Lose That Sixth Grader

I am so STOKED!!!! I’m almost done with Phase 1 of this plan! Workout B is no longer super dreadful! My cardiovascular system has caught up with this Turbulence Training workout. What a great feeling! I can feel deeper muscular activation and burn on the leg exercises especially. And I stuck to my schedule. I only took one day off since my last workout.

Step-up 3×12 per leg
Siff Squat 3×20
Off-set Push-ups 3×8 per side
Split Squat w/ Front Foot Elevated 3×10 per leg
Plank Arms on Stability Ball 3×20 seconds
Reverse Lunge 3×10 per leg
Assisted Chin-up 3×8
Stability Ball Roll-out 3×10
Stick-up 3×12
Bird Dog 3×5 per side

It was nice and cool outside where I do my first four exercises, 72°F. That’s really unusual for South Carolina in July. Steps ups used to have me huffing and puffing. I can get through them at a good pace much more easily now. Next time they are on my agenda it might be time to go to a higher step. Worth a try anyway.

I got a good rhythm going with my Siff squats. Good deep breathing, too. By the third circuit my calves were burning like mad. Off-set push-ups are just hard. I sprayed my elbows down with Biofreeze again before the workout. That helped. I did get a good pump in my chest and arms.

I got really deep with the split squats, lots of deep breathing. I was breathing hard after these but not nearly as breathless as when I started this program. By the second set of these of I was dripping wet with sweat despite the cool temperatures. The humidity is rather high, 71%, which might have prevented my sweat from evaporating. I got much deeper on these, too. My quads were really burning and my glutes were begging for mercy.

I’m staying higher up off the stability ball for the planks and getting good body extension which makes my abs work hard. This is a really great exercise. Your core muscles have to work extra hard to keep the ball from rolling all over the place. Reverse lunges are still tough, perhaps the toughest of the four leg exercises in this program for me. I got my knee all the way to the floor for all reps though. Talk about a burn, man oh man.

On my first set of chin-ups I did 4 full and 4 assisted. On the last two sets I only did 3 and 5. Still good work. I could feel my lats and biceps working over time. Even my hands and forearms ache a bit after this workout. Ache in that I can tell they were working in a good way, not bad pain. Rollouts are tough but they feel so good now. I really like this exercise. I’ll miss it in the next phase, but I’m sure it will come around again at some point.

Stick-ups and bird dogs. What can I say. By the time I get to these last two exercise my body is crying out for a break. But I focused hard and kept the energy pouring into my movements. I kept my arms and upper back tight to the wall for the full range of motion in the stick-ups. On the bird dogs, I focused on slow concentrated movement and holding for a few seconds at the top. I know this last exercise is really good for my back, it was prescribed to me by a physical therapist way back in 1997 when I tore my right glute deadlifting. If I had been doing it consistently all these years, my back problems would probably be substantially less than they are. Total time 39.5 minutes. That’s 30 seconds more than last time through this workout but not bad at all.

I followed the strength stuff up with Interval Workout B on the stationary bike. Started with a 5 minute warm up: 1 minute at 3/10 intensity, 2 minutes at 4/10 intensity, 2 minutes at 5/10 intensity. Then the real intervals 1 minute at 8.5/10 intensity followed by 1.5 minutes at 3/10 intensity. I did a total of 6 sprints with 5 active rest periods in between. Finished up with 5 minute cool down at 3/10 intensity. Total bike time 23.5 minutes. I had a 3.5 minute break in between the strength segment and the interval segment. Total workout time 66.5 minutes. I chopped about 1 minute off of last time. One more Phase 1 workout and then off to the beach and some Hotel Room style workouts