5-28-18 (Monday) HY: Body Beasy - Build: Shoulders + Abs After 40 - Abs.

5-28-18 (Monday) HY: Body Beasy - Build: Shoulders + Abs After 40 - Abs.

Today was off from my night class, so I was able to come home after work and get a workout done.  I was able to finish the third round of the Build Phase today with Shoulders.  But in hindsight, I probably should have don Build: Legs as a supplement because doing two upper body resistance routine on consecutive days is something that I am really not used to.  But take a look at the 29th's blog to see how I did on the second day.

For most of the sets today, I went up in weight between 1kg and 2.5kgs.  I think my shoulders are one of the stronger muscle groups I have, so I was happy with the progress I have been making on them.  A little new set up, I lifted 26kgs for the first time.  I was thinking of how to go up from 25kgs and I hit upon the idea of hooking my 1kg hand weight on the safety clamps of my dumbbells.  It worked like a charm and I went up to my highest weight ever here at home.  That was on the Standing Dumbbell Shrug.  But there were some bad sets as well.  The drop set of the Upright Row is one of them.  The weight I chose was just too heavy.  Both weights were too heavy, even the lighter second set of the drop set.  I guess I just burned out and lost it.  The last round of the Giant set was also too heavy for the last two moves.  But the first move was much better this time around compared to last time.  Last time, my left arm failed on the last few reps and I dropped the weight down instead of controlling it down.  Today, I was able to control it down.  But on the last two moves, 6.25kgs was too heavy and my form suffered.  I was trying to swing the weights up and leverage them up.  Just terrible form, especially on the last 4 reps.  Then on the final Super Set, I couldn't go up in weight on the Sagi Six-Way.  That was also a huge struggle and form suffered.  But I was able to crush the Tuck & Roll.  I added a lot of reps to both sets.

Final Abs After 40 Abs today, and this was the best push thus far.  Still did 5 circuits and got a good burn.

In the end, I burned 621 Kcals.  I felt good about finishing the Round 3 today.  Looking forward to the final round and whether or not I can raise the weights even higher.

5-27-18 (Sunday) Tennis.

5-27-18 (Sunday) Tennis.

The week before today there was a fear that rain would force the practice indoors, but luckily, the weather cooperated and it ended up being only a little cloudy at the start then it really cleared up and was a beautiful day.  I got a good tan, or should I say I got darker, a lot darker after today.  The menu was as usual, but because there weren't too many people, we got to play more matches in the last hour.  I was able to play in three matches.  I was happy because my serve was working and I won all my matches and I won all but one of my service games.  I think I am starting to come into my own in match play.  I am starting to get used to the pressure and I am not fading into dink play when I don't feel confident.  With regard to my serve, I don't let a double fault scare me into poopooing my second serve.  I play my game, serve my serve and win and lose playing my style. 


In the end, I burned 2150 kcal.  I think I'm going to have to bring the bigger water thermos on sunny days from now on.  I barely had enough at the end and that was because I was trying to conserve.

5-25-18 (Friday) Pickle-Ball.

5-25-18 (Friday) Pickle-Ball.

My favorite day of the week.  Something different to do is always a highlight.  Today, I was feeling pretty good, and I tested myself by really mixing up my game.  I was trying to power my way through the first game, then use more finesse and touch in the second.  The games were all good with good shots from both sides.  In the third game, I was feeling a little sorry for John because I was thrashing him so badly, so I started to try some more of those "Impossible" shots.  I let the game go a little and he took the third game.  But I came back to totally dominate the fourth and final game.  The game scores were:
Game 1: 15-5
Game 2: 15-3
Game 3: 12-15
Game 4: 15-8

In the end, I burned 1058 Kcal.  I want to be able to control every point, so if I get put into the position of having to come from behind, I can.

5-24-18 (Thursday) HY: Body Beast - Build: Back & Bis + AA40 Abs.

5-24-18 (Thursday) HY: Body Beast - Build: Back & Bis + AA40 Abs.

Closing out my resistance week with a morning Back & Bis workout today.  I was thinking to go up a little in weight today, but I was still feeling a bit gimpy in my back, but waking up in the morning, my back usually feels a bit gimpy so I decided to just see how my back held up and then go from there.  I would test it with some heavier weight if it felt good as my back warmed up.   So, as you can see below, I went up a little on the later sets, but I kept the weight for most of the Back section.  The big success is still being able to do the first two sets of Pull-Ups a full 10 reps.  But the slight disappointment was the third set was a burnout.  There was no upping the weights on the Giant Set today.  Moving to Biceps, the Chin-Ups were a bigger disappointment if you look at the numbers.  I'm not sure what happened.  But the rest of the routine was pretty much the same weights as the previous time.  Th only small rise was the 1 rep per set of the Airplane Cobra.

Going to the Abs, I still did the 5 rounds of the circuit instead of the prescribed 3, so I think my core is getting stronger.  But the burn was still present at the third round.

In the end, I burned 864 kcal.  Even though today was riddled with disappointment with regard to raising my weights, I got a good pump and burn on.

5-23-18 (Wednesday) Tennis.

5-23-18 (Wednesday) Tennis.

Today was my first tennis day in a week.  Since it was raining, the practice was at the indoor facility.  During the first hour, we had two courts so we were able to get in a lot of turns with drills.  But the second hour we only had one court so things slowed down quite a bit.  But either way, to start the evening, I was able to warm up with one of the top players in the club and after the mid-court rallies, we were banging out the full court rallies.  Tons of fun playing with a better player.  It is so satisfying when I can knock some unreturnable strokes at them.  It was a good practice, but I still need work on returning deep low slice balls, and overall hard returns.  My reflexes are not what they used to be as is my eyesight which is probably to blame.  I can't pick up the ball as quickly because of the weakness of my eyes.  Oh well, I'll just have to adapt.

In the end, I burned 919 kcals, as noted on my HRM, but I stupidly forgot to start the HRM and ended up starting it about 45 minutes late.  So I think I would have burned closer to 1500kcals.

5-22-18 (Tuesday) HY: Body Beast - Build: Chest and Tris + AA 40 Abs + TCF.

5-22-18 (Tuesday) HY: Body Beast - Build: Chest and Tris + AA 40 Abs + TCF.

Today starts the third round of the Build phase.  I wasn't really looking forward to today's routine because I was still sore from yesterday's resistance routing, Build: Shoulders.  But I was happy to get a jump on round three of the Body Beast Build Phase so I went with it.  It was just as tough as I expected, but I quickly loosened up after that the first few sets of the chest moves.  I went up a little on weight, again, an average of 2.5kgs per set on most sets in the Chest section.    Like the first move, the Single Set and the Super Set, 2-2.5kgs up.  On the Giant Set, I jumped up 3.25kgs on the first two moves, first set.  Then 2.5kgs on the second of the first move, and only 1.25kgs on the second set of the second move.  On the third set of the first move (in the Giant Set) I jumped 3.25kgs again.  And 2.5kgs on the third set of the second move.  But why am I telling you this when you can just see the weight jumps below.

I will say that I was happy with my 1.25 jumps on the Tris moves.  I honestly didn't think I could jump much.  But unfortunately, I still burned out and couldn't do any of the Close-Grip Push-Ups on my toes.  Still everything on my knees.  Dips were terrible.  I could only manage 12 on my first set and then died from there. BURN OUT!!!  But it was a good workout!

Today, with a new round, comes a new level of ab workout.  I started the Abs After 40 Abs routine.  It is a short circuit of 4 moves: Flutter Kicks, Heel Touches, In and Outs, and Reverse Crunches.  The coach says 3 rounds, but I did 5 rounds instead so I can keep my ab reps at 200.  Today's abs were on FIRE!

I closed out my workout with a nice Flow series.  Getting back into the flow.

In the end, I burned 779 kcal.  I good number for the workout.

5-20-18 (Sunday) HY: Body Beast - Build: Shoulders + Power 90 - Ab Ripper 200 + TCF.

5-20-18 (Sunday) HY: Body Beast - Build: Shoulders + Power 90 - Ab Ripper 200 + TCF.

Today is normally my big Tennis Day, but my daughter had her State Championship Game in Field Hockey today, and it was her last championship game for her high school career, so I wasn't going to miss this game, for sure.  Long story short, my daughter's team won the State Championship by a score of 2-0.  My daughter scored the winning goal and assisted on the insurance goal.  It was a great game, and I was so happy that they won, and that my daughter scored.  All this against their nemesis team.  That made the victory even bigger!

So, I went with my resistance workout for today.  I was actually planning on doing the Shoulders routine on Saturday night, but I forgot until the last minute that I had a dinner party/meeting with my tennis club on Saturday night, so I went to that instead.

Today's shoulder routine ends my second round of the Body Beast - Build phase.  I will start the third round on this Tuesday.  But back to today.

I also did my last round of Power 90, Ab Ripper 200.  Slowly getting back the base firmness in my abs that I lost.

In the end, I burned 548 kcals.  Pretty normal for this short routine plus abs.