5-30-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Lean Circuit 1 + I've Got Abs + Splits + TCF.

5-30-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Lean Circuit 1 + I've Got Abs + Splits + TCF.

Today was a kind of a bummer.  I was feeling good in the morning and war ready for the day.  Then, as I was driving to work, my seat cushion was a little off center.  In order for me to center it, I have to lean way over to my left and then twist around to readjust it.  Well, as I was twisting, I guess I twisted my neck as well because I felt a sudden pain on the left side of my neck.  So that when I sat normally, looking to the left was painful.  All day at work, I was trying to massage the spot, but it stuck with me.  I've had this pain before and doing weights with this type of neck kink always becomes more painful.  Needless to say, I wasn't looking forward to that.  But today, weights was scheduled so I figured I was in for some pain.

As I started my workout, I decided to do the low reps, high sets with my Pull-Ups.  So, I did the 4 variations on the workout sheet: Chin-Ups (3sx6r), V-Pull-Ups (3sx4r), 5-Grip Pull-Ups (2sx2rds), and Parallel Grip Pull-Ups (2sx6r).  For a total of 10 sets.  The first number is the number of sets, so "3s" means 3 sets, and "6r" means 6 reps.  For the 5-Grips, 1 set consisted of 2 rounds and each round had one Pull-Up on each grip, so each set had 10 reps.  I just about hit failure on the V-Pull-Ups, but mainly because of my left shoulder.  It is still not at full strength, but it is coming along slowly but surely.  But it was intense today.

I mostly kept the weights the same as the last time I did this routine on May 16.  The only change was on move 3.  I moved down to 8.75kgs on this one because my arms were already feeling it, so I figured it would be best to go down and not injure myself.   There weren't any surprises.  The burn came quickly on a lot of the moves.  Again, it was those slow reps that killed me.  With every other move a biceps move, my arms were so PUMPED!  It felt good, but I know I'm going to feel it in the morning.  I almost cramped out on the Hamstring Curl with the resistance bands in move 5.  Keeping my hips forward really challenges those hamstrings.  It was an awesome workout.  Luckily, I tried not to put too much stress on my neck, so I didn't have any issues with that neck kink.

I went right into abs.  Since I sort of hold this routine responsible for my chest issues last week, I was a little nervous, but, as it turns out, I was feeling a lot better about it as the routine progressed.  I was feeling the burn pretty quickly once the 5-minute mark passed.  I felt really good with the Push-Ups.  I was able to keep the core strong throughout the routine.  But I still came close to failure about three times.  I wasn't able to keep up with Chalene's transition pace.  On a few moves, I needed a little more time, not much, but I had to rewind the video.  I remember taking three separate breaks.  The first one was just before crossing my feet straight up, and then touching my ankles on either side.  I needed a breather just before that one started.  I don't remember the other two breaks, but I took them.  Much more burn with the weighted oblique moves as well.  When I finished, I really felt the hardness of my core.

The splits and Flow were fine.  No residual soreness so everything was good.

In the end, I torched way over 1000kcals.  A good day for a big calorie burn.

5-29-17 Tennis.

5-29-17 Tennis.

Today's tennis is with my regulars.  They normally play on Thursday evening, but for the past few weeks, a few of the members come and play on Mondays, too. We were short one person today so we couldn't play doubles, but it turned into a good practice session.  One good hour of drilling each other and when a fourth finally came, we had just enough time to play one set.

My partner and I went down quickly to a 1-3 deficit. But we fought our way back to 5-5.  Then, a few unforced errors crept in and we lost the set 5-6.  As for my service games, I lost my first service game.  Two aces, then two double faults, then error doomed me.  That's when we went down to 1-3.  But I picked up my service game and only hit one double fault in my next two service games, 4 aces, and 4 service winners.  I lost only one point on my serve in my last two games and that was the double fault.  My serve was ON FIRE!!!  The Sunday practice really helped me find my rhythm.   Even though we lost, we still had a fun time.

In the end, I torched just under 1400kcals.  Happy for the burn!

5-28-17 Tennis.

5-28-17 Tennis.

Slow day today, just getting things organized around the house, watching some TV, relaxing.  My wife was able to get a court for late afternoon, so we went to play tennis.  The last time we played, she was able to do really well at her tennis club, so that motivated her to want to play again.  This time, we started to actually play some points.  Rally points, starting with the serve.  She was able to hit into the doubles alley, but I was playing the singles court.  I got a good workout running everything down.  And since I was serving a lot more than usual, I got some good second serve practice in.

In the end, I torched just over 1000kcals.  Fun way to start my week.

5-26-17 ChaLEAN Extreme - Burn Intervals + TCF.

5-26-17 ChaLEAN Extreme - Burn Intervals + TCF.

I would normally do a regular resistance workout today, but two things prevented that: 1. Time.  Again, I was in a time crunch and I only had about 90 minutes to workout.  2. Big day on Saturday.  I had to give the sermon at church and I didn't want to risk hurting myself or overdoing it (as I am prone to do at times).  But I still wanted to get some weights in.  So I figured that this would be the perfect routine for today, and it was.  Plus, I wanted to maintain my good Pull-Up progress so I added a set of 5 pull-ups between moves at different times for a total, again, of 10 sets, I used the same progression as on Tuesday: Wide Grip, Parallel Grip, Close Grip, Chin Up.

I LOVE THIS ROUTINE!!!  I really wish there were more routines like this one or even a full program that combine resistance and cardio in the individual routines.

First, let me address the Thigh Toner Band.  To quote Tony, "I Hate it... But I LOVE IT!!!"  And to paraphrase the woman, herself, "This little band looks so innocent, but it is a killer!"  I totally agree.  By the final move, my thighs and glutes are absolutely screaming.

Second, the cardio moves.  These are probably the most fun cardio moves I've done.  As the move progresses, just the nature of the move motivates you to push even harder.  Then, there is Chalene, herself with her talking.  Awesome stuff.  I get burned out and sweat like crazy.  But recovery is quick so I can pretty much stick with her pace.

Lastly, the light resistance moves.  I love the burn from the light weights and "BAZILLION" reps.  I'm moaning after each move with pain.  But I make it through.  But the one move that I find the need to take several breaks on in the past was the triceps move.  First Triceps Kickbacks, then transitioning to Overhead Triceps Extensions, fast, then slow, then fast again.  The Kickbacks are usually fine, but the Overhead Extension, Oh my triceps BURN and I end up taking several breaks... until today.  Today, I only needed on break during the whole move, it was when the slow reps started on the Overhead Extensions.  I had to shake out my arms, but I got back to it.  Barely made it to the end.  Then, the final weighted move is Squats.  Usually, I can't make it to the end, but today, CRUSHED IT!!!

I just loved today's workout.  And I was able to have a big burn as well.  I had just enough time to tack on a series of Flows so I was able to calm myself.

In the end, I torched a surprising 1063kcals.  Happy to get that "Grand" in to close out the week.

5-25-17 HY: T25 - Alpha: Total Body Circuit + Splits + TCF.

5-25-17 HY: T25 - Alpha: Total Body Circuit + Splits + TCF.

This was my nemesis routine when I was doing this program several months ago.  This is the one routine in Alpha that I could not do a Straight 25 on.  And after doing MAX 30, I thought that I would and should be able to get all the way through it with no break.  Long story short, I did not make it all the way through.  I made it all the way to the end of the regular routine then as the Burnout started, I just died.  So, I took my first break at 5 minutes, then 2:50, then 1 minute left.  Three breaks in the last 5 minutes is not good.  But I was happy that I was able to power through the main routine.  If the first move of the Burnout was not Tap Push-Ups, I could have done it.  But doing Burnout Push-Ups right after doing a tough progression of Push-Ups with the last one being those killer Spider Push Ups. NO WAY!!! For now, anyway.  I had to do tons of Push-Ups on Tuesday and Wednesday so these were even more killer!

I finished it out with a nice quick round of Splits and a clean and smooth series of Flows.

In the end, I burned a nice little 656kcals.  Since I was in a bit of a time crunch, I only had a short time to workout.

5-24-17 HY: P90X2 - X2 Yoga + TCF.

5-24-17 HY: P90X2 - X2 Yoga + TCF.

I woke up a little earlier today so I decided to give X2 Yoga a try.  With my shoulder bugging me and my chest muscles sore, I was wondering how much of this one I'd be able to take.  Also, after yesterday's resistance workout of my chest and shoulders, those areas were regular sore on top of that.

The stretch was nice, and all the little flows, but the standing sequences were killer.  That one sequence with the Standing Splits, I could not handle, I had to come out of it and stand up and shake it out midway through the sequence on both sides.  It has been a while since I needed to do that, but at the same time, it has been a while since I've actually done this routine as well.  But compared to X3 Yoga, X2 Yoga really allows a person to settle into a pose and just sit.  I am still surprised that I was still able to do the Wrap on both sides, but just fingertips holding on.  My right Half-Moon was terrible.  Balance was terrible.  And when I was up, I had to look down.  Still can't keep my balance well enough to look up.  But on the left side, for some reason, I was/am able to keep my balance a lot better and look up.  I always do the extra Push-Up on all the Vinyasa's, but after all the push ups yesterday, with all the soreness, I was struggling to get all those Push-Ups in.  But all in all, it was a great session.  And I felt noticeably looser at the end, so I decided to do a series of Flows which really felt good as well.

In the end, I burned off a nice 453kcals.  Pretty much double the X3 Yoga burn.  I also felt double the pain as well.

5-23-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Lean Circuit 3 + I've Got Abs + Splits + TCF.

5-23-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Lean Circuit 3 + I've Got Abs + Splits + TCF.

Today, for some reason, my shoulder was feeling a little achier than usual.  Also, I noticed on my worksheet that I didn't write any of the "Bonus" Pull-Up moves that I had done in every other resistance routine in this program.  I can't imagine not doing that extra set, so I changed it up a little.  Today, instead of doing a MAX set at the beginning of the routine then after each Tri-Set, I did a set of 5 reps after each move.  I did this because my shoulder hurts and I didn't want to burn it out while keeping close to the same number of reps as before.  So, I ended up doing 10 sets of 5 reps.  The first three were Wide Grip pull ups, second three were Parallel Grip, third two were Close Grip Pull-Ups, and the last two were Chin-Ups. Felt good and fast and almost maxed out at the end.

As you can see on the worksheet below, I lowered my weights from the last time by an average of 3.5kgs.  I was a little wary because of my chest tightness, so I didn't want to pressure it too much by lifting weights that would take me right up to, and past my MAX.  Of the Lean Phase, this routine is my favorite.  I love the Shoulder and Chest work.  The weights I used were perfect.  There were several sets of Push-Ups and I think I felt pretty strong during them.  But by the end of the routine, I was feeling that strain but I kept good solid form.  I felt good through the entire routine and I was pretty spent but energetic at the end.  Happy to report that there were no issues with chest pain today.

I moved right into abs.  I think my chest tightness came from this routine.  As I went through the move progression, I could see the stress each move was putting on my upper core up to my chest.  As I was lying on my back, I could feel the sensation of a sore muscle being pressed.  And each rep really worked the muscles that seemed to be giving me the most pain.  I think that once I get used to this particular routine, my issues will go away.  Until the next tough new ab routine.  As usual, this routine gave me a hot burn and I was feeling it right away and for a while afterward.

Splits and Flow were on point.  Felt good to get that stretch on.  The Flows were clean and smooth.  Almost becoming second nature, but I still have to somewhat focus on what I do.

In the end, I torched a steady 1082kcals.  It really felt a lot better this time with the weights and the change in Pull-Up style.  We'll have to give it a go again, soon!

(It is Sunday today and I'm playing catch up because I had to write a sermon and translate it into Japanese this week.  So, I'll be posting for four days today.)

5-22-17 Tennis.

5-22-17 Tennis.

Today's tennis was scheduled.  But I am thankful that I have tennis today because that pain in my chest I was talking about yesterday was still bugging me.  It seemed a little more intense this morning.  Then, the frightening thought entered my mind, "What if it is my heart, and I'm having a heart attack?"  But as I thought about the area of the pain and it's style of radiation in the center of my chest and how the pain would come on only in certain positions and with specific movements. I put that thought away.  It was a bit shocking though.  Plus, I vaguely recall having felt this pain before and it ended up being muscle strain.  But as the day went on, the pain was getting less and less, and finally, as I write this, I don't feel any pain and only minor pain when bending over.

I was a little worried about playing tennis with the pain, but I think that playing last night helped me gain a little confidence.  Once that adrenaline starts rushing through my veins, I will be fine.  And I was.  I was happy with my game tonight.  I served much better tonight.  I won the majority of my service games, I double faulted much less, and I hit several aces, some of which even surprised me.  I hit a lot of good shots but shanked several balls as well.  My partner and I lost the first set 3-6 but won the second set 6-2.  I got a good sweat on and no injuries today.  Also, I was virtually pain-free.  I don't recall any pain during the match.  I guess I just wasn't thinking about.  I was so focused on the game.  I like playing with these guys, most of whom are 15+ years older than me.  But the big problem is that they don't really hit that hard, and I have to adapt my game to their playing style.  There are so many balls that are so tempting just to tee off on.  I'll get a few points, but I overhit a lot as well.  So I end up playing a dink shot or something weak like that.  I don't want to play a weak game, I want to hit out and gain confidence in my game.  So I'm going to have to start changing my style of play so get used to and more focused on hitting solid shots off of sitters.  I want to be able to smash every bloop second serve with confidence, not just bloop it back because I'm afraid I'll overhit it.  But today was still fun.  I just gave myself a good goal to work on my game.

In the end, I torched a good 1450+kcals.   Lots of playing today and moving around.  That is the point!

5-21-17 Tennis.

5-21-17 Tennis.

Today was a busy day right from the early morning.  And I was suffering because like an idiot, I didn't go to bed until around 3 am.  Knowing full well what kind of day was coming.  Plus, there were some surprises that made it even tougher.  My Sunday started at 6:30 am.  I had to bring my daughter and her friend to the train station, then a bit later, my wife and I would meet her to watch her Field Hockey game.  It has been about a year since I got my SLR out, but my daughter wanted some good pics of herself playing so I prepared everything.  I had to charge a lot of batteries the night before.  But I got some good shots.  It was a good match, but unfortunately, my daughter's team just missed the victory.  My wife and I then took a nice long drive through the mountains.  It was an unexpected adventure because we were following Google Maps' Navigation and it took us on a very country road.  About half the road was a two-way road, but narrow enough to be a one-way road.  I was so nervous for most of the way because if another car came the other way, there would have been virtually no way around.  Anyway, after all was said and done, we got home at close to 5 pm and I was majorly tired.  So, I flopped down on the bed and ended up taking a 1.5-hour nap. I woke up relatively refreshed and basically ready to do my workout.  But my wife had made a tennis court reservation so my plan changed.  Instead of Lean Circuit 3, I went to play tennis.

My wife reserved two hours and we used it fully.  But for part of the time, I was teaching and drilling my wife... IN VARIOUS TENNIS SHOTS!!!  We did basic forehand and backhand, volleying, overhead smash, and serving.  We played points, and then finally we played a few games.  My wife ran me around pretty much so I got a good workout.

In the end, I torched a good 1100+kcals.  For the past few days, I have had this weird feeling in the center of my chest.  It is like the muscles that hold my chest cavity in place was extremely sore and so every time I would bend over, my chest really hurt.  To relieve the pain a little, I would exhale.  Turning in bed was/is painful, just everyday stuff like picking up a piece of paper from the floor was painful.  I practiced a few serves and the twisting motion was painful, but I wanted to keep on practicing, so I kept going and after a time, I didn't notice the pain or the pain went away.  It started about a week ago after Push Circuit 3.  There were some tough moves and I may have strained some of those internal muscles.  So, I think it was a good thing that I didn't do resistance today.

5-19-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Lean Circuit 2 + I've Got Abs.

5-19-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Lean Circuit 2 + I've Got Abs.

This is a routine that is a little tough for me now because of my shoulder pain.  But I decided to got with it and don't be afraid to modify when necessary.  The center of my back was still sore and felt like it was getting sorer so I figured that this routine would force some of that soreness out.  I was sort of in a time crunch today, so I was only able to do my main routines.

I was extremely pleased with my Pull-Ups this time around.  I was able to really crush the previous time's rep count, but I didn't do a Burnout set.  In the regular routine, I thought that I would need to reduce the weights this time around from last time, and so I did for the first move by 1.25kgs.  But I could instantly feel it as I started the move, it was too light.  So, as you can see below I used the same weight as I did a year ago.  The shoulder work was actually not too bad.  The weights I used were just right to bring me to failure by the last rep.  The big thing is I was able to find out what move really hurt my shoulder.  You would think that all those Lateral Raises were the source of pain, but actually, no.  The most painful move was move #6, Plank with Single Arm Row.  And to be more specific,  it was the negative side of the move.  Pulling the dumbbell towards me was find, but slowly letting the weight down really put a kink in my shoulder,  I could almost feel a tendon snapping back into place.  And that brought on a flash of pain, unlike any other move.  There was one Lateral Raise move that I decided to go down in weight on, that was the move just before the Plank move. Move #5, Lateral Raise with Abduction with Bands.  I went down 1.25kgs, and that was still tough.  The reason why I went down was that I felt the last Lateral Raise move was a little too taxing on my shoulder on the last few reps.  Even though the weights were lighter, it was still really tough.  But my shoulders and legs were really pumped once I finished. And a bit sore.

I moved right into my ab routine, and man, this one doesn't seem to be that hard, but I don't know what it is about the combination of moves, but by the 4th or 5th move, my abs, every time, are screaming out for mercy.  I came close to cramping near the end so I backed off a bit and modified some of the last moves.  Still not totally comfortable with this one yet, but I really like it.

In the end, I burned off a nice little 700+kcals.  I kind of expected that without the splits and Flow.  But I was glad to end my week with resistance.

5-18-17 HY: T25 - Alpha: Speed 1.0 + ChaLEAN Extreme - Extreme Core Circuit + Splits + TCF.

5-18-17 HY: T25 - Alpha: Speed 1.0 + ChaLEAN Extreme - Extreme Core Circuit + Splits + TCF.

Today would normally be a Pickle-Ball day but my playing partner had a family emergency and suddenly had to return to the UK for a couple weeks from today.  So, no Pickle-Ball until he gets back and recovers from his trip and other things.  So, I get to do some regular Shaun T Cardio!  It has been a while.  I was actually planning to do at least one Shaun T routine a week to keep my arches from getting soft and week again, but it hasn't worked out that way because for the past few weeks since finishing MAX 30, I have been doing Pickle-Ball AND Tennis.  And tennis, sometimes twice a week.  So I am relishing this chance to do a Shaun T.

I remember Speed 1.0 and thought it was going to be easy... IT WASN'T!!!  I actually started off really well.  I was keeping up with the crew's pace and foot speed.  But as the routine went on, I started to feel heavier and heavier.  Then, my mouth started to feel really dry and right around the 8-minute mark, I had to stop to get a drink.  Then, I took a couple more breaks before the end.  By the end, I was extremely winded and I felt really tired.  It was kind of an odd feeling because I usually don't feel "bad" after a workout, but this feeling wasn't good.  Furthermore, my legs were feeling really wasted.  It was an extremely foreign feeling.  I guess the style of movement from Tennis and Pickle-Ball is very different from Shaun T cardio.  This is why I wanted to do at least one Shaun T routine a week, just to keep conditioned.

I didn't like that feeling, so I decided, also since I had the time, to do a bonus Ab routine.  It had been a while since I did the Ball work, so I went with Extreme Core Circuit.  Abs still burned along with Shoulders.  I still used the 2kg hand weights and felt the added resistance.  Felt better some, after that little routine.

Splits and Flow were Good.  I had a nice smooth run with all the stretches and movements.

In the end, I burned just about 700kcals.  Not a huge burn, but it sure felt like a lot more.

5-17-17 HY: P90X3 - X3 Yoga + TCF.

5-17-17 HY: P90X3 - X3 Yoga + TCF.

After three hard workouts, I'm glad to have this mid-week recovery day.  It has been a few weeks since I did yoga and wanted to get back to it.  Plus, since Friday, my Back muscles have been feeling sore so this was a good chance for me to calm them down.

The routine went well.  I was able to do everything as prescribed.  The only difficulty I had was with the Half-Moon Pose.  I had balance issues on my right side but was pretty stable on my left. But the biggest surprise was right at the beginning.  I did this routine in the morning after a shake to start my day.  I'm usually pretty tight and when I do a forward bend, I can't touch my toes or the ground.  But today, right from the start, I was able to touch the ground and even put my fist on the ground.  So it seems like my getting looser.  I was happy about that.  Hamstrings are opening up and releasing faster.  There is still a large discrepancy between left and right, but I'm assuming that that will work itself out in time.  I had time for a good series of Flows, so I further centered with a series of Flows.

In the end, I burned a modest 249kcals, but I was feeling really good the whole day.  Happy Hump Day!

5-16-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Lean Circuit 1 + I've Got Abs! + Splits + TCF.

5-16-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Lean Circuit 1 + I've Got Abs! + Splits + TCF.

It's good to be back onto a regular schedule.  The past couple weeks have been a little filled with little tweaks and adjustments to my schedule I was getting a little crazy. But finally, I'm back to a regular, consistent, and predictable schedule.  The only adjustments to be made are how early or how late to workout on Sunday.  So I'm good.

Today I started the final circuit of ChaLEAN Extreme, the LEAN Circuit.  On this worksheet, I wrote the date of the last time I did it and it was almost a year ago.  Back in July of 2016.  So things are coming full circle.  I feel a lot stronger already from  BURN and PUSH, but just in case, I decided to go down in weight from the previous time a year ago.  It was a good decision because I was dying with the lighter weight.  When I say dying, I'm talking about the intense burn.  The interesting thing is that with the lower weight, going to rep 8 was a breeze.  But those last four reps to get to 12... WOW!  BRUTAL!!!  It is like my muscles were expecting to stop at 8 reps, then started shutting down then, to their surprise, had to instantly get back to work.  In this circuit, I will do all the Breakdown sets as Chalene instructs, no going off book this time.  There were a ton of Bicep moves and on each one, I burned it up and out.  Slow reps are killers.  Right from the first move, my biceps were pumped and burning.  The Breakdown Set really added that extra intensity.  The Tricep Push-Ups were good.  I felt strong and hammered them out easily.  My pace was slower than Chalene's though so the burn was there.  For the Breakdown Squats, I used 19.5kgs.  Then Biceps again.  Oh, that hurt!  On the workout sheet, there are moves that have three numbers on their line.  That happens when like in move 3, Chalene does six reps on each leg, but arms are doing all 12 reps.  The first number is the Lunges, the second number is the curls, and the last number is the Breakdown.  That is just for me to keep track of everything I'm doing.  For the Triceps moves, I put a 1-2 breath static hold at the top just to burn the tris out more.  Felt HOT!!!  Then the next move almost caused me an even great pain in the form of a cramp.  The Curls were burn inducing as expected, but the Hamstring Curl.  For the first time, I felt a huge contraction and I came really close to cramping out in my hamstrings.  I needed to take some time to stretch out after that move.  The following Triceps move is more of a core move.  I certainly felt it in my core AND my triceps.  More BURN for me!  In the last Tri-Set, more bicep curls.  Arms are really getting burned out this time around.  I had to go down in weight for the bicep work from the second Tri-Set, but the same result, a huge burn on the last four reps almost to failure.  For move eight, just a reminder, I do that move on the ball to get more range-of-motion.  I felt a slight twinge in my right elbow, but nothing of consequences.  The Breakdown, I changed from regular Push-Ups to Diamond Push-Ups.  They are great to keep working on the triceps.  Plus, I am now able to get my chest all the way down to the floor.  I couldn't when I learned about this move in P90X's Core Synergistic's, but I couldn't get my chest to the ground and then back up again. But it was incredible!  Very happy about the burn.  As for my extra Pull-Up sets, with full Range of motion, I did more in one sitting this time than last time, except for the V-Pulls.  I felt I could do more on the right side, but my left side failed me because of my shoulder and three on that side is all I could handle today.  The pain is going down in my wrists and shoulders, so I think that by the end of this circuit I should be able to get back to 12 reps in one set.  Overall, a good workout today with the free weights.

I went with a relatively new routine for my abs/core.  I've Got Abs!  I did this one once before and about died, so I was anxious to see how Ab Burner and Extreme Abs prepared me for this routine.  I'll tell you, it was BRUTAL!!! I maxed out at 8:33 seconds.  The transitions were just too fast and I couldn't keep up.  There were a lot of moves that just seemed more difficult today.  I lot of Oblique work was done, and I got burned!  A lot of tension in the core was really good.  I was happy to get that first one done.  Now, I can focus on form and strength.  I have five more times with this ab/core routine, so I hope I can master it as well.

The Splits and Flow were all good.  Clean and Smooth and on point!  Hamstrings were still a bit tender from the resistance training and that one move, but it was expected.  I stretched it fine in the end.

In the end, I torched a good 1161kcals.  Today, my back muscles were even sorer than yesterday.  But my injury was a lot better and flat.  I need tomorrow's mid-week recovery for sure!

5-15-17 Tennis.

5-15-17 Tennis.

I'll call this day, "180" day.  Why?  Because that is the way I played today.  Last week, I was above 80% for first serve percentage.  Today, I'm lucky if I hit 10%.  Last week, I didn't double fault until my 6th or 7th service game.  Today, I hit two double faults or more in every service game.  Last week I won all my service games. Today, I lost all but one.  The only good thing is that I was playing the game okay.  What should have been an easy win was a hard fought loss.  Even with no-ad scoring, the first set alone took over 45 minutes.  Another bright point was in the one service game I did win.  I was down 15-40 and came back with some well placed and powerful serves to win the game.  But my performance was 180 degrees in the wrong direction to what it was last week.  I was just off today.

I'm not making any excuses, but when I woke up this morning, my middle back, the muscles right next to my scapulas were feeling pretty sore.  Not like debilitatingly sore, but I could feel them like never before.  It was uncomfortable, but it felt good in a way because it was a sign to me that I did some good work yesterday.  I don't know, but it is possible that that sort of hindered my serve form or rotation.  Oh and one more thing, I sort of got injured while retrieving a stray ball from the stage area.  I jumped up, planted my foot like I always do, but I stepped on a slippery spot and as my foot slipped out from under me, my other ankle came crashing into the edge of the stage.  It seemed like just a scrape, but when I got home, something weird happened.  It grew!

From this perspective, it doesn't look like much, but it is raised up almost an inch.  Just before going into the shower I showed it to my wife and it was flat.  When I got out of the shower it was like, HUGE!!! It kind of freaked me out, but then not.  I've been icing it all night and it is about half-way to flat now.  I'm a little worried that it is going to hurt like crazy tomorrow.  But we'll see when tomorrow comes.

In the end, I torched a good 1100+kcals.  Love me some tennis.  Next sport, Pickle-Ball on Thursday!

5-14-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 3 + Extreme Abs + Splits + TCF.

5-14-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 3 + Extreme Abs + Splits + TCF.

Today was the final round of the Push Circuit and I'm going as heavy as possible.  I can do that because the focus muscles have all become a lot stronger since I got back into resistance training.  I'm am very happy about that.

Just the highlights from today's workout.  The extra Pull-Up sets, I was able to up the reps in EVERY SET!  Even with my shoulder pain, I was able to keep full range of motion all the way through.  However, there was a little problem with the final set, the Towel Pull-Ups.  Grabbing the towel sort of put my elbows at a weird angle if I were to go all the way down with straight arms, so, to protect my elbows, I went down as far as I could without bringing on any elbow pain.  But there was still a little bit of an angle or bend in my elbows.  The pattern of each Tri-Set was Legs, Back, Chest.  The leg moves all went up in weight, 1.25kgs to 3kgs. Only the first two Back moves went up in weight.  The first by 3kgs. and the second by 1.25kgs.  The last Back move, Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Rows, had to stay at 22kgs to protect my Back.  I was afraid my back couldn't handle the extra 6kgs in the bent-over position even it I kept a flat back.  But I did a one-breath static hold at the top of each rep.  And for the final move, the Chest moves.  Here too, only 2 of the 3 moves went up in weight.  The move that didn't go up was, again, to protect myself from injury.  On the first move, Chest Fly, I was a little nervous about how my shoulder would handle the +1.25kgs, but it actually held up pretty well, but still a little pain.  The Bench Press stayed at 22kgs.  I wanted to go for 25kgs, but again, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get the weights up, and, the pain in my palm would be even more intense, especially if I went up in weight.  But I did go up on the final move, the Long-Arm Pullover.  But once I started doing it, I regretted going up to 25kgs.  I was getting it up and down, but I didn't feel the target muscles getting the workout they needed.  I couldn't feel the muscle activation like before.  This time I was just trying to move the weight up and down.  I was unable to correctly activate the muscles that should have been activated.  So I didn't feel much in the chest or lats, but more in the shoulders and back.  Huh? Go figure.  But the routine felt really good all around.

I moved right into Abs.  This was the last run through of this routine because when I start the Lean Circuit on Tuesday, I'm switching to "I've God Abs" for the ab workout.  But today, It felt really good.  I definitely got the burn that always comes, but I also felt good activation in the whole core band.  I think I have pretty much mastered this routine.  So I can officially say, "Nailed IT!".

Then the splits.  It felt good because I was adding a few other stretches to get that intensified the stretch.  My sister posted a challenge pose on facebook, so I did that.  But I felt really loose after today's splits stretch.  Hip Flexors really opened up more today.  But I still have a way to go, especially on my left side.  The discrepancy is clear below.

The Flow was, as usual, right on point.  Clean and smooth.  Old Hat stuff.  Now, I just like doing it.

In the end, I torched a good 1061kcals.  Happy to get that GRAND to start my week off with a bang.  Let's BRING IT this week as well.

5-12-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 2 + Extreme Abs + Splits + TCF.

5-12-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 2 + Extreme Abs + Splits + TCF.

I had a bit of a learning experience at work today.  For the first time as Course Head, I had to host a small delegation from a foreign university which came to talk about starting some kind of cooperative relationship.  I didn't know any of the protocols or anything like that and the guy who was with me didn't tell me anything.  So I had to wing everything.  But I learned a lot from this experience.  Mostly, I learned what not to do, and what types of things I need to prepare when people come for such a meeting.  I was pretty nervous and a bit fidgety. I sweat a lot and was tense through the entire visit.  I needed a good workout to get rid of all that nervous tension.  Luckily, today is resistance day so I knew I'd get one.

Today was Shoulder Day!  With my left shoulder still having pain, I was still worried about upping the weight on the shoulder moves. So, in each of the three Tri-Sets, the first move was the press move.  I could feel the pain in the middle of the lift right off in the warm-up set, so I decided not to up the weight for the regular press moves.  I kept it at 13.25kgs.  But each of the Fly Moves, I raised the weight by 1.25kgs.  I was a little nervous on the first rep, but it felt good and I felt strong, so it worked out.  I almost hit failure in each of the Breakdown sets in the last two Tri-Sets.  I was thinking I could raise the Leg weights to 17kgs, but I tried out the 15.75kgs on the first move and I was wasted.  So I kept the lighter weight, but I got an awesome burn and almost cramped up in the last Tri-Set.  My biggest success was the Pull-Ups.  I was able to raise my reps a bit on the two middle sets while keeping the rep count the same on the first and last sets.  It was tempting to not go for full Range of Motion, but I stayed true going all the way down and sat for a breath so as not to get any help from momentum.  Shoulders, Hamstrings, and Glutes all burned it off today!

Today was the best round of Extreme Abs thus far.  I was able to follow along the whole time.  But I will say that there is one move that I don't follow Chalene on because she kind of forgets the balance.  The move is the Side Plank.  On the right side, she holds the Side plank for almost 30 seconds before doing the slow Hip Raise.  Then when she switches to the left side, there is zero hold time.  She jumps right into the Hip Raises.  So, I don't do the hold.  Instead, I used that time to tidy up, drink, and set my towel on the floor.  I'm big on the balance thing.  But today, I really felt the core activate.  And It BURNED!!!

The Splits and Flow were all on point, and I was happy to get them in before sunset.

In the end, I torched just over 1000kcals.  I hit a grand to close out my week.  Looking forward to my off day.  Happy Weekend, everyone!

5-11-17 Pickle-Ball.

5-11-17 Pickle-Ball.

We really wanted to get out Pickle-Ball in this week so we snagged a period that we hoped the gym would be open.  We waited and much to our relief, there was no class in the gym.  And since I moved my 4th-period class to the 2nd period, my afternoon block is totally free.  So we felt free to play as long as we needed.

We started with our regular warm up and then got into the match.  Unfortunately, I again fell into the same pattern as the past several matches.  I jumped out to a big early lead, the switch off.  Only to see my opponent catch me pass me, then win the first game 6-15.  The next three games followed the pattern because I took the next three games, 15-4, 15-8, 16-14.  It has been a while since we had to go over the 15 point mark, but that last game was really competitive.  I was actually down 12-14 and it went back and forth for a while, but I inched my way back and finally took the game.  Today was more of a grind day.  Sure, there were some incredible shots and some awesome rallies, but today, it seemed like we were really trying to shape the points, work our opponent.  Especially in the final game. Lots of drama.  And we finished just in time.  We were fine, but it just so happened that there was a class in the next period so we had to clear the gym.  Next time, since we know there is no class in the third period, we'll be able to start earlier.

In the end, after almost 90 minutes of hard match play, I torched a nice 1300+kcals.  Big burn today.

5-10-17 HY: P90X3 - Cold Start + ChaLEAN Extreme - Recharge.

5-10-17 HY: P90X3 - Cold Start + ChaLEAN Extreme - Recharge.

I have an event at work on Friday and will be unable to play our regular Pickle-Ball match so we tried to reschedule for today.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to play because the gym was being used for a class.  I had a night class also so I couldn't do anything regularly.  I got home late and went right to my mid-week recovery workout.

I was planning to do X3 Yoga, but for some reason, Recharge popped into my head.  But I knew I wanted to do at least 30 minutes so I tacked on Cold Start.  Then I kept on stretching my hip flexors while watching a little TV.

In the end, I burned just over 200kcals so not a big burn day, but the break was nice.

5-09-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 1 + Extreme Abs + Splits + TCF.

5-09-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 1 + Extreme Abs + Splits + TCF.

Normal day at work, so I'll get right to my workout.

I started out pretty much the same as last week, but I did get in two more Parallel Grip (I call them "Horn") Pull-Ups than last time.  The first two moves were the same weight, but I tried to flex my biceps more on the Curls, and I instantly felt the pump come on.  I stuck with the 19.5kgs for the Squats and thought it was a little easy, so in the next leg move, although I kept the same weight, it was up from 17kgs for the one leg.  My quads and glutes were on fire!  The Triceps move was good but I tried to do a static hold at the top and added a flex as well.  On the Towel Pull-Ups, my grip strength failed me.  I was unable to hold on to the towel and dropped off at 5 reps.  But I got back on and did three more reps because I at least wanted to match last week's total of 8 reps.  From the second Tri-set, I started to up my weights.  For the V-Press, I went up 1.25kgs.  I immediately felt it in my left shoulder, but I muscled through.  I mentioned the Single-Leg Squat earlier so I'll skip to the Triceps move.  On the Overhead Triceps Extension, I kept 19.5kgs like last time, but it was incredibly tough.  I almost tapped out because my triceps were on FIRE by rep six.  I barely got the eighth rep in and fell a little at the end instead of flex the weight down.  And the Breakdown set was a real BURNER!  For the Chin-Ups, I got +2 reps as well.  I have to work on being more stable on my Pull-Ups, though, to prevent myself from swinging too much.  I'm still going all the way down to the straight arm hang to maximize my Range-of-Motion.  In the last Tri-Set, I upped all the weights from last time.  The Hammer Biceps went up to 10kgs, which is +1.25kgs, Heel Squats also went up the same amount.  I kept the diamond Push Up to keep the focus on my Triceps.  Major burn on the Breakdown set.  But I kept the same number or Switch Grip Pull-Ups at three rounds of five reps.  I got a huge pump in my arms today, and I seriously burned out my legs and butt.

I went right into the Abs so I kept the tension on my arms and shoulders on those plank moves.  The routine went pretty much the same and as well as usual until the Hover near the end.  I just couldn't hold it.  And not because of my core, but because my shoulders were on FIRE!  So I went into a side plank for a couple seconds on each side to rest the other side.  If it was just my core, I could have held out, but the burn in my shoulders was just too great.  So I semi-tapped out.  But that was a good burn.

The Splits and Flow were awesome.  Today, I got closer to the low point on my stretch.  It felt really good except for the little twinge in my knee.  Flows were flawless so I ended in style.

In the end, I torched an okay 944kcals.  Again, at the end of each really slow move, upper or lower body, I got so winded and so I took my time getting trough these faster.  I need more stamina.

5-08-17 Tennis.

5-08-17 Tennis.

Well, it has been a long time coming, but I finally got to play some "competitive" tennis today.  Since switching to Pickle-Ball with my regular partner, I haven't played match tennis in several months, or more.  So I was a little nervous playing today.  I was especially nervous about my serve.  I haven't served in a match setting in a very long time.  I haven't even really practiced my serve for a very long time.  When I play with my wife, I don't serve at full strength.  There was a twist to the match today, though.  I was thinking of playing singles, but my regular playing partner called a couple of his friends and so we ended up playing doubles.  Which is fine because I need doubles practice if I'm going to enter a tournament with my son sometime.  But these guys play 3-4 times a week for 3-4 hours at a time so they are very good and very consistent.  Not a lot of power, but they are like walls, getting everything back.  During the warm up time, I was spraying balls everywhere.  It was making me more nervous.  I just couldn't catch up to the ball because it seemed to exponentially pick up speed after bouncing, and I was always late.  When I tried to take the ball early, I didn't make good contact so I was a mess.

So we started to play a match.  I got a huge surprise!  My serve in the match was AWESOME!!!  First of all, I served 6 games and I won all of them.  That is the first time that has happened since playing doubles in Japan.  Second, I didn't double fault in my first four games.  I hit one in the fifth and a couple in the last game, but I pulled it out, stayed in control and still won.  I lost the first set with one partner 3-6, but I won a second set with another partner 6-5 (Yeah, that is one of the rules in their club, at 5-5 the next winner takes the set.  So I didn't get to serve the last game).  Aside from my serve, the other parts of my game were okay.  I hit some good shots and winners and shanked several other balls.  One shot I was particularly proud of was a reaction volley I hit standing two meters from the net.  The ball I hit was an overhead from my opponent standing a midcourt.  He aimed right at me, and I guess right and hit that volley into the open court.  Shot of the match for me!

I had such a great time.  I look forward to Monday's now with a renewed zest!

In the end, I torched a big 1300+kcals.  I was very surprised because it was doubles, but I guess I was moving a lot more than I thought I was.

5-07-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 3 + Extreme Abs + Splits + TCF.

5-07-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 3 + Extreme Abs + Splits + TCF.

Today was a very slow and relaxing day.  I took a long nap yesterday so I went to bed a little later than usual which prompted me to get up later than usual this morning.  I just watched some TV, did a little organizing of my DVD/BluRay collection and then my wife wanted to go out for some shopping.  So we went out in the afternoon and got home close to 7 pm.  So I got a late start on my workout which eventually ended around 9:30 pm.  But it was a good day.

Finishing the first round of the Push Circuit today and it was a good workout. Heavy weights today, but still went down from the last time by an average of 2.5kgs. For my extra Pull-Ups sets, it looks like I wrote 22s/6s/6s/6s for the four sets.  I have no idea what that means so I'm sort of starting from scratch with these sets of Pull-Ups.  But if I compare the rep count to previous days, I'm raising the rep count little by little.  The 5-Grip went up one round which is five more than Friday.  But the big thing that let me down was my grip strength.  Holding onto those heavy weights for that long a period of time for each move, by the last Tri-set and the last set of Pull-Ups, my grip was shot.  In each Tri-set there was a Rowing move,  I did the three different positions, The last two were as is, but the first set, I did with my elbow out, not just a regular row. Tough move so I was glad to get it early in the routine.  In the Burn Circuit, the Bowler's Lunge was introduced.  Then, we only used one weight.  I used 13.25kgs and I was dying with that weight.  Today, the Bowler's Lunge came back and we had to use two weights, I used two 17kg dumbbells so that's a 34kg total.  Huge leap from 13.25kgs, but I was able to do it.  Previously, on move 8, I did single arm instead of a double arm.  But today, I tried with a double arm.  I did the single are so I could go heavy and protect my back because leaning over with heavy weight caused a few back spasms at times.  But today, I was feeling good, so I went for the double.  I didn't bend as low, but I believe it was low enough.  I was happy to get that move.  I felt the stress and strain in my lower back afterward, but no tweak.  The last little tweak was on the final move,  Chalene does this move on the floor, but I did it on a Swiss Ball.  Main reason is range of motion.  If I'm on the ground, since my dumbbells are big, I can't go down very far so the distance of the drop would only be 12-16 inches.  But on the ball, I can go all the way down past my head and get that large range of motion in. Finally, I just want to say, "Slow reps ROCK!"

Abs were good.  I felt strong and ready to raise the intensity of each move in the next round.  I got a good burn on each move from the 3rd or 4th move, but I was able to keep it going all the way to the end.  Then, the splits were good and the Flow topped everything off very nicely.

In the end, I torched a good 970kcals.  Again, not quite a grand, but it's still a good burn.  Good start to the week. Hope to keep it going all week.  Now that vacation is over, let's see what can be done.

5-05-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 2 + Extreme Abs + Splits + TCF.

5-05-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 2 + Extreme Abs + Splits + TCF.

My nephew left early in the morning.  More accurately, I brought him to the airport in the morning.  I was sad to see him go, but I was glad that we could give him a taste of our fine city.  A new shopping mall just opened near the airport so since I was in the area, I decided to go and check it out.  So I was walking around the new mall for a couple hours and after exploring each floor, making mental notes about which stores are worth coming again for, I left for home.  According to my pedometer, I walked close to 8000 steps.  Nice little workout there.

When I got home, all was quiet.  I just burned my time surfing the net, just doing nothing in particular, watching some Netflix, etc.  I just really felt like not doing anything.  I laid down on the floor and fell asleep for I don't know how long, but with I woke up, I felt better. Not totally motivated but at least I was feeling like I have to get a workout done.  So I slowly started getting ready.  I also had to be careful because if I waited too long to start I would, again, be in a time crunch before sunset.

Today's focus muscle groups were the Shoulders and Legs through Lunges.  Each Tri-Set had two shoulder moves, one with a medium weight and one with a light weight, and a Lunge move for the legs, plus my Pull-Ups.  I went down in weight by an average of about 3kgs.  Please compare the weights below.  The toughest moves were the Fly shoulder moves because of my left shoulder.  It was so grueling with the slow reps because they really showed me where the pain issues were.  I pretty much followed the instruction except for move 5.  I did a Breakdown Set on both sides like the original, then also did the Dead Lift Breakdown.  Got in a little extra on my legs.  the +3 is not +30, I wrote a vertical "DL" after the +3.  All in all, it was a good routine.  But I was yawning throughout.

Extreme Abs is definitely extreme.  But I'm handling it better than the beginning of Ab Burner.  I guess I'm getting stronger.  I was able to keep up with Chalene the whole time except for the Side Hip Raises.  I was having some balance issues keeping my feet stacked.  But I got the burn I was looking for!

The splits and Flow were good.  All on point.  I felt a little more energized afterward, but still a bit lethargic.  After a good sleep tonight, I'm sure I'll feel better in the morning.

In the end, I torched a nice 871kcals.  Missed hitting 1000, but once I get back to normal, I should be nailing it for sure!  Glad the weekend is here, though.

5-04-17 Mountain, Garden, City Trekking.

5-04-17 Mountain Trekking.

The big thing for today was crossing over to the active volcano and exploring.  Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day and it was raining a bit along with ashing (yes, that means the volcano erupted a bit and ash came billowing out), but we walked all over that volcano. Then to a Japanese Garden, walked all over that, then to a Shinto Shrine and yes, walked all over that as well.  Finally, we went to an observation deck to see the great city of Kagoshima.  According to my Pedometer, we walked over 10km today.  No wonder I was so tired.  We went to a hot spring bath in the evening and it soothed our muscles and tired legs!  What a great day!

5-03-17 Sandbath and Walking.

5-03-17 Sandbath and Walking.

Wednesday is my regular mid-week recovery, plus, my nephew came to visit last night so today is all about giving him an interesting experience.  So, so sneak in a unique body detox, I brought him to a Sandbath.  It was amazing!  I've lived in this area for over 27 years and only did this once before, my first year back in 1990.  Then after the sandbath, we were so relaxed and loose.  My shoulder even felt a lot better.  I highly recommend it.  We did a lot of walking around for the rest of the day in malls and superstores.  It was a good day, and my nephew enjoyed the experience.

5-02-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 1 + Extreme Abs + Splits + TCF.

5-02-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 1 + Extreme Abs + Splits + TCF.

Today, my nephew is coming for a visit and will be staying with us for four days and three nights.  So, there is a chance that I will not have time to workout on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, so I'm getting in at least today's workout before he gets here.  So today's workout is happening in the morning.

I started Push Circuit today and I thought that it would be a little shorter because of the fewer reps, but it ended up actually being a little longer because of my extra recovery times.  For all the moves, I went down in weight from the last time I did this routine close to a year ago.  I went down a good 5+/-kgs as you can see below.  But I did go up in weight from the Burn Circuit.  I tried to keep breathing as much as possible, but a few quick holds helped me get the weights up.  I also stayed with the slow reps.  But the oddest thing is that I was so out of breath at the end of almost every move.  And my pump was incredible.  Arms, upper chest, shoulder, legs. WHEW!!  Major workout.  I followed the program to a "T", except for the addition of my inter-tri-set set of Pull-Ups.  Another odd thing as far as the construction of the routine goes is the last move, Push-Ups.  Throughout the routine, it was clear that the target muscles were arms and legs.  Why put a back and chest move right at the end?  So, instead of doing regular or wide push-ups, I did Diamond Push-Ups to help burn out my triceps one last time.  I was a little disappointed that I couldn't do more pull-ups, but I have to keep reminding myself that previously, my range of motions wasn't full and I kept an elbow bend instead of going all the way down.  I want full range of motion.  One big thing that affected me today was my grip strength.  Gripping the weights, doing Towel Pull-Ups, really activated my forearms.  I was trying not to over grip my weights, but I still got tired.  Again, though, I must sing the praises of the slow rep.  It enables me to really think about form and focus on the target muscles.  It is especially noticeable in the Push Circuit where we do one body part at a time instead of doing compound moves or synergistic moves.  Good old fashioned straight forward weight lifting. Old School!

I started the next level of ab/core routines with Extreme Abs.  It is fifty percent longer at over 15 minutes. So I was a little nervous about it, but I ended up feeling really good about it.  I got a good burn in the old abs as well.  More moves and more reps.  Definitely a step up.  Except for the lack of a weighted move.  But burned it up nonetheless.

Splits were fine as well as the Flow.  If I keep this up, staying flexible will be easy. I just need to keep on doing it.  No getting lazy.

In the end, I torched well over 1000kcals.  Nice morning workout, now I'm free all day to relax and pick up my nephew.

5-01-17 HY: T25 - Alpha: Cardio + Unlock your Hip Flexors + TCF.

5-01-17 HY: T25 - Alpha: Cardio + Unlock your Hip Flexors + TCF.

Today was the first day of my little vacation and the day before my nephew arrives.  So, I relaxed at home, played some games, got caught up on my workout reports, and got a few home chores done.  I got to my workout at about the same time as usual, but with it being a cardio day, it was a lot shorter than usual.

Today starts my new cardio day regime. I'm going to use Shaun T's programs as my cardio day base.  I'm going to start with T25, then go to MAX 30, then Insanity, then Asylum.  Then, I'll cherry pick the cardio routines from other trainer's programs like Tony, Chalene, Segi, etc.  So let's get this party started.

I was anxious to see how I would hold up on T25 after finishing MAX 30 about three weeks ago.  As the run progression started I felt good, but as the progression peeked, my arches started that familiar burning/aching feeling, but then the progression was finished and the lunge progression started.  I was able to dynamically stretch out my arches which gave me great relief.  There were a few points in the routine that I started to feel like maxing out, but that feeling never really lasted that long.  And mainly it wasn't because I was getting tired, it was because of the ache in my arches and lower calves. But it was a great routine to get back into intense cardio.  My arches still need to get stronger because I think they were a little too painful at times, but since I burned out my calves yesterday, I thinking that that had a little bit of an influence on the condition.  I felt good overall.

I moved right into the stretch for my hip flexors and pushed it to the limit.  Almost too far because I started to get nervous that my hip would pop out, so I backed off some.  But it was a good stretch.  The Flow was also smooth and clean.

In the end, I burned a nice round 540kcals.  Low calorie burn but felt good to get it done early.  Tomorrow morning, the weights await.

Oh, and before I forget, here is my calendar for April.  The two days at the top of the month are the days I took off to get some rehab for my shoulder.  Rehab is done, and now it's just me and my foam roller.  The orange days are irregular workouts like Pickle-Ball, tennis and recovery days.  I was glad to have my regular Saturday off day this month after March's crazy schedule.

4-30-17 HY: Yard Work + ChaLEAN Extreme - Burn Circuit 3 + Ab Burner + Splits + TCF.

4-30-17  HY: Yard Work + ChaLEAN Extreme - Burn Circuit 3 + Ab Burner + Splits + TCF.

For the past few weeks, I have been playing tennis with my wife on Sunday evenings and marking that up to my Sunday workout.  Today, my wife was a bit tired and busy so we weren't able to play tennis today.  So, I went to the schedule I had originally planned over a month ago.  It works out perfectly, too, because my nephew is coming for a visit on Tuesday evening so I'll be able to get my second resistance workout in before he comes and my final one in after he leaves on Friday morning.  But there is a chance that I will be traveling on Friday so I may miss it all together.  This week is the long holiday stretch Japan calls "Golden Week".  So we may be traveling to watch my daughter's Field Hockey game up north a few hours away.    Anyway, today's workout.

Today was a busy day.  In the morning I had to switch my winter and summer clothes.  Doesn't sound too tough, but the going up and down the stairs transporting piles of clothes is a nice little workout in itself.  I got it done in just under an hour.  Second, I had to cut the grass in our yard.  With my nephew coming, I wanted our yard to look its best, so it had to get done today.  It was a jungle in parts.  But I got it all done in just under two hours.  Cutting the grass/weeks with my weed-wacker, raking and bagging the cut portion, then going back over the yard to cut anything thing I missed the first time around, raking and bagging that stuff.  Then sweeping the walkway, and cleaning everything up.  I actually wore my HRM just to see how many calories I burn with this work.  When I tracked my calorie burning before in the summer, I think I burned close to 1000kcals.  The grass was a lot taller then and it took an extra hour, but the main thing is that it was a lot hotter then.  Today, I only burned just over 440kcals.  Not much for just under two hours.  But the good thing is that I didn't feel exhausted like I did last time.  I felt pretty good afterward.  So I felt good about doing my regular workout later in the day.

I am finishing the Burn Circuit today.  So I wanted to end on a high note, while at the same time keeping the intensity and form stable.  It worked out nicely for the Pull-Ups because each set went up a bit, from just one extra rep over last time to plus 5 reps.  So I was feeling good about that.  Also, for several moves, I went up in weight 1.25kgs.  The first Lateral Raise move (third move of the first tri-set), however, I was a little nervous about my shoulder pain so I stayed at the 6.25kgs like last time.  And to be honest, I felt I could do more.  I had no problem going the 12 reps.  So the next Lateral Raise move (third move of the second tri-set), which is listed as "Sumo Squat with Delt Raise", I went up to 7.5kgs.  I still felt strong and was able to make it to the final rep.  But I did feel the extra weight, strain and burn.  On the final Lateral Raise move (second move of the last tri-set), the "Lunge with Lateral Raise" is done as six reps on the right and six on the left, plus the Extreme Set of just the Lateral Raise.  But wanting to keep the uniformity of the set, I did six with the right lunge, took the ten seconds, then did three Extreme reps.  Then the same with the left side.  So I ended up doing more of everything.  The Shoulder Press moves, I was worried about, again because of my left shoulder pain.  But I still did the first two moves (first move of the first two tri-sets) with the additional 1.25kgs.  But I felt that my shoulder was a bit tweaked as I entered the final tri-set so when I got to move seven, "Squat with Double Overhead Press", I went down to 12kgs.  It was a good thing I did that because I was maxing out by the tenth rep, but I gutted out the last two.  Finally, this routine tries to do some moves focusing on the Calves (move 2, 5, and 9).  But to be totally honest, I never felt like I was getting much resistance in my calves from those moves.  They were always really easy and I breezed through all the reps.  So, today, I finally added a move at the very end that always killed my calves.  I added a simple "Single Weighted Standing Calf Raise" to the routine.  While holding 12kgs in my right hand, I stood on my right foot and went up and down on my calf.  When I was doing Body Beast, I was able to pump out 50 reps in one sitting.  Today, I barely got to 40 reps.  The right side was definitely easier than my left.  Still more imbalance.  But the burn was intense.  All in all, it was a good routine to end on.  I'm looking forward to the Push Circuit this Tuesday morning.

I'm doing the Ab Burner Routine with the Burn Circuit, so this is the final go through of this routine.  So I was curious to see how I felt after I finished it.  Short story shorter, I felt really strong, and I raised the intensity of each move by flexing harder.  But I really felt like I have gotten better with this routine and that I have gotten back some of the core strength.  I did all the moves in the advanced mode, but I still felt strong.  So I was very pleased with my progress.  As I enter Push Circuit I am moving up to Extreme Abs.

After a few days off from the splits stretch, getting back to the splits was tough, but with my faster transitions, I'm getting to the lowest point quicker.  Now, I'm just concerned with staying flexible.  If I get the full splits in the process, I'm happy.  I'll still keep pushing hard though.  The Flow was on point so the calmness flowed through me.

In the end, I torched a bit over 1000kcals.  I'm happy anytime I can burn over a thousand calories.  But my total for today is close to 1500kcals GONE!!!

4-28-17 Pickle-Ball.

4-28-17 Pickle-Ball.

We were a little skeptical as to whether or not we'd be able to play today because of the same reason I couldn't play tennis the past couple Mondays, students were using the gym to practice for their sports day.  When I got to school, the gym was filled with students practicing different things, so I was thinking that second period would be the same.  Surprisingly enough, no one was in the gym.  So we set up and got to it. YEAH!!!

Our match started off as it has for the past few weeks.  I jump out to a big lead in the first game, today it was 8-1.  Then as the game progresses, I lose gas and end up losing the game, which I did, 12-15.  The second game followed suit with me winning big 15-8.  But the third game was the most surprising. The way the court is situated in the gym, one player has his back to the wall while the other player has the open gym behind him.  So if a ball gets by him, he has to run almost half the length of the gym and back.  I'm guessing that is why I keep losing the first game.  I have to run a lot and I get tired quickly, but by the next game, I have hit my second wind and I can push it harder and longer.  Well, either way, for the third game I had the running side.  But then the dream game, the game every player fantasizes about happened, or I should say, I played.  I don't know what it was, perhaps my serves were just hitting the right spots, perhaps my opponent was tired, perhaps the stars at that moment aligned just right.  But I finally did it, I won a BAGEL GAME!!!  I had come close before only losing two points, but never a bagel.  But today that all ended.  15-0.  I tried my best to stay calm throughout the 3-4 minute game.  Yes, that is how long it took.  I lost serve only twice, and from the second to the fourth game, I was on a 25 point run.  It was amazing if I do say so myself.  When I finally snagged that last point, I couldn't help but smile.  But he was gracious in defeat and congratulated me on a good game.  The final game was a little more competitive, but I was still on my high and ended up taking the game 15-4.  It was a good day.  I just got to get over that first game lull and go for the sweep.

In the end, I torched well over 1000kcals.  Nice way to end my week.

4-27-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Burn Circuit 2 + Ab Burner.

4-27-17 HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Burn Circuit 2 + Ab Burner.

I had a bit of a time crunch today so I could only fit in my main workout.  If I rushed, I could have done everything, but at this time, my priority is to regain my strength so I wanted to do it right.

Again, I didn't do much adjustment from the last time, but I did raise the weight a little on a few of the moves.  Burn Circuit 2 is probably the routine that burns me out the most.  One of the target muscles is the biceps so I start off with Chin-Ups.  Felt good, but couldn't increase the reps.  Then, getting into the first tri-set (group of three moves), everything was fine, except for the 1.25kg increase on move three.

Switch Grip Pull-Ups was okay, but again, only did two rounds on the five variations.  I felt the strain and had to stop. The first move of the second Tri-set was the BURNINGEST of the BURNS!!!  Last time, I only made it to 10 reps, so I was determined to get to  12 reps.  I got there, but the burn in my triceps was tremendous.  I kept the same weight as before, but those two extra reps just burned like the dickens.  There was also incredible temptation to speed up the move to finish quicker, but I'm sticking with the program.  The next two moves also saw a 1.25kg increase in weight.  The Bowler's Lunge move showed me a big difference in my left and right side.  My right side lunge caused my left lower back to burn badly.  Before moving on, I had to stretch it out.  But the Left side lunge was better, not as much burn.

The final part started off with the 1-Arm Pull-Up.  I'm still getting the form down, but I was able to do it so that I am activating practically the whole side from my arm to shoulder to upper back to lats.  My right side is still stronger, but the left is slowly closing the gap.  The first two moves also saw a 1.25kg increase in weight.  Despite that, I was able to keep my full range of motion.  Oh, and all of these slow reps I do with a static hold at the top of each move flexing the target muscle as much as possible.  The first two moves have an Extreme set, but I do it a little differently.  Chalene does a more focused rep and takes the original move apart.  I do the original move only twice (as opposed to 3x) but I do it on both sides.  So, I'm actually doing a total of 4 reps.  But I go a little slower and try to concentrate on the flex and pump of the target muscles more.  The finisher is Parallel Grip Pull-Ups.  Stuck with 8 reps.  All in all, a good routine.

Moving right into abs, everything was pretty much the same, but it was a little easier than the last few times.  One thing I wanted to say the past few times I did this routine I have been doing something I wasn't able to do before.  On the Oblique Leg Lifts, I usually am on my elbow and I pump out 12 reps instead of 8 reps, but these past few times, I've been trying it on my finger tips like Chalene does it for the advanced people.  Oh man, does that ever change up the game.  Much more of a burn in the Obliques.  When things get easier in this routine, it is easy to make each move more intense so it never gets too easy.  Still getting that good burn by the end of each move.

In the end, I torched a good 800+kcals.  Had a good pump and burn all the way through.  Now, off to class.