Becoming an Athlete

Wow! Its been a while since I had space to lift. Now that we are all moved in and all the excess has been given away, we have the home gym up and running. I'm badly deconditioned!! Warm-up: dumbbell complex (35lbs ea) ..a. hang clean x 6 ..b. overhead press x 6 ..c. overhead squat x 6 ..d. bent row x 6 1. Chinup ladders: bw x 1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3 (24 reps total) 2. Dip ladders: +20lbs x 1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3 (24 reps total) 3. Hindu squat ladder: bw x 10,15,20,25,30 (100 reps total) Quick, but NOT easy!!!

I did about 2 miles on Monday. It was cold and windy, and all I really wanted was a glass of port. So I consider this 2 miles a good thing. I'm getting more acclimated to steady-state cardio work. At first, my feet shins and calves hurt after 2 days of jogging. Now the pain is subsiding, so time to crank up the intensity of the cardio training and add in more anaerobic endurance work.

2.5 mile jog today. I kept it easy.

O did an easy 5K jog, and later that day did another 5K on bike.

My wife and I did 8-10 miles around some park trails. A lot of hills. All in all, a good cardio / fat burning workout.

I had a planned workout that included sprints and agility drills, but rain and a late night changed my plans. I started at 10:30, so I did as much as I could in as short a time as I could. 1. 5 minute dynamice warm-up 2. Countdowns (also called Big 55 by Coach Dan John) part a) Dumbbell swing, 35lb part b) Goblet squat, 35lb Count downs are a great way to drive serious endurance through a specific movement pattern. Start with 10 on the 1st movement, then 10 on the 2nd. 9 then 9. 8 then 8. 7 then 7, etc. By the time you work down to 1 rep of each, you've completed 55 reps of each movement. After that I did 3 sets of 5 Turkish get-ups on each side, using only a 15lb dumbbell. I went light because the Countdown got me tired, and also because it was the first time doing Turkish get-ups in ages!!!! For an unplanned session, this wasn't half bad.

Today's workout was the same as Monday's. All this core stability work and Range of Motion Correction is paying off! I haven't felt this good in probably 2 years! My flexibility is coming back fast and my stomach is looking flatter in profile. I don't want to bore you with the details, because they are 90% identical to 14 DEC blog entry. Diet and supplement stack working great! I can't wait to start the fat burning phase! If these 6 days are any indication, hitting my mark of -10lbs in 24 days should be no problem.