Legs & Cardio

I had to take the day off yesterday to deal with business for my TV show, in fact I didn’t have time to blog yesterday, so this workout is actually what I did Wednesday night.

Also, I want to let you know that I have decided to stop adding the extra glutamine to my smoothies because I was really bloated and was even a little constipated (which you fellow vegan will know, is rare for us fiber-knoshers).  I read that glutamine can do this.  I also suspect the creatine because I didn’t use any of that yesterday either  (because it was a day off from the gym). I have still been using the creatine monohydrate, even though I blogged a while back that I am aware that it causes bloating and I intended to order some creatine ethyl ester because it’s supposed to not cause bloating.  Well, I finally ordered the creatine ethyl ester from Amazon yesterday and I’m hoping it will be better.  I’ll let you know.

I started with Smith machine squats, where I used my fabulous “squat sponge” of course for cushioning my shoulders.  Then I moved to seated calf raises (which are always hard on my knees, to the point of giving me hickeys and/or bruises). So, I decided to use my squat sponge to give my knees lots of extra padding.  It worked like a charm!  I have finally found a way to really work my calves without getting all beaten up by the machine!  If you’re a sensitive lady, like me, you may want to try this. I have tried using towels and clothing and nothing has worked like this.

Also, you may notice that I only worked my calves from one angle (I usually hit them with my toes pointed straight, out and in).  This is because my outer calves seem to be developing faster than my inner or back portions of my calves.  So, I simply worked them with my toes pointed slightly out.  It seems to have worked well because I’m still sore and the targeted areas are pumped up very nicely.

Here’s the workout:

• Smith machine squats: 15 reps/50 lbs, 15 reps/70 lbs X 3
• Smith machine calf raises on plate: 15 reps/70 lbs X 3
• Seated calf raise: 10 reps/90 lbs X 3
• Cable kickbacks: 12 reps/70 lbs each leg, 12 reps/80 lbs each leg, 12 reps/70 lbs each leg
• Calf press Roc It machine: 15 reps/410 lbs X 2, 12 reps/308 lbs (drop set to) 8 reps/240 lbs (drop set to) 11 reps/172 lbs
• Outer thigh machine: 10 reps/39 lbs, 12 reps/34 lbs X 2
• Cardio on Adaptive Motion Trainer: level 15/10 mins/110 cals burned

And here’s what I ate yesterday (day off from the gym):

• Breakfast (40 g protein): smoothie with bananas, frozen blueberries, 2+ oz wheat grass (3 g protein), 1 packet frozen acai with added protein (7 g protein), 1.5 cups soy milk (10 g protein), 1 scoop Vega Sport Performance Protein (20 g protein).
• Lunch (20 g protein): 1/2 Tofurky Roasted Vegetable Pizza (20 g protein)
• Dinner (60 g protein): 1.5 cups Kamut spirals (30 g protein) with Tofurky beer brat sausages (30 g protein)
• Right Before Bed (31 g protein): 2 slices of toasted tofu bread (20 g protein) with flax oil and peanut butter (7 g protein) 1 large mug of chamomile and lavender tea with 1/2 cup soy milk (4 g protein)
• Total 151 grams of protein for the day!