Workouts That Are Not Created Equal

I often preach to my girls that you have to got to leave everything at the gym or give it their all no matter where they workout. A workout success is defined, at PNP, by how much you truly give of yourself. No one is standing over you making sure you push out an extra rep, use a tad bit more weight, or stay on the treadmill five more minutes because you just have to see your heart rate montior hit 500 calories. We are all about self-accountability. It's easy to own the stuff you put in your mouth; those are just decisions and plans we choose to follow. What's hard is making your body push and do things you didn't think you could handle or even try.

I say this because workouts are structured much like our meal plans with one big exception: each and every rep, set, or minute on the treadmill has to be evaluated and be willing to change at a moments notice. Your food is your food. You just eat the things you plan, grab the stuff in your cooler, and tell those skinny chics "For the last time I don't want your candy, your cake, or your after work drinks! I've got goals that are more important than allowing you to dictate my happiness in two hours." We all know that Skinny Minnie and her I-have-never-had-to-worry-about-my-weight-a-day-in-my-life buds will go home to burn through the calories they ate without aftermath on the scale. All of us real chics with real bodies will hate ourselves for three days reliving the moment Skinny Minnie convinced us to have a piece of her birthday cake.

Workouts, again, have the one difference: you have to be constantly changing the structure. You listen to your body closely and let it influence the type of workout you are going to have. Most workouts are going to be ones where you bust it hard and have big or small wins. BUT, every now and then it's just not going to happen. You'll have a workout that will STINK! You'll push like you have never pushed before but you'll run slower, do less weight, and never get in the groove. You'll walk out of the gym feeling defeated because you know you worked hard but the numbers don't support it.

Well, this happened to me this week. Tuesday was my leg day. I FELT like the workout was SO HARD. I struggled, grunted, HR was all over the place, and it just was an all around miserable experience. I looked at the record and my strength was down but the workout ratings I gave each set was harder than the previous week. So is this a success or is this a big, fat failure?

It's a SUCCESS! Of course I want each week to be better than the last. The key here is that my effort was no less than last week. I gave all I had. I tapped my body as much as I could. I just simply didn't have the juices that I did the last week. After looking at the differences I figured out the problems. Part was the long run of 12 miles I did two days prior, I was coming off TOM where I had been heavier than usual, and I was a little dehydrated. All of that made for a pretty rough time.

Know that I don't expect your workouts or mine to always be record setters. What I ALWAYS expect is that we try our best. Get out there and gut check yourself every ten minutes of a workout...Am I really trying to get PNP or am I just working to so-so potential? You give your workouts OK intensity and you won't get the results you want. You give your workouts all you got and you'll have a body that reflects that effort.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

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Workout Journal:

Rather than journaling my workouts I'll recap quickly - I did shoulders and 40 min. cardio on Wed., chest and 20 min. of intervals Thurs., and today was arms and elliptical with my friend Lisa. It was tough!!! She is no joke and kicks my butt in strength. I'll have to talk with my own trainer about this because I'm a competitve little toot!!! :) But, if anyone is going to be stronger she deserves it because she's been healthy and working out all her life. That's easy to respect!