9-20-17 (Wednesday) HY: 6PSC - Upper Body Weights + Lower Back Strengthening + TCF.

9-20-17 (Wednesday) HY: 6PSC - Upper Body Weights + Lower Back Strengthening + TCF.

Today, or actually this morning was sort of a lazy period for me again.  As my vacation winds down, I am becoming more and more aware of the fact that I have to go back to work on MONDAY!!!  It was such a free vacation.  The only dark mark was this back injury.  But it gave me the ability to try some different things and slow down a bit.  It sort of forced me to change my diet, and I think that this is the first vacation in years that I haven't gained weight.  Anyway, this morning was just really relaxing.  I was able to see my beloved Philadelphia Phillies come from behind to defeat the LA Dodgers.  Then I got an email form a colleague.  The subject line read "Tomorrow's Class".  My heart immediately started to palpitate.  I was thinking, "Tomorrow??? Did I miss the date? Is there class TODAY? Am I missing a class???"  I rushed to check the calendar and luckily, my friend was wrong, there was no class tomorrow.  But my heart was beating out of my chest!  I tapped off a reply and since my heart rate had leaped 100bpm in a matter of seconds, calming down took a little more time.  So I decided to just go with it and start my workout.

I wanted to do a little weight training today, but I didn't want to do a long routine.  Or something that would motivate me to push harder and harder past what I could do or more importantly what I should do in my current condition.  So, I went WAY back and dug out an old "6-Pack Shortcuts" upper body routine that I used to do years ago.  The routine consists of 6 moves: Single-Arm Rows, Clapping Push-Ups, Standing Shoulder Presses, Alternating Biceps Curls, Triceps Extension, Traps Shrugs.  The first 4 moves were 10 reps, and the last 2 moves were 20 reps.  I did four rounds of that circuit.  The first two rounds, I kept the same dumbbell weight (7.5kgs) for everything just to get a feel.  Then for the third round, I went up to 10kgs for everything.  Then the last round, I upped only the Rows to 12.5kgs.  Everything else stayed at 10kgs.  I did each rep slowly so I could really get a full tension and flex in the target muscle.  Except for the Clapping Push-Ups.  For those, I had to explode up to get enough height to clap, but slow after landing.  This little routine with even the lighter weight really gave me a good pump.  I got a little burn on the curls, but the biggest burn was from the Triceps Extension on the last two rounds.  The 10kgs was probably right at my limit for muscle endurance training.  Good little routine to start back into weights.

I went right into the Lower Back Strengthening with the same video I've been using.  This time, I did two rounds of the moves.  Slow and steady to get full extension and range of motion in my back.  I also kept stretching out my hamstrings and inner thighs.  Priming them for more stretching and flexibility training later.

Ended with a nice Flow series.

In the end, I burned a nice 700+kcals.  Keeping it in that range is good for now.  Workout times are also getting shorter, so that is also a positive thing.