Week 5 - Friday's Workout

I'm a little late getting this up, but yesterday was very productive.  I got in a short 2 mile jog first thing in the morning, plus I also did a 45 min Insanity Max Cardio Conditioning later yesterday.  The "Max" series is extremely difficult... and the Max Cardio Conditioning workout doesn't actually have any time allotted for a waterbreak, so you have to just try and get one here and there.  I finished the workout, but had to take 10-20 second breaks scattered throughout the 45 minutes.  Also, this time I took a half-and-half drink of water/Gatorade for recovery... that really made a big difference in energy.

Rolling with the Punches...

That is why life is all about, rolling with it and making the best out what you have.  You can't always expect life and schedule to be exact and today was one of those days.  Drew, my 8 month old son, has been sick for a little while now and we had to get him in the doc today, so schedules conflicted and I couldn't do the scheduled workout.  However, I did make the most out of what little bit of weights that I have left in my basement (most of my weights are at my neighbor and workout partner's house) by doing some bench press and some alternating one arm shoulder presses.  Remember, do what you can when you can and don't worry about things... the end result will still be there.

Bench: 160 x 10, 10, 8, and then barely 6

Shoulder Press: 45 lb DBs x 10, 10, 8, and 8.

It wasn't the best, but I was happy to get in a few reps of some heavy (for me) reps.

Week 5 - Max Interval Circuit

Only about 15 minutes ago I was begging for the sweet kiss of death to take me away... seriously, the new "Max" part of Insanity is totally bananas.  The entire workout is 58 minutes long and I had a HR or 170 at 6 minutes into the workout!  At one point I felt real woozy and checked it and was at 183... Another thing I will have to remember is to bring a bigger container of water... I ran out with 15 minutes of workout time remaining... geez... that was rough! 

Chest, Shoulder and Tris tomorrow... oh boy.

Week 5 - Back & Bis

Starting a new phase of both programs this week... in the P90X series I'm now combining my back exercises with my bicep exercises.  Its been 20 minutes since I finished the workout and I can still barely type this post!  I don't know if my biceps have ever been this pumped!  Now, if I can only get them to look like this all day long...

Oh, another change is the rounds... You only do an exercise one time and there is only one 45 second water break at the 1/2 way point. 

Here is the workout:

Back & Bis	Wgt.	Rd 1
Wide Pull-ups		7
Lawnmowers	35	12
21s		-
1-Arm Crossbody Curls	35	6
Switch Grip Pull-ups		5
Elbow-out Lawnmowers	35	12
Standing Bicep Curls	75	8
1-Arm Concentration Curls	35	6
Corn Cob Pull-ups		2
Rev. Grip Bentover Rows	35	8
Open Arm Curls	12	10
Static Arm Curls	12	14
Towel Pull-ups		5
Congdon Locomotives	35	30
Crouching Cohen Curls	75	6
Corkscrew Curls	35	5
Chin ups		3
Seated Bentover Back Flys		10
Curl Up / Hammer Down	25	12
Hammer Curls	35	6
Max Rep Pull-ups		2
Superman		5
In/Out Hammer Curls	25	12
Strip Set Curls	35	5

Monday - Day Off

My workout partner called in sick on me today... and made a deal at the same time... we take today off, but make up for it this Saturday.  Sounds good to me.  Also, we're planning on doing a few changes this week and one of them is adding a early morning run twice a week.  We'll see how that goes.

Gone Hiking!

I skipped out on doing Insanity workout and instead met my beautiful wife at Clinton Preserve for some nature trail hiking!  We only had an hour before she had to leave to pick up the kids from daycare, but we were able to get in about 3 miles of trails!

Week 4 - Shoulder & Arms

Feeling a bit sluggish today, but pushed through anyway.

Today's results:

Shoulders and Arms	Weight	Round 1	Round 2
Alt. Shoulder Press	75	12	8
Ez Curl Bar	75	8	10
Overhead Tricep Ext.	75	10	10
Swimmer's Press	75	8	8
Alt. 1-Arm Sup Curl	35	8	6
Dips		28	30
Upright Rows	75	8	10
Ez Curl Bar	75	8	8
Donkey Kickbacks	25	8	8
Seated Shoulder Flys	25	8	8
Hammer Alt. Curls	25	10	10
Lying Tricep Ext.	75	10	8
Straight Arm Ext	10	16	16
Congdon Curls	35	6	6
Side-Tri-Rise		10	10

Week 4 - Plyo

Before we start... I'd like to apologize for the background in yesterday's video, as well as today's video that you can find below.  Gators Suck and Dawgs Rule!  However, to get to know the enemy you sometimes have to travel to their territory.... I learned that orange and blue are horrific colors.

Anyway, here is the video of me doing Insanity's Plyo workout.  I hope the intensity of workout comes through in the video - I know I experienced the intensity!  Also, I have to say that it is a very humbling experience watching your shirtless body flail about on video.  The picture I had in my head does not match what I saw on the video! LOL ~ Oh well, that is why I will continue to work hard.

Week 4 - Chest & Back

Well, I finally did it.  I recorded today's workout, but I must warn you that the quality is between poor and poop - and probably closer to poop.  Nevertheless, here it is:

Chest and Back	Weight	Round 1	Round 2
Push up		33	30
Pull up		7	4
Military Push up		25	14
Reverse Grip Pull up		6	4
Wide Push up		30	25
Close Grip Pull up		6	4
Decline Push up		20	15
Heavy Pants	35lb DB	12	12
Diamond Push up		15	15
Lawnmowers	35lb DB	12	12
Dive Bomber Push up		12	15
Chest Fly	35lb DB	8	4

Mon - Week 4 - Pure Cardio

Week 4 Monday Weight:  165

We took off Friday to allow our old bodies to rest.  The plan was to give a nice 3 day break and start back today.  I did that for the most part, but on Saturday I was able to slide down to the basement for 4 quick sets of bench press.  Last year for my 36th birthday, I benched my bodyweight by my age in 4 sets: So I did 165 lbs for reps of 10, 10, 8 and 8.  This year I want to do the same thing, except maybe add some weight or maybe try and do it in just 3 sets.... we'll see.

Anyway, today was great... well, truthfully it stunk, but I worked it out and gave it my all.  Monday workouts are super tough.

I have good news... I have the video camera ready and plan to take snipits from my workout tomorrow and post it... if goes smooth enough, I'll do it for each workout the rest of the week so that you can actually see me doing this work.

Arms & Shoulders - Week 3

If only my arms could look like this everyday!  Right now they are so jacked full of blood its crazy... so much so that I couldn't even do my last set of curls because I had trouble getting my grip!  Forearms - that's another thing that fatigues faster than you would think... anyway, great workout!  Here are the numbers:

Shoulders and Arms	Weight	Round 1	Round 2
Alt. Shoulder Press	75	10	10
Ez Curl Bar	75	10	10
Overhead Tricep Ext.	75	10	10
Swimmer's Press	75	8	8
Alt. 1-Arm Sup Curl	35	8	8
Dips		30	30
Upright Rows	75	10	10
Static Curls	25	16	16
Donkey Kickbacks	25	8	8
Seated Shoulder Flys	25	8	8
Cohen Curls	25	10	10
Lying Tricep Ext.	75	10	8
Straight Arm Ext	10	16	16
Congdon Curls
Side-Tri-Rise		10	10

Plyo - Week 3

What a workout!  Today I wore my heart rate monitor again to try and see where my HR is at during my workout.  After my "warm-up" my HR was up to 170... during my workout it hovered between 160 and 175.  I have to do some research to see where it should be. 

The end of this workout is what kills me.  For the last 12 minutes of the workout we have to do Level 1 Drills (from a standing position to down and do 4 push-ups, then 4 runs, then come back up... do that 10 times), then stay in the push-up position, which is called the "plank" and do Ski Abs (from a plank position, jump legs up and out to the left, then back to plank, then to the right) for 1 minute... then finish with 1 minute of In-Out Abs (from plank position, jump feet up under where you stomach as just at, then back to plank).  It was killer.

Seriously, I'm going to try and video this next week.

Chest & Back - Week 3

Had a great workout today!  I'm sure I'll end up paying for it over the next 2 days, but I pushed as hard as I could go today.  I took my reps to my absolute max, and for the most part I increased my reps over last week.  This is good because next week is the last week we do this workout as we'll be moving to phase 2 and that has a totally different DVD and workouts... so I'll have one final week to really blow it out. 

Here is my workout sheet:

Chest and Back	Weight	Round 1	Round 2
Push up		30	30
Pull up		7	4
Military Push up		20	15
Reverse Grip Pull up		5	4
Wide Push up		25	25
Close Grip Pull up		5	4
Decline Push up		20	20
Heavy Pants	35lb DB	12	12
Diamond Push up		15	15
Lawnmowers	35lb DB	12	12
Dive Bomber Push up		15	15
Chest Fly	35lb DB	8	6

Week 3 Starts Here

******** FULL DISCLOSURE *********

Before I get into today's workout and my weight this morning, let me tell remind everyone reading this blog about two things.  1) For those of you that don't know this already I am a homebrewer.  I've been brewing my own beer since last summer and to be honest I'm pretty good at it.  Currently I have about 5 different styles of beer bottled in my basement.  2) Yesterday was Superbowl Sunday.  Add those two things together and you have one deadly combination!

With all of that noted, my morning weight wasn't too awful as I'm only up 2 pounds.  It doesn't matter b/c it was worth it anyway.  I had a great time hanging with my Sweetie and 2 babies.  The teenager skipped out on us... as usual.

On to business... Weight: 168

Today we did the Insanity Pure Cardio.  It was a slow go for the first 8-10 minutes and I could feel the gunk sloshing around in my gut, but I continued on and started hitting my stride around the 15th minute or so.  The last two exercises are the suicide jumps and power jacks and let me tell you they are extremely tough to finish!  I had to take 2 breaks in each one... breaks are only about 10 seconds or so... just long enough to sip some water. 

TGIF - Week 2 in the bag!

That is a great feeling!  That means I have worked out 10 out of the last 12 days!  So far so good.

Today we did the same workout as last Friday... we started off with a 15 minute Cardio Abs workout from the Insanity series, then we followed that up with doing the 12 min warm-up, except we do the warm-up at full speed.  I wore a heart rate monitor for the first time and was able to check throughout... I was around 125 during the cardio abs session, then around between 181-183 during the hard core part. 

I'm a little concerned with Monday's weigh-in, since this is Superbowl Sunday weekend... planning on some wings (grilled and dipped in my own sauce) and a few brews... we'll see, maybe I postpone weigh-in until Tuesday morning. :)

Thur - Shoulder and Arms

Today's workout was awesome!  I felt really strong and had plenty of energy throughout the workout... I know this wasn't a case of not bringing the intensity b/c I was giving it all I had.  I just think that since I've been working out 9 out of the last 11 days, my body is starting to get used to the energy drain.  I went up in most of my weights from last week's Shoulder & Arms workout, too.

Here are my results:

Shoulders and Arms	Weight	Round 1	Round 2
Alt. Shoulder Press	75	10	10
In/Out Bicep Curls	75	8	8
Overhead Tricep Ext.	75	8	7
Swimmer's Press	75	8	6
Alt. 1-Arm Sup Curl	35	6	20
Dips		20	20
Upright Rows	75	10	10
Static Curls	25	16	12
Overhead Tricep Ext.	25	10	10
Seated Shoulder Flys	25	8	8
Cohen Curls	25	10	10
Lying Tricep Ext.	75	8	8
Straight Arm Ext	10	16	16
Congdon Curls	25	10	8
Side-Tri-Rise		10	10

Plyo - Wednesday - Week 2

I'm tired.  My hands are shaking as I type this out... just finished doing the Plyo workout from the P90X program and it is a beast.  The end of the workout is what kills me... I was just about to explain, but I think it would be better to just show you, so I'm going to work on videoing this workout next week. 

In the mean time, I paid closer attention to the timing of this workout and here is how it breaks down:

Warm-up
Easy: 3:30 - of jog, jumping jacks, heisman, 1-2-3 heisman, butt kicks, high knees, mummy kicks
Moderate: 3:30 - same as above
All Out: 3:30 - same as above

Water Break: 30 seconds

Stretch: 7 minutes (not as easy as it sounds)

22 minutes of hard core exercises like: suicide drills, power squats, mountain climbers, ski downs, basketball jumpers, ski abs, in-out abs, and a few others... we had I think 4 breaks at 30 seconds each.

Cool down lasted about 3 minutes.

Shower time.

Chest and Back - Tues - Week 2

First, I hope and pray that tomorrow I don't feel like I did last week after this workout!  It took me until the weekend to get all the soreness out!

Today was tough, but like last week it kind of creeps up on you.  All of the sudden I felt like "Man, I'm freaking tired!".

Today's workout:

Chest and Back	Weight	Round 1	Round 2
Push up		28	25
Pull up		7	3
Military Push up		18	11
Reverse Grip Pull up		5	3
Wide Push up		20	16
Close Grip Pull up		5	3
Decline Push up		15	12
Heavy Pants	25lb DB	15	16
Diamond Push up		20	15
Lawnmowers	35lb DB	15	16
Dive Bomber Push up		12	12
Back Fly	25lb DB	12	15