Back, bicepss and broken ankles

First, that title is misleading - I sprained my ankle, but "sprained" loses the alteration. I slipped coming out of a bathroom yesterday, and landed on my bad ankle (I broke it years ago, it didn't heal right). So now I have a limp for a few days.

Despite that development, today was back and biceps day, and I made it happen! I abbreviated the workout a bit. This workout is already longer than most in the Body Beast series, I'm not entirely sure why, but I remember it being the closest to an hour, and I only have 30 minutes. But I also had to take out any of the standing exercises, which eliminated pullups (not that I can do them yet anyways) and a few others. I ended up going through about 75% of the entire workout, mixing and matching some of the exercises to still achieve super sets and giant sets.

Back in general is not my favorite muscle group. I'd place it somewhere slightly above legs on the awesome scale, which means it's pretty far down. Biceps are a different story, but you've gotta get the big muscle group out of the way first.

I put up some decent numbers on rows/single arm rows, and I actually do enjoy overheard pulldowns. These were by no means amazing Herculean weights, but they were a good starting point. I'm looking to build on them more next week.

By the time biceps were up, I had finished an entire TED Talk and was really in need of hurrying. I opted to do the seated bicep curls and the 1,1,2 hammers (also seated, because of ankle) as a super set. This meant lowering weights a bit, but not by much, and in the end I think the biceps got a decent workout as well. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) will determine whether or not that's the case, so I'll try to remember to report in on that in a day or two.

Speaking of DOMS, my chest and tris are finally killing me. That means I had a great workout, but taking two days to get here means I spent a full day wondering if I worked hard enough. My legs hurt from yesterday, but not nearly as much as I thought (ankle aside). This means I'm both worried I didn't work hard enough yesterday, and worried I'm going to be in agony tomorrow. We will see.

Time for work. Tomorrow is shoulders, my absolute favorite muscles! Let's see how things go as I continue to press into week 1.

Bring it!

The start of Body Beast - again

For those who have followed this blog for the last five years, you know my true love in this whole working-out world is lifting weights. I like to lift heavy stuff. I don't know if it's because I hate cardio (most cardio - the martial arts workouts are usually fun) or because I'm a byproduct of a weightlifting-dominated male culture, but bottom line, it's my thing. So after completing a begrudgingly boring week of P90X3, the whole of which I was saying "as soon as I'm done with P90X again I'm going to start lifting", I realized that I should just focus on what I enjoy. If I was more focused on overall getting into shape like I was a few years ago, maybe this would be different, but I have 30 minutes a day to work out and not a sincere ton of motivation (some, but not like I used to), so if I'm going to get up early to work out, it had better be to do something I love.

So once again, I'm doing BodyBeast. I've omitted the DVDs this time, just focusing on going through the full program with an Excel doc that I found online here. I still have the DVDs and am referring to them when I don't remember an exercise, but honestly, I've done this program twice (both times with excellent results) and my only complaint is the occasional downtime. This eliminates that, getting me out of the gym sooner. It's all good.

Yesterday was chest and tris, which is a solid all-around upper body workout. My numbers are way lower than years prior, but I did it and am feeling good today.

This morning I did the dreaded leg workout. This was pretty much pathetic. 99% of my lifts didn't even have weight, and I was drained. Sumo squats, regular squats, lunges, reverse lunges....ya, you don't need weight for all of these if you're just starting out. But I did it and officially had trouble getting up the stairs after so I could shower for work. That's a good workout in my book!

Onward and upward, I'm back at it! I'm determined to be in some form of health by the time I get to meet my little girl, and lifting is the way to do it! I'm looking forward to being that Dad that everyone assumes can beat up your Dad. Weight lifting will get me there (possibly with a sprinkle of jiu jitsu from the school that just opened up down the street too). Follow along on the journey and leave me a comment to keep me motivated!

Talk to you soon!

Let's try this again

Well, it's only been 2.5 years since my last post. Not too bad, all things considered. Life has changed a lot. I'm married, my career has grown, and I'm expecting a daughter in August. Health wise, the last few months haven't been so great. I stopped working out, changed my diet back to my old ways, and in general we're basically starting over. I want to be healthy for my family, and have a few months to get me there. So here goes....

Yesterday I started P90X3. This feels a lot like the original P90X, but much more condensed. There's no downtime, which makes every workout into 30 minutes. This is perfect for my schedule.

Yesterday's workout was Total Synergistics, which you may remember from the ever-popular P90X incarnation. Today was Agility X, which felt much more like an easy-Insanity workout. Easy's a relative term, but that's how it felt.

Overall, both workouts were much more challenging than I remember. But it's going to take me a while to get back into the swing of things (yes, the health has gotten so bad that a 30-minute workout is a challenge).

Expect future posts to have more inspiring things - today was just meant to get me started. Time for work. See you tomorrow, for the return of Yoga!

Days 8 through 10 of Body Beast

Wow, I didn't realize I haven't posted since Saturday. Getting back into writing a blog after taking a long break is not as easy as I thought it would be.

So let's recap. Sunday was Build Legs. I did this workout last week and it was a killer on the legs. Obviously this one wasn't any different, though I did up the weights on most exercises and did a few more reps than the week before too. There's a set number of reps on all of the exercises, but last week hitting those numbers was a little difficult. I hate working legs, so staying motivated (and finishing my reps) is never easy on leg day. But I did it and I'm stoked that I did. I've felt that terrible pain going up the stairs every day since!

Monday was back and bis. I think this is my favorite workout, even more than chest/tris. I want bigger biceps, that's always been one of my goals, and this workout rips them apart! And it does it after a brutal back workout, so my biceps are already on fire when I get there. Even now I'm having trouble keeping my arms completely extended, which is a fantastic sign that the program is working! Also I did all of my pullups on the total gym. This is for two reasons. One, because Heather's usually in the living room when I workout and doing real pullups on the door means she can see me, and I get embarrassed for some reason. And two, because I can do a lot more pullups on the total gym and still build muscle and even add weight, and since keeping up with the DVD was a goal of mine this seemed the better way to go. I think I'll stick with the total gym until the Bulk phase, but we'll see how things change as we get closer.

And finally today, Tuesday, was Beast Cardio and Beast Abs. I really am not a fan of this cardio workout for some reason. Probably because it's a little hard and I really haven't done enough cardio in a few weeks (or months), but overall it's not my favorite. I like that it's only 30 minutes (from a lazy standpoint I like that), but even then I wonder if I'd get a better workout from Insanity or something. On my second round of Body Beast (and yes, there will be a second round) I'll think about switching this workout with a more cardio focused one. The ab section was good though. I like that it's 10 minutes of to the point ab exercises, and I like using weights for abs too (where were the weights in Ab Ripper X Tony?!).

So overall it's been a good week for working out. Tomorrow is shoulders, and then rest day is scheduled. Unfortunately I've got a weird schedule this week which will prevent me from working out Saturday, so no rest day on Thursday! Instead I'm going right into Chest/Tris, followed by Legs, and then I'll finally get my rest day. Wish me luck!

Bring it!

Day 7 of Body Beast

Well it's Saturday and I worked out. I'm not used to that, and for anyone that's been reading my blog for a while you know that's because most of the programs I do go from Sunday through Friday with a Saturday rest. Body Beast is a little bit different. Body Beast's first phase in the Lean program (and it looks like all of the phases in the regular program) is 5 days on, 1 day off, repeat. That means the rest day rotates a bit in the first few weeks, which is why I got a very relaxing day off yesterday.

Working out on Saturdays is tricky, usually because I'm either off doing something incredibly productive (and therefore don't have much time to work out) or I'm stuck on the couch destroying dragons or terrorists or something on a video game. Today was the latter, and my 1:00pm workout quickly got moved to 2, then 3. Finally at 2:30 I realized I was being WAY too lazy and since I did want to get out of the house to see a buddy who's moving soon before 6pm, I finally got moving for that 3pm workout.

Today's workout was Build Chest/Tris. This was the first workout in the program, the one I did on Sunday. Great workout overall. The whole thing is a single exercise, a double exercise and a triple exercise, all with sets of 15, 12, 8 and sometimes 8. The nice thing about today is that my adjustable dumbbells were working! They wouldn't turn to let me pick a different weight last week, so I had to use my limited set of other weights. The adjustables gave me a lot more flexibility after I fixed them today (the locking mechanism was sticking), and really helped me add on some weight. There were a few exercises where I even used the full 45 lbs, but I have a feeling that I won't be needing more weight than that any time soon anyways. Keep in mind, that's 45 lbs per arm.

After the chest stuff is another round of the same pattern, but this time all tricep focused. My tris were dying by this time considering they got worked during the chest workout. The pushups towards the end were tricky, and after one completely failed attempt at pushups I finished the final pushup sets using the door gym. Not the best switch, but I wanted to keep working and didn't think I had any more pushups in me.

Overall an awesome workout, and definitely an improvement from last week! Tomorrow is Legs day and I'm ready!

Bring it!

Day 5 of Body Beast (and a rest day!)

I got into Body Beast yesterday morning for the first Build Shoulders workout! I was excited for this one going into it. I like working shoulders, mostly because I believe a large shoulder makes the rest of the arm muscles look huge!

This workout follows the same pattern as most of the others, doing a single exercise, then 2 exercises, then 3 exercises, each with reps of 15, 12, 8 and 8. There was one more exercise mixed in there somewhere, but truthfully I'm writing this the following day at a pretty early time, and I haven't had any energy shots like I usually do pre-workout, so I'm a little groggy right now. Overall though, good workout!

Today is the first rest day for the Lean program. Body Beast is interesting in that the first few weeks (and it looks like the entire schedule on the regular program) is 5 days of work, 1 day of rest, repeat. For those who aren't math wizards, that's only 6 days, and a week is 7. This means the rest day floats around rather than being a set day. For me that doesn't work too well, since I like having Saturdays as my rest and travel day. Travel meaning when I'm on a trip, which is usually on a Saturday, I don't have to work out.

Case in point, my next rest day is next Thursday, but that means Legs are Saturday and I'll be spending all of next Saturday floating in a river with friends. So instead I got permission from a few coaches and I'm going to move that one around and just take Saturday off as normal.

One thing I like about the Lean schedule is the Bulk phase, which is the second phase, is the longest phase of the whole program (5 weeks), and it actually does have the regular Sunday through Friday with a Saturday Rest Day schedule. So once I get through the first 3 weeks I should be on 5 clear weeks of normal schedule.

Anyways it feels good not to be working out today. Frankly I don't know what I'd work if there was a workout scheduled. My whole body hurts, especially my biceps and shoulders. These workouts are killer! I can't wait to start all over again on Saturday with Chest and Tris. 3 weeks of this and it's on to the Bulk phase!

By the way, the nutrition has been CLEAN! Cleaner than I've ever done. I realize it's only been a week, but Heather's not letting me fail and I appreciate that, and her, immensely.

So that's my story. I've got a lot of other big things going on right now too. It's going to be a good day.

Bring it!

Days 3 and 4 of Body Beast

Two more days are in the books. I woke up yesterday and could barely walk, but I still hit play on Build Back and Bis. I'd been looking forward to this workout since Sunday, since it was bicep focused. I've always thought my biceps were too small, even when I'm working out, so I was ready to bring the pump!

The workout was tough, about as tough as the Chest and Triceps workout. Obviously a lot more rows and back exercises, and pullups replaced pushups. I wanted to do more reps so I could keep up, so I used the Total Gym instead of the pullup bar for the pullups, and added weight. The bicep work was good too. This was the first workout to really incorporate the curl bar, which feels a lot more like real lifting to me, so going back and forth between the curl bar and free weights was fun.

The rest of the day I didn't feel much strain in my biceps, and only a little in my back, but I figured it would come. The rest of my body still hurt from Sunday and Mondays' workouts, and walking was definitely difficult all day because of Monday's Leg workout specifically. I felt like I was walking through quick sand all day.

This morning I woke up and as expected, my biceps are on fire. They feel awesome, and my back definitely feels like it worked yesterday. Delayed muscle soreness is a real thing people! My triceps and chest are finally starting to feel normal again after Sunday, and my legs are still in a lot of pain. It's awesome!

This morning's workout was Beast Caridio and Beast Abs. Lots of beasts in this one. Cardio was interesting. It was basically a total body weight/body weight workout, but instead of reps everything was done for time (aka how many reps can you do in a minute). Not my favorite stuff, since I really like the traditional lifting, but at 30 minutes it's not bad at all.

That workout was followed by the 10 minute Beast Abs. This is definitely not Ab Ripper X, but it still felt good. There were shorter moves, but most of them used weights which added something.

I've gotta give this one a few more tries (which I will get in the next 12 weeks), but someday in the future if I repeat this workout I'll swap Ab Ripper X in instead. At least that's the thought at the moment.

Nutrition wise I've been doing great! Heather's been helping me eat really healthy, is measuring out my portions based on the meal guide, and she's even cooking meals straight from the recipe guide! This time I'm doing it right, and I owe a lot of thanks to her for the help!

So that's my story. Tomorrow is shoulders (I love having a dedicated shoulder workout!) and Friday I get a rest day! I'm looking forward to it!

Bring it!