Day 18: (Part two) Baked Potato

With my newfound gymspiration I found that working out became more of a focused thing than a "hey I want to do this today because its fun and I like it". However I forgot to factor in the heat. Bleh! Apparently summer is going to be much hotter than our current heatwave, so I am going to start working out in the morning. Around about 9 - 10 am the house is still quite cool, and theres plenty of time to get hydrated and take a cool bath or shower.

Man.

I was so overheated I wasn't even able to complete a full workout session, I started getting cramps in my obliques so I had to stop early on my core workout and move onto the weights and final cardio. The cramps have gone now, but I seriously thought that I was going to pop like a sausage.

Speaking of I think its grilled food and salad tomorrow. Lush.

- SR

Day 16: Extra bits

Ahh I have a new favourite shirt. Its a small I <3 NY tee and it fits me perfectly and shows my workout lumps. Though it has a hole on the chest where the puppy decided he would jump up and give me a hug. I am six foot one, he is like a viper or something. ANYWAY, today I tried out a whole buncha new things and I am now breaking down my routine into the following handy blocks:

Stretches-
Making sure that I stretch all the muscle groups that I am going to be working out properly, stretch for a count of twelve pushes each time, or for 20 seconds. The stretches take about 2 or 3 minutes and can be done in isolation to increase flexibility.

Deep stretching/yoga-
At the moment, I am doing the tree pose, the crescent pose, the lord of the dance pose and the sun salutation. It takes about 5 to 10 minutes and limbers everything up, though I can't do the sun salutation properly yet so I need to do more stretching sessions in my day to make things looser. If I ever manage to put my face between my knees chances are the Mayans were onto something.

Cardio warmup-
During this section I am targeting my torso, legs and sides whilst maintaining movement at a regular speed. There are names for some of the things that I do, but really it just blends into a hyper moment where I prance around and look a bit ponsy.

Core1-
Twist crunches
Pushups
Crunches
Slow Squats
Pushups
Crunches
Slow Squats
Twist crunches

20 of each, short break in between.

Weights-
Butterfly lifts
Curls,
Squats,
Flexes,
Uhm... kinda lungey things? I'm not sure. Its all a bit sparkly, but its fun so yeah. I'll try and find a video for the next post or something.

Unicorns would do it. I'm just saying.

Core 2-
Sideways leg lifts (20 on each side)
Pushups
Crunches
Squats
Pushups
Crunches
Squats
Pass-the-pillow. Again, I will try and find a video, you're meant to do it with a Swiss ball but eh. Basically you have to hold something between your ankles, and pass it to your hands without bending your knees or lifting your butt of the floor OR you shoulders. Its easy at first but by the end of the first set you want to kill someone. Totally worth it though. It gets the deep muscles in your stomach all toasty and warm.

Cardio-
Dance! Woo! Two tracks, both six minutes, the rules of the game are that you cannot stop moving from the start to finish of each track, and you also have to move every muscle group. So you kinda look like a spazz, its not something I would do in a club, but it improves your breathing and your stamina. It is also a really good warm-down.

Stretching2-
Stretch everything you worked out again and massage places which are a bit sore or feeling laggy. Make sure you don't leave any knots or sore spots. Continue this one in the shower too.

Oh and as an extra thing, today whilst playing with the dog I totally decked it. At high speed, flat on my face. Didn't feel it though. Two months ago I would have been bruised for about a month haha but I just got up and was perfectly fine. I didn't know working out made you less vulnerable, but maybe someone should have said something about that.

There's a chance I wasn't listening if they did.

-SR

Who listens to wooden tops anyway? :P

Day 11: Flex em if you got em.

Ueee! Things are looking good for the month mark pictures. Well technically two months, but only a month of blogging. Or something. ANYWAY! I now have pecs, its semi-official. Theres something gropable when I flex, and when I jump theres now a jiggling sensation on my chest which has never been there before so its kind of special. My arms are also starting to show signs of changing, as is my butt from all the cardio!

I am going to work some more yoga into my daily block now so that I can get all my stretching done as deeply as possible. I still don't feel stiff after working out, but I also still can't do a Sun Salutation pose so I gotta long way to go. Don't ask me why I want to be able to put my face between my knees whilst standing. ... Or don't you need to? Maybe I like the view like that? Who knows. Though now its occurred to me I am totally going to try that whilst doing the deed haha!

Disturbing mental pictures aside, my cardio is going pretty well. With the combination of chasing the puppy and doing 5+ minutes of dance related stuff after working out I am finding that my stamina is improving dramatically, as is the amount of energy I have for things what involve thinking. My lungs are better, my breath is clearer, my voice is louder (or would be if this sore throat hadn't crept up from nowhere)...

All I gotta do now is go to the GUM clinic and put my mind at ease about other things, too.

BLEH.

Dating men is more trouble than its worth. I'm seriously considering going chaste. For reeeels!
- SR

Afterthought, my hydration has suffered lately... I need to work on that. Or rather, I need to drink more now that my body is building muscle, but I forgot to up my intake. Or maybe its just the sore throat. ... Saaa...

Day 10: Uhm

So yesterday sort of dissapeared in a blur of various things and I somehow ended up not working out. So that sucked. Though I didn't do nothing, I totally racked up a good 8000+ steps on my pokewalker AND found a hyper potion, so I am pretty much set for life on those boons.

Today was a festival thing, so I've been walking around town a lot, and also this:
So yah. That was pretty fun, though I didn't walk the dog today, but I did play with him outside for a bit. Same routine as yesterday, though I thought maybe I should spell it out. This is my current main block of exercise:
- Stretches and light cardio + some yoga that I can do without snapping anything.
- 20 pushups
- 20 crunches
- 20 pushups
- 20 crunches
- 20 long arm butterflies (?) I don't know how to describe it really, but I am on my back on a bench and my arms are fully extended, with weights. Then I raise them from below the bench level to meet above me, as slowly as possible.
- 20 regular butterflies... like the previous but with bent arms, kind of like the way you use the machine in the gym.
- 20+ situps (until I feel like my abs are no longer my friend)
- 20+ pressups (same as above but with pecs and arms)
- 6 - 10 minutes of Cardio as a warm down

So far I haven't pulled anything so it seems to be working, and there are definate gains, and I feel pretty spectacular.

19 days until the 1 month picture! ... Is anyone even reading this? XD - SR

Day 9: Well what the hell do you do with these?

I used to have pretty amazing legs and a butt that was bouncy and delicious, but since walking 2 miles up and down hill every day is no longer a necessity, I'm finding it difficult to exercise them properly. Now that my routine is starting to have changes I can feel on my upper torso, I don't want to leave my legs un-challenged, because having a ripped top half and a reedy bottom half is totally lame-o.

I mean, they get a pretty good workout when I do my cardio, which at the moment consists of chasing a dog around a field trying to get whatever is in his mouth, and about 5 minutes of dancing as a warmdown. But I really want to do something which specifically targets them. I will have to look something up.

Today I feel pretty good. I actually catch myself smiling when I am working out now. Though I could do with a neck massage... for serious.

I wonder if this grinning thing has anything to do with my crush...

- SR

Day 8: THINGS

I actually have things that are starting to resemble pecs, I mean, theres like actual muscle there now which you can cup in your hand. WOO! Theres a thing! Now I just need to make em bigger. Hrrm hrrm hrrm. I guess I can do it slowly, but I am just so happy that its there and that I am starting to get stronger!

In 22 days hopefully they will be thing enough to be visible on camera, they are visible now but like, not defined. Or something.

Yay! A thing.

I've built some weights and some yoga warmup stretches into my routine now. Now the process takes about 40 minutes, and included pressups, crunches, weights, stretches, cardio and some light squats (because I don't want to fuck my knees up too bad). So its going good! Thats also not counting all the walking with the puppy and the general prancing around during daylight hours. Its going welllll!

Though I am much hungrier. Like. A lot more. Its kinda wierd. But I'm liking it. Sorta.

- SR

Day 7: Walk with me a minute

I think I'm enjoying the pokewalker a little bit too much given that I'm already 22 years old. I activated it last night and I've done about 6800 steps, though quite a few of them are actually shakes because I cheated. My mareep is called Ginny. It is adorable. I didn't do much cardio today because it was miserable and wet, which shouldn't really be an excuse but meh.

I got to walk the dog and a pokemon so that was pretty cool.

I am such a nerd.

Not happy, Jan!

- SR

Day 6: Puppy!

Puppies are not helpful when you're trying to do much of anything really, but at least now I am getting a pretty good cardio workout trying to stop him from eating poop or anything else he finds on the ground. There should be a thing to explain how to not get tangled up in leads, or maybe just a warning saying "oh hey btw if your dog can run faster than Usain Bolt, then you're gonna be tripped up by this stretchy cord thing like, a lot. Not even a little a lot, a lot a lot.

So yeah, I recovered from the bad milk incident pretty well and I haven't lost any strength due to it which is an extra bonus. I am now up to about 40 pressups and situps a day, with about 30 minutes of cardio spread out from whenever-the-puppy-stops-trying-to-join-in to whenever-I-go-to-bed-at-the-moment. I know its not like, amazing but its more than I could do a year ago. Or a month ago... or a week ago.

Maaan I'm so weak.

- SR