SumQuodSum

Simple workout today. Walked the dog for 35 minutes. Nice for me, good for him.

There are three things you’ve gotta love about working out: feeling like you worked your ass off, sweating profusely, and finishing strong to The Scorpions’ Rock You Like a Hurricane! I accomplished all three today!

I decided to focus on shoulders today, as I tend to neglect them. You’ll notice that I did box jumps in between each set of resistance exercise. I tend to dislike the rest period between sets of exercise. I overcome this dead space with some sort of cardio — it really intensifies the workout.

Here it is:

Tabata Intervals (Rope Skips) X 1 set

Power Press X 12
Box Jumps X 10
Lateral Raises X 10
Box Jumps X 10
Front Raises X 10
Box Jumps X 10
Dumbbell Curls X 12

Repeat power press through dumbell curls three times.

Finished all of that with three additional sets of tabata intervals (rope skips) with 30 seconds rest between each 4-minute set.  Total time: ~ 30 minutes.

Spent yesterday with the family — catching up, if you will. The grind of working, completing my second Master’s degree (there are more interesting things to collect, aren’t there), interning as a principal, coaching, working out, and the like, doesn’t afford our family lots of quality together time. Made the worthwhile decision to forgo working out in favor of family time. Gave us a chance to hunt for pumpkins at Hunter’s Farm and go out to lunch. A quality afternoon!

Almost didn’t work out this morning as the alarm clock failed to go off. Well, it didn’t fail…the alarm clock, after all, is as smart as the person setting it. Chalk this one up to human error. Nonetheless, my internal alarm, as usual, was faithful. Almost didn’t work out regardless. It’s hard to drag the 42-year old rear end out of bed to face the morning chill that overwhelms the garage. This is, however, the only time of the day I truly get to myself. I’m finding that if I don’t start my day off in this manner I will be miserable the rest of the day. No sense in being miserable now, is there?

Here it is…

Interval Challenge #2
Burpees X 6
Push-ups X 12
Body Weight Squats X 25
Rope Skips X 1 Minute
Crunches X 45

Repeat the above sets of exercise 5 times with little to no rest in between.  Took about 20 minutes.

Too much coffee yesterday, couldn’t get to sleep last night as a result. Woke up just half an hour before I had to leave the house for a Saturday morning mathematics in-service. No time to work out.

I endured the tedium of solving mathematics problems with my colleagues. It’s actually not tedium. It’s fun to engage in analytic processes with other practitioners of math. Given the nature of education, we seldom get shared opportunities to engage one and other in pedagogy. Needless to say, in the back of my mind for those four hours was, “When can I get home to work out and what workout will I do?”

Well, in response to question number two, I decided to do the 300 Workout. The 300 Workout gained popularity just after the movie 300 came out. It was purported that the 300 Workout was derived as a result training the actors to look fit — soldier-like, if you will — for the movie. I don’t really know the correlation of the workout’s name to the timing of the preparation of actors for their roles. What I do know, however, is that the workout doesn’t derive its name from the movie, but from the number of total repetitions of exercise done during the workout.

Having elucidated upon my reading audience the workout of choice and the derivation of its name, I must admit that I really did the “300″ workout. Note the parentheses around the number. I actually did the 325 workout because I add 5 extra reps per set of bent-over dumbbell rows.

Enough explanation? Here’s the workout:

“300″ Workout
Pull-ups X 5
Deadlifts X 10
Plyometric Push-ups X 10
Box Jumps X 10
Bent-over Dumbbell Rows X 10 (5 per side)
Floor Wipers X 10
Single-arm Clean and Press X 10 (5 per side)

Repeat the above 5 times for a total of 325 reps. Goal is to complete all reps with minimal rest, as quickly as possible. My time: 17 minutes.

I ended the workout with crunches, 4 sets of 35 reps. I can now watch UFC 104, play poker, and enjoy food and beverage with friends tonight, free of guilt. Well, almost free of guilt.

Today’s workout was focused on anaerobic capacity. I like to work Tabata Intervals in any chance I get — they’re a great way to increase anaerobic capacity. Tabata Intervals consist of 20 seconds of intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest; repeat eight times for a total of 4 minutes. Intense exercise can consist of anything from rope skips, to hitting/kicking the heavy bag, to burpees, and everything in between. If it sounds easy, try them. In fact try several sets of Tabata Intervals with 1 minute of rest in between each 4-minute set.

Today’s workout focused on the following:

Tabata Intervals (Rope Skips)
Clean and Press X 10
Crunches X 35
Burpees X 10
Clean and Press X 10
Crunches X 35
Burpees X 10

Repeat the above set of exercises twice. No rest between exercises or sets.

Time to complete 20 – 25 minutes.

I journal my workouts in a little notebook. It’s cool to look back on the variety of exercises and workouts I’ve done over the past couple of years. I thought I’d move this journal to my blog. While I can’t directly pinpoint a reason for blogging versus journaling, I might best sum this move to the digital realm as keeping my workouts fresh in some way.

Kept it simple today. Here it is.

Cable Pushups x 10
Medicine Ball Squats x 15
Pull-ups x 5
Crunches x 15
Medicine Ball Lunges x 16

I repeated this five times with no rest. Took about 20 minutes. Tomorrow will include more cardio – probably more anaerobic in nature.