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!
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