The End of 2011

I can't believe it is already December!

It sure has been a great year fitness-wise!

 Here's some of the stuff I've done:

• Started Insanity a few times but never got too far because of other time constraints, 
• Yoga. Attended an average of 2 times a week (or more) between work and Infusion - which has been fantastic!
• I can now do some awesome poses that make me feel very strong
• Eka Pada Koundiyanasana II
  
• Astavakrasana: (such an awesome sunburn too!)
  
• Frog
  
• Yogic Arts - Awesome class my beautiful wife and I have been attending for the past 2 months
• Running:
• Turkey Leg - Ran it last year and had a blast, this year it was warm enough to take that Eka Pada Yoga picture AFTER the race. 40 degrees warmer!!
• First Half Marathon - Bonneville Shoreline Trail put together by my brother and his running buddy - the extra distance there being because I got lost and went off course! I kind of want to do a regular Half now to see what kind of time I can get on a more normal course instead of a ridiculous amount of vertical gain and loss! Over 14 miles; longest ever run for me.
• Utah Marathon Relay and Dirty Dash - Excellent events that I hope to do again!
• Ragnar Relay 2011 - Again looking forward to doing this with a full Family team this year, although I'm going to miss our Piratey theme!
• Runnin' With Ed - Fun race with my brothers! Sadly our non-brother runner (coworker of my older brother) fractured his foot in this race, doh!
• Other
• Still loads of Pullups and Pushups have been done and need to be done! My record for the Cindy Crossfit Benchmark (5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 air-squats repeated for 20 minutes) improved from 14 to 18 rounds in that 20 minutes - need to try it again soon.
• Future Plans:
• Weighted Pullups
• P90X again - need something to keep me motivated for a while again! SO close to my aesthetic goals!
• Yoga Balance Practice - I really think I could do a handstand and Forearm stand if I practice! Just need a good empty wall to practice against for a few weeks!

The Dirty Dash and more

Almost a month again! Sheesh!

The 17th I had a great time doing the Dirty Dash. I definitely will be doing that again!

Here are a bunch of pictures from the craziness:

   

   

 

Our costumes were hilarious - it was funny to hear what people said. American Lederhosen, Chippendales, Steve Urkel, Redneck whatever... Actually the lack of clothes to weigh us down made it a lot of fun!

The Last Two Months

Yeah...
I haven't been too good about updating my fitness blog since I stopped doing the daily digests...

It was a strange and crazy summer that's for sure! Trying to get ready to move and then having the whole thing fall through is really a pain!!

Some of the sites I am using to track workouts and progress though (and I've meant to write this post for a while - FINALLY getting around to it!) are the following:

• Bodybuilding.com - While I'm not fully into the full-blown body-building look. The art of building muscle is interesting to me. So I created a profile where I can track my weight and progress in a few different ways. If I ever get around to it I can join the community too!
• Runkeeper - I've used Runkeeper for quite some time and overall I like it a lot. My only problem with it now is my phone is starting to have issues, so I can't get the GPS to track my run properly. Frustrating, but still amazing that it even exists right? Plus I can always enter it manually and plot my run on the map. Awesome service.
• Nike + - for those times when Runkeeper doesn't work, I've tried Nike +... it does well when I can get it to work, but it too does all sorts of crazy things and due to my phone it too has issues with the right GPS tracking. I do like the way it handles music better than Runkeeper. Still the login screens take forever so when you are starting a race, it's hard to get it started.

Other than that - I have been doing Yoga VERY consistently (and I feel it in my shoulders when I miss - it really keeps me nice and loose) Running in prep for races, and pull ups, with occasionally other random workouts thrown in. Not horrible, but not a great way to achieve what I want. ALSO in the bad category, I have had WAY too much Sugar and Soda, and I can tell.

Saturday I ran in the Utah Marathon Relay with a team from work. We had 2 teams, the FUN team and the NOT FUN (i.e. FAST) team. Somehow they put me on the fast team! And we did amazing, got 2nd place overall and 1st place overall for the Mixed division. While I WAS the slowest on the fast team (stupid allergies, they've really given me some breathing issues lately) I was still faster than everybody on the 'Fun' team, even if it was only by a minute! Still it was great to run on a winning team. Here's my run. And here's a picture of the whole group!

This weekend I will be running in the Dirty Dash:



That looks like a TON of fun! Again this is with a team from work - I am filling in for a coworker who broke his foot. OUCH! While it will be fun, it is also a bit scary but not because it's a 10k and it will be very dirty, but because my team has a COSTUME. Short Jean Shorts, Bow Tie, Suspenders, Crazy socks if ya got 'em, and that's it!

I guess it's good Halloween preparation! And I always have fun getting into costume!

Finally - today I decided I needed (again) to get into a more intense workout schedule - so I did an Insanity Fit Test, hoping to continue the Insanity program for the 2nd (full) time. I probably won't update daily, but we'll see how it goes!

Here are the fit test results, along with the results of the one I did back in May:

• Exercise - 5/4/11 -  9/12/11
• Switch Kicks - 150 -140
• Power Jacks - 70 -69
• Power Knees - 102 -107
• Power Jumps - 82 -81 (Massive Asthma after this one yikes!)
• Globe Jumps - 14 -18
• Suicide Jumps - 28 - 26
• Push-up Jacks - 40 -42
• Low Plank Obliques - 85 - 114

Not bad, especially since I haven't been doing any of these moves since then!

Done with the Daily Digest, and More Thoughts

As you can tell, the Daily Digest is no longer being recorded.

I've still been working out a lot, just not as tracked as those I put on the daily digest.
It had served its purpose; so I won't be doing them.

As an update on today (ha, since the Daily Digest isn't happening, right?) I finally made it back to Yoga!

MAN it's amazing how much balance a fairly common yoga practice can bring into your life!

AFTER yoga I jumped up on the pull up bar and did 10 wicked wipers, dropped down and was told by a coworker who was hitting the heavy bag "Do you have any idea how insane what you just did is?!" It's nice to be able to do hard things! I did seven more in my jeans to show off how awesome I am to my beautiful wife!

A few days ago I read a great post that fits in line with my exercise philosophies over at Zen to Fitness:

"Activity is Key - Not Exercise"

The article made me think about what my purpose was in recording those daily digests. Mostly it was to make myself exercise daily and for that, it did great! I feel like I've improved to the point that at least for the moment, I don't need them right now.

Every day at work I jump up on my cubicle while talking to coworkers and do dips and L-sits (which is hard because it is a very wide grip). They think I'm weird sure, but I get good movement in all day! Plus they've always known I'm a bit off!

I think one thing to remember when looking at that article is that while Activity is MOST important, it isn't really saying that exercising on its own is BAD. Because I guarantee, as soon as we get our house totally sold and we are moved to the new place, I am going to start an Insanity/P90X hybrid program ASAP. :) Doing that makes me feel more READY for the daily activity. But if I miss a work out, as long as I have been active enough that day, I won't feel like I'm not doing something I should or something I'm supposed to.

Daily Exercise Digest 48

Today:

• 10 L-sit pull ups
• 5.56 mile run

Need some motivation, some change. Feeling good physically, just need some other situations to resolve themselves!

Daily Exercise Digest 47

The Ragnar Post was also D.E.D. 46 (yeah I'm grouping days a LOT lately! Doin' it again today woot!) so here's 47!

So this is the Post-Ragnar Post!

Monday was a rest day :) Because of this:

Yesterday:

• 10 Chin-ups - SO tired and those weren't tough strength-wise, but my body was not very happy!
• 1 Mile run in 6:58 Barefoot - Decided to give my shoes a break, but ran too fast for my feet to handle right now. It's been a while since I've gone barefoot like that. Whoops! Some blister-type pain in multiple places on my foot. Had I been going slower I probably would have been fine, but I was pushing it so I hurt my feet a bit.

Today:

• 3 Sets of 10 Dumbbell curls each arm, 35 lbs
• 3 L-sit attempts on the foot of my bed for as long as I could go (counted to 7, 20, 15... i.e. WEAK)
• 10 Standing to plank ab roll outs
• 10 regular (kneeling) ab roll outs

I've had to miss yoga for like 2 weeks now... No fun! Hopefully the work project I'm working on gets finished soon so I can get back into it as it was really giving me a balance to work around!

Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back 2011

Friday and Saturday, June 17 and 18th, 2011 - Awesome Relay with an awesome team, especially my van - my gorgeous wife, 3 brothers, and my brother's wife. SO amazing.

• 1st Leg (10): 3.9 miles, "Easy" Run



Finishing My First Leg

• 2nd Leg (22): 7.6 mile "HARD" Run
• There was one guy who said he had to jump over a porcupine on this trail! I enjoyed it though - good run! I DID have to jump over a fair sized stream that had decided to cross the trail! It reminded me a lot of the Leg 24 I did back in the Vegas Ragnar. But the trail here was MUCH better!
  

  

  It was COLD! But this is what I wore anyway!

• 3rd Leg (34): THE RAGNAR leg - 4 Miles "VERY HARD" run. And it was VERY hard. I walked a lot more than I wanted due to the area of my achilles tendon/soleus hurting like crazy if I was going any faster than a brisk walk. MEAN.



Just about to finish!

Total Time for our team 32:45:53 (or 'round theres) - Very nice!

Now I can say I conquered the Ragnarrrrr!

Finally done!

Daily Exercise Digest 45

Saturday:

• Scottish Festival! Lots of walking around, carrying kids, pushing strollers, relaxing and listening to bagpipes. Fun day! Tired by the end too!

Today:

• L sits at my desk
• Running around like my head was cut off - had so much to do
• Missed Yoga because of all that craziness
• About a 2 Mile run with my beautiful wife (Running lower distances this week to be ready for RAGNAR this weekend!) Halfway:
• Wall-hop up to the top of a racquetball wall
• Hand to hand hanging Wall-climb across a few feet of the back wall, (Like going sideways along the wall at the end of a cat leap) followed by a
• Very poor landing (I barely bent my legs) from the hang
• 10 pull ups on the playground 
• then finishing the last half of the run

Beautiful Day today! But SO very long!

Daily Exercise Digest 44

Today:

• 10 chin ups
• 10 Wide grip pull ups
• 5 slow curls 80 pound barbell
• 4.85 mil run - Good run - Felt really good other than a little lower back pain near the beginning.

Daily Exercise Digest 43

Today:

• L-sits at my desk - so wide grip - I'll try to get a picture sometime, I practice on the cubicle walls a lot my coworkers think I'm odd. Which I am.
• Insanity: Pure Cardio - Wow I haven't done this workout in quite some time. Great workout! I must say by the end of Insanity one of the reason you are good at it is because you've been doing these moves for 2 months! So I wasn't as able as I was before, but I was able to get through it MUCH better than my first time doing it last year! The plan is to do a Hybrid P90X/Insanity program after the Ragnar. We'll see how it works out.

1 Week until the Ragnar Relay!

Daily Exercise Digest 42

Today

• Yoga - Yay! Even though it was our instructors Birthday, she felt bad about canceling Monday, so she worked a half day today until our class was done. I asked her to work on hips so we did some good hip poses like pigeon and some of the triangle poses.

Daily Exercise Digest 41

It's been a while since I had an official daily digest on here. Almost a week! I haven't had many real measureable workouts - but I've kept myself busy and I think the rest was actually beneficial, but I haven't felt very good about it! Then over the weekend I gained like 6 pounds! But after a clean fasting day - I'm back down to my current natural weight (after using creatine for a while)

Today:

• 4.42 mile run (f) - my knee was a bit tight, but no pain yay!

Ragnar is in a week!!

Daily Exercise Digest 40

Wow Number FORTY! Nice! Unfortunately this accounts for more than 40 workouts, but I'm happy that I've been as consistent as I HAVE been!

Today:

• 20 Pullups - needed to get the blood pumping since I missed the new yoga class today
• Hopefully I'll get a run tonight - it's been too long! It'll be interesting to see if my limited hip/glute focused workouts will make a difference in my IT, AND that the week off helped as well. We'll see!
• Got a 2 Mile run pushing my cute daughters - that's a crazy stroller, and not in a good way! Definitely affected the pace. Oh well I'm fine with that - and I didn't have major pains anywhere! (usually it hits me at 3 miles so...)

Daily Exercise Digest 39

Today:

• Birthday party craziness with 20 1-9 year olds (mostly 8 and 9 yrs of age) 
• 20 pullups - wide grip
• 10 pullups - close grip
• 20 chin ups - wide grip
• 10 chin ups  - close grip
• Folded laundry - wow what a workout!
• L sit - Not very long at a time, but 5 times at least 5-10 seconds each :)

Friday, Saturday and Monday (Memorial Day)

• No official type workouts - but it was a BUSY weekend
• Worst part was Memorial day spending half the day managing ground water seepage - not enough to be called a flood because we were able to catch and manage it quite well. Hooray for early prevention/action. Bought a $20 'Bucket Head' wet/dry vac that does Great!
• Considering all the kid-chasing/carrying, etc this was still an exhausting long weekend!
• Did practice the yoga pose trying to show off for people more - still need to work on a straighter leg!
• Also did a bunch of random things like curls and ab rollouts because I felt bad for having no 'real' workouts. Although 'REAL' life was happening and it was busy! So that's a decent workout in itself.
• Now I feel like I'm making excuses. Oh well! MOVING FORWARD!

Daily Exercise Digest 38

Today:

• 10 Wide-grip Pullups
• 20 Wide-grip Chinups
• Fire Hydrant to Donkey Kicks - Combined for 20 of each per side (80 movements)
• Missed Yoga today due to our team interviewing an applicant and having a lunch at Olive Garden - messed up my Fasting today too. Decided to do some Crow and Astavakrasana practice because of that.

All right all right - took a couple pictures of my Astavakrasana Attempts - still need to straighten my legs just a bit more.
Check out that amazing concentration!
Awesome packing messes in the background too!

That's how my sunburn is looking today - slowly getting better!

Daily Exercise Digest 37

Today!

• Pseudo Planche Pushups 10
• "Fire Hydrant" - trying to get rid of those IT band issues by working my glutockular musckles and my hips! Woohoo! (20 each leg)
• Donkey Kick - Another one to extend the workout a bit (20 each leg) 

Weak workout today - Guess it's more of a rest day while I figure out what to do with my sunburn and how to fix my ITB issues.

Daily Exercise Digest 36

Today:

• Yoga - Good class - with my sunburn being so bad, it really sucked a lot of energy out of me! Sunscreen or SOME sort of protection for me in my next relay for sure! 
• See how awesome my sunburn looks today!?
• 
• Yeah it's so bad that the brow-line is swollen a bit. AWESOME. Not really. I'm sure I'll be leaking pus soon - blech!
• 

I will definitely be wearing sunscreen of some sort at the upcoming Ragnar!

Daily Exercise Digest 35

Today:

• 3 sets Curls 10 reps each arm (35 lbs)
• 2 sets 20 Lunges (70 lbs) - Due to my IT band issues, figured I need to do more glute strengthening- supposedly that helps eliminate the IT band overuse injuries!
• 50 quick squats no weights

Daily Exercise Digest 34

Today:

• Running With Ed Relay - Total Relay distance - 41 Miles



End of my first leg

• 1st Leg: 4.2 miles (Official was supposed to be 3.05, but due to a flooded underpass had to run down, so the RK map is accurate)
• 2nd Leg 6.85 miles (Official says 6.85 so I'm going with that, this one didn't deviate)

 Like usual - didn't really learn from past experience and got sunburned pretty badly! Matches my running shirt-thing from the picture above!

Sunburn!

Daily Exercise Digest 33

Today:

• Went down to do Crossfit, but the instructor didn't show up and I'm not sure I want to be TOO sore before tomorrow's relay anyway! So I did on my own real quick (while waiting):
• 8 Barbell curls (80lbs)
• 20 Dips
• 10 seated rows (machine 150 lbs) 5 seated rows (machine 205 lbs - form wasn't good so I stopped)
• 5 pull ups - pull ups are hard after rows!
• More to come

Daily Exercise Digest 33

Today:

• Yoga (f) - Great yoga session today - no fun no poses, but that's not all Yoga is! Great modified sun salutation that worked everything deeply.
• Still packing and pre-moving a whole bunch of boxes up to my brothers house so the actual moving is a bit easier. Good workout moving stuff up and down stairs and into our van. Then I get to unload!

Daily Exercise Digest 32

Today:

• PM section of A.M. and P.M. Yoga - hilarious because we did it with 6 kids! Also found out doing any sort of yoga in jeans and a long-sleeve shirt isn't that much fun, other than the fun from watching and helping the kids do the right poses.
• 50 Push ups
• 25 Pull ups
• 10 Hammer Curls 35lb each arm
• Astavakrasana again - That's a difficult, yet simple, and awesome lookin' pose - I'll take pictures soon!
• 10 dumbbell presses 35lb each arm
• Hanging L sits - 20 seconds (Hanging from pull up bar)
• Decided to try the "Wicked Wiper" - was able to do it 4 times each side! Nice!

One month until the Ragnar Wasatch Back is DONE. I'm looking forward to it! This Saturday I'm going to be running almost 10 miles in a 40 mile relay! Sweet!

Daily Exercise Digest 31

Today:

• Yoga! (f) Poses of interest:
• Eight-Angle Pose - Astavakrasana - I've been wanting to do this since I first saw it years ago. My wife and I were amazed by it. It was actually a bit easier than expected, yay! (Although I can definitely still improve!)
• Everything else was pretty normal - Great Yoga practice today!
• 5 Pull ups (f)

Daily Exercise Digest 30

Today:

• 20 Pull ups
• 20 Chin ups
• 160 punches shadow boxing (Jabs, Cross, 50 uppercut)
•  50 push ups

Went down to go to cross fit today only to find out the times had changed! Doh! I may be able to do it on Fridays now. We'll see!

Daily Exercise Digest 29

Yesterday:

• 3.92 mile run partially along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail - beautiful run! Slightly uncomfortable from creatine + immodium... yikes!

Today:

• Packing - lugged heavy boxes up and down stairs, into and out of the car, down more stairs, and to their temporary resting place in my brothers basement. Hard workout!
• Carrying and playing with kids (my children, nieces and nephews) - pushing on swings, etc.
• 10 per arm curls 35lbs (probably a couple more than that, and they are really big unwieldy weights!)
• 10 ab roll outs

Daily Exercise Digest 29

Today:

• Yoga (f)


• Tough session today with lots of Chaturanga which was very difficult because of yesterday's push up craziness! I love arm balances - and today, though I was tired and sore already, we did a couple.


• The first arm balance was fairly simple; you start kneeling, and just lift up onto the blocks with one ankle crossed over the other beneath you. No idea what it's called. It very well could be preparation for,


• Flying Crow pose


• (awesome new yoga blog there if you click on the pic, yay!)


• I had it almost all the way. Tough on my wrists today though, and very difficult in general. In other words - felt GREAT! :) I love accomplishing or coming close to accomplishing these arm balances!


• Also did Half Moon Pose which is often a challenge!

*Edit/Update - found this in DRAFT wayyyy later. So posted it back when it should have been posted...

Daily Exercise Digest 28

Today:
Crossfit again finally (been busy at work so I couldn't make it again until today!)

• Warm-up 1: Inch-worms across the gym, Lizard Crawl back
• Warm-up 2: Bear crawl across and back, Crab crawl across and back (did that one in teams, first person goes bear across and back, 2nd person goes bear and back, then crab, crab - we were the first team done woot!)
• Now for fun - Timed section
• 50 push ups
• 10 sprints down and back the basketball court
• 5 backward sprints down and back
• 10 more sprints
• 5 more backward sprints
• 25 push ups - End of Timed section - did all the above in about 11 minutes 15 seconds. Nice!
• 4 sets of 8 bent over rows (35 lbs dumbells)
• 15 V-ups (could have done more but my tailbone was being dumb on the gym floor)

Not as tough on me as the dirty thirty - but I've been running a lot so the sprints weren't so bad. Great workout though!

Daily Exercise Digest 27

Today:

• 15 Pull ups
• Yoga - Warrior III was the most unique pose we did. Felt good. Unfortunately, I did not do it on a weird rock on the beach. That would have been great!
• 10 Preacher Curls each arm 30 lbs (very light, but I'd just finished yoga so I didn't want to kill the 'zen' feeling too quickly!)

Daily Exercise Digest 26

Today:

• 30 pull ups
• 50 push ups
• 50 squats (10 while holding a baby just before cool down)
• 20 Standing to Plank Ab roll-outs
• 10 Ab roll outs
• L-sits (15 s, 10 s, 10s)
• 5 minute cool down trying to get the baby back to sleep :p

Got some Creatine to try today. We'll see if there are any results from the update picture I did the other day and when this bottle runs out. I'm interested to see what happens!

Daily Exercise Digest 25

Today:

• Because of my allergies - I don't often mow the lawn anymore. I need to just wear a mask and do it. I DID sweep up the mess afterwards, I have no idea how that doesn't bother me as much or more than the actual mowing, but there you have it. We also cleaned out a window well that was very dirty. Push-broom work can be a decent tricep workout!
• 6.52 mile run - My knee started bugging me about 4 miles into the run. Not good. Need to work on my form.

Daily Exercise Digest 24

Yesterday:

• Yoga (f) - I was tired from this weeks other workouts!
• Poses of Note: Scorpion (not full, but that's a cool pose to work for!), Camel (I think I tweaked my back a bit but it felt so good at the time!), Wild Thing (My upper body was not happy)
• Also completed a Biometric Screening at work yesterday (for a contest! yay!)
• Results:
• Blood Pressure: 111/69 - Normal is below 120/80 so that's good!
• Total Cholesterol: 204 - 'Desirable' is anything below 200 - Closer!
• Triglycerides: 116 - Normal is below 150 so I'm really low on that
• Glucose: 89 - Normal is 70-99

Today:

• Strange day. All I did were about 25 Ab Roll outs and crashed on my bed right after I got home. Didn't feel great!

Daily Exercise Digest 23

I've been combining these 'daily' entries a lot lately!
Oh well!
As long as I'm documenting what I've been up to and I'm improving and forcing myself to keep working!

I'm happy.

It's not like many people are checking out these awesome 'Daily Digest' entries anyway.

Yesterday:

• 3.72 miles pushing a running stroller with 2 adorable little girls (f)
• Demo a few of the ridiculous Crossfit moves from Monday, could barely do them (f)
• Attempted some jump-assisted muscle ups on thick playground monkey-bars but could neither jump nor do the dip above the bar once my chest reaches that point. Pretty funny!

Today:

• 10 pullups
• Insanity Fit Test (Did comparison photos to my Insanity Results from over a year ago. (see below))
• Exercise - 5/4/11 -  3/10/10
• Switch Kicks - 150 - 157
• Power Jacks - 70 - 80
• Power Knees - 102 - 125
• Power Jumps - 82 - 85
• Globe Jumps - 14 - 15
• Suicide Jumps - 28 - 28
• Push-up Jacks - 40 - 58
• Low Plank Obliques - 85 - 124
• Interesting to see where I'm still tired from Crossfit on Monday! I did especially HORRIBLE at the power-knees, push-up jacks and the low plank obliques!

Here is a comparison of today and February of 2010:

Awesome hair today eh? OH YEAH!
And here's a front flex if you want to compare from today and March 2010 when I first finished Insanity:

Considering it's been over a year - I'm pretty pleased with where I am. I still have improvements to make, but Yoga, Running, and Intermittent Fasting have been great!

Daily Exercise Digest 22

Last Weekend:
Had a cleanup project up in the mountains - cleaning out the underbrush and dead growth from the soon to be overflowing streams in the area - this way there won't be as much debris to wash down and clog everything.

Last day of April and there was a bunch of snow up there. Awesome.

Today:
First experience with Crossfit. Nice workout! We did what is called "The Dirty Thirty" - but if you look this up online you get lots of different possible programs. 10 workouts, 30 reps each.
Before the dirty thirty, we did an active warmup: 6 laps around the gym, Soldier kicks across the gym, side-lunges across the gym 2 times (each leg), and inch-worm the final length back across the gym. Good warmup!
Then the Dirty30 starts, we did the following exercises 30 reps each:

• Broad Jumps
• Push ups
• Sit ups
• Wall Walks (Handstand against the wall, one arm lifting up to your shoulders/arm pits, other arm doing the same, both arms done counts as one)
• Split Jumps (Switching Lunge jumps basically)
• Burpees (I HATE burpees! But I love 'em)
• Superman (lay flat, lift arms and chest and thighs off the ground
• Dumbbell swings (like a kettlebell swing)
• Dumbbell squats
• Pull ups

Normally Pullups aren't tough at all for me - but after all the others - WOW tough!
I know I'm going to be sore tomorrow!

Daily Exercise Digest 21

Today:

• Yoga
• 1 Mile run with an 8 year old and a 6 year old - Fun!

Daily Exercise Digest 20

Today:
Almost 5 mile run

Good enough for me today. :) I'm sore!

Daily Exercise Digest 19

Today:
1 Hour Yoga
10 Pull ups
2 mile run

Friday:
Friday:
10 pushups
15 pullups
1 attempt at THIS (pretty funny - TOUGH too!)


It was my birthday on Saturday, and Easter on Sunday - made for a very busy weekend with no real workouts. I gained 4 or 5 pounds too! Yikes! Luckily that weight isn't a big deal and it'll go away or I'll turn it into muscle! Oh yeah!

Daily Exercise Digest 18

Today:

• Yoga was pretty brutal. Did wall handstands... amazing how I used to be able to do multiple sets of wall-ups (handstand pushups with feet/back against a wall) but they are VERY difficult now. Once I got my feet up, my brain said "Oh yeah this isn't that hard" - so I was able to do the handstand against the wall.
• 1 long trip around Costco pushing a heavy cart
• 20 pushups
• 3 rounds of Just Dance 2 with my beautiful wife

Daily Exercise Digest 17

Today:
10 pullups
35 ab rollouts
20 standing to plank ab rollouts
50 pushups
1.78 mile run
Did these yoga poses to take pictures to see how I'm doing:

Not a horrible Crane/Crow (Bakasana) Pose

Tripod Crow to Headstand - Better Alignment

Tripod Headstand (Sirsasana II) - Side - Needs work! Straighten up!

Tripod Headstand -  Front - PASTY

Silly Trying to work on Planche stuff... not well

Daily Exercise Digest 16

Yeah I messed up on the Daily Digests this weekend. However I DID do some muscle ups on monkey bars that made it slightly more like doing muscle ups on rings, which is apparently easier. Still need to do it on a bar.
And yesterday.
Yesterday:
1 Mile Run - I need this pace in longer runs.

Today:
1 Hour Yoga - Was able to do full Tripod/Crow Headstand for 6-10 seconds 2 times - Tougher than I thought!
3 Muscle-up attempts - the bar at my work's gym is definitely not optimal for my stage in Muscle-up progression. I will get there though.

This is not me - but I will try to get me doing this soon!

Daily Exercise Digest 14 & 15

Yesterday:
Did a few pullups - but mostly it was a random rest day

Today:
10 Pull ups (f)
10 ab rollouts x2 (f)
1 minute plank x2 (f)
50 pushups (f) (with added 1 year old interference)
1.7 mile run (f)

Daily Exercise Digest 13

Today:
3.8 mile run (f)
20 dips (f)
Haven't decided what else I want to do today!
I need a plan or something!

Less than 2 months and I'll be Ragnar-ing it up again!

Daily Exercise Digest 12

Today:
15 Standing to Plank Ab Rollouts
10 Ab Rollouts
10 Chinups
20 Pullups
3.5 mile run, 8:30 pace - I need to (I can) push it more.
Controlled Ab crunches while driving :p

Daily Exercise Digest 10 & 11

Yesterday:
Rodney Yee: Yoga Burn
Lots of Sleep

Today:
20 Ab Roll outs
2 10 second (yeah wimpy) L-sits with hands on floor
5 inverted sit ups (fully inverted on my Inversion Table)
20 inverted crunches

Interesting weekend. Definitely didn't turn out the way I wanted it to!

Daily Exercise Digest 9

Today:

• No Yoga yet - instructor is gone, backup dvd didn't show up. I will either Run or do Yoga at home.
• 15 Pull ups (f)
• 10 Curls with a 70lb bar (f)
• 7-ups 60lb bar (aka 21s) (7 from top to halfway down, 7 from bottom halfway up, 7 full curls) (f)
• 20 second hanging L-sit (hanging on pull-up bar) - I need to improve these (f)

Inspiration. Work. Desire. Good video. (Kind of sad too though)

Daily Exercise Digest 8

Today:
2.5 mile run - that headwind was BRUTAL
10 Pullups
Playing at the park

Daily Exercise Digest 7

Today:
1 Hour of Yoga (f)
10 pull ups (f)
30 second hanging L-sit (f)
Multiple Stomach Vacuums (f) (try to hold it for over 20 seconds sometime it's HARD!)

In Yoga we attempted the Bird Of Paradise pose.



Mine was NOT that pretty! I can lock/bind my arms but my leg has a hard time straightening once I stand up. It's pretty funny.

Daily Exercise Digest 6

Today:
15 pullups
2.5 mile run
more to come

Daily Exercise Digest 5

Today:
I was hoping to get a run in but it didn't happen. Kids!
I did go shopping with a 3 year old and a 1 year old THAT was exercise!
While trying to put the 1 year old to sleep I did 40 Squats while holding her (about 22 lbs)
Played soccer for about 15 minutes while holding the same daughter.
Chased, tickled, wrassled, pushed on swings, and enjoyed my kids.
Overall it was a relaxing but occasionally quite active day.
Didn't get quite the workout I wanted, but that's okay!

Daily Exercise Digest 4 - Sugar

Today:
20 dips
2.5 mile run with my gorgeous wife - some mean hills!
50 pushups
10 ab rollouts (Had to do SOME of those today!)

SUGAR - My biggest weakness:
As I eat this Rice Krispie Treat...
Here is a brutal post on the dangers of Sugar from Feruggia.
Yikes! Scary stuff. Especially with the prevalence now of even more unnatural sugars like High Fructose Corn syrup - it affects my corn allergy. The more I continue to eat it the worse it seems to be getting as well.
Anybody have tips on getting rid of sugar? I'm a sweet-FIEND - what to do!

Daily Exercise Digest Number 3 - Thoughts on I.F.

Today:
1 Hour Yoga (F)
10 modified Chin ups (circular, side-to side, slow release)
100 stress-ball squeezes per hand


Thoughts on Intermittent Fasting:
I think it's interesting to talk to people about Fasting - especially on my fast days. Right now in the cubicle next to me are 2 cakes my boss brought in. Carrot Cake and a German Chocolate-type cake. Tempting? Meh. The chocolate one maybe a little, but since I'm allergic to carrots I'm fine without the carrot cake - but really I'm fine with no cake today. People scoff - I recently went to an "Improve Yourself by Making Healthy Choices" Seminar held here at work. One of the things they said was by choosing to eat 3 healthy meals a day, you were going to "age successfully", be healthy etc etc. Sorry but we spend WAY too much time processing food. Food is great. Food is NECESSARY. But NOT in the amount we in the Western World consume it and obsess over it. Sorry.

Daily Exercise Digest - with Shoulder Care Links

Done Today:
10 Pullups
3 mile run, around 8:30 pace First run in my new shoes Merrell Barefoot True Glove
10 Chinups
50 Stressball squeezes each hand (with 10 second squeeze at end - not hard but feels good!)
20 Ab Rollouts
50 Pushups - I need to do these more I am a wimp right now!!

Shoulder issues are something a lot of people deal with -  My right shoulder has improved a lot since I injured it in a freak arm wrestling accident with my younger brother-in-law (freakish in that he was a monster at the time and about ripped my shoulder out of it's socket!) but it still gives me pain. Strangely I think it hurts most when I'm doing the hula hoop on Wii Fit. Weird!


Jason Ferruggia's tips for Healthier Shoulders:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Some of this advice is way beyond what most people need - definitely more for people who do a lot of lifting - BUT I think you can definitely find something in these posts to improve your shoulders and keep them safe!

My new shoes!


**Note**
Above Amazon links are Associates links - you buy something there I get a tiny bit of money - I don't get anything from Ferruggia except good fitness info - and you can too!
**End Note**

Daily Exercise Digest

I've decided I need to track what I am doing daily or most days as motivation to push myself more.

Today I have done: ((F) means in a fasted state)
1 Hour of Yoga (F)
1 Muscle-up Attempt (F) (too slow and the work pull-up bar isn't great for that!)
10 Parallel-grip pullups

Also I wanted to share an update on using the ab roller. This video shows correct posture for maximum results and injury avoidance:


I think I've been doing it basically correct, but I can definitely improve!

Also as another note - my 2 'big' fitness goals are really NOT very important in actual fitness.

You can get as much or more from good, consistent, proper kneeling ab rolls and pullups and chin-ups as you may get from the standing ab roll-out or the muscle up. But it's challenging myself to accomplish that higher degree of difficulty - THAT's what I want to accomplish!

Ab Roller!

I've wanted one for quite some time so yesterday while shopping with my sons for their sister's birthday present, I bought myself a cheap "Gold's Gym Ab Wheel" from Walmart ($7.77 in store).

My goal is to be able to do them like this gentleman:



Awesome! I can do full extension from the knees and back up - but full from standing is a bit beyond my ability for now. Still - I did better than expected so that's good right?

Muscles ups are still my top goal - but this one is right next to it!