Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Recent doings and not-doings...

Early in January, I took up one student's challenge to arm wrestle at the end of the class, then, having vanquished him, took on another. I quickly regretted this, since I had exerted more force than I had needed to, and without warming up, to boot. Well, about an hour later, I kept my date at the gym, where I did bench press, squats, and pull ups. I felt less than optimal, since I was just coming off the winter break but I felt I'd been out of the gym too long. Well, over the next few days, I felt acute pain in my right arm. It was literally crippling: I did not do any upper body exercise for two weeks. This, on top of hassles with immigration and work, put me into what I'll say was true depression.

Anyway, in the past couple weeks I've gotten back on the horse, mainly by doing suspension-aided push ups, rows, squats, and neck training. I also got my bike back from a friend, so I can ride it around the neighborhood when I like. The main upswing in my training, however, is that I've decided to do the Everlast 6-Week Training Camp regimen. It's a program that came with an Everlast speed rope I bought a few months ago on a whim. I have trained my fast-twitch muscle fibers for a long time now, while, honestly, neglecting my aerobic endurance and slow-twitch fitness. The bad news? This regimen has kicked my tail and my ego! The good news? It's been kicking my tail and my ego!


Results so far:

Before I was committed to doing the Training Camp as indicated on the little poster guide pamphlet, I did a modified circuit workout on Sunday. But then I fell in line Monday and Tuesday. It's Wednesday now, so after I post this, I'll go outside to get humbled and strengthened. My goal is to get well below 20% body fat and work through the shin splint issues that have plagued me whenever I tried to get heavily into skipping the past couple years.

Friday, 26 Jan 2013
30 min., 222 lbs.
Warm up - 3 min.

Suspension push ups  x 5
Suspension pistol squats x 5
Necker lunges x 10
Pull ups x 3
Dips x 3
Jump rope x 120 skips
Medicine ball smashes x 20

1 min. REST then REPEAT for a total of five circuits

Saturday, 27 Jan 2013
20 min., 222 lbs. -- THIS KICKED MY BUTT!
Jump rope  40 sec.
Jumping jacks 40 sec.
Burpees 40 sec.
Jump rope 40 sec.
Hill climbers 40 sec.
Squat jumps 40 sec.
Jump rope 40 sec.
Knee highs 40 sec.
Shadow boxing 40 sec.

REST 1 min. between circuits for a total of two circuits.

Like a jackass, I figured that, since I'm an "athlete," I can start with week 3. After a minute each of jump rope, jumping jacks, and burpees, however, I a broken man. I reset the time for 45 seconds, helped myself to increasingly generous breaks between exercises, and even stopped midway during some exercises. How the mighty have fallen! The next day, even the soles of my feet were sore. I learned my lesson and trained by the numbers for week 1 (below).

Monday, 28 Jan 2013
24 min., 221 lbs.
Squats x 15
Necker lunges x 15
Push ups x 25
Pull ups x 10
One-arm shoulder press x 10 @ 30 lbs.
Sit ups x 20
Leg raises x 20
Rotations x 20
Ab wheel x 10

REST 30 sec. between exercises, REST 1 min. between circuits, REPEAT for a total of two sets.

I finished with a set of neck training: 10/10/10 @//// x 3

(The triplets indicate that I did forward (sagittal) and dual side (coronal) exertions. The back slashes indicate how many sections of elastic cord I used with my Lifeline triple-grip resistance handles. I have three red bands, which, apparently, equate to 90 lbs. of resistance. (Cf. this Lifeline PDF guide for details.) Each strand is, therefore, about 30 lbs. I attach my neck harness to the middle of the strands, which effectively doubles them. My usual resistance is, therefore, about 120 lbs. (two strands doubled), but last night I did a final set with all three strands linked in, which made for about 180 lbs. of resistance. I have no illusions that my neck can or could actually "lift" so much weight, but since my neck movements entrain the core and some momentum, it's feasible.)



This should have taken me 20 minutes. On the one hand, I inadvertently did an extra exercise (as the press could be done in lieu of pull ups, or vice versa), and... advertently... did more reps than indicated. On the other hand, I failed to do the two-minute jump rope warm up and, let's be honest, I let some of those 30-second become 30+-second breaks.

Tuesday, 29 Jan 2013
24 min., 220 lbs.
Stretching warm up

Jump rope  30 sec.
Jumping jacks 30 sec.
Burpees 30 sec.
Jump rope 30 sec.
Hill climbers 30 sec.
Squat jumps 30 sec.
Jump rope 30 sec.
Knee highs 30 sec.
Shadow boxing 30 sec.

I finished with a set of neck training: 12/12/12 @////, 8/8/8 @////, 6/6/6 @//////