2-06-18 (Tuesday) HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Lean Circuit 1 + Ab Burner + TCF + Ab EMS.

2-06-18 (Tuesday) HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Lean Circuit 1 + Ab Burner + TCF + Ab EMS.

Today was totally free for one reason, I took the day off from work to have the day with my wife to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  We got up a little later than usual and had breakfast, did household chores, and just had a relaxing morning.  We went to our favorite Sushi restaurant for lunch.  It was delicious!  Then we went shopping for some stuff we needed.  Then we went for some tea at a local cafe.  It was a wonderful day.  When we got home, my wife had other stuff to do and I got ready for my workout.  No pressure or time crunches rushing me so I could focus on the moves and working the target muscle groups.

I began the Lean Circuit today.  Compound moves, back up to 12 reps, and Break Down Sets on every move.  I kept the Pull-Up sets (reps) in, Chin-Ups (8), V-Pull-Ups (10), 5-Grip (15), and Parallel Grip (8).  All with the added 10kgs.  I felt good today, but I faded at the end.  I really wanted to hit 10 reps on the last set, but I barely got the 8.  On the 5-Grip, the last set of 5, my form was really going down hill.  I couldn't hardly get my chin above the bar.  The target muscles were Biceps and Triceps with the added lower body moves.  My biceps seemed a little weak today.  On the first move, I was dying by the 9th rep.  I needed a little nudge to get the dumbbells up the last two reps.  But I was able to focus on flexing them as well.  I tried to stick with the weight from the last time which was almost a year and a half ago.  However, there were a few changes.  On move 6. Plank with Single-Triceps Extension.  I stayed at 8.75 kgs.  Core was killing me.  I did the move Breakdown, then did the Chalene break down, so that was a little extra pump.  On move 7. Reverse Lunge - Double-Arm Biceps Curl, I upped the Breakdown weight to 22 kgs.  Everything was fine, but I was starting to feel really spent.  Move 8. Supine Triceps on a Swiss Ball, instead of doing two dumbbells, I used one heavy dumbbell, and that more than doubled the weight over last time.  I felt good, but as I said, I faded quickly once I started to fatigue.  Surprisingly, I was able to recover quicker then before.

I decided to stick with Chalene for abs so I got out a routine I hadn't done in years.  Ab Burner is a great routine for this time.  I think I handled it well, but the burn came on a little later than I would have liked. 


I had the time, so I did the Anabolic Stretch. I did 5 sets of each move for the arms. It actually felt pretty good. Now I wonder what the effects will be like tomorrow.
The other two parts: TCF and Ab EMS were at my leisure.  I did the Flow right after the routine.  And the EMS before bed.

In the end, I burned 996 kcals.  I was surprised to get so high on the scale in such a short period of time.  I really stressed out my arms, I'm looking forward to see what is going on.

2-05-18 (Monday) HY: P90X3 - Cold Start + CVX + Abs 40 + TCF.

2-05-18 (Monday) HY: P90X3 - Cold Start + CVX + Abs 40　+ TCF.

From February, my schedule changes.  I now have a night class on Monday nights three Mondays a month.  This was my first Monday with a night class.  And it just so happened to be Super Bowl Sunday in the USA so I get the game live Monday morning.  So, instead of doing a workout, I watched the Super Bowl.  Very stressful game, but not for the regular reasons.  Up until this year I could watch the Super Bowl with the same commentary as the live broadcast in the US.  But for some reason, this year, no English commentary.  There were TWO audio channels, but BOTH were Japanese commentary.  For American sports, their commentary is terrible.  So, I didn't really enjoy the game.  And what's worse, I didn't get to do my workout.  I had to leave for work as soon as the game ended, and I didn't get home until after 8 pm.  So, I had to do a quick workout and one not resistance.  So I chose CVX.

I chose this routine because of the weight that it did use. Just a light weight but with tons of reps.  I used a 4 kg dumbbell.  But I started off with Cold Start as my warm up.  Perfect for today.  For the raising and lifting moves, it was fine, but for the static hold like in the Chair to Back Lunge, holding that weight over my head was a burn on my shoulders.  All the circuits were good and the moves were not too difficult, but the balance move in which I had to bring my knee to the weight for the second round was tough.  My glute on the standing leg got that pre-cramping sensation, but I made it through. I started to gas out near the end.  Then, I hit my second wind at the end of the first round of the final circuit.  I killed the Burnout.  I was so happy that I caught that second wind so I could finish strong.

It was getting late, but I wanted to add some abs in there to round out the routine, so I did the Ab40 routine.  Four moves done in 5 sets.  I was originally only going to do 3 sets, but I didn't want to go any less than 200 reps for my abs, so I pushed it to go 5 sets.  To refresh the memory, the four moves were Flutter Kicks, Knees Bent V-Ups, In and Outs, and Reverse Crunches.  Each for 10 reps.  If it doesn't sound that tough, try it.  Rest only 30 seconds between sets.  I started to fail in the third set, and I almost left it there.  But, as I said, I pushed it to go to 5 sets.  Then I finished off with a nice Flow series.

In the end, I burned 707kcals.  Good for a shorter workout.  My breath was taken away several times during the routine, especially during the second round.  But that was the plan. 

2-04-18 (Sunday) HY: Tennis x2 + Ab EMS + TCF.

2-04-18 (Sunday) HY: Tennis x2 + Ab EMS + TCF.

Since Wednesday, club members were worried about playing tennis at the regular outside venue because the weather forecast called for snow.  When I woke up this morning, it was snowing.  After a bunch of texting between members, it was decided that we those who can play in the morning would go to the courts, and those who can play in the afternoon can go to the indoor facility.  The only difference from last week is that the afternoon reservation was at 1pm which is the usual ending time for the morning session.  So, we cut the morning session by and hour which gave everyone who went to the morning session only an hour to transition to the other courts.  No time to relax and shower like last week, but it was GO GO GO all the way.

The morning session was good.  I had prepared for some really cold conditions and playing in the snow, but although it was snowing, it wasn't that could.  Or at least once I got moving, I was actually rather hot.  I was planning to play with my coat on, but after just the warm up, I had to take it off and played without it the whole time after that.  Regular two-step menu to start after the warm up.  Stroke/Volley, then Serve/Return.  Then. since there were only 9 of us, for the last 45 minutes, we played a match.  Long story short, I was serving well, but my partner and I just made too many mistakes and came up short.  The odd thing was that all of the first service games were lost by the serving side.  There wasn't a hold of serve until the 5th game.  There were some really good points, so it was a fun match.  I had only one double fault that match, but unfortunately, it was on a Break Point.  The other two service game I had were to Deuce, but I couldn't hold them either.  I was just off.

In the afternoon session, basically the same menu, buy there were almost double the people.  I got a little more serve practice and return practice in, so I was happy.  There is one (literally only one) guy that just can't seem to keep his mouth shut about his shots.  For example, even during the warm up, if the person he warms up with hit a ball into the net, he raises his arms and says, "I WIN!!!"  Literally EVERY POINT!!! that he would win if it was a game situation.  The thing is, it is not a game situation but he still pats his own back.  And if he hits a ball out, he is like "Really? That was out? Naw! REALLY?".  I try not to warm up with him whenever possible.  But during the Serve/Return practice, whenever I had to serve to him or return his serve, I kicked it up a notch and played a real point.  It was fun crushing him.  Anyway, since I played a match in the morning, I wasn't planning to play in the afternoon, but I was called, so I played a match in the afternoon as well.  We started off losing the first three games.  But then we picked up our level and picked up the next two games.  Next was my serve.  It was 30-Love and my partner had an easy put-away to go up 40-Love, but he netted it.  I got to 40-15, but it fell apart and I couldn't close it out.  Of the 6 service games I played today, morning and afternoon, 4 of them went to Deuce, but I couldn't convert.  Again my weak mental game made itself known.  I need to become mentally stronger.  OR, I'm hoping that it is just the cold conditions.  I hope to play better in the spring.

It was a fun day with a lot of tennis.  Tennis in the snow, and tennis in an ice box.  But I had a great time.  I got in my EMS and Flow later in the evening.

In the end, I burned 3158kcals.  Again, about half of my regular weekly average.  Great way to start off my week. Doing what I Love.

2-02-18 (Friday) HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 3 + TCF + Ab EMS.

2-02-18 (Friday) HY: ChaLEAN Extreme - Push Circuit 3 + TCF + Ab EMS.

I was planning to add in an Ab workout today, but I got home later than expected and I only had time for the main workout with no rushing, so instead of rushing to get in some abs, I didn't rush and got in a good full resistance workout.  I was a little bummed that I didn't have time for my Anabolic Stretch, but I'll get it done the next time I do Chest, Back, and Legs.

Well, right off the bat, I made a mistake.  The extra Pull-Up sets were done out of order.  I was supposed to start with 5-Grip, then Wide Front, but I accidentally did Wide Front First.  So I did 5-Grip second.  No biggie, but just a little perturbing. As far as weights are concerned, I upped all the Non-25kg weights by 1.25kgs to 19.5kgs.  One big change I did was with move 8. Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Rows.  I didn't want to go down in weight because 25kgs are fine, but according to my memory and some notation, my back was feeling a little gimpy afterwards.  So, to protect my back, instead of doing both arms together, I did one at a time.  It is good isolation work and I was able to really focus on getting my back muscles activated.  And finally, as with Push 1 and 2 this round, I added a Break Down set to the first three moves.  Those are the major changes.  Everything else went according to plan.

Now, all that done, I have been seeing a couple things that are a little disturbing regarding the regular message of Beachbody coaches.  Science also seems strong so I'd like to see what you think.  Mainly two points: 1. Slow reps can diminish gains, and 2. Doing sets to failure does more harm than good.  If you are interested, I'll try to find the pages I saw those claims on.

After the main routine, I did a good Flow series and had a good leg stretch afterwards.  EMS later that evening.

In the end, I burned 714kcals.  I'm satisfied with that.  I still got a good pump and burn.  Nice way to finish off my week!  Happy Weekend, Everyone!

2-01-18 (Thursday) HY: P90X2 - X2 Yoga + TCF + Ab EMS.

2-01-18 (Thursday) HY: P90X2 - X2 Yoga + TCF + Ab EMS.

Happy February!

I didn't have my usual night class tonight so I was free to do a longer mid-week recovery workout.  The two routines I was weighing were both from P90X2, either Balance and Recovery (the Foam Rolling routine), and X2 Yoga.  Obviously Yoga won that battle, because I wanted to do some active stretching moves.  But I will almost definitely do B&R next time.

It's a lovely routine, and it started of great!  It was awesome until the first Standing Progression.  Half-Moon, still a problem.  But this time around, not with my balance, rather with simple leg strength.  I didn't seem to have the strength to hold my body weight on one leg for that long.  I had to tap out a couple of times to shake my leg out.  But once Standing Spits was done, I was doing fine.  Half-Moon was shaky, but not as much as I thought it would be.  I was able to inter-lock my fingers much deeper on the Wrap on both sides.  Also, today was the first time I was able to actually try "CRANE" pose.  I wasn't able to the true Crane Pose before because my Triceps were to sore to rest my knees on them.  Today, I set my knees just under my armpits.  Immediately, I could feel the difference.  A whole new ball game with that knee position.  I was only able to hold Crane Post for a few seconds before tipping over onto my head.  After the Standing Sequence, most of the rest of the routine is pretty standard.  I love it because it also works on the abs and the better warrior.

Then, I got my Flow series and EMS in later in the evening.

In the end, I burned a modest 349kcals.  That is the lowest for this routine so far.  But I felt great afterwards.  I'm ready for resistance tomorrow.

1-31-18 (Wednesday) HY: Tennis + TCF + Ab EMS.

1-31-18 (Wednesday) HY: Tennis + TCF + Ab EMS.

Mid-Week tennis is what it is all about.  Today, practice was at a different location.  This was the first time for me to practice at this location.  I never went before because it was a little more difficult to get to than the other places, and a little longer because of traffic.  But, I didn't want to miss practice, so I went ahead and made plans to attend.  I had been there before to watch my son play a tournament, but I had never played myself.  But I left, with what I thought was plenty of time, but it ended up being exactly the amount of travel time I would need.  Right on time. I cut it just right, but it is nice to have a few minutes of cushion.  Next time, I'll have to leave a little earlier.

Tonight, the initial menu was as usual.  And I must say that I was feeling good.  During Stroke/Volley practice, I was getting my strokes set up nicely, and my volley's were mostly where I wanted them to be, deep.  For Serve practice, My serve was hitting its spots.  I was at about 65-70%.  We had two courts for the first hour, then had to move to only one court for the second hour.  But I few minutes into the second hour, we saw an open court on another block and we got it.  But since it was a ways away, we split the members into two groups.  The group I was with had most of the better players and we drilled in three different Point Sims.  Feed to Forehand, then Feed to Backhand, and then finally an actual Deuce Court service.  A lot of hard work tonight.  But something was off.  In the Point Sims, for some reason, I was, AGAIN, hitting off my back foot, so I was getting no power on my shots.  I don't know why it happened, but I need to do better to get out of that bad pattern and keep my weight moving forward into the ball. 

I got in my Flow series and the EMS later that evening.

In the end, I burned over 1400kcals.  It was cold, but I seems to have finally found an outfit that is suited to cold weather.  Bummer of the evening, I lost one of my Vibration Dampeners.  It just flew off my racket in the middle of a rally.  Then, when I went to look for it, I just couldn't find it.  It might have flown down a drain grating.  Looking to get another one before too long.

1-30-18 (Tuesday) HY: TCF + Pickle-Ball + Ab EMS.

1-30-18 (Tuesday) HY: TCF + Pickle-Ball + Ab EMS.

Today was cold, and John was later than usual, so a good stretch and I was set to do a long Flow series down the length of the Pickle-Ball court.  I got a lot of good Flows in and I was able to play with the tempo and pace of the Flows.  I was also a little surprised that the Flows actually warmed me up a bit which was a plus.

Once John did arrive we started right in with our warm up rallying.  I guess I was a bit off my game or I was still a little on the cold side because although I jumped out to a small lead, I lost the lead when John went on a huge run of points.  Again, I couldn't catch up and I dropped the first game. 8-15.  The second game was close from the beginning, but then I got the big lead and it seemed like the score would be the reverse of the first game because it was 14-8, but I couldn't close it out.  I got a little conservative and lost a couple of points, but I got back to myself and finally closed out the game, 15-10.  The third game was the closest and longest we've played in a few weeks.  Very competitive and a lot of lead changes  I did finally jump out to a relatively large lead, but then John came back to tie me at 13-13.  I inched forward to 14-13, but again, I couldn't close it out.  We exchanged service a couple more times before I finally closed it out, 15-13.  The past few weeks, somehow, the third game has always finished with 10 minutes remaining of out game time.  Once we had to play a short game, but the next two times we just finished to 15, all, I might add, I came through the victor!  Today, with 10 minutes left, we, again said, "play to noon, and see what happens."  But I was totally warmed up and I roared out of the gate.  There was a little hiccup, but I ended the game just a couple of minutes after noon which is within our range of grace.  There were no "GIMMIE" point in that final game.  I fought and earned each point.  I took the game 15-5.  It was a good day.

I slipped in my EMS in the evening after my night class.

In the end, I burned over 1050kcals.  I was hoping for more, but I suspect the cold kept my heart rate down. We'll see what happens in Summer.