Beach Bod

I'm new at this blogging/journaling thing...

Yesterday, in what was the worst day of my Pinnacle career, there was one silver lining: The opportunity to spend a few days in Hawaii with my recent girlfriend, Theresa. Apparently, her parents told her they do not mind if I come out there, provided it doesn't interfere with my job. Talk about a pick-me-up! Me, naturally, I immediately agree, but realize that what I've been doing to get in shape will not get be that "beach bod" that I will need to not only be comfortable out there, but to impress my very sexy girlfriend.

Since I was unable to work out last night due to a very shitty fucking day, I knew that today I wanted to have my personal trainer, Gray, beat the hell out of me. Especially since the rest of today sucked as well. Of course, T can keep me sane in any situation, thankfully. As I was driving home, Gray called me and asked if I could meet him there early. I changed in the parking lot (no problem) and met up with Gray. Feeling still angry from the two days I had, I told Gray about my plans for Hawaii and that I wanted to strictly focus on upper body. He at first was skeptical, but told me he could come up with something great. He also said he could get me looking very good.

We started off with some simple dumbbell bench-press. We did 12 of those with 30 lb dumbbells. Then we did an over the head exercise with a barbell. 45 lbs. We followed that up with a lat-pulldown. 75 lbs. Did 3 sets of each.

After those 3 sets, he let me rest. We bullshitted about work and his stupid ex-girlfriend. He asked me about the Hawaii trip and told me that I must have made a helluva first impression with T's parents.

The next 3 sets were cable pulleys, shoulder presses, and some other barbell exercise that I have never done before. By now, I'm hurting real bad, but keeping the vision in sight. Even Gray was getting into it, as he would say things like "THINK OF HAWAII!!!"

The final 3 set exercises were the worst. We did straight bicep curls with 15 lbs. At one point, he walked away and told me to finish one set. As I was struggling with it, my arms just kind of froze at about the 90 degree point. I could literally not curl anymore. Feeling like a total wuss, I dropped the dumbbells. Gray then brought over to me 10 lbs and just reminded me to keep good form.

We then moved over to the wall, where he grabbed an exercise ball. With the ball against the wall and my back against the ball, he handed me another barbell. This one, he said, would be brutal. He called it the 3 21's. Start off with the barbell down by your waist, curl it up, but only to 90 degrees. Do that 7 times. Then you start it up by your chin, but curl it down only 90 degrees. Again, do it 7 times. Then you do the full range of motion. Yeah, after the first full range one, I think I uttered fuck or something like that. However, I was able to complete 3 sets.

We finished it off by doing some more dumbbell bench-press. I was actually surprised at how fast our session went, and was really pumped up through the rest of the night.

I also looked in the mirror at one point when I was doing these exercises and saw the definition in my arms. It made me proud to see the result of my hard work that I have been doing over the past few months. Will I ever have that killer body? No. You're talking to a kid who has been weightlifting seriously since 7th grade, played hockey 9 months a year (fall I played football) and yet never had the 6 pack or the chiseled jaw. I always have had a strong torso and good arms.

Basically, my staying motivated goal has a new incentive now.