reps
Alternating sets...

Push ups, 2 sets, 15 reps...................45°/15 reps        45°/15 reps

Seated row, 2 sets, 15 reps...............25lbs/15 reps     30lbs/15 reps
Alternating sets...

Step up, 2 sets, 15 reps.....................bw/15 reps         bw/15 reps

Prone jack knife, 2 sets, 8 reps...........bw/8 reps           bw/8 reps

That's pretty good right!?  What does this mean to me?  It means that I was able to accomplish all of the goals I set for this workout.  How will I top myself next week?  The next time I do this sequence of exercises, I will be reducing my reps to 12.  That means I need to increase my weight load even further.  So, I want to go ahead and set some goals for my next A workout...

• Continue increasing squat weight.  Now that the squat rack and I have said our hellos, I'm not afraid of using it anymore.  In fact, I felt pretty tough/awesome/babelicious watching myself in the mirrors doing squats like it's cool.  Today, 55 lbs felt pretty challenging.  I think next week I will start at 65 lbs and see how that works out for me.  This is, of course, including the Olympic bar.
• Now that I have done 15 reps of the 45° push up variation, I want to say I'm going to move down to 30° variation, but 45° is still tough--cranking out the last 4-5 reps takes a lot out of me.  I want to stay at the 45° variation for another week.
• Continue increasing seated row weight.  I used the cable pulley thing today and loaded up the above weights in plates.  I think next week I want to start at 40 lbs. 
• Add step up weights.  Next week, I AM going to be holding dumbbells while I do my step ups.  Even if it's just an extra six pounds.  These things are tough.  I really focus on driving my weight down through my heel and lifting with my hams/butt rather than springing off my straight leg.  
• Try to do "correct" prone jack knife (as demonstrated in the book).  This week, I did this variation where the hips don't come up at all.  Next week my reps will increase to 10, and I'd like to work towards getting my hips up in those two sets.

Also, today I drank a bottle of water with slimquick ultra added to it before my workout.  Now, I don't really believe that it's going to help me lose weight any faster.  But.  It is full of vitamins (including the energy-boosting B crew), green tea extract, and caffeine.  I drank this about 40 minutes before my workout, and I felt much more energized going into it.  Maybe it's my brain playing tricks on me, but I am going to make this routine.  

But I am whooped.  As soon as I started this post, my dearest momma called me and we blabbed over the phone for an hour about food, jobs, moving, workouts, and bowel movements.  Now that I am coming down from my post-workout-wobbles, I feel much better....but I'm still tired.  The way I feel after the A workout compared to the B workout is so different.  I think that means I need to push myself harder for my second workout of the week.  It's probably just lazy-brain-block.....pushing hard on the first workout of the week is easier than pushing hard on the second.  I will get past that.

I think I'll sleep like a babe tonight.