Sad News on Gym Gems

I may be moving to a new gym, or at least temporarily not gymming it at all, which means the suspension of our fabulous Aspen Club-inspired Gym Gems.

However, I have one last anecdote to leave you with, and I’m so glad my mom got to see it herself in action when she was here last week:

To the personal trainer who trains every single day, every single client, while wearing slacks, a button-down, and dress shoes, I would like to let you know that you too have a work uniform, and it is not in fact the work uniform of a big city banker. It is gym clothes. At the very, very, very least, sneaks.

Because of my departure I may never see him demonstrate a squat in dress pants and shoes again and for that I am sad, but were he to wear athletic clothes I would be forever grateful to never again see that.

February 27, 2012
Categories: Uncategorized . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: Lyssa . Comments: Leave a Comment

Yoga Questions

It’s Ashley Turner yoga boot camp week again (click here for my obsessions from last time) and it’s been a tough week so far. Not only is the physical practice incredibly challenging (more so than last time), but she’s raising questions … again. All of which is awesome, of course.

What are you rushing toward? What do you think will happen when you get there?

Applies to so many things in my life right now, and I WAS rushing through the asanas. With that awareness, I tried to slow it down, but it’s tough! As in life …

Also,

Comparison is the thief of joy.

Particularly with the launch of DailyHap (don’t forget your click donates a penny to Austin Smiles!) , I’m constantly looking at other sites, competitors, partners, and some that are completely unrelated, going, ‘are we this good? do they have more traffic?’ and so on … while I need to be aware of what those other sites are doing, I also need to be overjoyed that DailyHap is doing what it’s doing! We’re doing great work and growing steadily … no comparisons necessary!

More yoga wisdom to come … hopefully?

February 15, 2012
Categories: thoughts . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: Lyssa . Comments: Leave a Comment

Who is Looking at Whom at the Gym

via The Oatmeal. Someday I will make one of these for the Aspen Club, because the people are even more extreme and it will be even funnier.


at the gym

February 7, 2012
Categories: Finds, Gyms . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: Lyssa . Comments: Leave a Comment

“I just have a few more pushups to do”

I love the gym so much. Last night, I’m doing a barbell complex over on the Olympic rack when this happens:

“Oh hey, what’s up?” I don’t look over, unsure if he’s talking to me, sure I don’t want to talk to him.

“Yeah, man, I’m just at the gym. Lifting some weights. Heavy weights.”

He’s talking on his bluetooth. Sitting on a bench. Holding some 25# dumbbells.

“Yeah let’s go to the Little Nell and get some wine. Maybe some food. I’m almost done here. At the gym. I just have a few more pushups to do.”

For the record, he didn’t do another pushup.

February 3, 2012
Categories: Gyms . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: Lyssa . Comments: 3 Comments

My latest adventure: DailyHap.com

DailyHap.com is here!

Come get happy with me.

February 1, 2012
Categories: Finds . Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Author: Lyssa . Comments: Leave a Comment

Russian Baby Makers

At least half of the reason I go to yoga is to do hip stretches (and work out the IT Band kinks). If I don’t have time to yoga, I will almost always do bound side angle, dragon, and pigeon after working out to keep myself limber (occasionally, if no one is around, and it’s an odd hour, I will do these in the steam room at the gym, which feels awesome but would be incredibly awkward to have someone else walk in on).

Add to these a new one: The Russian Baby Maker. Click the link, I can’t do it justice.

January 31, 2012
Categories: Finds, training . Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Author: Lyssa . Comments: Leave a Comment

Compliment or Insult: Bar Edition

Today, let’s take Compliment or Insult outside of the fabled Aspen Club gym and into a little basement bar we like to call Escobar. It’s where Brooke Mueller got arrested with like five ounces of cocaine “for her friends.”

It’s a Tuesday night, and Nappy Roots has sold out Belly Up with $15 tickets. I am sad I cannot go, even after trying to get friends to leave me tickets, so I am drowning my sorrows with my Sexy Gay BF (he named himself that) and we’re just trying to dance. So we head to aforementioned basement bar.

It’s 1:30am, and suddenly Nappy Roots is straight partying with us. Spinning on the turntables, dancing with the locals, boozing at the bar. Hell. Yes. The night couldn’t get any better.

nappy roots escobar aspen

Until Sexy Gay BF ASKS A MEMBER OF THE NAPPY ROOTS IF HE THINKS I AM HOT.

Hello, middle school called, it wants its flirting back.

Mr. Nappy Roots (#1? #5? no idea) looks me up and down and says, “Fuck yeah!”  I am wearing leggings. He proceeds to say, “Look at those protruding thighs! Damn girl!”

I run away.

Protruding thighs?? Are we for real?

Compliment or Insult?

January 22, 2012
Categories: Compliment or Insult . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Lyssa . Comments: Leave a Comment

Compliment or Insult: Where’s the Bigger Weight?

Welcome to this edition of my very favorite gym game, Compliment or Insult.

Scene: Aspen Club

Strength Workout: 3-3-3 Deadlift, with the 3rd lift at 245#

Man: staring at me from the cardio deck above the weightroom floor. Possibly from a treadmill.

Burn Workout: 5 Rounds: 5 DL @ 115# / 10 pushups

Man: “Where’s the bigger weight?”

Me: blank stare, panting, three rounds in

Man: “I saw you lifting heavy weight earlier, what is this light weight?”

Me: “Higher volume.”

Man: “Oh, ok.”

Really, sir? Do I come ask you why you slowed down running on the treadmill? Or perhaps why you’re doing a “tricep row” machine when you could bust out some damn pushups and get the same effect?

Compliment or Insult?

January 20, 2012
Categories: Compliment or Insult . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Lyssa . Comments: Leave a Comment

What are those funny-colored plates?

I talked about how excited I was when the Aspen Club got bumper plates. Each plate is a different color for its weight, and I love them. Yesterday, I got a chance to love them for a different reason: humor!

A man who was previously using the leg press came up to me as I was repping out some back squats at 205#. I rack the weight and he says, “What are the funny-colored plates?”

I stare at him for a moment, baffled.

“How much is the red one?” he asks.

“45. They’re bumper weights. They bounce.” Silence. “For Olympic lifting.” Silence. “In case I have to drop it.”

He says, “Can you show me?”

Still baffled. No, I cannot show you how 205 pounds bounces when I drop it, because ideally I can squat it and it does not in fact need to be dropped. I grab a 15# weight and drop it on the floor. It bounces.

“Oh, so it bounces?”

I smile. “Yep.”

He walks away.

I cannot make these things up. The Aspen Club never gets old.

January 17, 2012
Categories: Gyms . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: Lyssa . Comments: Leave a Comment

Better-lookin’ jorts

I have a pair of jorts that I’ve had for quite some time. Since my eBay buying phase, when I ordered a pair of Hollisters that were too short for these long legs. Probably early college, let’s call it. They have fit me more or less the same way since then, as my shape may have changed but my overall weight and upper thigh girth has not.

jorts

Wish I had a better pic!

This weekend I put on said jorts for a trailer trash party and was surprised to find out that they were no longer tight on my legs! (Tight here is a relative term … obviously they were tight, they are jorts!) This was puzzling to me, as I have been doing LOTS of heavy leg work with the Wendler program and in prep for ski season. But apparently as everyone promises, lifting heavy will not in fact make you heavier!

This is some serious motivation to keep working out hard and heavy: better-lookin’ jorts!!

Separate issue: is it jorts or jhorts??

November 22, 2011
Categories: training . Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Author: Lyssa . Comments: Leave a Comment

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