Round 4: Day 34: Super Cardio

I like the way Super Cardio starts: Tony states that he's not particularly in the mood and that his right hamstring is a bit questionable. I'll bet that's the way many of the participants feel. I also wasn't particularly in the mood, especially after having completed Legs & Back yesterday. There's something about Legs & Back which always gets me in the hamstrings and glutes the next day, no matter how much I stretch before and afterwards. It's just a beast of a workout.

So Super Cardio is usually particularly tough when it follows Legs & Back. The first exercise, something akin to a duck and dodge, which would normally be a fairly light plyometric move, becomes a serious thigh burner by the third repetition. In the second series, the squat-leap-180° turn-squat move also becomes difficult by the third repetition. By the end of the second round, I was really breathing hard and grateful for the third round, the Kenpo moves, which gave my heart rate a break. Although I was grateful for the break, in retrospect I wish the third round was a bit tougher, which would have brought up the intensity level of the workout; however, I suspect that cardio is not really Tony's thing.

This has been a fantastic week. There's been a lot of muscle confusion, starting with 30-15, continuing with Just Arms, and ramping it up with Legs & Back. My body has been continually sore this week, something I haven't really felt in quite some time. This week has been a great assembly of workouts. Perhaps inserting Plyometrics on Day 2 would have been an improvement. I'm looking forward to repeating this again.

End of Week 5. Next: Week 6.

Round 4: Day 33: Legs & Back / Killer Abs

Legs & Back

This is still the best legs workout that I have. Plyo Legs is good, but not as grinding as Legs & Back. I was up early this morning (5:35 AM) trying to will myself to get into the workout. I had to be out of the house early today to attend a seminar, and was on the clock to complete the workout and get out of the house. The alternative, working out after work, wasn't too appealing, as I also have Killer Abs scheduled for later in the day, and I don't like doing the ab routine immediately following the resistance workout. I don't usually have the energy to satisfactorily complete the ab routine after resistance training, and I really want abs to count this round. So, up early, complete Legs & Back, and get on with the day.

My Legs & Back DVD is slightly malfunctioning; the disc stops after about 3 minutes of the warmup. It does function, however, if I skip past the warmup to the first exercise, Balance Lunges. So, I fashioned my own, customized warmup for about 10 minutes, including shoulders and some light running (3 different styles, because, you know, Tony's a fan of different) and, of course, stretching out the legs. My ad hoc warmup was satisfactory, because I never felt any problems during the workout.

This workout is still challenging. I tweaked my form on the side lunges, making sure that my toes were pointing directly in the direction of the lunge, which actually made the lunges easier and more pleasant for me, especially when "exploding up" into an upright position. The most difficult move remains Single Leg Wall Squats, which won't likely ever improve. I did use slightly heavier weights than usual (15 lbs) during Calf Raises, taking advantage of my newly purchased adjustable dumbbells. I'll consider increasing the weights on some of the other exercises in the future, but today, I was a little timid to do so.

It was a great workout, and so far, my glutes aren't killing me. Wait until tomorrow.

Killer Abs

I got to this workout, as usual, upon my return home from work. I still find the first half really challenging (the Ab Ripper portion) and the Ab Ripper X part a bit of a break. My body is slowly getting used to the Ab Ripper moves, although I find them as challenging as the ARX moves, moreso in some cases. This is fast becoming one of my favourite workouts. I really like how relaxed Tony is, joking around, but he takes the moves seriously and pays attention to form. Also, some of the moves are done a little slower, giving me time to focus on contracting my abdominal muscles and concentrate on how the exercise is designed to benefit me. I think that it was a good move to do this workout twice weekly, instead of once, and am looking forward to seeing some positive results.

Round 4: Day 32: Yoga

My body wasn't as sore upon awakening this morning as I thought it would be. My forearms were a little stiff, no doubt due to all the forearm exercises undertaken yesterday, but overall, I wasn't in bad shape. I found that I was a little more flexible this morning than usual: the first bend at the waist found my hands and fingers lower to the floor than I had expected. I was focussing on bending in half, like an envelope (a good image, as Tony suggests), and his recommendation of staring at your knees, or try to get your nose to touch your knees, are also tips I find helpful.

I was encouraged by my good start to yoga. Having a good frame of mind when starting the workout is so important to the success of the workout. Most of working out is really a mental game: win that, and you'll meet with success. I'd say it's about 90% mental and 10% physical. Convince your mind that you can do something, and you'll do it. If you quit in your mind, your body will quit. You are capable of doing more than you think. There are lots of success stories on the internet demonstrating that.

The workout breezed by today. I felt strong, focussed on my stretches, turned off my mind and enjoyed the moment. Afterwards, I felt refreshed and relaxed. I love yoga, and it comes at the perfect time of the week.

Round 4: Day 31: Just Arms / Ab Ripper X

Just Arms

I purchased a set of PowerBlocks the other day, and today was the first opportunity I had to use them. This was also the inauguration of the Just Arms DVD from the One on One with Tony Horton series, so I was twice as pumped for this workout.

I don't think that you can really successfully do this workout using resistance bands. It might technically be possible, but you'd have to be pretty creative in positioning the bands for some of the exercises. It really helped to have a set of dumbbells. An adjustable bench would have been a bonus, but I managed to get by without using one. Tony advises that it's possible to use a chair in lieu of a bench, and that's what I did.

The structure of this workout is a little strange. It starts with a series of exercises, all of which are repeated; however, the last 5 exercises are not. I don't know whether this is due to poor time management, or Tony becoming fatigued, bad planning, or a combination of those, but it seemed to me that something was a bit off. At any rate, the focus of the workout is exclusively on the arms: biceps, forearms and triceps. Nothing else is exercised: not chest, shoulders or deltoids. And, it is a fabulous workout.

It's been years since I worked out with weights. I don't think I've done any weightlifting for over 20 years. All of the muscular gains I've achieved over the last year have been achieved using resistance bands and, in limited situations, a pair of 10 lb dumbbells. It was interesting, informative and humbling to use heavier dumbbells today, to see exactly what my body was capable of lifting and to realize that parts of my body aren't as strong as I thought they were (I'm talking to you, left arm!).

Tony starts out with simple curls, using 55 lbs in each hand. That's more than the entire stack of my PowerBlocks. I started with 30 lbs, and found that manageable. Each exercise broke new ground, because I wasn't sure which weight to use, so there was a lot of trial and error going on in weight selection, along with a bit of pausing the DVD to view form and to listen to instruction. Next time, this workout will go faster and smoother. I'd also like to try doubling up on the last 5 exercises so that they match the format of the initial exercises.

It was a reasonably good start today, and I at least managed to establish a benchmark for future workouts and for other workouts where similar exercises are done. I definitely think that dumbbells will make a big difference for me, and I'm really looking forward to incorporating them more fully into my overall fitness routine. I can still feel a bit of soreness in my arms and some overall tiredness. It feels great.

Ab Ripper X

My arms were still sore when I settled in to do ARX after work. I'm not looking forward to seeing what they'll feel like tomorrow, but I'm already thankful in advance that tomorrow is Yoga.

I did ARX in a different setting today. Normally, I work out in my little space in the basement, but upon my return home from the office, my son was occupying my space, and I was advised, in no uncertain terms, that my presence was not wanted. He was in the midst of playing a computer game and, if you know anything about teenage children, did not want to be displaced. So, I grabbed my discs and my mat and headed into another room where, thankfully, we have another DVD player.

It feels a little strange doing a workout in a different place. I had the volume down low, because recently, I've been doing ARX to my iTunes music. I'm just no longer in the mood to hear the chatter during this workout. My wife had the radio volume turned up, so I was reasonably distracted; she was also cooking, so there was an olefactory distraction in addition to an auditory one. And, dinner smelled great.

I had pretty good energy during the workout; nothing posed any particular difficulty for me. I'm getting used to ARX all over again, and enjoying it. Rotating this workout with Killer Abs seems to be just enough to keep things reasonably fresh, for now. I heard that there's a new One on One workout, Butt and Belly, which might be worth investigating as well. For now, I'm going to stick with my ab sandwich: Killer Abs twice a week, with ARX thrown in the middle.

Round 4: Day 30: Cardio Intervals

Yesterday officially kicked off Phase 2 of Round 4, and I had my son take the traditional 30 day photos. These weren't as impressive to me as those taken 30 days ago; perhaps the difference is that the official photographer was standing farther away from his impressive subject, making the subject appear smaller and less developed than in true life. No matter. The next photo shoot will take subject distance into account which will, no doubt, lead to more pleasing results.

I've now done Cardio Intervals three times, and I think you get out of it what you put into it. It's not a bad workout, but it doesn't really kick my butt. It's certainly not Plyometrics nor Intervals X Plus. It's just a decent, fairly light cardio routine. I tried really hard to be extra intense today, but still managed to work up only a mild sweat and never really found myself huffing and puffing. Perhaps I should be pairing this routine with Medicine Ball Core Cardio, to find that little extra burn. On the other hand, I wasn't particularly in the mood for exercising this morning, as it is Monday morning, and my body was asking for a bit of extra sleep. However, as it is the start of Phase 2, I think it's time for a serious program review, and, judging from my posts over the last 30 days, some revisions are in order. This week, I'll make the necessary adjustments and try to push myself a little bit harder and see whether I can obtain some improved results.

Yesterday, I took the plunge and purchased a set of PowerBlocks, model Sport 5.0. They range from 5-50 lbs in 5 lb increments. I've seen them in stores before, but had forgotten how large the full 50 lb set is. They're really rather sizeable. However, per the ads, when I placed the 10 lb stack beside my 10 lb dumbbell, the solid dumbbell was, in fact, larger than the PowerBlock stack. That was impressive. I'm looking forward to using the new dumbbells in the appropriate exercises. There will be a bit of a learning curve, because I'm not sure which weights are the equivalents of the resistance bands I've been using to date, but that will likely occur only once; after that, I'll be using the new weights as a revised benchmark for future reference.

Round 4: Day 29: 30-15 / Killer Abs

30-15

After Recovery Week, I was really looking forward to this workout. I had really enjoyed it the first day of Round 4 and was looking forward to repeating it. But today, it was really tough for me. I increased the number of pull-ups using the black resistance band from 20 to 22, but doubt that doing that had much impact on my ability to do push-ups. The first few rounds of push-ups were fine. By the time I got to the second round of military push-ups, my strength was starting to flag a bit, and I became a bit concerned that this was shaping up to be a long and arduous workout.

I managed to dig deep, took mid-set breaks, and kept up with the pace of 30 push-ups each round. It was difficult, and once I had to actually take a break (diamond push-ups) after 20, then completed the set with an additional 10. The last push-ups, the chataranga staggered hand style, are killers, coming at the end of the set. I only managed to squeak out 20 in each of the last 2 rounds.

I love this workout. It's really challenging and enjoyable. I got an enormous pump from doing it, and it really tired me out.

Killer Abs

The first half of the workout, the Power 90 Abs, is very tough for me, especially the oblique crunches. I feel them all up and down the sides of my body and they usually leave my body sore for the next day. I actually find this workout more difficult than ARX, even though it's shorter. Perhaps it's also due to the fact that I've done ARX so many times, compared to Power 90 Abs.

I took a small break between the two workouts, watched the NFL score updates, then launched into the ARX portion of the disc. This went smoother and easier than the first half, which wasn't surprising. This week, I'm going to increase the frequency of Killer Abs, doing it twice a week instead of once, with ARX sandwiched between.