3-20-17 HY: Insanity MAX 30 - MAX OUT POWER + Splits + TCF.

3-20-17 HY: Insanity MAX 30 - MAX OUT POWER + Splits (Unlock your Hip Flexors program) + TCF.

Today was a good and terrible day for different reasons.  Allow me to explain. I don't play a lot of games on my phone, but there is one game that I am addicted to.   Yesterday night, just before going to bed I made the mistake of playing and passing a level.  But the problem is as a result of passing that particular level, I won 4 hours of unlimited play.  I was so bummed. So, like a fool, I played until my eyes wouldn't stay open anymore, and I still had a lot of time left, but I had to sleep... VERY LATE.  So I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.  I was really worried because I usually have a headache if I don't get enough sleep, but this morning, I felt fine, but I was in sort of a haze.  Then, after breakfast, my kids started talking about Kip Ups.  I used to be able to do them easily in my younger days, so I had the brilliant idea of trying to do one.  I tried several times but just couldn't get all the way up.  I almost did, but no.  Sitting down after that, my lower back started to feel a little gimpy.  UH-OH!!! WHY DID I TRY THAT???  I had enough time to do my workout in the morning, but I wasn't feeling very energetic, and my back was feeling like it was about to become unhinged, so I decided to hold off until the evening.
Today is the Spring Equinox and it is a national holiday here.  It just so happens that today is the last day all of us would be able to go out to eat together.  From Thursday, everyone, except me, starts leaving.  On Thursday, my daughter the MVP is leaving with her school's team for the National Field Hockey tournament.  Then my wife is leaving the next day with a group of mothers to support and cheer for the team.  And my son leaves on Sunday to return to Tokyo for his second year of college.  I'm the only one not going anywhere.  How Poignant.  Anyway, we went out to an Italian buffet for lunch, and we had a great time.  However, I ate a little over my capacity and was feeling extremely overstuffed, but not to the point that I felt like throwing up.  But I controlled my choices.  I limited the carbs, no ice cream, nothing deep fried.  But I did have some doughnut holes and a small (under 200ml) Slurpee.  I was dreading the idea of doing a MAX OUT routine feeling like I was: severely lacking sleep, gimpy back, and stuffed to overflowing.  So, I held off working out as long as I could.  But I finally got changed and got into it around 6:30 pm.  Luckily, the MAX OUT POWER routine doesn't move like a Cardio routine so I was okay at the beginning.  Oh, my max out time last week was 11:38.  I didn't know how much of a chance I had of surpassing that today of all days.  But, not expectations, just went in intent on doing my best.  The Warm Up Circuit and the Leg Circuit were fine.  But the last two Pulse and hold squats were brutal, totally frying my legs.  Just barely made it out of those circuits alive.  I tapped out on the first move of the third circuit last week.  So I was going to push as hard as possible to through that first move and further if I could.  Although my pace slowed in the last 15-seconds, I didn't stop and made it to the end of the Plyo Push Up Jacks. Upper body SCREAMING!!!  The second move, Arm Jack Push Ups got me.  My MAX OUT Time was 12:36.  I almost made it to the end of the second move, but nope, not today.  I was feeling heavy and sluggish.  Arms and shoulders and some chest were on FIRE!!!  After that, everything was a blur.  But I remember just before the end, the feeling of needing to throw up started to creep up.  I only had a few minutes left, so I wasn't going to let that mess me up.  But afterward, I had to sit in the Butterfly position and breathe until that feeling went away.  Luckily no abs today or I would have totally hurled.  Throughout the routine, after I MAXED OUT, I needed a lot of little mid-set breaks here and there, almost after every Push-Up variation, so I ended up adding 10 minutes to the expanded running time of the routine.  But I got through it.  Next time, I will fight my feelings and get the workout done in the morning, lesson learned.

I finally did it, I broke down and bought one of those "online" coaching programs where you watch a video pitch of a fitness program by some fitness expert.  Well, the program I got was only $10.00 and it hit me where I'm vulnerable hip flexors.  The routine/program is called, "Unlock your Hip Flexors".  Exactly what I needed.  So, I did a little reading and study, and today, I started the "Unlock your Hip Flexors" routine instead of my regular splits routine.  But this is to help with my splits, so that is the reason.  I feel I needed to change things up so this was perfect for my present needs.  So I'm trying it out and if I'm not totally satisfied, I'll request a refund.  I read the material and the research, and I went with the routine today.  It ended up being a bit longer than my regular routine, but it didn't seem longer.  There are a few static moves, but it is more dynamic.  So this will be a big change.  I'm making a shift to more dynamic stretching as opposed to static.  I was doing one minute holds on each move, but I'm going to reduce that time and be more dynamic, but do it for the same amount of time.  And I will alternate my regular Splits routine with the Unlock your Hip Flexor routine but with the dynamic twist.  So a lot more of the controlled 2-second hold and bounce from now on.  I may go back to the static holds to see if there is any progress, but maybe only on the weekends.  So that is my new plan of attack. Hope it works out.  Flows were all good, but there was some difficulty with my right knee.  Almost lost it on a few moves where I have to put a little more pressure on that knee but at a weird angle.  But I made it through with little more than a wince.

In the end, after 152 minutes.  I torched 1049kcals.  Not bad for feeling junky. But now I'll have more motivation to push on from now on.