Sarah – 20s

If you ‘know’ me then you’ll also know what it takes to push my buttons – not much 😉
Tell me something is difficult and I’ll want to go and do it.
Tell me to get an eight pack instead of a six pack and I’ll go ALL out to do it.
Tell me GIRLS can’t do something and that’s IT, I’ll set out to prove you wrong!
Offer me a challenge and I’ll find it almost impossible to resist; when the 20s gauntlet was thrown at my feet at the end of last week, my fate was already sealed.
20s (20 rep squats) – I’d never heard of them.
Tough, apparently; will make you want to throw up and find walking a challenge for a couple of days after!  Well I was UP FOR THAT 😀
The first set I did was with 32kgs – erm….that was just a little bit easy and I stopped at 25 reps as I wasn’t sure if I was ‘allowed’ to carry on; I could have been bobbing up and down forever 😉  And FAR better to work up than fall down at the first hurdle with a hideous injury.
So the next set was on Monday, “add 10kgs and THEN let’s see you do it!”.…alrighty then!
25 @ 42kgs  – it was heavier and getting tough heading towards the 25 but I couldn’t stop at 20, it would have felt like cheating.
I knew what was coming next, “add another 10. Go to 52kgs. Be CAREFUL!”
Today was the day!
As yesterday disappeared, the butterflies in my stomach began fluttering faster and faster. I couldn’t work out whether I was excited, nervous, apprehensive or what it was I was feeling.  Googling didn’t help either…
“When doing 20-rep squats, your entire day needs to be consumed by it. What does this mean? For me it means getting mentally prepared for what I am going to face. The 20-rep squat is a scary thing. You can’t just go to the gym, load the bar, and go. You need to get there mentally or you are going to fail. All day long I think about squatting.”
Well so far so good, because this had definitely been, and was, the case!
“Pushing a heavy weight for 20 reps is something that your body is going to reject. You will hurt. You will get dizzy. You will feel faint. You will want to vomit. Your body may shut down completely and leave you on the safety pins (pins or a competent, alert spotter are an absolute MUST for this!).
Be prepared for all of that. In order to stop the pain and torture, the body will start reacting, shutting down the pain. 90% of this will be mental. The mind is going to scream STOP! The mind will go before the body unless you are prepared to silence it.” *
* from http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/cyberpump24.htm
I was ready for this too – towards the end of the 42kgs I was aware of really STARING at myself in the mirror; daring myself to carry on, seeing myself do another rep, and another, and another.
Jack’s been my spotter and he went a little pale last night when I told him we’d be ‘going for 52 in the morning’,
“Mum, I don’t think I’ll be able to lift that if you get into trouble!”
So Ellie was enlisted into the spotter ranks this morning and they stood on either side of me, ready to take the bar when necessary.
I woke up at 4.15am (this is normal) and laid in bed thinking about what was heading my way.
I could do this! It was only four bags of sugar, or so, more than I did the other day and I did 25 of those; 52kgs…no problem….
7.30am – time to warm up and do to two warm up sets: 6 x 16kgs, 8 x 26kgs….then 20 x 52gs
It felt heavy just standing still, there was nothing for it other than turn my brain off and START.
(yes, I know it looks like I bashed Morpheus on the head on rep one (he’s my other always present spotter) but I promise he moved his head down at just the right time. Things got tough by rep 6, my brain walked out and I lost count at about rep 11 – hence my requests for the kids to, “COUNT!” and I was breathing as if I’d just been chased by a bear for 10 miles!)

Plenty of room for improvement, that’s for sure! MUST go deeper when it starts to get tough, keep my head up and still and stay more balanced.
This was H E A V Y! Does it matter that I’m only small (not in my head)? Give or take a couple of kgs, it’s what I weigh;I’ll keep working on it until I can do a straight 20 without stopping and without wobbling…think I might still be out of breath though!
How do I feel now…? On top of the world and can’t wait to do it again!! 20s are MAD!! I think I love them…just don’t ask me to run anywhere… 😀