7-30-17 (Sunday) HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Extreme Intervals + Extreme Core Circuit + Unlock Your Hip Flexors + TCF.

7-30-17 (Sunday) HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Extreme Intervals + Extreme Core Circuit + Unlock Your Hip Flexors + TCF.

Kind of a lazy day today.  I didn't really have a plan to do anything.  It is just too hot to do anything active outside, and inside, the AC didn't feel like it was working so we just tried to be as sedentary as possible to not sweat too much.  I was thinking to do my workout earlier in the day, but procrastination pushed it to a little later than a regular work day.  So I didn't get started until close to 7pm.  Bummer.

Again, this week is a conditioning week for me with a very specific purpose:  Prepare for a tennis tournament.  So I will be doing more muscular endurance work on my resistance days and tennis on cardio days.  I will maintain the mid-week recovery day.  I want to be in as good shape as possible come Sunday.

Today I went with a routine that I haven't really done too much, but after today, I will definitely be doing it more.  Compared to the other cardio/resistance routines in ChaLEAN Extreme, this is probably the most EXTREME.  The Intervals are considerably longer than the other routines and what's different is the clock run time.  Each move shift starts the move clock at the top of the move, instead of counting down the whole cardio or resistance section.  I didn't realize that until the first set of resistance moves.  It was just standard Biceps Curls and watching the clock, I thought I would be finishing, but the time went back up and the move shifted from a slow count to a faster count, then shifted to alternating arms, then some other variation and it kind of worked in a circuit style instead of Intervals.  Oh, and also, I tried going up in weight from the beginning.  I tried going up to 6.25kgs.  Up from 5kgs.  When I did 5kgs, I was able to use that weight all the way through the routine.  Not today!  Depending on the move and how blown I was, I went down in weight.  My arms were so blown that on the Prone Triceps Kickbacks, I had to go to 4kgs.  The variety of moves to go total body pretty much made this routine one of my all time favorites.  6.25kgs is definitely my limit.  At this point, there is no way I could go heavier.  On the Overhead Triceps Extensions, I did use a 8.75kg dumbbell, only one.  And that totally fried me.  I had to tap out before the final circuit move.  Chalene was saying to keep my elbows in and mine were Flaring like the sun, so I had to stop.  A few moments later when I restarted, my form was right on.  That was the story with most of the weighted moves.  I did some weight shifting as well.  The two-handed moves were either 4-5-6.25kgs.  And unlike Firday, I actually started to get a little bit of a pump.  The burn, of course, was even more intense today, but the pump was coming on as well.  I may try this weight with the other cardio/resistance routines to see if the pump is comes.  A big difference, also, it the use of the Swiss Ball.  It was nice to sit for some of the weighted moves, but since my space is limited, the side-to-side moves were sort of lacking in range of motion.  I was hitting my light and bumping the furniture some.  So, next time, I am considering using my medicine ball for that kind of swing move instead of my Swiss Ball.  It's just 5kgs.

So, in order to keep continuity, I went with Extreme Core Circuit for my abs and stuck with the Swiss Ball.  It was a nice change, but I kept the 2kgs hand weights as usual.  Today, I got a huge burn in my abs, so I was glad for the pain.  I maintained good form and pushed to not bounce but made every rep as controlled as possible.  The BURN was real.

For the stretch, I really want to push my hip flexors to open up so I took the time to really stretch them out and then I finished as usual, with my Flow series.

In the end, I torched a modest 720+kcals.  The AC finally started to work so my room wasn't a sweltering as it had been.   Right around 88 degrees Fahrenheit.