Biffed It Today

I finally got around to doing a lower body weight training workout this week. It seems to be a pattern I've developed that I only do them faithfully for 2 weeks and then skip a week. I tend to dread them a little bit because the first exercise is always over in what I refer to as "Man Land." On one side of the weights floor there are all the nice little nautilus, free motion, and other girly (or nuetral?) machines. On the other side - all of the burly plate-loaded ones. This side is usually occupied by men ranging in age from 20-40, all the crazy body-building guys, and the three body-building girls. The girly side - where I like to play - is usually occupied by old folks, Moms, tiny girls, and chubby folk like myself. I feel safe there. But inevitably, I have to wander over to the plate-loaded area and kick off my leg workout.

It also just so happens that all the squat machines are right next to the huge windows (I'm talking windows in place of a wall) that look into the pool. Because of the time I usually work out (between 8-10ish) I usually have a nice little audience of Grandma's watching me struggle with my squats.

Also of note - there's this contraption that you can do lower back extensions on that I really like... but it requires that you bend over and show your booty DIRECTLY into the pool window. I think someone made that decision on purpose, and I swear I've looked back after doing back extensions to see all the Grandma's smiling their big "I just saw your booty" smile. But I digress...

As I was saying - leg workouts are a little intimidating for me as I usually feel like I'm being watched, and I'm wandering around in Man Land. Today, the machine I was planning on starting with - the Hack Squat - was already loaded with 90 lbs when I got to it. I actually wandered around for a moment scanning all the faces in Man Land to see if anyone had just stepped away for a moment. Apparently someone just decided to leave their plates there when they finished.

A year ago - that would have ended my workout. Removing someone else's plates would have been way too far out of my comfort zone. What if someone saw me and thought "what the heck is that chubby girl doing?" But - I managed to get over myself (yay!) in the moment today and set about wrestling the two 45lb plates off of the machine. They were mounted at about my knee level, which made getting them off a little difficult. I sort of squat/waddled one of them to the nearest weight stack only to find that it was full! AH! So I squat/waddled it to the next one - which by this point was deep into Man Land territory and sort of threw/pushed it on where it belonged. *PHEW! I went back for the other one and tried squatting down lower to get it off - thinking I'd be saving my back. Apparently I squatted down TOO low, and when the weight came off of the mount it, it fell to the floor - and took me with it. I tripped over my own foot and fell over, narrowly avoiding being smooshed (on the toes) by the weight. I bounced up real quick and looked around. Had anyone seen me? The off-duty personal trainer and GoddessGirl (she's always wearing some shirt that says GoddessWear) were busy doing some jumping/squat sort of thing and hadn't seen me. The rest of the people were busy lifting. I couldn't bear to look at the Grandma'sInThePool. So I just brushed it off and tried to play it cool.

The rest of my workout went by without incident. I did some Leg Curls (for the hamstrings) and some Abductor/Adductor stuff (love those!) and then I tricked myself into going to the mats to do some core exercises. For some reason I've been avoiding those for the last month... I'll fill you in when I figure out what the heck my problem is. lol.

Then I was able to get 10 miles in on one of those little seated bikes (LOVE THOSE!) while watching CNN, the Today Show, and the 700 Club (lol) all at the same time.

So anyway - that's my story. Thought I'd share with you all in case you needed a good laugh.