A personal training & food journal. Read about our weight loss progress at Train With Ron in Chicago, our nutritional habits and the life changes we're making to get in shape and stay healthy!

Me and my muscles. Maybe not quite guns, but certainly in the artillery department.

So you’re wondering why I like strength exercises. Maybe you’re not, maybe you’re just wondering why I’m pushing a tank, and you didn’t read my last entry. That’s OK, the picture here should give you an idea. I’ve got some strength and I like to put it to good use. Luckily I’ve got just the right trainer for that, Matt.

Matt comes from the world of the NFL. One of our favorite worlds if I may add. He’s a Super Bowl Champion so he knows a thing or two (or a thousand) about strength training. He also trains young aspiring football players and athletes.

My athletic background isn’t anywhere near Matt’s. My dad and older brother were both biathlon skiers (that’s the one with the cross country skiing and target shooting) so that’s what I spent a lot of my time doing when I was young. I also played soccer, ran track and practiced Judo. I even tried my hand at gymnastics. My mom competed in shot put when she was young and was a pretty serious ping-pong player so there are genetics at play here. I also think that a lot of my strength comes from my passion to rearrange the furniture in my bedroom on almost a weekly basis. Now I’m talking solid wood furniture, nothing wimpy about it. Pushing those dressers and headboards around was a full body workout. For some crazy reason I found it to be very relaxing. I would drive my parents crazy with it and maybe ruined certain areas of the floor but it certainly helped build muscle. Arm wrestling with my dad may have contributed as well. All in good fun. I guess that’s what happens when you’re growing up with 2 brothers.

Up until a few months ago those muscles lay dormant and were waiting to come out and play. Thanks to TWR, they’ve been playing and yesterday they got a few new challenges. I’ve been going to TWR for over 10 months now so it’s tough to find things I haven’t yet done but these guys find a way!

Me pushing the tank and right next to me, the famous sled I've written many posts about.

First up; the tank. The tank is simple in design, challenging on the entire body and overall intimidating. Check out the picture on the left. The task; Push the tank 12 walls total. Two walls at a time and walk two walls in between pushes. Matt had 300 lbs piled on the tank and I was able to consistently run one of the 2 walls always and sometimes even half of the second one. It was fantastic! Very tough but I had to use every muscle in my body and it felt great.

Second new item; the chunky jump rope. I doubt that that’s it’s official name but I like it so I’ll refer to it as that. It looks like a jump rope but the rope is a rubber tube about 1″ in diameter. It’s heavy, it’s wobbly and I had to do a hundred jumps. I quickly found out that keeping the rope balanced is crucial, otherwise I may take out my own leg. I had two rounds of a hundred throughout the session and it went much smoother on the second round. I found my groove and knocked out 50 in a row before failing.

Lastly we have the weight vest. To put it simply, imagine a bullet proof vest stuffed with flat weights all over totaling around 20 lbs or so. Slide it on, strap it down and to top it off, grab two 10 lbs dumbbells. So while dripping in weights, run 4 walls with the dumbbells and then 4 without. Next up, push up walks and lunges for 2 walls total with the vest. Alternating 10 moves with each. Push up walks, those are not new. I just did like 50 of them Monday, but doing them with an extra 20 lbs certainly added a new challenge. Not that long ago I actually had that 20 lbs right on me. And before that I had the equivalent of two of the vests right on me. I wasn’t able to do as many push up walks then as I did yesterday though. Once the two walls are done it’s back to a round of the 100 jump ropes finished off with a second round of the 4 wall runs and the push up walks and lunges with the vest. A VERY productive day. One of my favorite workouts.

This morning it was more of the  tank! I worked out alongside another woman and her and I pushed the tank up and down alternating 4 times each. We did a total of 12 walls each throughout the hour. I walked the last one. My thighs were burning!!!! Felt good though especially taking a nice & easy stroll home. And working out with someone gets me even more motivated because I get to encourage them and they motivate and push me.

Going back this afternoon for my second session today and I was so excited to see my fat average for the week hit 29%. That’s under 30 and it’s my goal this week to get it (and keep it) under 30. I wrote about that yesterday so I’m thrilled. I just have to keep it up the rest of the week. I’m inching my way towards my goal. Come on fat %!