Extreme fitness challenge: My darkest 40 minutes

Week 3 Day 8: Today was another challenging day! Unfortunately I didn't get to finish my workout which I was really gutted about.

I've been completing my workouts lately and not being able to finish today was a good reminder of how I need to keep pushing myself.

We began with the usual warm up with Alannah increasing the situps and push ups by another 5.

I'm excited to tell you that I began with 3 manly push ups!! As I've said in my previous posts my upper body strength is totally non-existent and even though there are other changes that I've noticed in myself (that others would see as a much bigger deal) just being able to whack out a couple of these is a huge morale booster for me! 

Anyway, here's a quick look at what we did in today's session:

x12 lifting heavy barbell from knees to chest then overhead (these were not easyand getting the technique right will be an ongoing challenge for me)
x12 Push-ups
x12 Mountain climbs (in a plank like position and shifting from one foot to the other)
x12 Burpees

We repeated this 4 times and we had to complete this as fast as we could.

Then...

x12 squats with that same weight as first exercise
x12 box jumps
x12 sumo box jumps
x12 wall balls

Today was difficult (as always), I've been determined to make sure that I finish EVERY workout as a challenge to myself but today I didn't get to do that and I was beating myself up a bit over it because I felt like I'd taken a BIG step backwards. We finish with x2 runs around the block and x2 runs around the field which I never got to do.

After the workout I was thinking to myself why this session was so damn hard and it could be for a number of reasons, like being overtired from all the late nights I work and not quite settling into a routine or maybe it's the early starts and organising Ruby [my daughter] is all catching up on me?

Who knows, it could be all of these reasons.

But maybe it was just that the workout was a killer. The weights and cardio together (which I'm not used to) made for a tough workout.

The peculiar thing is I have been doing this for 2 and a half weeks and exercises that I feel confident with I was now physically struggling with again. At times I felt like I was working someone else's body, moving their limbs around ... that's a weird sensation.

It reminded me of my first session where I'd forgotten how to use my arms and legs...frustrating man!

Is this "hitting the wall??"

Needless to say I did leave today's workout feeling a little dejected with myself.

But as I write this I remind myself that I'm not a fitness chick, I've never been athletic so for me to be achieving what I'm achieving is crazy and I'm loving that! And the support I've been getting from friends and even people I've never met is amazing!

Ok, rant over! Bring on Friday (my favourite day!)

- Dunedin hairdresser Emma Rastrick has bravely decided to take on World Fitness Centre's TribeFIT training programme with the aim of getting in shape in just six weeks.