4 Weeks of Cardio - Day 12

Well, I took the car and didn't do my weight training today, but I think I already mentioned that. I did get home and do Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs though, and that went pretty well. The first set of the warmup I felt like I couldn't move, but I noticed that by the end of the third set I was flying on the high knees and felt great! I sweat through the entire stretch, and brought a ton of energy into the actual workout. The first half went great, and the second half went so-so. At that point my legs were pretty dead.

My legs being dead seems to be a theme lately. My quads just feel so tired all of the time, and my knees feel like they have trouble going all of the way from bent to straight, slow or fast. It's lame. Hopefully I get stronger soon. Jumping is killing me!

After Pure Cardio I went straight into Cardio Abs. The first half was just as so-so as the end of my Pure Cardio, but once I got into the C-Sit position I felt excellent again. That's such a unique isometric ab workout, and it really makes you feel excellent at the end. I finished very strong and felt great at the end.

One more day in Week 2, and it's Max Plyo. Just a quick note, this doubles schedule seems pretty ridiculous now that vacation's over, and my legs are really starting to feel the massive amount of cardio I'm doing. I feel like I'm doing just as much cardio as when I did Insanity, but for some reason it feels a lot harder. Plus as great as I feel cardio wise, I don't see the weightloss like I want to. That all said, I'm going to push through one more week and if it turns into a week like this with a modified schedule I'm comfortable with it. Week 4 I am probably going to cut out so I can just start Rushfit the same time I'd originally planned, along with Starting Strength.

As for doing Rushfit and Starting Strength together, it's only 8 weeks, so I'm going to try to do it with that mentality like I did with Insanity. If that doesn't work, I'm putting together a new schedule using the workout DVDs for the 3 days in between Starting Strength.

Anyways, that's a lot of info, but it's been on my mind and I wanted the world to know. That's all I've got. Time to enjoy the evening.

Bring it!

4 Weeks of Cardio - Day 11 Part 2

A few quick notes.

First off, last night I got home and actually did my second workout for the day for the first time this week. It was Core Cardio & Balance from Insanity, and as always it went pretty well. I enjoy this workout a lot because it's easier than most Insanity workouts, is short, but it still gives me a great sweat and some great cardio. My girlfriend did this workout with me too and she did awesome. Plus we both admit that we workout harder when someone else is in there pushing us, so we both had better workouts than if we'd done it alone.

Also, after the workout my roommate asked what workout we did, and after we told him it was under 40 minutes he did the same workout. He said there weren't enough water breaks (there never are) but it looked like he enjoyed it.

This morning was supposed to be Day 12 Part 1 with Upper Body Extreme from One on One, but I had to take my car in and it's just not going to happen. Tonight I'll get my cardio workout in and just call it good. I'll let you know how it goes after the fact.

Bring it!

4 Weeks of Cardio - Day 11 Part 1

Wow, this doubles schedule with work and coming off of EDC without a true break is finally catching up with me. I got home last night from work and pretty much passed out on the couch. My second cardio workout did not happen, and for once I'm blaming an over-bearing schedule instead of just myself for being lazy.

To add to that, this morning I woke up and did yoga. Well, I wish that's what I could say. I put in Yoga One on One MC2, but after about 20 minutes I decided my body was too sore to even get through this routine. My back was in so much pain that upward dog just wasn't happening at all, and for some reason my left wrist feels terrible so holding poses with that hand were painful.

After 20 minutes I decided this was not a good idea and made the switch to Relief from The Asylum. Even this was very difficult today and I had to take a lot of breaks, but I did manage to get through this workout and my body feels a lot better. Not all of the way there, but better.

I'm reevaluating how much I want to do Week 4 of this program. I may need to retool it, or at least make the doubles workout for each day optional. I feel very very rough this morning and I have a feeling it will only get worse until Saturday finally gets here. I definitely need the extra cardio though, so maybe I shouldn't change anything. I have thinking to do.

That all said, tonight I am still planning on throwing in Core Cardio & Balance from Insanity. I did not get any cardio this morning, so I need this workout. It's also a much easier program than any other workout I have in my own program, so hopefully I can get through it and feel pretty good by the end.

Bring it!

4 Weeks of Cardio - Day 10

Going along my slightly adjusted schedule, I woke up this morning and did yesterday's Max Cardio Workout instead of my regularly scheduled Core Synergistics.

Today's workout went well. My legs are feeling pretty sore still from the weekend, and I ate like garbage yesterday which slowed me down a lot, but I started to get into it after the Stretch. The workout got me sweaty, but overall I felt really tired. I'm back to work today too, so I was up at 6am instead of 10:30 like I've been doing all last week. That slowed me down a lot too.

Good way to start the day, and it's time to go back to work. Tonight I'll get into Plyo and I'll be back on schedule for the week.

I already miss vacation and it's been over for less than a day. Sigh...it was nice.

Back to my normal life. Bring it!

4 Weeks of Cardio - Days 8 and 9 (and the wrap-up of EDC)

Today is Day 9, but I did work out on Day 8, Sunday. I never got a chance to blog yesterday because of EDC and me being very tired and having to get moving earlier than I wanted to get there in time. I'll get to that in a moment.

First off, yesterday I was pretty tired from EDC on Friday. I did not go on Saturday to save my energy for Sunday, and with that in mind I decided to only do one workout instead of two. Since I'm sticking to cardio, I did Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs. Overall it was a good workout. Not the greatest because of blisters on my feet, but I got a great sweat going and felt like I pushed myself. The Cardio Abs weren't as good, but I got a good workout in and I'm comfortable with that.

I got home from the final night of the show around 4am this morning, so after a nice nap and then sitting on the couch for a good part of the day I hit play around 3:30. Today my feet REALLY hurt and cardio just wasn't going to happen. Needing at least some way of getting my heart going, I decided to do the Upper Body workout from Insanity that I was supposed to do yesterday. I'm pretty exhausted today and only got through the first half of this, but I actually feel pretty good right now. My arms got a good workout and I got my heart-rate up for about 30 minutes, so I'm happy.

My plan for tomorrow is to completely wipe out Core Synergistics since it's longer than an hour and it's my first day back at work (and screwing with my schedule on my first day back to work seems like a poor decision), and I'm going to swap it with the Max Cardio routine I should have done today. However, this is dependent on my blisters being gone in the morning, so I'll keep you posted on that. If I can, though, by tomorrow afternoon I'll be back on schedule with Pure Cardio.

So EDC was an incredible experience. It was much more of a carnival than I thought it was going to be, but the music was incredible and the five stages were all amazing. Friday night we stayed all night and I was exhausted Saturday. That was an excellent recovery day. I was going to go for a few hours Saturday and all night Sunday, but my friends said they were doing the opposite of that. I did not have the energy for two all nighters in a row so I gave my ticket to a friend Saturday night, and Sunday closed out the show nicely. My girlfriend got a ticket for Sunday night too, so that was a fun bonus.

Every night of the show had great DJ's, the stages were the biggest I've ever seen with the best visual setups too, and every night at 2am they did the biggest firework show I've ever seen. One stage even had a giant structure/ceiling thing that surrounded you with colors. There were also light shows and artwork that added to the atmosphere, and even performers driving around big giant butterflies and snakes. The only two requests I'd have for next year would be a significant more amount of artwork and buy some freakin' blacklights. The artwork was great, but there just wasn't enough of it to be fully immersed. You'd be surrounded by a few giant glowing flowers, but if you walked away twenty feet you'd be right back in the concert. As for the blacklights, everyone I saw was covered in things that glow under blacklights. Facepaint, special hair stuff, glow sticks, glow shirts, glow shoes.....everything! We were all expecting blacklights, and I don't even think I saw one. And it's an overnight show, so they had to install lights anyways! Ya, that part made no sense.

But other than that it was an absolutely amazing experience. Thanks to all who shared it with me. Electric Daisy Carnival 2011 Las Vegas was outstanding! I can't wait for 2012!

Bring it!

4 Weeks of Cardio - Day 6 (and the beginning of EDC)

Week 1 is finally at a close. Vacation has been excellent to me this week, and I feel incredibly relaxed. As far as working out goes, this has been a fantastic week for me too. I've done so much cardio and I think I am finally on a solid path to get rid of the last layer of fat around my stomach.

Today was Max Plyo from Insanity. I wasn't feeling like working out today at all, but finally hit play around 2:30 this afternoon. This is a brutal workout, and by the end I was completely destroyed. It's two sets of three 3 minute circuits, followed by a single final circuit. For some reason I thought it was three full circuits, so when it ended about seven minutes before I thought it was a nice break.

Overall it was a good workout and as exhausted as I was at the end I feel incredible right now. This week has been awesome and I hope I can keep the energy and cardio up in the next two weeks while I get back to my regularly scheduled life.

So a quick note, tonight starts EDC! I'll give you a lowdown either Sunday or Monday, but long story short it's going to be three full nights of awesome! Dancing is going to add to my cardio, and the fact that everything I am going to wear this weekend glows in the dark is just freakin' cool.

I'll get EDC info after the fact, but just wanted Day 1 to be on the blog.

Bring it!

4 Weeks of Cardio - Day 5 Part 2

The second workout for today is in the books. It was Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs from Insanity. Unfortunately, between workouts today I ate a cheeseburger and sat around for a while, and by the time my workout came at 5pm I was feeling pretty rough. And it was really hot in the garage. But I drank a lot of water and turned on the fan for the warmup and in between workouts and I did pretty well. It wasn't as good as Sunday's Pure Cardio, but it was still up there with my better Pure Cardio workouts from a few months ago.

I will say that after this whole week my body is starting to feel beat up. Next week I'm continuing with the schedule, but won't be doing the hiking/racquetball/additional stuff so I should still be good to finish out this program strong. I'll still need to make some adjustments during Week 4, but we'll get there when we get there.

My only concern for next week is that this weekend is a huge concert. 3 nights of rave music, lights, colors and dancing! I kind of made this week intense so I could build up my endurance for the concert, but I didn't really take into account giving myself a solid rest before it, or what the dancing will do to my body for next week. And I have a workout scheduled Sunday (two actually) and one on Monday, and inbetween those two days is the last night of the concert. I'm willing to be flexible with my schedule a bit, and if I have to sacrifice stuff I'm for sure saving the cardio workouts, but I just wanted to document that I'm thinking ahead. Also I'm freakin' stoked for EDC 2011!

Oh, one more quick thing, last night I played racquetball for an hour and swam for an hour. The swimming was much more play than workout, but racquetball got me sweating pretty well. Just wanted to document the additional workout. This vacation has been so awesome! I've seen drum corps, climbed a mountain, swam, played racquetball, worked out a lot....it's been an awesome gift to my body.

One more workout scheduled for Week 1 and it's Max Plyo! Jay said he may come over in the morning to join me. Good luck if you do Jay; you'll need it!

Bring it!

4 Weeks of Cardio - Day 5 Part 1

Week 1 continues strong. I woke up this morning pretty late, almost 9:30, and wandered downstairs to some coffee and shakeology. After sitting on the couch staring aimlessly for an hour, I worked my way into the gym and hit play on my second weight lifting routine of the week, UBX from P90X One on One.

UBX stands for Upper Body Extreme, and this was my first time doing this workout. As far as weightlifting routine goes, I liked it a lot more than Upper Body Weightlifting, the one I did on Sunday. It doesn't have as fast of a pace, but it felt like a lot heavier lifting and I enjoyed that. There was a lot of core mixed in too, and most of the pushups are done while holding onto a medicine ball which I've found destroys my chest!

The only thing I didn't like about this workout is that it felt inappropriately titled. This wasn't upper body - it was Chest, Shoulders & Triceps. It's mostly compound exercises that work most of those body parts at once, but it never touched on Back and Biceps. Maybe a little back with some of the shoulder stuff, like the weighted circles, but never biceps. So after it was all over (before the stretch though) I pulled out a few sets of pullups. I did 3x3 chinups and 2x3 on the hammer pullups. It felt like a good way to end this workout.

For breakfast I made some sausage and egg muffins, and I'm putting together a greek chicken salad for dinner. I'm going to run errands during the day, and sometime tonight I have a cardio workout scheduled.

I'll keep you posted how the day goes. Bring it!

4 Weeks of Cardio - Day 4 Part 2

Workout number two for the day is in the books, and it was Core Cardio & Balance from Insanity. I've always enjoyed this workout because it's WAY easier than any other Insanity workout but still gives you a great cardio workout. And as a recovery workout it went along perfectly with yoga this morning.

Today's second workout went well. I was pretty soaked by the end, but I kept up with the group almost the whole time. It was also over 100 degrees in the garage today, so I got an awesome sweat going! Don't worry, I drank plenty of water.

For dinner I made turkey chowder and crab cakes. I enjoy cooking, and this week's giving me plenty of time to do that. Unfortunately I only had a few bites of the chowder because I'm going to play racquetball in a few hours and cream soup didn't sound like the best pre-workout meal. After that, though, it'll be outstanding!

Back to some weight lifting tomorrow with Tony Horton. I'm looking forward to lifting again, even though for some reason my arms actually feel and look a lot bigger. I'm not on any supplements and only did that upper body one on Sunday in the last two weeks. Curious.

Anyways, that's all I've got for today. I love vacation week! Bring it!

4 Weeks of Cardio - Day 4 Part 1

Vacation week is still going outstanding! I slept fantastic after yesterday's hike, and woke up this morning feeling great. After putting a turkey roast into the crock pot for dinner tonight (I'm making a chowder) and starting some breakfast for myself (juevos rancheros) and drinking a quick Shakeology, I got into the gym and did Yoga X.

This was not my best yoga workout, purely from my legs still feeling exhausted from yesterday. That made all of the Warrior's 1, 2 and Reverse pretty tricky, and that comprises the majority of the first 45 minutes of this workout. I did every pose, but I'd say about half of the poses I had to break and let my legs cool off for a few seconds.

The second half felt amazing on my body. I really needed the stretch. I started to lose focus by the Yoga Belly Seven section though, so maybe this week is finally catching up with me. It's vacation week, so if I feel like I need to rest I may just have to do that.

One more workout is scheduled for today, and it's Core Cardio & Balance. After that I'm sitting around for most of the night, and around 9 I'm playing racquetball and hanging at the pool.

Time to eat those juevos rancheros I mentioned above, then do some homework. Bring it!

4 Weeks of Cardio - Day 3 Part 2

First off, today was an outstanding day. I am loving vacation week (obviously), but mostly I love that I have enough time and energy to work out, take a break, and then jump right into another workout. Having that break is what I don't usually have time for.

Today after working out with Jay, we hung around and made eggs and turkey sausage for breakfast, and then our buddy Anthony came over. The three of us decided to go do a hike, and when we got to Red Rock we actually decided to climb a small mountain. I know that sounds random, but the mountain was just sitting there and we all had the energy and it really wasn't that ridiculous to climb, but oh man it was fun! So after working out, we conquered a mountain!

I got home and was feeling an interesting energy. My whole body hurt, especially my legs, and I knew that if I sat down I'd never get my Insanity workout in. So I bit the bullet and hit play as soon as I walked in from hiking. Today's second workout in my 4 weeks of nonsense is Plyo Cardio Circuit from Insanity. I forgot how good of a workout this is, but wasn't really expecting a walk in the park anyways. I remembered that this was more of a HIIT workout than a pure cardio workout, and I was right about that. It's all 2 minutes of cardio plus 30 seconds of rest, repeat 3x, and then one more set like that. And of course there's a warmup. What was awesome about today is that even with the hiking and the first workout and the legs feeling like garbage, I can still say this was my absolute best Plyo Cardio Circuit workout. I was really strong on the warmup, taking maybe two breaks the whole time and never grabbing a water break until the scheduled one. The circuit themselves were pretty good, even though by the second series I was starting to feel my day.

I was absolutely soaked at the end and felt incredible after a great day of work. This vacation is incredible and my body feels great. I can't wait for my day of yoga and core cardio & balance, and possibly racquetball tomorrow night. I'm even thinking about sticking around at the actual gym after to enjoy the pool and sauna. I'll keep you posted.

Excellent day, and I hope you enjoy this great picture of me climbing today's mountain.

Bring it!

4 Weeks of Cardio - Day 3

Week 1 continues, and this morning I hit play around 10:20 am with Core Synergistics: MC2. We'll get to that in a second.

First off, yesterday I was feeling pretty energetic and decided to do the Bas Rutten Boxing CD in the afternoon. I got five rounds into the workout and then my back and arms started to feel pretty destroyed. I didn't feel like I got enough of a workout, though, so I decided to pop in Yoga X. It wasn't the best yoga workout ever since my arms were pretty rough, but the second half actually went pretty well. My legs got an awesome stretch from this too, which was really necessary because my legs were pretty sore from the many workouts I've had this week already.

So that was yesterday. As for today, the vacation week continues and I woke up around 8:30. Had some coffee and a banana and sat until 10. My buddy Jay asked me what I was doing today, and long story short he decided to come over and join me for Core Synergistics. Jay had never done a P90X workout or any DVD workout before, and he looked pretty spent by the end. It was a lot more difficult than he'd thought, and it was cool having someone to workout with. As for me, I was pretty destroyed by the end of this workout. My body is pretty sore today but I pushed through and was feeling excellent by the end.

Today Jay, my buddy Anthony and I are going to go hiking too, so I'm excited how much great things I'm doing for my body today. I have a plyo workout scheduled today too, and I'm planning on getting that in after hiking, but I'm conceding that that might not happen. I'd really like it to happen, though, so I'll keep you posted.

One more quick shoutout for Jay - congrats on finishing a P90X workout!

Time to get ready for hiking. Bring it!

4 Weeks of Cardio - Day 2

According to my homemade agenda, today is Max Cardio Conditioning from Insanity. I also had a Cardio Abs workout to make up from yesterday. Fortunately these two usually go back to back in the regular Insanity program, so they're both on the same disc. I'm on vacation this week, so after sitting on my couch for a few hours watching a movie and a cup of coffee I finally hit play around 10:15am. It was just starting to get hot, but it wasn't terrible in the garage.

I forgot how different this one is from Pure Cardio. Yesterday's workout was all about speed, and I kept up really well. That killed my legs for today, and today's is NOT about speed and instead is about endurance. It's 10 minutes longer and focuses much more on deep moves like lunges and squats followed by jumps. There's a few speed sections, but mostly it's endurance.

I did pretty decent on this, to the point where I'd give myself a B+. My endurance wasn't completely there, but like yesterday I'm going to say that this was my best attempt at this workout. I was absolutely soaked by the end, and I think as I blast my cardio in the next few weeks I'm going to get even stronger on this one.

Cardio Abs is one of the best ab routines I've ever done. I feel like Ab Ripper X focuses more on building ab muscles, but this one focuses half on ab muscles and half on blasting fat. If you're like me, building ab muscles does nothing if you have the fat sitting on top, so that's why my vote goes to Cardio Abs. This thing was a little harder than I remembered from a month ago, but I got a nice burst of energy after Max Cardio and had a great beginning of this. My abs felt like I haven't done a traditional ab workout in a while (I haven't - Asylum doesn't have one) so the slow beat up your ab stuff in the second half kind of kicked my ass. I had to take a few more breaks than I remember from a month ago, but I still got a great ab workout and I feel like by next week I'll be able to hang with Shaun and the gang once again.

That's what I've got in the books. Like I said, today's vacation day and I'm feeling crazy enough to do another workout. Also tonight I'm going to see some drum corps (www.dci.org for those who don't know what it is) in the movie theaters followed immediately by Steak N Shake. My nostalgia on this topic aside, there will be a BIG milkshake and double cheeseburger tonight that I have no control over, and an extra blast to the fat section might be necessary just to make some room for this epic meal.

K, time to relax and enjoy the vacation (and do homework). Bring it!

4 Weeks of Cardio - Day 1

So I realize I just posted my schedule, but now I'm going to talk about Day 1 and how I had to modify that schedule. Today is Father's Day. First off, Happy Father's Day to my Dad! He's an awesome guy and I can't wait to spend the afternoon with him.

That said, Father's Day is going to take up WAY too much time in my day, and I'm going to be eating all day. Even if I did get home in time to do a workout, food sitting in my stomach is a bad way to start 4 weeks of cardio! So I decided to drop Cardio Abs from today's routine and combined Upper Body Weightlifting and Pure Cardio.

First off, Upper Body Weightlifting is an awesome workout. I never had a working copy when I did Insanity, and I did my hybrid weight lifting program back then, so when I got a working copy from a friend a few weeks ago I was stoked to try it. This is like a really fast weightlifting workout, with Insanity cardio moves mixed into each series. And it focused on all of the upper body instead of just a certain section. My arms felt excellent by the time this was over.

After that I took a quick break, grabbed some water, and finally hit play on Pure Cardio. I haven't seen this workout in over 2 months, and I was dreading it, especially after coming off another Insanity workout. For some reason I had it in my head that this workout was only 25 minutes, and was surprised to see it was 38. I said oh well and worked hard anyways. And I've gotta say, this was absolutely my best Pure Cardio workout EVER!

I had so much energy during the warmup and pushed through almost the entire thing. As for the actual workout, it was as hard as I remembered, but I had so much more strength and my endurance is through the roof! Finishing Insanity and then doing Asylum must have really got me going strong!

Of course I had to take a few breaks. This workout is absolutely ridiculous. The only thing harder is its Max big brother which I get to do tomorrow. But breaks aside I felt noticeably stronger, took WAY fewer breaks than normal and felt incredible by the time it was over. I am so glad I can handle this workout, and for that I'm really glad I'm doing this workout twice per week for the next few weeks.

As for Cardio Abs, it's too short to do on its own. I think I'll do Insane Abs if I have time tonight, and if not I'll throw this workout in sometime tomorrow.

That's all I've got for today. Happy Father's Day dads of the world!

Bring it!

3 (or 4) Weeks of Cardio - New Schedule

I meant to post this yesterday, but Saturdays are mighty lazy days, and getting as far as writing a blog just wasn't going to happen. As I said the other day, though, I've put a schedule together to get me through the next few weeks, with a heavy emphasis on cardio. I wrote a few drafts, using the Bas Rutten CD's and some martial arts conditioning workouts on top of Insanity and P90X stuff. After a while I realized I didn't want to do any of the martial arts stuff, and as soon as I scrapped those out I had my schedule pretty much figured out.

Here's what the week looks like for the next few weeks.

Sunday: am - Insanity Upper Body Weight Lifting; pm - Insanity Pure Cardio and Insanity Cardio Abs
Monday: Insanity Max Cardio
Tuesday: am - P90X One on One Core Synergystics MC2; pm - Insanity Plyo Cardio Circuit
Wednesday: am - Yoga (either X or MC2); pm - Insanity Core Cardio & Balance
Thursday: am - P90X One on One UBX; pm - Insanity Pure Cardio and Insanity Cardio Abs
Friday: Insanity Max Plyo
Saturday: Rest or Stretch

As you can see, it's very cardio focused. I put in what I felt were the best cardio workouts from Insanity, and kind of followed the P90X Doubles schedule. Instead of working select body parts on my two weight days I am doing all upper body workouts, which is meant to be more of a maintenance thing for the next few weeks than actual building. I wanted cardio on every single day too, which is why Core Cardio & Balance is on the same day as yoga. As for the two Cardio Ab workouts, I haven't worked just my abs in a while and thought this would add just a little more oomph to those two days.

The only problem I have is that I accidentally made this a 4 week program instead of a 3 week one. I counted the weeks wrong and only have 3 weeks until Starting Strength. All of the weeks are the same, so I could just not do the 4th week, but as lame as it sounds I printed out the schedule with the title "4 Weeks of Cardio" and it has 4 weeks printed that I can cross off. That kind of thing would bother me. I might just take out all of the lifting stuff and core stuff in that final week and start Starting Strength then, and then do Rushfit on week 2 of Starting Strength. Well, I have a few weeks to decide.

Quick nutrition note, I've been taking supplements for a while now and feel like my body doesn't use them well anymore. That in mind, until this cardio program is done I'm off almost all of my supplements. I say almost because there's an energy one I take that I might stick to for my morning workouts. As for after workouts, I'm switching to just Shakeology, and pure protein powder after the lifting workouts.

My goal is to lose real fat in the next 3 or 4 weeks. There's a lot of cardio and I feel good about this program. It's aggressive, but it's only for a few weeks. I can do it!

Bring it!

Rushfit: Fight Conditioning Workout

I've decided that today is my final day off the beaten path. Not being on a program feels like I don't have any goals. Working out just for the sake of working out has never worked for me, and starting Sunday I will be on my official, home-made new plan. I'll get into some more details on that in a minute.

First, I did workout this morning. I did the Fight Conditioning Workout from Rushfit. I've done this one a few times in the past and talked about it, but just for a reminder this one's a lot like Kenpo X, but on crack. It's broken into five 5 minute rounds, just like a champion fight, and the first round is basically all of Kenpo X broken down and done really fast. After that you get into a lot more fun combos, and round 4 is entirely jiu jitsu ground stuff, except it's been modified to turn into an ab workout. This is easily one of the most fun workouts I own, and I had a pretty great workout today because of that. It's been a good workout morning and I feel great.

Ok, so some more quick notes on the upcoming plan. Tomorrow I'm going to take off, because it's Saturday, but Sunday this whole thing is kicking in. It looks like I have exactly 4 weeks, and I'm going to focus on cardio and martial arts. I've decided that the Rushfit workouts are not going to make it into this program. They are all fun and of the stuff I have in mind there's a workout for each phase, but I'm going to be doing this program for 8 weeks after and I think I want to save all of them for that. Honestly, that's going to make the schedule easier to put together without having to worry about fitting these workouts in.

I know that I want to put yoga back in on Wednesday mornings. I'm almost positive that's going to become a staple for the next four weeks. Also I don't want to do any traditional weight lifting because I'm starting the big weight lifting in four weeks, but I do want to do weights - for those I'm thinking the Upper Body Weight Lifting workout from Insanity (which I've never actually done) and Strength from The Asylum. I'm also thinking I want to get at least one Core workout in there a week, if not two. So it may be 1 weight lifting and 1 core, 2 weight liftings and 1 core, or 2 cores and one weight lifting. I'll let you know.

Another thing I'm thinking is to get the doubles workouts back in. Sundays and Thursdays are probably going to happen, and I've had a fortunate change in schedule that will make Tuesdays possible too. My other priority is that every day (except Wednesday for Yoga and Saturdays which are rest) has at least one cardio component. I am not counting core as cardio either. In fact, that's priority one, and the weight lifting stuff will sit on top of that somewhere as the doubles workouts.

Finally, the last thing I am considering is instead of making a 1 week plan and multiplying that week by 4, I might do 2 different 1 week plans, and then go Week A, Week B, Week A, Week B. I think that makes sense. That last one is going to depend on how the schedule I put together works.

Well, that's all I've got. I was going to list off all of the discs I'm debating throwing into this program, but I'll just do that on my own and let you know what I decide. Expect a 4 week intense cardio/maintenance program in the next 72 hours. This thing starts on Sunday!

Bring it!

Capofit

I'm still off of any set program, and I still had to do a workout, so I finally threw in Disc 1 from the Capofit workouts. First off, I've gotta say that this was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It's more endurance than anything else, as you're just going back and forth into a lunge for pretty much the entire thing. It didn't help that it was really hot in the gym (garage) today. It was a weird schedule day and I was actually working out in the middle of the day. That room gets hot in the middle of the day! But anyways, aside from the back and forth lunges (the ginga) it's just a really hard coordination thing. I did not do very well on a few of the spinning ones. A few more tries at this video and I might be able to get it...which is good, because there's three discs!

After an hour it was just too hot in the garage and I turned the DVD off. There wasn't anything else I could do. My whole day at work was spent on my feet, so I know I at least got my workout in today.

So another quick note, last night the two guys I'm going to be doing Starting Strength with (I need spotters and workout partners) and I sat down and talked about the routine. Long story short, it looks like they can't start for another three weeks, and I want to start on the same time. The problem is, I don't have a program to do for that long. I want to start Rushfit on the same day. So on that note, I'm going to spend the next two days thinking of a quick program that I can find that still has weight, or (and this is the one I'm leaning towards) I put together my own month long program. I have some pretty cool ideas for that last one, but I'll keep you posted on what I decide. I want to focus on cardio for the next few weeks if I'm going to go off a program, but I don't want to lose my muscle mass.

Anyways, I'll keep you posted. Bring it!

Game Day & Overtime

As my limbo/recovery weeks continue, I moved on to Game Day and Overtime from the Asylum today. I mentioned this a week ago, but after doing Asylum for a few weeks it became clear that Game Day is the workout that everything leads up to. Each week is geared with getting better and better, then you take a quick relief day to keep your muscles fresh, and then Game Day. The goal of this program is to always make you as ready for Game Day as possible, because this is the one where you (pretend) to on the other team and you beat them! The only problem with Asylum is that it does not end with this workout. I haven't seen it in a week. As a result, I decided a few days ago that today I was going to do this workout.

My muscles felt fresh from yoga yesterday, and aside from being a little sleepy this morning this turned into a great workout. I'll rarely ever be able to have my absolute best workout in the morning, but today was still one that I'm proud of. It helps that this is a very fun workout too. It's hard, but going from sport to sport to sport makes it very entertaining. I may not do this workout again during my recovery weeks, but I'll definitely try to do it again in the future sometime.

Unlike Game Day, Overtime is not my favorite workout. It just kind of starts with no real purpose other than being hard. Game Day at least pretends to play sports, but this one feels more like Pure Cardio from Insanity. But I did push play right after Game Day on this workout, and it went pretty alright. Not great, but my muscles were pretty achey that point and I'm cool with it. However, I had it in my head to get through all 10 pullups at the very end, and I lost count but I'm pretty sure I got there. I did 3, rested, another 3, rested, and then 4 1's. I think that's right. But they were all strong, no jumping into the pullup, so as dead as I feel now I'm really glad I did them. I did have to skip the pushups that come after the pullups just to get myself enough time to do 10, but I'm comfortable with that.

So that's my workout. I'm still planning out the rest of my week workout wise. If my roommate or girlfriend want to do a workout when I get home from work tonight I'm going to say yes, unless it's a weight workout, and I've decided that Friday I am going to do the Fight Conditioning Workout from Rushfit. As for tomorrow, I'm tossing around yoga; I need a good stretch but don't want a rest day....maybe a cardio disk. I'm not sure. Tomorrow's a weird schedule day at work, so I'll keep you posted.

Ok, time to eat something real quick and then work. Bring it!

Off the Beaten Path - Yoga X and Core Synergistics MC2

For the first time in a very long time I am no longer on a scheduled workout program. The next two weeks are all about recovery, cardio and absolute enjoyment from working out. That last part is because when I'm on a program there are plenty of workouts that I do not enjoy. I'm selecting various workouts for the next two weeks that all make me happy I am doing them.

First off, I got home last night and after sitting on the couch for an hour my roommate asked if I was working out. I had no intention of working out, but said sure and we decided to do Core Synergistics: MC2. I actually lost this DVD when it first came out and found it last night right before the workout, so this was the first time I'd done this. Much much harder than the original Core Synergistics, and it's 70 minutes long, but aside from that it was an excellent workout. It's all funky cardio moves done for a short period of time. It actually reminded me a lot of an Insanity workout. Overall I was tired, but this turned into a good workout.

This morning I woke up and was pretty exhausted. I did, however, promise myself that I'd start doing yoga again, specifically starting today. I even wrote it on my Asylum calendar to remind me. So today I woke up, and for the first time in almost 6 months I did Yoga X. I was pleasantly surprised today too. For not doing yoga in 3 months and not doing Yoga X, one of the hardest yoga programs I've ever done, in 6 months, I actually picked up right where I left off. Maybe one or two breaks, but overall I was focused, kept up with the group, and my flexibility was pretty excellent. My breathing wasn't bad either, and overall I'd chalk this up as one of my overall best yoga workouts. The only problem with today was that my work schedule has changed and I have to be at work an hour earlier than I used to on Tuesdays. This meant I could only do half of Yoga X. I did opt for the harder half, but just wanted to document that only 50 minutes of yoga were completed instead of the whole hour and a half.

So that's my story. I'm still planning on Game Day tomorrow, and I'm digging this doubles thing so tonight might be a cardio workout. I'll keep you posted. Two weeks of making up my own routine! Let's have some fun!

Bring it!

Asylum Day 30 - Fit Test(s)

The Asylum is done! I have officially completed 30 days of this amazing program and I feel incredible! And to top it off, I am officially done with my Insanity marathon. I started Insanity in March (I think) and that was supposed to be a 60 day program. It turned out to be 63 days total, and somewhere in there Asylum came out and I decided to add a week of recovery after Insanity and then hopped right into Asylum. That puts it at just around 100 days of Insanity, with doubles two days per week, all wrapped up!

This has been an incredible experience. Insanity is a very difficult program, and it only gets harder as it progresses. Asylum was very different from Insanity. It felt a little shorter, but the workouts were much more complex and the breaks were even fewer. I don't think I could have done Asylum if I hadn't finished Insanity, so I'm glad I did these in the other that I did.

Today is the final day, the Fit Test. If you read my post yesterday, you know the dilemmas I ran into with the fit test, AKA not doing it 30 days ago. So my workout today consisted first of the 25 minute Insanity Fit Test, followed immediately by the 25 minute Asylum Fit Test. My numbers all went up on the Insanity one, and I was sweating pretty good by the end. Then Asylum hit, and I did great on that too. I had no numbers to compare to, but all of the moves I'd done in Asylum already and could hang pretty well with Shaun and the group.

Overall this was a great workout morning. My recovery week starts today, but I think I'm adjusting my plan a little bit. I'm going to do yoga tomorrow to get a good stretch and enjoy the fact that I'm done with these programs. Then on Wednesday, despite being done with Asylum, I want to do Game Day and Overtime. Those are the culmination workouts, and I feel like Asylum should have ended on this program. Hence, I'm officially wrapping up on Wednesday.

After that I'm going to switch between core, light cardio and yoga workouts for the next few days. I'll probably take Saturday off like normal. Mostly, though, my goal is to let my body recover.

Finally, next week my schedule changed a bit. I have the entire week free from work, and I think I'm going to do a fun working out week. I'm tossing around ideas of a lot of martial arts workouts that I have, and I'd like to do a lot of yoga. I'm going to put a basic schedule together, but since I have the free time I'd like to see if I can do a week of all doubles workouts. All cardio though, and all picked from the more fun workouts than hard workouts, but if I could spend a week doing just cardio and stretching I think I'll be ready for the following week, which starts Rushfit and Starting Strength.

Ok, that's all I've got. Time for my Asylum 30 Day pictures, which I may or may not post on here, then work. I'll let you know how yoga goes tomorrow.

Bring it!

Asylum Day 29 - Speed & Agility

Today was Speed & Agility from Asylum, and it turned into kind of a crazy workout day. Here's the story...

First off, today is pretty much the last day of Asylum. It's Speed & Agility day, and I blasted through it! It turned into a great workout, and because it was my last official day I pushed as hard as I could. This was noticeably the best I've done on this workout.

Tomorrow is the Asylum Fit Test. Here's the problem with that....I never actually knew there was a fit test for this program, or at least not until I'd already started. So I'm going to do it tomorrow anyways, with no numbers to base it on, and that should be good. The other problem/solution is that I've also not done the Insanity Fit Test since Month 1. I kept having to reschedule it and just never did it. Since tomorrow basically wraps up my entire Insanity 3 months of Hell workout program, I think I'm going to do the Insanity Fit Test first, trying to improve my numbers from two months ago, and then I'll do the Asylum Fit Test after, which should turn into a great workout. I'm also debating doing yoga in the morning and this fit test madness at night, but that's its own story.

So I finished Speed & Agility, and at the end of this workout Shaun T actually says "It's over, but I challenge you to do it again." Well that just wasn't going to happen, but it's the last official day and I did want to push it. I threw in the All Around Fighting CD from Bas Rutten and did five 2 minute rounds. For those who haven't followed, basically Bas calls out combinations and you throw them, either on a bag or in the air. I opted for the air today. He has three of these CDs, boxing, kickboxing and all around fighting, and the latter is noticeably the hardest. After each combo he calls out I'm also supposed to throw a kick, and there's a lot of ground stuff/sprawling, just like an MMA fight. Five rounds was absolutely brutal, and despite being wasted at that point I managed to throw in an awesome extra 10 minutes of working out. Well, 15, but 5 of those were one minute rests.

After that I came inside and relaxed for about five minutes. My girlfriend was debating doing a workout, but she said she didn't want to do her normal P90X workout today. I suggested she do Core Cardio & Balance from Insanity. I don't know why I thought this was an easy workout...it's definitely easier than a normal Insanity workout....but she decided to say yes and me, feeling a little insane today, opted to do this workout with her. I forgot how much cardio was in the first half, but my energy was up and I stuck with it. The second half was pretty strong too, and overall this was a great workout.

The big story though is my girlfriend's progress on this workout. She'd never done an Insanity workout before, and she never stopped! She took a few breaks, but that's totally acceptable. But she did the whole thing, was soaked at the end and she looked like she was in an awesome mood at the end. She definitely took this workout by the horns and owned it! So I just wanted to shout out to her a huge congratulations, because she worked VERY hard today and she rocked it!

K, that's it for my big post. Asylum is pretty much done, but I'll have a recap on the actual Day 30 tomorrow. Bring it!

Asylum Day 28 - Relief

Today was a well deserved Relief day, and boy did I need it! My body was pretty exhausted today, and I slept like a rock last night. So when I got into the gym today and got to stretch this morning it felt incredible. I got a lot of deep stretches in, my joints felt outstanding by the end, and overall this was an awesome stretch day.

This is just a mini post because it's a mini workout. Two more days left in Asylum. Bring it!

Asylum Day 27 - Back to Core

The final scheduled round of Back to Core is in the books. I really like this workout. I think I've said why every time I've done it, but for repetition's sake I'll just say that I love how it's all core exercises, but they emphasize the back instead of the stomach. It's hard to explain how that works, but it totally does.

The only problem with this workout is that if you just go through the motions you will not get a fantastic workout from this. Most of the Insanity/Asylum workouts, as long as you keep up you'll at least get a great pump and be sweating pretty hard; it's kind of hard not to sweat when you're jumping over and over and over. But today I went through the motions and it wasn't the most intense workout. I just didn't have a lot of energy today from lack of sleep, and it's Friday, and going through the motions did not lead to an incredible sweat. I felt the workout, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't intense and now that it's over I'm a little upset about that.

Oh well. I've done great on this workout in the past and I will definitely be doing this one again sometime in the future.

Tomorrow is Relief and this program is really wrapping up fast. I definitely am looking forward to relief.

Bring it!

Asylum Day 26: Part 2 - Vertical Plyo

It's over! No more vertical plyo workouts, and I am incredibly pleased with that.

Today was the last time I have this workout in the Asylum schedule, and it is a difficult workout. Insanity Plyo is just like P90X Plyo, except it has no breaks. This, though, is something completely different. It's just brutal. No breaks, but more importantly it's just mean to your legs. It's like all of the same jumps from Insanity Plyo, but most of them you do on one leg.

Aside from the pain this one causes, I will say that I've seen a huge increase in my strength since starting this workout. It's hard and it destroys me still, but the first week I remember being completely stumped on the one legged tuck jumps. It's just like a normal tuck jump, but on one leg. I remember the first week seeing that and thinking "These are going to suck." I was right, but I really remember noticing immediately that I just did not have the strength to do them. I could jump, but tucking the leg just wasn't happening at all. Each week I've gotten stronger at that one exercise, and today, even though it hurt, I did more actual one legged tuck jumps than ever before! So I will say that I've gotten better overall because of this workout.

The whole workout today went very well. I was soaked in sweat, jumped as high and as far as I could, and I pushed. I was tired because this was workout number two today and I'd already worked all day, but I got some energy and wrapped this workout up nicely.

Asylum is really starting to wrap up. Back to Core is first thing in the morning, and that's an awesome workout (and I won't have to do much cardio!).

Bring it!

Asylum Day 26: Part 1 - Back & Biceps

This morning started off with me grumbling my way downstairs and staring aimlessly at a blank television for 20 minutes. After slowly waking up I got into the gym a little after 6:30 and hit play on Supreme 90 Day's Back & Biceps workout.

For the life of me, I cannot remember if I've done this workout before. Parts of it felt familiar and parts felt completely new. I'll have to go through the blog posts later to find out. But to recap, this is a very decent workout. I'm always impressed with the Supreme 90's....they're a lot tougher than I thought they would be. This one starts out with the normal warmup sequence, followed by an ab section. The ab section was so so, mostly because it didn't feel that unique. After that there's four circuits that each go lower back, upper back, biceps, repeat 3 times. The lower back stuff was pretty different from what I usually work on, and the upper back stuff was similar to my P90X stuff. Those ones I upped my weight and was pleased with the results. The bicep exercises were basically the same as always (how many ways can you really do a bicep curl, right?) and those I used my 20 lb weights and really focused on going slow.

Right now my back feels pretty great and my biceps feel like they got a workout. This was definitely a great little DVD, and I'll definitely do it again, except....


...NO MORE DOUBLES DAYS! Ok, well that's kind of not true. Starting Strength begins in 2 weeks along with Rushfit, and there will actually be three doubles days in that program, but I officially have no more doubles days for the next two weeks AND I have officially finished every doubles day (and weight lifting workout) for my modified mutated hybrid Insanity/Asylum 3 Months of Hell program! I remember setting this program up months ago (even before I knew Asylum would be out in time!) and was debating if I'd have the energy to do just 2 months of the weight lifting on top of Insanity. Here I am after 3 months, and it's all over. And as for weight lifting DVDs, it looks like those are going to be sitting on the sideline for a while. Starting Strength is a completely different program compared to what I'm doing now. No more Chest & Back for three weeks followed by Chest, Shoulders & Triceps. This is pure barbell lifting and I am ready to get some huge Incredible Hulk sized muscles!

Alright, that's all I have the energy to write. It's time to get ready for work, and then Vertical Plyo tonight. Asylum is starting to wrap up!

Bring it!

Asylum Day 25 - Game Day

Today was Game Day (and Overtime). Unfortunately I forgot I needed to get to work a little earlier than normal, so it just turned into Game Day.

Overall this was a B+ workout. Good, definitely got a sweat, but last week's was better. Maybe I'm grading on a curve, because a few months ago this would have definitely been an A.

So weird thing I noticed today, Game Day is not the last workout in this program. In fact, I have a week left, but this is my last scheduled Game Day. That said, I have some open workouts next week and plan on wrapping up Asylum with this workout (and Overtime). This is like the culmination workout...it's the big game! I need this to be the end, and I need to rock it. So long story short, some time next week I will do this and Overtime one more time and wrap this program up with a bang.

K, that's all I've got today. Bring it!

Asylum Day 24 - Strength

After sitting on the couch all day recovering from being sick, I started to feel a ton better around 3pm and at 5:30 I was in the gym! This was a great workout. I lowered the weight a little bit on about half of the exercises because I had been sick for a little while, but that didn't stop me from pushing myself and getting a great pump. It's also finally getting hot outside, and my afternoon/evening workouts are getting me freakin' soaked. I love how much I sweat in my garage this time of year. I started working out in there about a year ago now (not P90X - I bought my first piece of gym equipment in June of 2010), and I remember loving how great of a workout I got at home; the heat and sweat was definitely a contributing factor. I also lost the most weight in this whole process during last Summer, so hopefully this Summer we see the same thing.

This is still one of my favorite workouts in the whole program too. Using weights while doing an Insanity workout is just crazy, but it's an excellent workout if you can handle it. It's full body, it's weight lifting, it's speed and strength mixed together. It's very cool.

I'm thinking the two weeks I'll have between programs once this is over is going to be a long time without lifting weights. I don't want to start any dedicated weight lifting programs in that time, especially since I'm doing Starting Strength pretty soon, so I was thinking that somewhere in the two weeks I'd like to do this workout at least once. There's also an upper body weightlifting workout from Insanity that I've never tried, so I want to try that too. From what I hear it's pretty similar to this. As always, I'll keep you posted about those workouts. I'm still about two weeks away, but I like to document stuff.

Tomorrow is Game Day. This is a weird workout to do before Game Day (and Overtime) but if Shaun thinks I'm ready then I'm ready. Bring it!

Asylum Day 23 - Speed & Agility

Yesterday was supposed to be Speed & Agility, but I guess I needed a break on Sunday more than I thought. I ended up getting sick yesterday and was WAY too exhausted to do Speed & Agility, or move for that matter.

I woke up this morning and struggled through it. I'm still feeling really sick, but I'm determined to finish Asylum. I had an absolutely terrible workout, but I did sweat a bit and at least I got through the workout.

I'm taking it easy on the couch today, and I'm planning on doing Strength tonight. Wish me luck, because I definitely need it.

p.s.
I do not advise what I am doing. I am WAY too OCD to not finish this program, but for the sane individual reading this, please stop working out when you are sick and take a few days off.

K, that's all I've got. Bring it!

Asylum Day 22 - Chest, Shoulders & Triceps (Rest Day)

Today is scheduled as a rest day for Asylum. Unfortunately for my muscles (or fortunately depending how you look at it), today is Sunday, and Sundays are a weight training day for me. So today actually turned into Chest, Shoulders & Triceps from P90X.

I originally started my workout with the intention of doing P90X and Supreme 90 Day, but as soon as I got started I realized I was pretty sore from the past few days. It is supposed to be a rest day after all, but I guess that didn't really click to me. So I got a few moves into this and decided that just P90X would be enough today. At that point I upped all of the weight and really focused on moving really slowly. The slower, deeper, heavier movements really gave me a good workout, and the hour of pushing motions flew by.

I'm looking forward to relaxing the rest of the day and actually enjoying this rest day. In retrospect, I probably should have just done a doubles workout tomorrow, but I had the energy and now the weight workout is over. In fact, I only have one doubles day scheduled for the rest of Asylum, and that's on Thursday.

Let's kick this final week into gear. Bring it!

Asylum Day 21 - Back to Core

Ok, there was a lot more cardio in this than I remembered. Not like an extreme amount, but my calves were hurting enough that I did not enjoy the beginning. I did get a little bit of a second wind, or first wind I guess, on the repeat of the cardio beginning, and that didn't go too bad.

Everything after that part went great. My back was engaged the whole time, and the isometric hold sections were a lot stronger today. Don't get me wrong, they are still really really tough, but I did a lot better. The whole right side I held the entire time, but that made the left a little shakey.

I'll be honest, I'm writing this a few hours after finishing the workout and I've been sleepy all week, so this is going to be short (aka I don't remember the rest of it too well).

Tomorrow's a scheduled rest day, but I still have a Chest, Shoulders & Triceps workout scheduled. At least it's only one workout, so it's kind of a rest.

Time to go grocery shopping. Bring it!

Asylum Day 20 - Vertical Plyo

Why the heck is this workout here?! Yesterday was Game Day and Overtime! Yesterday was the big game! There is no reason for this much jumping after winning the big game in overtime yesterday.

I woke up exhausted. We have passed tired folks. It's now finally exhaustion time. This week has been tough, sleeping hasn't been the best, and despite all of that, 12 hours before today's workout, I pushed really hard on the hardest workout in this program. As a result, today's workout felt like torture. My legs were not having the jumps. I imagine they'd be sarcastically laughing at me if they could.

The warmup was really tough. The jumps after that were just as tough, but I slowly got energy. The last ten minutes were the best, but my knees were killing me so much at that point that tuck jumps were pretty tricky. I still had enough power to do a few of the single leg tuck jumps, but they were not the powerful jumps from the other day.

Alright, no cardio for two days! Tomorrow is Back to Core and Sunday is Chest, Shoulders & Triceps. My legs need a major break!

Time for work. Bring it!

Asylum Day 19: Part 2 - Game Day & Overtime

We won! It was tied at the end, but we kicked their ass in overtime!

Ok, maybe I'm getting a little too into it. Today was Game Day, and as hard as it is, this is one of the greatest workouts I've ever done. It's freakin' fun, and by far one of the hardest DVDs I've used in this whole ridiculous trek through fitness, or ever for that matter. And I'll be honest, when you can get past the cheese factor, being a part of Team Asylum and pushing through the other team really is just awesome.

A few highlights from the game.....

The mile run went fantastic! I started by pushing as hard as I could, and my knees were up and moving really fast in the beginning. The first hill went pretty great too, and I had awesome speed on the way down. The second hill was ok, not great but ok, and then the final run went outstanding....except I spaced that there was one more sprint at the end! I'd already sprinted in, but when Shaun said we still had to move because the team was right on our tails, I pushed and pushed and pushed and crossed the finish line!

The wrestling section felt a lot stronger today too. I only took two minor breaks, and the rest of the time I was pushing up, doing the leg cross and the arm raise every time, and I kept my form really strong. It was awesome. That's a really fun section, and you wouldn't think you could do a home wrestling workout alone with just body weight. Oh man, yes you can!

The other sports went pretty great too. I will say I had a little trouble on the swimming stuff, probably because I did shoulders and arms this morning. That's really where I felt it. My shoulder blades were dying and my arms overall felt heavy. Ya, I'm chalking that up to this morning's workout. However, I will say that I did ALL of the surfing section, which is WAY harder than the name would suggest.

There were more sports after that and even when I got tired I never stopped moving! Well, maybe a little, but definitely a lot less than last week. It was a great workout, and finally after an hour of jumping and running and throwing and swimming and sweating it was over....

....except it wasn't over! Today added in Overtime, the additional 13 minute workout that can optionally follow any workout but is specifically scheduled after today and next week's Game Day. I'm going to say that this workout is not nearly as fun as Game Day itself. It's just a really fast Insanity workout. Don't get me wrong, you're moving a lot, but it doesn't reflect any sports stuff at all. It's just drills. Still, my fitness base is finally strong enough where this thing wasn't terrible at all. Ya, I was tired, but my muscles had more to give and boy did they give! I will say that I don't think my knees are strong enough on some things yet, specifically the ones where you put one knee on the ground and then jump and tuck both knees in the air. Ya, that wasn't happening today. My options on that were go very slow and still risk injury, or as Tony Horton would suggest, modify! So I did more squat tuck jumps instead. My knee didn't make it to the ground, but my jumps were really solid so I'm still calling that a victory.

The pushups in this workout kicked my ass. I did them, all of them, and my chest feels like it's on fire right now. It's just brutal at that point. And then, once again, when you think it's all over, Shaun has us bust out some pullups. I did 2, rest, then 3 while they did 10, but believe me, that's awesome! Then I did all 25 pushups they randomly throw in at the end too. And then, because Shaun goes back to the bar, I decided to do 4 more pullups too! So tired, but so awesome that I can do that, especially after a long workout like that.

So there's my story. We won the game, but it was a tough rode. One more Game Day and Overtime coming up in a little less than a week, and I am definitely looking forward to getting even stronger on this one.

Vertical Plyo tomorrow. I pushed hard tonight, so let's see how I do in the morning. Bring it!

Asylum Day 19: Part 1 - P90X Shoulders & Arms

Ok, I have been tired all week and today I was definitely in the same boat. After waking up and mixing a pre-workout drink I actually started falling asleep on the couch again. But after waking up from that mini nap I hit play around 6:30. I was going to do Shoulders & Arms: MC2, but realized I loaned it out to someone, so I decided to do the regular P90X Shoulders & Arms workout.

Overall this was a good workout. I'm giving it a B. My arms felt a little weak today and I dropped most of my weights down about 5 lbs. The shoulder presses I kept at 30's, but they felt really heavy and I wasn't getting as deep as I wanted. The triceps felt excellent today though. As for the biceps, I was using 20's and it got me a good burn, but any day where I can't do 30's with the biceps I always feel like I should have done more. I will say that ever since I made the adjustment that any time I do biceps my elbows are not allowed to touch my ribs everything got harder. Maybe I just wasn't doing biceps right this whole time. My biceps have never been incredibly strong or big, so hopefully doing these exercises correctly will get me pumped a little more.

Alright, that's all I've got. Tonight is a big night for me in terms of working out. It's Game Day again, and Overtime is scheduled right after it. That's close to an hour and a half of working out, and even though I'm flippin' exhausted now I'm planning on having crazy energy and flying through this workout tonight. Wish me luck!

Bring it!

Asylum Day 18 - Relief

Today was another round of Relief, and I definitely needed it! I realize I just did this stretch workout on Saturday, but since then I've done Speed & Agility, Vertical Plyo and Strength, and those are difficult workouts!

I woke up grumbly this morning and finally hit play almost 45 minutes later. That's a really long time to just sit on my couch staring at the door to the gym. I had a little bit of a pre-workout drink mixed with coffee instead of water, and when the caffeine started to kick in I hit play.

Good stretch overall, but I spent a lot of time wandering aimlessly around the garage too. Don't get me wrong, I got a stretch in, but it was really easy to zone out this morning and I let my mind wander a lot. My body knows what it needs, and if wandering around aimlessly between stretches is therapeutic, then that's what it will get.

Alright, time to get ready for work. This week's been rough on sleep, so really wish me luck on getting some shut eye tonight. Tomorrow is a big workout day; Shoulders & Arms in the morning and Game Day AND Overtime at night! I'm debating getting Shoulders & Arms out of the way tonight after work. It'll be late, but this will let me sleep in in the morning tomorrow, catch up on some rest, and then I can really rock out Game Day and Overtime tomorrow night. Hmm...I'll keep you posted.

Bring it!