I must share a bit of good news, but I'm not going to leak out a ton of it because I don't want to jinx it. Let's just say that a bit of music (really good music from what I heard tonight in the samples sent to me) and a bit of my words might create the right mix for a future ear. And that's all I'm letting free in terms of information!

I haven't posted a lot about my workouts, so let me discuss my leg workout today. Amanda drove out to my gym (she was running late, so I decided to run even later. I have to stay true to form...lol!) to do legs with me. She was supposed to take me through a really tough, high rep leg workout, but I think I kicked her butt a little bit too! She introduced me to a version of the leg press. Be very careful if you try this. Your joints must be aligned perfectly, and you must have good control doing presses with one leg at a time. Basically, you lie on one side, place your foot on the platform at an angle and keep your knee and hip joints even with the direction of your toes. You will then press, bringing the knee towards the chest and utilizing the lower glutes to really push the weight up (it'll almost look like you're doing a side kick). Hold onto the handle closest to you. It'll feel really weird for the first set, but you should be able to feel this all along the outer sweep of the quad and into the outer glute and hip region. I know that I feel it now! She had this bright idea of doing each leg for a minute at a time. Ha! Very funny! Not!!! I had a 35-pound plate on each side and was nearly crying in pain, but I managed to make it through. Mind you, we had done two sets of regular one-legged presses already, so my legs were already a bit shaky.

We then moved on to straight leg deadlifts with a barbell. I did 80 pounds for 20 reps and kept a wide stance, my toes facing forward rather than out. I like to change up the stance as well as the toe placement to hit the tie-ins differently each week. My butt is getting more and more sore as I write this! When I do these deadlifts, I stretch down to about midshin to right above the ankle. I have to make sure I don't involve the lower back, and if you stretch too low then that's exactly what happens. I want my glutes and hamstrings pulling me up, not my erectors (those column-looking things in the lower back). I also squeeze my glutes together at the top of the exercise, but that might be a bit too much information that you didn't really want to know (or maybe you did...lol!).

It was my idea to move on to the leg extensions, and I had suggested supersetting walking lunges with them, but Amanda thought some lateral step ups might be better. Lateral step ups are like regular step ups on the bench except that you are stepping to the side rather than in front of you. It was a nice change. I have to be careful with leg extensions, for I tend to want to do a ton of weight simply because I can. I stuck with 50 pounds and did sets of 20 with them, making sure to keep my hip joint at a 90-degree angle (I have to hold myself upright in the seat and not allow my back to lean against the back of the chair...when are they going to make machines for midgets...ahem...vertically challenged people?). I rotated my hips in a bit and turned my toes in together as I pushed the weight up and really squeezed my quads at the top. Burn, baby, burn!! Okay, more like wwwaaaahhh...I want my mommy type of burn...lol! I then hobbled to the bench and proceeded to do step ups as gracefully as one can when being a klutz and having jell-o for legs.

We finished this off with walking lunges outside up a hill. I could do those all day. Seriously. But Amanda got tired, so I decided to sympathize with her and stop when she stopped...lol! We managed to head over to the bikes and ride for 30 minutes and gossip. No, I won't tell you what we chatted about!

Okay, I just stood up to look for a book, and I really want to just sit back down and never get up again. Ouch!! Hold on a minute....