Tuesday, March 20th AND Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Hmmm...
So, apparently my post from Tuesday didn't save at all.  Lovely.  Guess I'll have to write two of them.
Tuesday's Workout:
An oldie but a goodie.  I'm a huge fan of Spartan lore, and all things Spartan (except the Michigan State Spartans, when it comes to college teams I'm a Tar Heel fan through and through.  And while we're on the subject, Marshall is gonna be fine, so watch out Ohio).  So I decided to do one of my favorite workouts, created for the Starz original series, Spartacus: Blood and Sand: The Spartacus Workout.  Aw yeah.
Here's all you need: a pair of dumbbells that are moderately heavy, and some space.  You have 10 full-body exercises, each lasting 60 seconds, with 15 seconds to transition between each.  Then after going through the whole sequence, catch your breath, and go through 2 more times.  Yes, you heard me.  Ready?

1. Goblet Squat
2. Mountain Climber
3. Single Arm Dumbbell Swing
4. T-Pushup
5. Split Jump
6. Dumbbell Row
7. Dumbbell Side Lunge and Touch
8. Pushup Row
9. Dumbbell Lunge and Rotation
10. Dumbbell Push Press

I did this workout outside, and boy oh boy was it great to do that.  The sun beating down on my back and chest while I ripped it up; priceless.
Wednesday's Workout:
Well, I'm working on being a superhero.  The next workout in Chad Howse's series is called Pulling to Safety Workout, aptly named because, well, if you need to pull yourself and someone out of, say, a raging river, you can do so.  To do this, Chad says you need a few things:

1. Upper body pulling strength and endurance
2. Grip strength and endurance
3. Core stability

While I agree with these, I'm a little hesitant to say core, only because core is essential in everything we do.  But who am I to say?  But, being me (slightly crazy; ok maybe a lot crazy), I added a few things.  So, while Monday's workout had a power component but Wednesday's didn't, I decided to add one, with very little rest (20 seconds or less) in between each other.  I also added my own abdominal work; 3 sets of hanging leg raises followed by five hanging knee raises, and some pushups thrown in for fun.
What was the same from Monday was the challenge/endurance workout.  The weight was meant to be heavy, so heavy that you had to stop after a few reps to catch your breath.  But what bugged me was that, despite Chad's knowledge, his form in the video was SO BAD!  Good God, my back and shoulders were aching from that; I'm built like a twig and can't take that kind of pounding, and I want to be able to use my body injury free for the next 50 or so years thank you very much.
So I adhered to strict form (I'm so anal about form), did a way with the barbells, and the minute my form started to affect my repetitions in the slightest way (I started to throw my back into my bicep curls, or I felt myself falling even an inch during my static holds), I stopped and rested just enough to gain some endurance back.  So, without further to do, here's my Pulling to Safety Workout:
Power/Endurance:

1. Pull Up Static Hold (chin above the bar): 2x hold: 32 seconds/33 seconds
2. TRX Low Row Hold: 2x hold: 20 seconds/24 seconds
3. Plank: Held for 1:37 

Endurance Challenge: 30 repetitions, keeping to extremely strict form

1. Moving Pull Ups (moving body from left to right hand, then alternating)
2. Bent Over Row: 40 pound dumbbells
3. Farmer's Walk: 45 pound dumbbells: walking for 60 seconds
4. Side to Side Pushups
5. Dumbbell Bicep Curls: 25 pound dumbbells
6. Plank: 2 minutes
7. Hanging Leg Raises (the kind I do): 20

Then I went for a nice, long hour run.  Easy, just working on form and getting the mileage back after a busy winter.
Didja enjoy?  If you have any questions, let me know.  Tune in tomorrow: hopefully my blog will work this time!
Oh, and here's a cool photo of Tony Jaa, because he's such a badass.  Enjoy!

Total B.A.

Workout Wednesday: Awesomeness

Need I say more?

March 19th, 2012: Superhero Workout Begins!

I love comic book heroes.  There's just something so incredibly awesome and awe-inspiring about them.  They just exude charisma, class, and mad crazy athleticism.  Spider Man can climb up walls like it's nothing, Captain America throws his shield like a pro, and Batman is just...Batman.  I've spent a lot of time in my yard when I was little pretending to kick bad guy butt.  Ok, maybe I do that a little bit nowadays.  The point is that heroes kick ass.
Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across this workout series called "The Hero Training Workouts," created by Chad Howse.  He created a series of five workouts, all geared towards doing something heroic in real life.  Now while the workout names aren't very creative, they focus on real-life situations, and gives you workout to help up your ante.  He has you focus on a couple of key moves to hep create strength in that area, then gives you a workout challenge to help with muscular and cardiovascular endurance.
Like today's workout for instance.  It's so creatively called the Chase Down a Purse Snatcher Workout.  As outlined by Chad, he says a couple of things you'll need for chasing down that nasty ol' purse snatcher is, and I quote:

• The explosive speed needed for the start of the sprint and the first 10-20 meters.
• The endurance should the chase go longer than expected

Ok, cool beans.  I'm game.  And I wanna be Batman.  So let's give this workout a shot.  I'll try the workout for eight weeks, gradually changing things and upping the weight if need be.  Because the system varies so much, I can do this workout for a bit longer than your typical, not-superhero workout.  
But first, to make sure that these workout actually make a difference, let's get some stat info.  I decided to go ahead and measure my right and left sides, respectively, because who wants a superhero that isn't symmetrical?  That's just silly.  Anywho, here are my stats:

Weight: 169 lbs 

Body Fat: 6.1%

Neck Measurement: 16”

Shoulders at their widest point (halfway between your nipples and your clavicle): 48”

Chest (measuring tape right across your nipples and under your arms): 40”

Waist 3 inches above your bellybutton: 32.5”

Waist at your belly button: 32”

Waist 3 inches below your belly button: 35”

Hips at their widest point: 39”

Thigh 9 inches above the top of your kneecap: 23”/23.5”

Thigh 6 inches above the top of your kneecap: 21”/21”

Thigh 3 inches above the top of your kneecap: 18”/18”

Calf at its widest point: 16”/15.75”

Bicep (flexed) measure the widest point: 15”/14.75”

Forearm at its widest point: 13”/13” 

Posing shirtless with a fedora, like a boss

Now you may or may not know me, but I always like to add a little extra.  So I did.  I decided to add a nice 30 minute run after the workout, and a lovely exercise called Floor Wipers, as well as my ab work.  Those who followed my old blog would have seen the video for this, but I'll give you a link to the video here, as well as the link for my ab workout here (keep in mind I did three sets of these).

Ready for the workout?  Remember, it's two segments, strength and endurance/challenge set, plus the run afterwards.  I'll separate them.  Let's get super...sweaty.

Strength: 

• Deadlift: 3 sets of 3: 205/210/215
• Floor Wipers: 3 sets of 10: 175/180/185
• Box Jumps: 2 sets of 6 @ 30 inches
• Box Jumps: 2 sets of 12 @ 30 inches

Endurance Challenge: Done as fast as possible: done in 13:35

• 50 Pushups
• 50 Kettlebell Swings @ 35 pounds
• 50 TRX Low Rows
• 50 Bodyweight Squats
• 100 Lunge Jumps
• 60 seconds of High Knees

4x50 meter sprints

30 minute vary pace run (varying the speed that I'm running, but keeping it manageable).  

I will progress and get better; now that I have some idea of how things flow, it'll get so much easier.
Well, until tomorrow!

Motivational Monday: Be a Hero

Now since I'm on a superhero kick, I'd like to start off this week's Motivational Monday by talking about being a hero.
Now when I talk about being a hero, I don't mean being able to jump buildings in a single bound, or shoot webbing from your hands, or have an awesome utility belt, although if you have those they'll help too.  Also if you have a utility belt, you're probably loaded, and if that's the case, I'll gladly be hired on as your butler, fake British accent included. 
What I'm talking about is being a hero in any way possible.  There are those of us, like Bill Gates, who gives oodles and oodles of money to various charities, or Angelina Jolie who is a Goodwill Ambassador.  I give them tremendous respect for what they do, but not everyone has money to give or the time to be an Ambassador.  We're all busy, and Bill Gates and Angelina are wealthy and good looking (if you go for that geeky type of guy; I'll stick with Angelina thank you, especially after she pulled that leg stunt at the Academy Awards...thank you Angelina...). 
Anywho, what I'm talking about is just being a good person to someone, even if it's a small gesture.  Hold the door open for someone; help an old person with their groceries; be a Big Brother or Sister; volunteer at the Soup Kitchen.  Do something to help out someone, man or woman, dog or cat. 
Even if you do something as simple as help out someone in need, in that brief moment, in their eyes, you're a hero.

Sunday, March 18th, 2012: Burpee Run

Because I wanted to enjoy some of the sunshine today, I did a lovely workout that I call burpee runs.  Basically what it means it that I run for 5 minutes on a track running at a good pace (about 70% of my maximum speed), then 1 minute of burps. Sound easy?  Try doing it 5 times through, with no rest.  It was a good time.  Also painful.  But fun.
Tomorrow begins my superhero workout.  To start getting into the mindset, I bought myself Infamous 2, the sequel to one of the best games I have ever played.  And yes, it's a superhero game.  You get powers, get to jump across buildings.  Now that I'm in the superhero mindset, I'm ready to begin tomorrow.
Bring it.
I'm also going to fall asleep with 300 playing in the background, to get me into that "breaking bad guys" mindset.

Want to get into the mindset of being a superhero?  This game will help.

March 17th, 2012: St. Patricks Day!

As today is St. Patrick's Day (which apparently means that everyone is Irish and celebrates by getting beyond hammered) you may or may not be reading this with a hangover, or drunk, or both.
Today, I decided to take a rest day. Reason being is that sometimes, you just gotta take a rest from things to recharge and relax. Plus my new workout plan is literally of heroic proportions. Until tomorrow, when I do a older workout, but one of my favorites.
Until tomorrow. Celebrate responsibly.

March 16th, 2012: Bodyweight!

Because it's a maintenance week (if you didn't get the memo, click here to read it), I did simply bodyweight training.  Here was today's workout:
2 sets of:
30 Pushups
60 Squats
25 Short Bridges
8 Close Grip Pull Ups
8 Hanging Leg Raises
8 Partial Handstand Pushups
I also did this lovely circuit 5 times through:
10-13 Hip Pushups (same as a regular pushup except for a few key differences; you are on your fists and they are near your hips, thus increasing the work load your upper body has to take; significant pausing so I would fatigue between 10-13 reps
3-5 Handstand Pushups; again, I used significant pausing to help me fatigue myself
4 Close Grip Pull Ups
4 Wide Grip Pull Ups
Ah, now wasn't that easy?
Well, I'm gonna be turning in in a bit, seeing as how I've been studying for my new certification course.
Nighty-night!

Freaking Awesome!