"Crunch it out. Good."

So, we moved into our new apartment this weekend (thanks to my parents) and it looks great (thanks to my parents and family, who donated furniture). Today, I was going to begin working out in our gym, but my body said NO when I woke up. I'm telling myself I did enough work over the weekend moving dressers and sections of a sentional. So I'll start tomorrow.


Also, I wanted to add to my reflection on the pop music in the UNO gym. It may have sounded like I didn't like any of it. But I did like the Maroon 5 stuff. And other stuff. And thanks to my mom, I now know that I also heard a lot of Daughtry (she has his cd, man, he has a lot of songs out on the radio).

Finally, I wanted to mention the trainer at the UNO gym, a guy I only started seeing there recently. He was training a woman. And he was a real motivator. For example, while I was doing my bike-ab workout, he had the woman on an ab-machine of some kind, and he was pushing her the whole way: "Crunch it out. Good. Crunch it out. Good. Squeeze it. Good. Crunch it out. Good."

Shrug it out

Chris, my know-it-all younger brother (what, am I writing a kid's book here?), took a look at my slideshow when he was in town and the first thing he said was, "You need to do some shrugs." He pointed to my traps in one of the photos.

So I'm doing shrugs now.

I'd hate to leave out, as I record all this, the exposure I get to pop culture while I'm working out. The music they push through the air is all pop. Pop, pop, pop. Maroon 5, Fergie, the song about tear drops on a guitar and the song where the guys sings "Stop and staaaaaaaaaaaaare." I'll admit that if it weren't for Gym Radio, I woudn't know any of these songs, they would have passed me right on by and dissappeared. And I wouldn't have cared. But now maybe, in some future game of Pop Culture Trivia, I'll get a random song question right.

Also, in the tradition of moderm gyms, there are a couple dozen television sets lining the gym walls. That's where I get my SportCenter fix. I actually don't mind that at all.

And today might have been my last day in the UNO gym. That's because we're moving, beginning tomorrow, and I'll start using the apartment complex's gym. To celebrate that fact, a capoeira group danced in the lobby on my way out. That is on my list of things to do, to join up with a group like that. It was a good show. I love new experiences. (Oh, it also just happened to be National Sports and Fitness Day.)

11.5 lbs!

Since I started lifting and drinking protein shakes in October, I have gained 11.5 pounds. Muscle ways more than fat. For my current routine I am still using the bells and I have actually started some core work, courtesy of my broseph and a little e-research of my own. I do the "bicycle" ab workout and the supermans (I was doing them daily, got to get back on that, cause it's not happening now), ok, did them, and now I curl one arm at a time while standing on one foot (and rubbing my belly). And I try to work Mon - Thurs, but today was Valentines and time would not allow. We are moving soon, next week, to a place with a gym, so the pieces should fall right into place.

I also ran two miles and sprinted 100 yards ten times last Saturday. Felt great, just need to do that more.

I also have new photos for the slideshow, will get on that soon.

NYC break

Bek and I took off to NYC this past week for our anniversary. We met up with great friends and enjoyed the city. And I took all that time off of working out. I thought of restarting today, but woke up too tired. Got to get my energy back.

I have been reading Rings and have been enjoying it. At this point the narrator has given up boxing and is concentrating on meeting with his trainer's family here in NO and in NYC.

I've been thinking about adding a littel cardio to the mix. How about this: two miles or so run and some sprints. We'll see.

I need to take some Mr. February shots for the slideshow, hopefully tonight.