I spoke with a couple of people in the gym yesterday, and a suggestion was made to try St. John's Wort. I bought it and have starting taking it today along with L-Theanine, which is supposed to help with relieving stress and anxiety. I always wonder if these supplements actually do anything or just have a placebo effect. Like when you take Advil or Tylenol, and the pain begins to disappear in five minutes. Is it the actual medication itself or the knowledge that you did something to alleviate the pain and that relaxes you and takes away the pain? Does it matter? Lol! I'm going to do some more research on St. John's Wort, but I was assured that there are no side effects and it can be taken with water and/or food. I usually hate taking something to fix a pain, but if it helps then that's great. And using shopping for shoes or clothes is too expensive of a anti-depressant (though it's a fun one!).

I did have an excellent leg workout yesterday. Call it punishment, label me a masochist, but by the end of it, I felt ready to puke, and I knew it was awesome! In fact, my hamstrings are screaming today...all the way from my glutes down to the inside of my knees! I haven't had that feeling in quite some time. This is pure heaven! I started with hamstrings in the workout. I do that because I want those to grow and I want to keep my quads in check when it comes to growth. This is going to be a very interesting off season because I want my quads hard and defined for next competition season, but I can't let the growth get out of hand (which can happen easily...I would pull out old powerlifting photos and show you what my quads used to look like, but I'm making some really funny faces with 225 pounds on my back in the middle of a squat...a bit embarrassing!).

So, seated leg curls began the workout yesterday. I'm waiting for the day when they create a gym especially for munchkins. The seated leg curl machine is met for someone who can touch the clouds with their nose, not for small people. I have to maneuver myself into the seat, get my legs up onto the pad, and then lock my quads in place (which hurts every time…I think the pressure of the pad squishing my quad muscles is more excruciating than the exercise itself; it’s like that on the seated calf machine as well). Then I have to scoot my butt around until I’m in the right position, hold onto the handles for dear life, pray that I don’t slip and slide off the seat, and hope that I don’t pull a muscle while trying to pretend I belong on this machine. I only did 100 pounds for sets of 12 because of the short factor (that sounds like it should be a show…instead of fear factor, short factor, which would examine all the things that short people are discriminated against, like the smallest sizes being put on the top shelf when it’s obvious only the shorties are going to wear a size one! Why can’t I stay on topic???).

Okay, so that exercise finally ended, and I managed to maneuver myself out of the apparatus without tripping or falling (hey, that’s a major feat for me; I somehow managed to bang my head on a bar the other day, but I try to shrug it off and act like it never happened even though a huge welt began growing as though a mosquito had decided to attack my forehead…and of course I have a shoot this weekend. Great timing! Way to go, Jodi! You couldn’t be a klutz after the shoot; you had to walk into something the week of the shoot!).

I then hobbled over to the lying leg curl machine, moved the pad to the hole labeled “1”, and proceeded to lift 90 pounds for 15 reps. I supersetted that with straight leg deadlifts with 40-pound dumbbells and focused on my glutes. It’s a tough job…focusing on my glutes, but someone’s gotta do it! Lol!

With hamstrings officially torn to pieces, I knew it was quad time. Some ridiculous plan had entered my head this week, and I knew I was going to regret being creative the moment I began the tri-set. You’ll see what I mean. Leg extensions followed by Smith machine lunges followed by narrow stance dumbbell squats, all with reps in the range of 15 to 25. Try it. Then try walking. Actually, don’t try walking. Just crawl to the water fountain. I don’t want to be held liable for your injuries because your legs gave way!

I did leg extensions a bit heavier than I have almost the entire year. I threw caution to the wind and gave my quads a nice wake up call before moving to the Smith machine. Nicole Berg had told me to try lunges with my back foot on a small box or platform. Thanks, Nicole. More pain. You’re a great friend. Lol!! It worked, though. I kept my lunging leg just slightly inside of the hip joint, turned the toe in a bit, and focused on the quad sweep and my lower glutes. It did the trick with just 15 reps per leg. My trembling legs managed to carry me to the 25-pound dumbbells, which I held in each hand while I did very narrow stance squats. In fact, toes were slightly in and a mere three inches apart from each other. I went down as low as I could without involving my lower back and repeated this exercise for 20 reps. I then swallowed a few times and planted my butt on the nearest seat (which happened to be the edge of the leg press machine…not exactly comfortable, but my butt has enough cushioning to make up for it…lol!).

Three sets of that tri-set, and the thought of a trash can in my face and a cool shower sounded lovely. I’ve never vomited after a leg workout, but the nausea does always appear when it’s been a tough one. Instead, I provided myself with a dose of cardio and then returned home to eat…finally!

And so, today, watching me walk is quite the hilarious scene. I’m like an old woman trying to get out of my car. I have to slide both legs sideways in slower motion than the Matrix special effects, hold onto the door handle for dear life, stand up but not all the way, for the stretching hurt desperately, and then hope for the best once I let go of the door after slamming it shut. Oh yeah, and I have to walk to my destination, and if there are stairs, well, don’t walk behind me because it’ll be tomorrow before you’ll get to the top. Stop laughing!

I’m going to now make my way to the kitchen. It’s time for me to eat, though by the time I get there, the sun will have risen again. Wish me luck…I am quite hungry!

Jodi