Day Four: Redemption Day

So last night was yet another really good workout, and also a much more productive and encouraging one than the one from Wednesday night, when I wasn't able to complete a few of the exercises. In fact, I think last night's was the best workout yet. And yeah, I'm feeling it pretty hard today.

Since I skipped cardio on Wednesday (Ronn said that I'd done enough to burn calories through the leg workouts and could afford to skip it for the night), Ronn started me out on the stair-climbing machine again. He put me on for five minutes and talked to me about my diet and cooking habits. I told him about the perfect omelette I'd made for dinner the night before (and on my first try, too!), and he again encouraged me to try making the turkey dish he'd put on my diet plan. I made a mental note to make it that night.

Then it was upstairs for the stretching part. "I'm going to go even deeper with the stretches tonight, so I'm going to have you lie on the floor this time instead of the table," Ronn said. And yeah, he was right; those stretches were pretty intense. He really went to town on my calves and legs. I figured out pretty quickly we were going to be focusing on legs again.

Of course, that was only after we did several different sets of ab routines. Ronn had me do some standard stomach crunches, then introduced me to a few variations that--thankfully--didn't involve fully sitting up. And even though my abs were still store from the previous three nights, I did pretty well on all of the exercises. After that, Ronn had me do several sets of walking leg lunches, where I followed him across the floor. He had me do three "laps" (back and forth across the length of the floor three times), and I followed each one with a set of 25 jumping jacks. Boy, was that taxing!

I told Ronn about my little emotional outburst the previous night, and he had a huge smile on his face. "That is so awesome that you told me that," he said. "That is a pretty common occurrence for people who are working out. I've had some clients break into a cry right in the middle of a session before. It's great for releasing tension." (Well, that's good to know at least.) "It was really big of you to tell me that, and I'm glad you felt open enough to do so," Ronn added.

Then it was downstairs to put me to work on some of the machines again, this time working out my chest and arms again. And it seemed to go really well. When I was on one of the chest-flexing machines, Ronn increased the weight from 30 to 50, and finally 80, pounds, and I surprised myself by being able to complete each set of 10 reps. "You're a strong boy tonight," Ronn said at one point during the routine. "Considering last night's workout--how much I worked you and the stuff you didn't complete--this is great. I'm really proud of you."

After all that (we probably worked on about 6-8 different machines), Ronn put me back on the treadmill for 30 mins at the 3.5 speed and told me I should increase my incline from 2.0 to 3.0 after 5 minutes, and then again to 5.0 after 15 minutes. It was a good time for me to actually look around the gym a little bit and pay attention to the people. I noticed all different types, from your frumpy middle-aged men and post-pregnant women to your standard gym rats and body builders, and also noticed a few cute guys working out around me. Still, no one's cuter than Rich, the tall redhead who works the front desk. He reminds me of the Kris Kringle character from the old Rankin & Bass claymation Christmas special Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, which was always a favorite show of mine as a kid. At one point, Rich walks through the gym putting weights back in their place and tidying up, and I notice for the first time the results of his own workout regimen. Damn, nice chest and ass. I bet his boyfriend is one happy man.

After my workout, I went on home and made Ronn's "famous" turkey dish--a kind of "ghoulash" involving ground meat, oregano, basil, pepper and tomatoes that is pretty tasty and filling. Ronn said I could eat 1/4 cup of brown rice if I wanted to, so I added it to the mixture along with some green peppers for texture, and it was pretty good. Still, it could've used a little bit of soy sauce for added flavor. LOL!

Since I met Ronn earlier than usual last night, it was good to get home at a decent hour and still have some time to watch a bit of TV before bed. So I caught up on recent episodes of Heroes and Studio 60 on Sunset Blvd. before I made my way to bed. I was a little wired from the workout (and more probably from the Ripped Force I drank throughout), so I couldn't sleep at first. So I watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother and drank some hot tea, and I was out before you know it. And yes, today I can barely walk, but it's all good.

I'm off tonight (Friday), and just have to do 30 minutes on the treadmill tomorrow, but I'll post some additional thoughts and things I'm learning over the weekend. Catch you soon!

(Pics by Kevin Cazares)