Round 6 - Week 7

Back to the Classic Phase 2 Workouts

MONDAY - July 12, 2010 - Chest, Shoulders & Triceps
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One of my favorite strength workouts. Why? Because Phil cracks me the hell up.

TONY: You ready for the second half, Phil?
PHIL: Yeah.
TONY: Give me some ARRRRRRRRRRRR.
PHIL: arr.

Nothing out of the ordinary today. I used 20 lbs on a lot of the tricep moves and had no problems. I had been using 15's before. I'll try 25's next time on some of them. The Two Twitch Speed Pushups always kill me, and today was no exception. I actually came out of it for a second, which is unusual, but went back at it, and finished the 25 pushups. Still don't trust myself on the Clap pushups as I'm always afraid I'm going to break my wrists, but I did six regular ones. Someday, they're going to be real easy, but not yet. (Burned 566 calories, which is a few more than last time.)

TUESDAY - July 13, 2010 - Plyometrics
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Well, I guess my heart rate monitor isn't busted after all. After the low calorie burns last week, I was a bit concerned. Today I burned 659 doing Plyo, which is more than any workout in this round so far. The top of my zone (85%) is 143. The entire 5th set and Bonus round I was over 150. No pauses today.

Plyo was very tough for me in the first round, two years ago, because it was killing my knees, and I was hitting pause between every set. During my second round I did Cardio X instead of Plyo, and in my third round I alternated them because I wanted to get back into Plyo, but didn't want to beat up my knees by doing it in back to back weeks. It wasn't until round four that I was able to get through it without pausing it three or four times to catch my breath. One day, I just kept pushing myself to go another set without hitting pause and did it all the way through. Since then, I've been OK with it full time in the regular schedule. I always get through it with no pauses, it doesn't hurt my knees, and I actually enjoy it now.

The only move I have a problem with is the Hot Foot on my left leg. I noticed a while ago that I can't bounce of the ball of my left foot. I come down flat on it, and it makes it hard to jump back up. I'm OK on the right foot. I'll keep working on it. (Calories burned = 659, while previous Plyo sessions were between 590-630.)

WEDNESDAY - July 14, 2010 - Back & Biceps
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Today is the half-way point in the round.

One thing for sure. The strength exercises tire me out a lot quicker than the cardio ones. I'm at the point where I never hit pause on any of the cardio workouts, and I'm taking all kinds of breaks on the strength ones. Sometimes it's just to change weights and write things down, but those 15 second breaks are sometimes necessary just to catch my breath and let my muscles calm down a bit before going to the next exercise. I'm not going to worry about it, as it's not a sprint. It's about increasing my strength. Because I'm now using the Powerblocks, and can make the weight changes easier, I upped my weights by about 5 lbs on most of the exercises. I used 35 lbs on many of the bicep moves, and 40 lbs on the back exercises. Even with the increased weight, I was still able to do 12 reps on many of them. Do I dare try 40's for the biceps next time? Do I try 50's on the back exercises? I started the Strip Set with 35's because I was getting really tired, and they were getting heavy at that point. Later in the evening I tried doing 8 curls with 40's, just to see if I could do them when I wasn't so tired, and was able to do 6 clean, and struggle on the last two. I remember when I was doing 20's, and now I'm considering 40's. I guess this thing really works. (Burned 580 calories, which is about 15 less than last time.)

One other thing: I need to get back to the Nutrition Plan. I'm really slipping. Sneaking in a Diet Coke or Root Beer here and there. Grabbing pieces of candy throughout the day that somebody's brought into the office for all to enjoy. I've heard Tony say he lives by the 90/10 rule, whereby 90% of what he eats is good, and 10% is not so good. I agree with that, but I also think that in the back of my mind it gives me justification for eating junk. When it gets to the 70/30 rule, it's time to take control again. The new Septic System just started going in today. I've been stressed about that and the anticipated cost for months. Because it's done, and I can get some final numbers on the cost and move on with my life, it may take the stress level down a notch and hopefully reduce my "stress-eating".

THURSDAY - July 15, 2010 - Yoga X
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My biceps are sore from yesterday. A good sign. Today I had one of my best Yoga X workouts ever. After last week's lame effort, I really wanted to concentrate on what I was doing instead of just going through the motions and waiting for it to end. It didn't start out so good, however, as I lost my balance in the warmups (yes, the warmup) doing the Split-Leg Hamstring Stretches, but it got better. The first half (vinyasas) went by very quickly. I concentrated on keeping my entire back foot planted on the floor in my "heel down" moves, instead of letting it roll forward. It made a big difference in my balance on some of the poses. I think I only tapped the floor a couple times during Warrior 3 / Half-Moon. During the balance postures, I held Tree OK, butchered Royal Dancer on both sides (bouncing all over the place), but held both sides of the Leg Extensions for the full 30 seconds with the toe lock, even using both hands a la Shawna on the right leg. Crane was horrible, but everything else went well. I even made another effort at Wheel, but it didn't work. Got my neck and shoulders off the gound, but I just can't straighten my arms past 90 degrees on this move. Either there's a trick to it that I'm not getting, or I'm just not flexible enough. (Burned 579 calories, which is 79 more than last week, and pretty much what I had been burning before that.)

FRIDAY - July 16, 2010 - Legs and Back
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My knees were hurting all day long, in a way they hadn't in years. The only explanation I have is that I may have been deeper than usual in my Yoga poses yesterday. For now, I'm going to look upon that as a good thing. Of course today was Legs with all those lunges. However, I felt pretty good and the soreness seems to have gone away. We'll see what tomorrow brings. On the pullup side, I did 81, which beats my previous record of 76. Gettin' better! (Calories burned was 544, which is a bit lower than usual for this workout, but not by much.)

SATURDAY - July 17, 2010 - Kenpo X
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I like this workout a lot, and the fact that it usually falls on a Saturday in my schedule makes it all the better. Because I enjoy it more than the other workouts, it almost makes it feel like a workout-free weekend. I'm always drenched in sweat when I'm done, but usually don't burn as many calories as the other workouts. I tried concentrating on turning my body into the punches, and it worked a bit, as I saw my heart rate in the 130s quite a bit. All told, my average rate was 115 (I include the long warmup which brings this down), and my max was 143. I don't know how Tony and Wesley got theirs up to the 160s, unless it was from the hot lights in the studio. I ended up burning 517 calories, which is the first time I was over 500 this round for this workout.

SUNDAY - July 18, 2010 - Weigh-In & Ab Ripper X
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WEIGH IN: Weight = 175.7; Body Fat = 22.4%
I actually lost 3/4 of a pound. Not bad, as I thought I'd put on weight because I'd been chowing down on chocolate earlier in the week. I'm not as obsessed with the weight thing as much as I used to be. I think I've pretty much settled into where I should be. I only weigh myself every week now as an accountability thing. If I didn't, and started slipping a bit, I could see where it could be easy to throw on 10 lbs or so without knowing it. This way, if I reach for that piece of chocolate, I know it's going to affect my Sunday number. At that point, it's my decision. I have no desire to totally eliminate Snickers Bars or Reese's Cups or brownies or cake from my diet. That would make me miserable, and the whole point of this process is to make myself feel good. However, moderation with those things is key. I know how hard it's been to get that weight off, and I don't want to have to do it all over again. I still want to get the Body Fat % down, however.

AB RIPPER X: I know this routine so well, I don't even use the video anymore. As I'm doing the exercises, I can almost hear Tony in my head. Did 28 reps on some of the moves just because I felt like it, and did 84 Mason Twists. My abs really started feeling it about halfway through the workout. I was really pushing the Fifer Scissors. Maybe that was it. (Burned 130 calories, which is a bit above my usual of 110-125.)

All in all, a pretty good week.