No Pain, No Gain

So, I think I made Ty mad the other day. It was either that, or I did really well on my fitness evaluation. Tonight's workout was killer.

We started out with...guess. Any guesses? If you said elliptical machine, you were correct. I had already prepared mentally for this. I wasn't going to lose to it again. I got on and started up, and, of course, Ty wanted me to do 10 minutes. Since this was the first exercise, it was a bit easier. And I nailed it. And by nail it, I mean I huffed and puffed through 10 minutes of painful unnatural motion. But hey, a win's a win.

That was followed up with some stretching. I don't know what the deal is with my back, but most of this stuff is really causing it to tighten up. I was then introduced to a sinister piece of equipment known as the kettle weight. It is a big ball with a handle on it weighing 25 pounds. Ty had me do this squat-swing exercise that worked every muscle in my body. He has a way of finding exercises that do that. 2 sets and I thought I was going to pass out. I could tell Ty wanted me to do a third, but he went to put the infernal thing up. I stopped him, did another set, then rested a bit before we moved to the next exercise. I can safely say this, I would rather do the elliptical than do that exercise again.

Next, Ty got a huge core ball out for me to do situps on. I had to sit on it then roll it down to my back and lay on it to start the situps. I looked at Ty with some concern. He asked me what was wrong. I said that there was one of two things that could happen that would be devastating. One, I sit on the ball, it pops, and I land hard on the floor. Second, I roll and the ball shoots out from underneath me, and I still land hard on the floor. Ty assured me that it would be fine. It was, and I did a couple of sets of 30.

My back was still hurting. We stretched it out some more. Ty asked me if I ever popped my back. I tolld him no. I never get my back to pop. I was also told when I was a kid not to pop my knuckles or I would get arthritis. I applied the same concept to my back. Don't pop it and I won't have back problems. We then went to the weights. I was excited about this. I wanted to work with weights. But before I knew it, Ty had another exercise planned that would include every muscle in my body. I had to step up on a platform and lift a 15 pound dumbell over my head. My left knee screamed at me. My back joined in. I made it through the first set. Then I went to the other arm and knee. My back was very mad. I laid down and did some  more stretching. Then I did some bridges. I laid down flat on my back then lifted my hips up off the ground then back down. I did that 30 times, Then I went back to the stretching. As I was stretching, my back popped about 16 times. It felt so good. I went to the treadmill to do a little cardio, but my back was flaring up again. I did a little more stretching and then went to leave. The elevator looked at me and tempted me to use it. No, my friend, but thank you.