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!!!
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