10-31-17 (Tuesday) HY: Supreme 90 Day - Total Body + ChaLEAN Extreme - I've Got Abs + TCF.

10-31-17 (Tuesday) HY: Supreme 90 Day - Total Body + ChaLEAN Extreme - I've Got Abs + TCF.

I was able to get a good start on my resistance today.  I didn't want to get a full lower body routine in a day before tennis because I'd be too fried, but Total Body was just the right mix to give me a good workout and work everything.  I made a few adjustments to the routine compared to the last time almost a year ago.  Here is an outline of the main changes:  Of the three sets per circuit, I kept the first two sets the same weight and same rep count and increased the weight on the final set while reducing the rep count by a few reps.  On a few moves, I started off with a lighter weight, but ended with almost the same weight as the last time.  The moves that involved more lower back, I used a lower weight to protect from injury.  On the final cardio move of circuits 2 and 4, I did the rep count stated by the trainer.  To see this differences, see the worksheet below. 

I started off with the core warm up but did the stated number or reps.  It was really good to get through that because my abs were feeling it early on.  After the first round of Circuit 1, I ended up having to do two sets of Push-Ups in a row, Clapping Push-Ups, then regular Push-Ups.  That was pretty tough.  I started to need an extra long break between rounds.  Circuit 2 was pretty standard all the way around, but that Squat Jump, a lot like Star Jumpers in YAYOG really took it out of me.  Fried my energy pretty quickly.  My legs started to burn hard in Circuit 3.  I really felt it in the third round with the heavier weight.  Much longer breaks just to catch my breath now.  I really wanted to protect my back on those Dumbbell Clean-Press move, hence the lower weight by 2.5kgs to start. I was so blown that I could only bring myself to do the stated number of Broad Jumps, 10 reps.  Over all, it was a great routine.  I know I'll be sore tomorrow, but I plan to have enough energy to play some tennis in the evening.  I was happy in the the final circuit that I could still pump out 15 reps at 22kgs of Dumbbell Bench Presses.  I was thinking to drop to 10-12 reps, but I still felt strong at 12, so I kept going to 15.  I was planning to do the 30-Day PUC today, but I was to fried to try.  I'll do it tomorrow for sure.  That means I'll have two days in a row.

I upped the intensity for my abs, which means I switched ab routines to the next level.  O man did I feel it.  I felt strong at first, but the burn came quickly.  But the odd thing is that it didn't debilitate me.  I felt the strength to push through the pain for at least a little while longer before failure.  The weighted move burn was more amplified because I used a much heavier weight for the one-arm move.  I usually use 4kgs, but tonight I used the 7.5kgs.  HUGE DIFFERENCE!

Finally, I topped everything off with a good Flow series.  My whole body was feeling the resistance burn and the cardio burn together.

In the end, I burned 1249kcals.  Keeping on Keeping on!

10-30-17 (Monday) HY: Golf + Lower Body Stretch + TCF.

10-30-17 (Monday) HY: Golf + Lower Body Stretch + TCF.

The last time I went golfing was about two years ago.  But I figured it was time to go again.  I had the time, and no schedule conflict, so I went.  Monday was off from work because of the weekend festivities.  This is an annual thing but I couldn't go last year for some reason.

It was a beautiful day!  The sun was out only a few small clouds in the sky, a chilly breeze blowing, great conditions.  My group consisted of two regulars, a bi-monthly warrior, and me.  Everyone was really cool and nice, so it was a fun round.  No social nerves.  Let me give you a little history.  20+ years ago when I actually started playing golf, I played a lot, sometimes 2-3 times a week.  I got pretty good.  My handicap was down to 13.5.  But when I came to Japan, I didn't play for several years, then I went a few times with my father-in-law.  And a couple times a year with some co-workers.  Then those co-workers found several other members of the staff who played golf and formed sort of a club.  Now, that club plays about 4-5 times a year.  It is with them that I played today.  Golf is a game that has to be practiced in order to improve.  Playing once or twice a year won't make you better at all.  So, I wasn't really trying for a low score today, I just wanted to enjoy the round.  So as a hint, if my enjoyment is based on the size of my score, I enjoyed myself a huge amount.  It was pretty much around my average.  I hit a handful of really great drives, a few good putts, a lot of relatively satisfying shots, and a huge mess of junk shots.  No miracles today, not a one.  To put my round in terms of a workout, I walked, jogged, ran, climbed mountains and steep inclines, and swung clubs well over a hundred times in the course of over 6 hours.  Several times I ran the "Serpentine" chasing my wayward shots.  My calves got a great workout climbing the steep inclines, I could feel a cramp coming on.  I would be a great golfer if I could just clean up my game and not hit a series of duff shots.  A duff shot is when you hit the ground before you hit the ball and so the ball travels only about 10 yards.  What happened to me all to many times today was I would hit a straight long drive, then hit 3 duffs.  My putter was also on vacation.  Very rarely would I 2-putt.  Usually, I 3-put or more.  Sense of distance and sense of direction were also on vacation.  Approach game, on vacation.  I almost never game myself a chance to 2 putt.  But overall, it was a good day.

When I got home, I was exhausted.  My legs were starting to tighten up, so I took the time to stretch them out, especially my calves.  I really needed that.  Then, to finish my day, I went with the Flow series.

In the end, I burned just under 2500kcals during golf.  Nice big burn!

10-29-17 (Sunday) HY: Walking + Tennis + 30-Day PUC + TCF.

10-29-17 (Sunday) HY: Walking + Tennis + 30-Day PUC + TCF.

This day was almost a bust.  According to the weather forecast, the typhoon was supposed to skirt along the east of Japan around 3am, and then be gone by the morning.  But what happened was that it pretty much NOT that.  It ran up the eastern side of Japan, and slowed during the night so that it was pretty much right on top of us in the morning.  I had to go to work early, and then jet off to catch tennis.  Luckily, the organizers moved to an indoor court so even in rain, we could play.  Anyway, the reason why I had work on Sunday is because the school was having their annual School Festival and as an adviser for freshmen, I had to go and show support.  But with the typhoon, it became sort of a manual labor day.  It is a two-day event.  Saturday was rainy but not to bad I heard (I didn't go on Saturday).  As usual, the tents and awnings were left up for the next day.  Well, the high winds and heavy rain play havoc with all that stuff.  So, all the booths and things had to me dismantled put away and all the stuff was moved indoors.  So, for the time that I was there, I was moving like crazy.  I was not dressed for it and I sweat through all my clothes.  I wish I had my HRM on, because I was walking all over the campus, up and down countless flights of stairs, carrying this and that.  But I did happen to meet some former students and took a few moments to catch up.  So that was nice.  Luckily, a lot of people were working really hard, so everything got mostly done relatively quickly.

I was able to dash off to tennis as planned.  We only had one indoor court, but the members were few, so we were able to do a lot of hitting and practicing.  We also all had a chance to play a couple set matches with different partners.  My first partner was an intermediate player.  We were playing again two very experienced players.  We were able to hang with them for the first round, but then they got wise and started to pick on my partner.  A lot of effort went into the match, but we ultimately lost the set, 6-3.  My second match, my partner was one of the really experienced guys and we were going against another experienced guy and a heavy-hitter but intermediate player.  There were a lot more longer rallies in this match.  The score was tied to the last game.  Everyone pretty much won one service game and lost once so with no ad scoring, at 5-5, the winner of the next game wins.  To make a long story short, the score was deuce and they chose to sever to me.  GREAT!!!  (sarcasm dripping profusely)  My partner said to me, "Don't worry about it, just go for it."  So, I went for it and crushed it.  The opponent got a racket on my return but it didn't come back over the net.  That felt good.  We still had time left, so we did stroke practice.  Since I have been playing a lot more regularly as of late, I find that I am able to really find my groove a lot quicker.  I'm able to feel the ball and see the ball better as well.  So I'm really liking my clubs.

When I got home, I was tired, but I had to get the last day of the Pull-Up challenge done.  So, I went right to my bar, stretched out, then went for it.  Today, "No coming off the bar breaks" was my goal.  Hanging breaks for a breath or two was fine, though.  Today's menu,  3 sets of three grips,  Pull-Up 8 reps, Chin-Ups 7 reps, Parallel Grip 6 reps.  The protocol says to take up to two minute breaks between sets.  I took less than that and was able to finish in less than 18 minutes.  I got a great pump and I was really happy that I could reach my goal, not mid-set breaks off the bar.  And full range of motion on each rep., no half reps allowed... EVER!  BUT, since I did leak over into a fifth week, I'm going to do a couple extra days of the Pull-Up Challenge to finish right.  My next day will be eccentric, then the final day again.

Then, I finished off with my Flow series.  Also did several extra rounds just because I could.

In the end, I burned a whopping 1420kcals not including the initial walking stuff.  I think I would have topped 2000 if I were wearing my HRM.  Great start to my week.

10-28-17 (Saturday) Upper Body Stretch.

10-28-17 (Saturday) Upper Body Stretch.

So the big question was this, "Should I stay within the schedule of the 30-Day Pull-Up Challenge and do the final day on Saturday?"  Well, when I woke up, my lats and shoulders were feeling okay, but as the day progressed, I felt the soreness and tightness set in.  Also, there was a little soreness in my left rib area.  It was the soreness that, in the past, became more painful and actually made it impossible for me to do pull-ups for a while.  So, I decided not to risk pulling a muscle and take a break.  Instead, I took some time to stretch out my shoulders and lats.  Biceps and Triceps were also quite sore, so I stretched them out as well.

Confession time:  I was left alone Saturday night.  My wife and daughter had their respective activities.  When the last person was gone, I suddenly realized how hungry I was.  Along the same time, I opened my email and I found a coupon for Pizza Hut, "Buy one medium get the second one free."  Something in my brain clicked.  I WANTED PIZZA!!!  I figured that two medium pizzas, if I got the light cruse, wouldn't be that bad.  TWO SAVES!  Save #1, a typhoon was upon us.  That made me feel like not wanting to go out or I would have gone to get the pizzas.  Save #2, I got through my whole online order and clicked send.  The site said it would take 40 minutes for delivery.  The last time I ordered pizza via online, I got a confirmation email.  This time, the email never came despite me pushing "order".  If the weather was better or if the order went through, I would be feeling really crappy today, for sure.  So, I ended up have a shake instead.  Someone is looking out for me and saving me from myself.

10-27-17 (Friday) HY: P90X3 - Triometrics + ChaLEAN Extreme - Extreme Abs + 30-Day PUC + TCF.

10-27-17 (Friday) HY: P90X3 - Triometrics + ChaLEAN Extreme - Extreme Abs + 30-Day PUC + TCF.

Today was a good day.  Got some good work done, made it home in time to take some relaxing time before my workout, on top of that, no time crunch.  So I could just do my thing.

When I woke up this morning, my arms weren't feeling too bad, but as the day progressed, soreness slowly crept in and cause me the soreness pain I was expecting.  But I was able to stretch out my arms a few stretches at a time so by the time I was ready to start my workout, I didn't feel that bad.  However, I was a little worried about how I would perform during the Pull-Up Challenge.

Cardio was up so I chose Tony to lead me today.  It has been a while since I've done this routine, but I figured, "Hey, it's only 30 minutes.  No Prob!"  As I have said in the past, "Famous last words."  I thought with all the tennis and Pickle-Ball I've been playing as of late, I'd be fine with my leg strength. NOPE!  From the very beginning, my legs were feeling it.  I made it through the first couple moves okay, but when I got to that Warrior 3 Squat or Lunge, That killed my working leg.  I couldn't last to the 3rd version.  I was already burned out after the first 40 seconds.  Then, from then on, several of the moves took me out before the third version.  So, instead of taking a break and not doing the third version, I took a break, rewound the DVD and then did the third version.  I ended up doing that on several of the moves.  By the time the 30 minute routine was over, about 35 minutes had passed.  Not including the cool down.  My legs were SCREAMING!!!  I will have to revisit Triometrics again!  Sooner than later.

I moved directly into abs.  I was happy that I felt stronger than previous go-throughs of this routine.  I am hoping that that is because of my abs and core getting stronger.  I got an intense burn, but recovery was better with just a few quick and strong exhales.  I may move to the next ab routine up the ladder next week.

Today's Pull-Up menu was just two versions: 3 sets of 6 reps of Chin-Ups, and 5 sets of 8 reps of Pole Vaulters.  This is the first time that the Pole Vaulters set count was odd, so I decided to even it up, I would do both grips in one set and just do 4-4.  But no break between, just a grip switch.  So I did one set of Chin-Ups and then two sets of Pole Vaulters twice, then finished with one set of each to finish.  All three Chin-Up sets were good to the end, except that just before the very last rep, I took a short Hanging break for a couple of breaths.  Then on sets 4 and 5 of the Pole Vaulters, I just about hit failure on the eighth rep.  Eccentric was brutal, I just didn't want to drop down.  I've got to stay in control.  Also, on the last two sets of Pole Vaulters, I took a little longer break, just to shake out my arms, between grip changes.  But I was happy to get it done.  Now, my next issue is if I'm gong to finish off the Challenge within the 30 days, or go an extra day and do the final day on  the final schedule day which is tomorrow.  If I'm feeling good, I will, but I'm not making any pledges or promises.  I will let my body decide when the time comes tomorrow.

And the grand finale, a good calming Flow series.

In the end, I burned a good 910kcals.  Good way to end my week.  By getting cardioed out and pumping myself up with Pull-Ups!!! Happy Weekend, everyone!

10-26-17 (Thursday) HY: Supreme 90 Day - Arms & Shoulders + Power 90 - Ab Ripper 200 + TCF.

10-26-17 (Thursday) HY: Supreme 90 Day - Arms & Shoulders + Power 90 - Ab Ripper 200 + TCF.

I was in a serious time crunch today.  When in this situation I normally wouldn't do a full resistance routine, but for some reason I decided to push through with one.  In hindsight, it probably would have been better if I had done a short cardio routine and gotten today's Pull-Ups in, but unfortunately, I think I was just thinking about not doing resistance for three days and not wanting to make it four.  So, as you can see, I took a second day off from the Pull-Up Challenge.  Which means I'll have to do two consecutive days, something I really didn't want to do.  Plus, I'll have to do it on my full-off day, Saturday, if I'm going to complete the challenge on schedule.  I guess it will all depend on how sore I am on Saturday night.  But I digress.  Today, I only had 2 hours for working out, 90 minutes if I wanted to eat dinner before my class.  Long story short, I didn't eat until after the class.

The routine starts off with a 90 rep Ab warm up that burned out my abs in the second round.  I couldn't get all the way through without a break.  The final move was Shoulder Circles.  Not sure I see the logic in doing an ab focused warm up for an Arms & Shoulders routine.  If it is an effective warm up, I appreciate someone telling me why.

You can see what I did on the worksheet below.  I basically stuck with the same weight range as the last time I did it about 10 months ago, but I took the middle weight and did that twice and the heavier weight once at a lower rep count.  I started off with 10 reps, but then bumped it up to 12 for the first two rounds.  And 8 reps for the heavy round at first, then I bumped it up to 10 reps.  The heavy round always took me to failure.  8 and 10 were good sets.  By the end of the routine, my arms were pumped, but totally fried.  I really tried to slow down each rep to maximize my Time Under Tension (TUT).  I've been hearing a lot about TUT and it sounds like good solid science (not that I could differentiate from bad weak science).  So I'm hoping that I'll see gains soon.

My abs felt recovered, but time was short, so instead of Chalene, I went with Tony's short but sweet Ab Ripper 200 for more abs.  The last 3-5 reps on the last 4 moves were brutal.  Just about to failure, and surely the burn.  It was a good little routine.  Perfectly fit into my time constraints.  Finishing off with a good calming Flow series.  I finished everything in an hour and fifty-five minutes.   WHEW!!!

In the end, I burned a good 1070kcals.  A little surprising for an upper body routine, but I'll take it!

10-25-17 (Wednesday) HY: P90X2 - Recovery and Mobility + TCF.

10-25-17 (Wednesday) HY: P90X2 - Recovery and Mobility + TCF.

Finally a somewhat regular schedule has come and I was able to fit in a Mid-Week Recovery day.  Pickle-Ball and Tennis on consecutive days necessitated a big foam rolling day because my legs were feeling it.  I went straight through the routine, save one big change; I doubled the foam rolling sequence... the WHOLE sequence.  I hit every part of my body that had a hot spot and I squashed it.  I lost some flexibility in my hamstrings, but I am slowly working to get it back.  The huge discrepancy between my left and right hip flexor is still there, but I'm still working to even that out as well.  It was nice to take the time to really roll and stretch.  It was also very refreshing.

I was able to finish out with a nice Flow series so I was very centered and focused all day.

In the end, I burned a lite 250+kcals, but I feel like a million bucks!