Day: 22, Calories: 0, Insanity Pure Cardio

Workout

Insanity Pure Cardio Status: Completed Good workout, and I'm coming off of a bad diet weekend. Thanksgiving. 4 meals. The biggest was last night with Friendsgiving, the potluck for the friends. We had all sorts of food, and aside from my chicken salad none of it was on the diet. So I woke up feeling full. Didn't eat much today. Ran errands and spent the day with the girlfriend and then got in the gym at 5:30. Pure Cardio went well. I definitely take it easier when I'm alone in the gym, but I worked up a hell of a sweat and I was proud with my progress.

Workout

Insanity Cardio Abs Status: Not Complete Cardio Abs did not get done. I've decided that with the doubles schedule I don't like doing abs on a non Starting Strength day. I can do abs twice a day, but if I sleep in between workouts my abs feel rough. Also, I was planning to do day 1 of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred with the girlfriend. Here's how that went.

Workout

Other (Use Note Field) Status: Completed Day 1 of 30 Day Shred was actually pretty awesome. It's interval training and the workout was pretty hard! It starts with a stretch/warmup for 2 minutes, then 3 intervals. The intervals are 3 minutes of strength training (2 resistance workouts like pushups or shoulder presses while in a lunge done for 45 seconds twice) 2 minutes of cardio (2 exercises done for 30 seconds twice) and 2 30 second ab exercises. Each of the circuits is completely different. It wasn't the hardest workout I've ever done, but it's definitely a great workout. I was sweating really hard and my shoulders got a great burn. I was also impressed with how many pushups I could do in the pushup section. My girlfriend did amazing! She hasn't had a chance to work out in a while and wants to start training since family is coming for the holidays. She started this program today and I think I'm going to join her as often as I can, Sundays especially. She struggled a little bit, but she never quit and was doing a lot of the same weights as I was! She looked drained by the end, but she had a huge smile on her face. She totally beat day 1, and I think when she realized she could do it and it's only 20 minutes for the whole thing she could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can't wait to see her progress on this workout and the next two levels. I'm so proud of her! I'll do cardio and tomorrow, either before the workout or after insanity. I'll keep you posted. The diet is back on! Bring it!

Day: 20, Calories: 0, Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Workout

Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit Status: Completed I got into today's workout feeling tired from thanksgiving, but after a good warmup I got into it and got some good cardio. Overall it was a good workout. However, I skipped the second half because the guys were coming over to play football and do starting strength early.

Workout

Football Status: Completed First off, we won. I'm terrible at football, but my buddy rod is not and he was our team captain. We played for an hour. It was fun. Too bad we don't have time to play before every workout.

Workout

Weights Status: Completed Starting Strength was the final thing. I did squats at 180 again, but they still feel heavy. I'm taking another break from supplements starting next week, so I'm going to deload again and try to get past 180 once more. Shoulders were next and I rocked out 5x5 at 120. It was heavy and I'm gonna repeat this, but awesome. Finished with 5x5 on pullups. No abs for time, which explains the short post today. Bring it!

Day: 19, Calories: 0, Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance

Workout

Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance Status: Completed Today's workout is in the books. It's Thanksgiving so I got to sleep in a little, but I also had to get my workout in before the first of today's feasts. Yes, multiple feasts today. Multiple feasts today through Saturday in fact. That in mind, I needed today to be a good workout, and man it was. My roommate was home today too, so he tried this workout with me (he said he wanted to work on his endurance). Because someone else was in the gym, I refused to go easy or modify, and by the end of the warmup I was soaked in sweat. The stretch felt nice, and then the workout happened. It was difficult, but I didn't modify and had a great first half. The second half I was struggling, and I barely did any globe jumps, but overall it was decent too. I'd give this an A as far as my workouts go. This was the best I've done on this DVD. Also a shoutout to the roommate. He did really well for his first full Insanity workout. He looked tired but I guess that's the point. Congrats dude! One more day in week 3. I think I'm gonna get up, do Insanity at 10 and then get starting strength out of the way so I can make it to tomorrow nights feast. I'll let you know how that goes. Wish me and my diet luck! Happy Thanksgiving folks! Bring it!

Day: 19, Calories: 0, Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance

Workout

Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance Status: Not Complete Placeholder

Day: 17, Calories: 0, Insanity Pure Cardio

Log Entry

Daily Note: We got into Starting Strength last night, and it was a pretty decent night! We started out with some light warmup consisting of hitting the bag and light sparring. Then the heavy stuff came in. Once again I did 5x5 on squats at 180. I tried this a week ago, and ended up going back down to 175 because it was just too heavy. This time the first set felt really heavy, but sets 2 through 4 went very well. I felt like I was able to go lower than I've been going the last few weeks, and I definitely felt great after that 4th set. The last set was difficult, it was feeling heavy again, but I pushed through. I'm going to repeat this weight on Wednesday, but overall I think I'm getting a lot closer to beating 180 than I was last week. Shoulder press was next, and once again I completed 5x5 at 115. Before starting this, my roommate suggested that we start doing a warmup set; something he'd read about online. We didn't do them for the squats, but we all did 1 set of 10 with just the bar before getting into shoulder press. I'm not sure if it helped, but I will say shoulder press felt better than it did the other day. The first set, despite doing the warmup, felt heavy. The last four sets felt a lot better, but like squats set 5 did feel heavy. I completed this one and did better than I've done before, so I've decided to see how I'm feeling on Friday. I'm either going up 5 or repeating one more time, and next week I'm for sure moving up to 120. Chinups were last and I did 1x8 and 4x6. These were really good chinups, great form and I was really proud of them. My original goal was 5x6, but the group talked me into doing a set of 8 and it went very well. We finished with the usual ab ripper, and that was that. By the way, I've been thinking about doing the 300 Challenge. My buddy Richard and I said we were going to start doing it in 2012, but he started training for it and I think I might add it to my Sundays too. It's 6 different exercises, 50 reps each for a total of 300 reps. The goal is to do it under 20 minutes. If I start, I'm cutting all of the reps in half and trying to do 20 minutes with that, then adding 10 reps every time I complete the circuit in under 20 minutes. The reasoning behind this came from a discussion with my roommate about martial arts and starting strength. He said he can now out muscle anyone his size no problem, but his endurance is crap. Since I'll apparently have the strength when I start Muay Thai soon, working on my endurance would help a lot too and fill in that gap that I expect to have. I'll keep you posted how that goes. That was last night. This morning was Insanity....

Workout

Insanity Pure Cardio Status: Completed Another round of Pure Cardio was this morning, and it went very well. The warmup was kicking my ass at first. These early mornings are a pain. But by the end of the warmup I was feeling good, and the stretch felt amazing. Then came the pain... Overall I'd say it was a good workout. My quads still ache from squats, so I've succumbed myself to modifying during anything deep quad. That's a lot of the Insanity program, but my goal is to get my cardio up, and as long as I'm moving I'm happy with it. The leg stuff that Insanity has in it I don't really want to do, since I'm doing squats three days a week. So modifying is the name of the game, and I'm really happy with how much I was sweating by the end of this.

Workout

Insanity Cardio Abs Status: Completed Cardio Abs closed out the day. I was tired from Pure Cardio, but I pushed through and got through most of this workout. The C-Sit position section was probably the best I've ever done, and my abs were on fire by the end. When we got to the plank stuff I decided to turn it off. My abs still ached from last night's Ab Ripper, and my girlfriend was leaving for work soon and I wanted to spend time with her, so I called it quits and got to spend about half an hour with my girl. I'd say it was a good trade. Overall I've had some great workouts this week, and I'm looking forward to continuing that throughout the Thanksgiving week. Speaking of which, wish me and my diet luck this week. There are massive amounts of food to be had, and I must do my best to control myself. Also tonight I'm having sushi with my boss and a client, so I've got to be mindful of the cream cheese rolls. Diet is the name of the game....and this game is set on Difficult! Bring it!

Day: 16, Calories: 0, Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Workout

Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit Status: Completed Pretty decent workout this morning. My chest really hurts today from a base case of the hiccups, but aside from that I pushed through and broke a good sweat. The second half really killed my legs, but overall I think I burned some good calories. I'm noticing my legs begin to hurt a lot earlier than I get tired. Even after the fit test yesterday, my quads felt like they are bigger than the skin around them, and it's a really tight, exhausted feeling in the muscle. I'm not sure what to do with that. Oh well. Week 3 has begun. Bring it!

Day: 15, Calories: 0, Insanity Fit Test

Workout

Insanity Fit Test Status: Completed I got into the Fit Test and it went pretty well. Every one of my numbers went up; only by a little, but they all went up. After the workout I did 16 minutes of the Bas Rutten All Around Workout. I felt this would give me the extra boost of cardio I needed for the day (the diet wasn't so hot over the weekend) and get me working on my striking a little bit too. Overall it was a decent workout. By the way, Friday I did get into Starting Strength. I squated 175 very well and benched 160 with no problem. Both are going up +5 on Monday. I also did 5x5 on pullups, and we finished with Ab Ripper. Very good workouts the past few days! Bring it!

Day: 13, Calories: 0, Insanity Cardio Recovery

Workout

Insanity Pure Cardio Status: Completed I got into Pure Cardio this morning a little after 6:30. For some reason I didn't sleep too well. My arm fell asleep in the middle of the night and that freaked me out, and midway through the night through the morning my legs have been hurting a lot. I think they just aren't used to all of the motion I've been putting them through. Hopefully by next week my body will be used to the work. So it took me a few minutes to get really into it today. I still have trouble doing anything with my quads above my waist so I modified as usual. When the actual workout started I was feeling a lot better, I zoned out and I pushed through a pretty great workout. For some reason I didn't sweat very much today. I suppose I can chalk it up to the cold in the gym, and possibly from modifying, but lack of sweat aside I can definitely say I got a good workout. My body felt excellent afterwards. When it was over I decided to skip the cool down and stretch because Cardio Abs was next, and I don't like cooling down just to get started again.

Workout

Insanity Cardio Abs Status: Completed Cardio Abs was next, and overall it went pretty well. I didn't do the jumps in the beginning because of the quads (eventually I'll have to suck it up and do them) but I did keep moving. The rest of it, the ground stuff, I felt stronger than usual and got a pretty decent ab workout. Overall it was a good workout day. I still have Starting Strength tonight. By the way, I looked in the mirror today and I'm noticing a light difference in my stomach size. I still have a huge belly that needs to go away, but the chest looks smaller and the top of the stomach is starting to flatten out. This weekend I'm planning on sticking to the diet pretty well, unlike last weekend's pizza and wings fest. One more note, I've decided that I'm going to start training at Tapout. It's an MMA gym that my roommate and my friend both train at. I'm still working out a schedule and plan to do at least one of these: Muay Thai, Judo and Jiu Jitsu. I say plan on one because I'd like to do all three, but I've gotta see what my body can take and what my schedule will allow. I'm still planning on doing Insanity in the mornings and SS on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but I definitely have time to do at least 2 workouts a week and my ultimate goal is to do 6. I'll keep you posted how that goes. I'm signing up a week from Monday. Bring it!

Day: 12, Calories: 0, Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance

Workout

Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance Status: Completed Today's workout is completed and I feel really good about it. This morning I got up and felt pretty groggy, but hit play around 6:40. The first round of the warmup went poorly, but I didn't stop. Just no intensity. But the second and third rounds of the warmup I started to feel a lot better and broke a good sweat. The stretch was the usual stretch. It felt nice though, especially since I bailed on yesterday's stretch. The actual workout went well. I'm still feeling pain in the squats, probably from squatting with weights less than 12 hours before, and modified a few things. Touch the floors became suicides, squat jumping jacks became regular jumping jacks, etc. But modifying aside it was a very decent workout. I'm pleased with it. One more day in Week 2, and it's Pure Cardio! I'm ready! Bring it!

Day: 11, Calories: 0, Insanity Cardio Recovery

Workout

Insanity Cardio Recovery Status: Not Complete Alright, I'm just going to say it, I did not do today's recovery workout. There were many reasons why this happened, so I'll give you the lowdown. First off, I had a paper for school to write, and I got up at 6 as usual to write it. That took up the morning. Then I got stuck at the office much later than usual, which also meant traffic had gotten worse. Then I had to go to the grocery store to get stuff to juice with. Then I got home and realized I don't like this workout very much, and then it was time for starting strength. So those are my excuses. But I did do SS, and it was a good day. I somehow squared 175 without realizing it, but it felt heavy and I decided to repeat this weight. I had really good form and completed 5x5. I actually think I'm going to repeat this on Friday too. Shoulder press was next and I did 5x5 at 115. I completed the whole thing, but the last two sets were really heavy. Also my right shoulder popped really weird (I felt it in my neck!) and it wasn't the good kind of pop either. But I did it, so that's awesome. I'll repeat that on Monday. Deadlift closed the lifting and I got 190 done pretty well. It felt heavy but definitely doable. I'm going to repeat next week. On that note, this is the third time in a row where I did a weight, it was heavy, repeated and then moved up. It's a good cycle, and I'm slowly increasing the max lift. I like it. We finished with the usual ab ripper and that was that. Insanity tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll do the actual workouts. The recovery though...hmmm..... Bring it!

Day: 10, Calories: 0, Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Log Entry

Daily Note: We did starting strength last night as usual. It was a great workout. I did 180 on squats. They were heavy, so I'm going to repeat it, but I did 5x5 and felt pretty good about them. Bench was next at 160. I struggled with this last week, but this time I did all sets and reps. It still felt really heavy so I'm going to repeat it Friday, but still a success. I finished with chinups. 4x6 and 1x5. Good. Not great, but good. My form is getting a lot stronger. Ab Ripper closed out the night and that was that.

Workout

Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit Status: Completed It's been a good workout week, so today was bound to happen. This morning was not a good workout. I was absolutely exhausted and my legs hurt so much. I pushed as hard as I could, but by the second half I could barely stand. I skipped ahead to the stretch at that point and called it good. Ya, I don't have much to say about today's workout. Tomorrow is recovery day and I need it. Bring it!

Day: 9, Calories: 0, Insanity Pure Cardio

Workout

Insanity Pure Cardio Status: Completed Pure Cardio is complete and I feel great. It was a little hard to get started this morning, being Monday and coming off a long weekend, but I hit play at 6:45 and ended up having a really great workout. My warmup went amazing. I'll be honest, my quads are hurting still from everything lately, and I've decided that for what my goals are I'd rather do more cardio than worrying about strengthening my quads. That said, instead of Heismans I did high knee jogging instead, and doing that I ended up having to not take any breaks in the warmup. I kept the same mentality in the actual workout, doing fast jumping jacks instead of squat jumping jacks and things like that, and ended up having an amazing workout. This is the hardest and best DVD in the whole program. It's just burn burn burn and sweat sweat sweat and I love that! This weekend was rough diet wise. There was a little pizza, a little cheeseburger and a lot of hotwings. Dessert was in there too. My buddy Alex was in town, and I tried my best but the diet got destroyed over the weekend. He's only here a week and it was only this past weekend I was worried about, so hopefully I can get back on the horse today. So far I'm a veggie juice in and feeling good. That's my story. Tonight is SS. Should be fun as always. Bring it!

Day: 8, Calories: 0, Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance

Log Entry

Daily Note: Alright, I'm writing this Monday even though it says Sunday. I cheated. I threw a quick blog post in here and decided to actually write the real thing today (Monday). That's beside the point. First off, Friday night we did Starting Strength. It was a great lifting day for me! We did the usual warmup/stretch/screwing around the gym thing, and then got into squats. I moved up 5 lbs (I think it was 170) and I was really pleased with the squats. I'll be adding 5 lbs to that on Monday (today). Shoulder press was next and I wrapped up 110 pretty nicely. It was weird, since this is where I started when I moved to 5 sets and couldn't finish this. This time it really wasn't a struggle. Good form and everything. No bouncing. It was nice. So I'll be moving up to 115 on Wednesday. I finished with pullups and did 5x5. The last two sets were iffy on the last two reps, but overall they were good. I'm really trying to get the kips out of these, and as hard as that is the benefits are amazing. Ab Ripper closed the night and it was a good ab ripper day. 50 mason twists as always, and more importantly this is the first time we did an entire week of ab ripper! Great job team! So that was Friday. The rest of the weekend I ate very poorly. There's info on that in the next post (see the actual Monday post). However, I am back on the wagon today and feeling great! Also on Sunday I did Cardio Power & Resistance from Insanity. Here's how that went...

Workout

Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance Status: Completed Good workout. This is one of my favorites from month one. Partly because it's not as cardio heavy as the others (I hate cardio) but mostly because this is the muscle building one in the first month. It's all body weight exercises, and I believe that a physically fit person should be able to lift their body from any position. This is perfect. I toned down the squat stuff a little so I wouldn't hurt my legs anymore, which kept my heartrate up (less breaks). I think I'll be doing that in most of the workouts from now on. My quads are getting worked in squats in SS, and my goal with Insanity is cardio anyways. However, this workout I still worked my shoulders and chest a lot with all of the pushups (V-Pushups for shoulders). Overall it was a great workout, though nutrition for the day could have been better which would have made this easier. Oh well, it's over and I'm moving forward. Week 2 has begun and I'm making progress! Bring it!

Day: 6, Calories: 0, Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Workout

Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit Status: Completed Done. Week 1 is done. My legs hurt so much. In fact, that's where 90% of today's problems came from. I got started with the warmup, and despite being tired I managed to do alright. Those damn heismans though screwed with my legs. My quads ache! That was the only time I had to take breaks on the warmup. The stretch went decent, but at that point I was really feeling the week's worth of work. Then came the actual workout. Overall I did decent on the first circuit. I couldn't handle the squats and opted for jumping jacks instead. Again, damn quads. The second circuit I was struggling to survive. It wasn't a matter of cardio, it was endurance. My legs ached so bad, and going into squats for basketball shots, going up and down for level one drills, and bringing the legs in and out while in plank for side ab somethings and in and outs was painful. I took a lot of breaks and struggled my way through the end of this. The punching at the end felt good since I could use my arms fine, and that was the end of week 1. I still have SS tonight, but I really enjoy lifting and tomorrow is a day off! I really hope by the end of next week my legs are used to all of the work. I know they'll be able to handle it eventually and then I can hold my own and get more cardio. On the diet side I've done really well this week. Aside from a little Greek yogurt in a chicken salad I haven't had any dairy, and all fruits, veggie juice and nuts during the day with a little veggies, carbs and protein at night. Protein shakes after SS too. I think I'm seeing a little weightloss in the mid section but I can't be sure. I'll let you know how tonight goes. Also my buddy Alex is in town and he wants to do a buffet tomorrow. Wish me luck with that too. Bring it!

Day: 5, Calories: 0, Insanity Pure Cardio

Log Entry

Daily Note: Last night we got a late start, but we did starting strength. I moved up 5 lbs on squats and they felt good (even though my quads are dying today) so I'm planning on adding another 5 tomorrow. Bench did not go as well. I was on 160 and the first four sets were fine, but the last one I couldn't get the fifth rep. Im guessing the pushups from Insanity are a factor, but either way I'm going to repeat this on Monday. We finished with dead lifts. I did 190. It felt heavy but I did it. I'll repeat next week before I move up. After that we did ab ripper. I didn't eat enough yesterday and got dizzy towards the end. I skipped the leg climbs and mason twists, but I'm still happy with the workout. It's week 18 for SS and it's almost over. Crazy. That was last night. This morning I woke up for Pure Cardio, and here's how that went...

Workout

Insanity Pure Cardio Status: Completed Well, it wasn't as bad as I remember. That said, my quads were killing me from squats last night and there was a lot that I physically wasn't able to do in this workout. Anything with a squat felt like a knife was going through my leg! I made it through most of the warmup, but surprisingly the Heismans got me. This is when I noticed the quads were hurting. That was really the only time I had to take a break during the warmup, but I did it all three times. After that the stretch went alright, and the workout was good but not great. The thing with squats or jumps (which is about half of the workout) I did a few, took a break and then modified. I did a lot of jogging in place, but power jacks turned into regular jumping jacks, so not everything was just jogging. Overall I'd say I did ok but not much better than that. Hopefully next week my quads will be used to Insanity and Starting Strength so I can do better on this DVD. One more day in week 1. Bring it!

Day: 4, Calories: 0, Insanity Cardio Recovery

Workout

Insanity Cardio Recovery Status: Completed Well, I forgot about this workout. It's really not my favorite at all. It's basically what you'd imagine to get if you asked a former track star to lead a stretch. The whole consists of a stretch, which somehow turns into a cardio exercise or an endurance exercise (a lot of isometric stuff), and right as your about to break a sweat it goes back into stretch. It felt good to stretch, but I feel like I never get enough of a stretch from this workout. That all said, this is one of the harder workouts in the program. The isometric stuff is hard (like holding the squat), and especially since this is the middle of the week, meaning my legs are sore from all of the Insanity from the past few days, it's a really difficult workout. I had to take more breaks than usual today which I didn't like. So it's not a stretch, but it is. And it's definitely a hard workout. I will say that after the workout and right now my legs feel better than they've felt all week, so I guess it worked. I think I'm going to try and get another actual stretch in before tonight's Starting Strength. I'll let you know how it goes. By the way, I haven't confirmed this on the calendar, but I'm pretty sure tomorrow is Pure Cardio, the absolute hardest disc in Insanity. Wish me luck! Bring it!

Day: 3, Calories: 0, Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance

Log Entry

Daily Note: Last night was the first time I did Starting Strength during Insanity. We started with squats. I did 5x5 at 165. My legs were tired from the workout that morning, but surprisingly the squats went very well. I'll be adding 5 lbs on Wednesday. My roommate suggested on focus on my breathing more in squats, and to still have air to inhale when I get to the bottom. That's been helping my squats a lot. Hopefully I can get past some hurdles with this mindset on squats. Shoulder press was next. I did 5x5 at 105. For some reason these feel a lot heavier than when I was doing 3 sets. I completed them and will be moving back up to 110 on friday, but for some reason I don't have the best feeling about shoulder press. Last was chinups. My goal was 5x6 and that's what I did. All were good form. Straight up and straight down. We finished with ab ripper. I think we'll be doing ab ripper after every SS workout. Should be fun. That was last night. Today is Insanity (see below) and dinner with my beautiful girlfriend and homework.

Workout

Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance Status: Completed Alright, today did not go as smoothly as yesterday. My calves feel very shot this morning, and unfortunately this workout has a lot of squats. The warmup was a challenge with the power jacks and vertical jumps. Those are basically jumping jacks from a squat and jumping straight in the air respectively. Considering the calves, these were poor and forced me to take about 4 short breaks during the warmup. Each break was literally a rep, but it wasn't as good as yesterday which is a letdown. Stretch went well. Then came the sets. Same problem as the warmup. This thing has squats all over the place. Power jumps (squats to a squat in the air), globe jumps and even touch the floors were very difficult. Painful, not tired hard. Well, maybe a little tired hard. All three of those weren't happening very well, so I chose to just jog in place so I'd still get cardio. There's a lot of pushups in here too. I did a lot of pushups and all of them were strong and solid, but after lifting last night I didn't do as many as I'd have liked. Overall I'll give today's workout a B. Not great, but not bad either. I can't wait for recovery tomorrow morning. Bring it!

Day: 2, Calories: 0, Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Workout

Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit Status: Completed Plyo cardio circuit is completed for the day! I definitely did better today than the first time I did this workout back in February. I made it through the entire warmup which is a huge achievement! The first circuit I held on for about 90 percent of it (going from the power squats to the mountain climbers got me today and I needed a short break). The last circuit was pretty pitiful, but that's ok. Today was a great start back into the world of Insanity. My legs really hurt right now. It's going to be a tough day, and tonight is starting strength. Welcome to the next 9 weeks of my life. Today is also my first day at the new job. I'll give you more info on that as the week moves on. It's also the first day of work for my beautiful girlfriend and my friends Felicia and Anjelica. Good luck everyone! Gym, I'll see you tonight! Bring it!

Day: 1, Calories: 0, Insanity Fit Test

Log Entry

Daily Note: It's time to begin Insanity once again. I'm excited to use my old Bring It app which has the whole schedule saved for me on my phone and this handy update the blog feature. And there's the cool little graphics you see on the left there. Good stuff. First off, Friday we did Starting Strength. I was going out to celebrate with some friends about my last day at the office, so we got started early, like around 5. Not everyone could make it that early, and I felt bad about that, but those who made it still got a good workout and I got out of the gym early. Squats I did 5x5 at 160. They felt good and I think I'm going to add 5 lbs on Monday. Bench was next and I completed 5x5 at 160. This felt heavy, so even though I finished it I'm going to repeat it on Wednesday. Pullups were last. I hadnt done pullups in 2 weeks and my numbers were pretty low. All 5 sets were 5 or less reps. But it still felt good to rep them out. We skipped abs and that was that. No more skipping abs though. We decided that starting Monday we are doing ab ripper after every workout. Now its Sunday and time to begin Insanity. I'm eating clean starting today (I've been eating well for the last two months, but today I cut out dairy completely and making a few more modifications to the diet). 60 days from now...I can do it!

Workout

Insanity Fit Test Status: Completed Wow, welcome back Insanity. I was not prepared for you at all! The fit test was today, and it was more difficult than I remembered. I got started around 9am today (today is daylight savings time so it felt like 10) and went into the gym. I got through the warmup with no breaks (today is the easiest warmup in the program) and then went into the moves. My numbers pretty much all went down from the last time I did this, but last time was my last day of Insanity. I didn't actually have my very first original numbers, but I'm pretty sure today's numbers were higher than those. Overall I'm still in decent shape, but not where I was when I finishes Insanity 4 months ago. My strength is doing well, but cardio is pretty much gone. And allergies have been acting up, and it's cold in the garage, so breathing was difficult. But these are not excuses; they are challenges. This time I'm going to do it all correctly. 60 days with good cardio, weight lifting (starting strength) and eating very clean. Let's do it! Time to make a veggie juice. Bring it!

More Starting Strength

Alright, we're deep in Week 17 and last night we added the 5x5 to shoulder press too. Here's how it went down.

We started with squats. I did 5x5 at 160. My legs were still feeling rough from Monday (which means the 5x5 is keeping my muscles in pain...that's a good thing) so this felt really heavy. I did well, but I'm going to repeat this on Friday before moving on.

Shoulder press was next. I started with 110 and did 3x5 and 1x4. This was really feeling heavy, especially since I hadn't done shoulder press in almost two weeks, so the final set I did 105. Unfortunately I only got 4 reps. I'll be starting with 105 on Monday to do all 5 sets.

I have decided I don't like the upright rows and opted out of them. I did a little extra shoulder work on the machines, and then got into deadlift. It'd been a while, so I did 185 lbs for 1x5. I completed it, but again it felt heavy (the legs being tired didn't help). I'm debating adding 5 lbs next week just to move up. We'll see.

We finished with ab ripper, and man oh man was it ever hard! But we did it, and as always I got through all 50 mason twists (barely). The rest I had to take some breaks though.

So that's yesterday. I'm debating light cardio tonight, but it'll probably end up being sushi instead. Just a few more days until I start Insanity again!

Bring it!

Wow, what happened the last few weeks?

Ok, I haven't posted in 2 weeks! Wow, I didn't realize it was that long until I logged in today. Let's do a recap.

The Friday and Monday after I last posted I did more lifting with Starting Strength. I don't remember my numbers, but they were average.

All of last week I was in Walt Disney World for my best friend's wedding. It was an awesome trip. However, I need to get my cardio going again. We walked about 4 miles a day, and by day 3 my feet and legs HURT! It was a rough week for that reason.

I got back from the trip on Monday and got home just in time for lifting. This is the week that I started doing 5x5 instead of 3x5, and wow it's really a difference! I started with squats, 5x5 at 155. I dropped weight to get there, but my squats were really low and I feel like the 5 sets made a world of difference. After that I did Romanian Deadlifts, 5x5 at 45 lbs. I'm really liking these, since they're working muscles that really need to get worked. I'm repeating 45 next week before I move up.

Bench was next and I did 5x5 at 155. This felt a tiny bit light, but it was a good place to start. My chest has been feeling excellent (in pain) ever since, so I know I did good work. I'm going to add 5 lbs on Friday.

Chinups were last and I did 2x6, 1x5 and 2x4. 5 sets is going to be difficult with these, especially since I took the kips out, but they're going to be so much better for me so I'm excited.

I finished with a very quick ab workout and went to dinner because I had not eaten the entire day (it was a long plane ride).

So here's where I'm at. Tonight is Starting Strength, and again on Friday. Sunday I begin Insanity again and this time I'm going to make it work great! Starting Sunday my diet will consist of 2 vegetable juices per day (one for breakfast and one for lunch), a protein shake (powder and water), a few raw fruits and nuts to get me through the day (mostly fruit) and lean protein with a veggie at night. Maybe some light carbs too. I am officially cutting out dairy as of Sunday too. This will be the hardest part because I love cream sauces and I love cheese. But it's only 60 days. After that I might ease back into dairy, but for the moment this is the plan.

So that's where I'm at. Sunday everything kicks into high gear! Also Monday I start a new job that I'm pretty excited about. More info on that as it gets closer.

Lifting tonight! Bring it!