WK 9 to 12

Day 1

9/20

WK 9 is special as the workouts begin to be 5 days out of 7. I have already switched to workout all days of the week by Wk4 itself.

Day 1 -Chest & Triceps. This Sydney Cummings workout is great. I didnt sweat much but I could feel the chest opening, triceps burning. You keep repeating the exercises with count increased each time. I went with low weights in order to contrinue with the increase in reps. Depsite the low weights, I had to push myself and/or take breaks to rest the arms. I look forward to tomorrow's legs workout.

9/28 WK10 - Day 1 - Another chest & Triceps workout with Sydney Cummings. Lets push it to 40 min, if we are going to take rest days when needed.

Day 2 9/21

Legs workout with Sydney Cummings.

Wonderful workout. More calories burned than yesterday. Look forward to Back & Biceps tomorrow.

Day 3 9/22

Back & Biceps workout with HASFit

This is wonderful. always some cute and different exercises like shrugs with weights and that towel exercise.. that was hard... Nice sweat... Look forward to their Legs workout tomorrow.

Day 4 9/23

Legs workout with HASFit

Loved this. The calf varieties in the end. Looking forward to tomorrow's shoulder & abs workout.

9/24 - Turned out to be a rest day. Got in a brisk 1.9mi walk.

Day 5 9/25

Shoulder & Abs workout with Sydney Cummings

This is great. Loved the variations of sitting down and standing up, with and without weights alternating. Now I get what superset means. I wasnt able to do one of the exercises well. Just before that the shoulders were taxed. I got a short phone call. I was able to do it better then. All because of the rest. Arnold press. Pushing it to 40 min now.

9/26

Core workout - Nice workout. squat and twist on the top. Good sweat.

Core workouts in the remaining 2 days of the week.

P90X DVD Workout

Day 1- Kenpo Cardio
I moseyed into the gym room, thinking I will do some yoga for my troublesome trapezius muscles which now know how to behave. There were three men ( and no boat ) doing the P90x and I just joined them. I have heard of p90x a long time ago from a colleague.

Day 2 - slept 12 hours from all the awful body pains. I expected to be sore in the morning, but it was about 29 hours after the exercise that I had the body aches.

Day 3 - Kenpo Cardio
Heard about Tony H.

Day 4 - Workout with Tony only up to 30 min
Some research on Tony H. So inspiring.

Day 5 - Killer 10 min ab workout  Didnt last it all. But if 10 min is too short, we can repeat the exercise right.

Day 6 - Kenpo cardio workout - 141lb

Day 7-  Burn 600 Calories in a 60-Minute Workout With Jeanette Jenkins only 34 min of this and 6min on elliptical - 140.5lb
JJ has verve. I enjoyed this workout a lot. I loved how JJ prepares your body first so it gets plaint to do the kicks in the coming moves. She stacks exercises too, so you feel like you ar eprogressing and not taking the easy way out.
slept 10 hours.

Day 8 - Kenpo cardio workout - 139lb
I am wondering what makes a workout work. With martial art based workouts, there/s a mythical enemy/demon may be fat that you are bustin with every move. In so many of the moves the recipient is an imaginary punching bag, but you get it all out. There's a story where you lift your legs and kick at the miscreant in any direction - front, back, side.

I enjoy working out, but beats me why I didnt start this earlier. I have always seen that dilly-dallying exercise doesnt yield results.

The plateaus, oh my goodnes.. its the hysteresis of our bodies. It always seems to know what is the bad weight to go back to. Jettison already.

Its strange, I used to think I dont have time.

Day 9 - Upper body plus abs - 138.3 lb

Could feel the effect in the arms

Day 10 - Cardio, 15 min Ab ripper

Felt too sleepy by 3.30pm

Costco pizza party and weekend. But could feel the core effect through all of it.


Day 11 -  49 min of Core Synergistics 141lb

 Celebratory lunch

8/2/2019
6 months into the M,W, F - P90x or Insanity workout and slowly yoga and pilates added into the weekend, 10 min jump rope in the morning. Down by 12.5 pounds.
Now I can do 12 side plank hip-hops. 20 pushups. hang on the pull up bar for 20s.

What is your fitness game?

I used to be able to do a halasana. I was single then and now I have mommy tummy. When Tony Horton says roll over in P90x3, the middle part of my body has no give. Instead of wincing each day, I thought I will practice. Thats how I adde dyoga and practiced halasana every day. I was able to rollmy body over almost.

I added the 10 min jum rope after reading that Danica pretty intense does exercise twice a day.

Ultimate Bodyweight workout for beginners

Ultimate Bodyweight workout for beginners

13 min remaining in Gin Millers swing yourself fit and then onto this.
The warm up, muscle activation, dynamic warmup, everything was moves that I have never done. And the peak - neurological, isometric split. I enjoyed the resistance workout. That was apropos 30 minute workout.
The rest day after?
The next day I did the cardio, which was fun too. I think that a move on left and right counting as two seperate moves is a great idea. There were some spotty dogs which I was first introduced to in the Dani Thompson glamour workout. Monster jumps and criss-cross movements, keeping it active.
Now there is Ultimate bodyweight workout for advanced after this beginner fun.

WK 11

Day 1

10/5

 Chest & Triceps workout HASfit

Day 2 10/6

Legs Workout with HASfit.

Pushed it to to 45 min.

Day 3 10/7

40 min Back & Biceps

with Sydney Cummings

Day 4 10/10

45 min Sydney's legs workout

Felt good.

Day 5 10/12

50 min Shoulder & Abs workout with Sydney Cummings

This felt good.  Any doubts I had of today's workout were all quashed by one look at 

I

Image: amazon.com

10/8

1 mile walk.

WK 6 Day 3

 8/31

Upper Body Workout

This Hasfit workout was great too. I wondered if it would not be to the Leg workout level. Wiht variety of moves it was fun and challenging. With the second round of pushups, I didnt have to put my knees down. I reduced the weights on some of the moves.

Can you microwave chia seeds? Yes.

9/1

Core + Abs

For this day we have 60 min plank workout which should spill into 9/3 workout as part 2.

This is awesome. Such tough moves but definitely going to come back to them again.

Many exercises are so new. The climb up the rope with your leg extended high, earlier I wouldnt be able to mvoe at all, now I see some progress.

WK 10

 Day 1

9/27

WK10 - Day 1 - Another chest & Triceps workout with Sydney Cummings. Lets push it to 40 min, if we are going to take rest days when needed.

Very creative. Using one arm as the marker to reach the other arm with weight.wide and close.

Day 2 9/28

Legs workout with HASfit.

Loved this especially for the creative single side raises, frog raises, calve raises. Heart rate too went way high for strength taining.

Day 3 9/29

Back & Biceps with Sydney Cummings

Wonderful slide/side curls. Could feel it in the arms, halfway.

Day 4 9/30

Sydney's legs workout

Day 5 10/1

Shoulder & Abs workout with Sydney Cummings

10/2

Core workout - 

Core workouts in the remaining 2 days of the week.

WK 6 Day 2

 8/29

Cardio

I was wondering if it should be jump rope or kickboxing and I just realised that the perfect workout is in my lap. Jordan Yeoh's Level 4 workout.

This is a wonderful challenge as I expected it to be since it is level 4. I saw a level 2.5 somewhere, which means there are many gradations.

I didnt know what to expect other than it going to be tough.

When the jumping jacks started again, I htought it was a mistake, I was expecting the exercises to go in sequence like 1,2,3 and so on.

And then I figured

that it is going

1

1, 2

1,2,3 ...

and so on.

By the middle of it, you do all the exercises at once. Luckily there is a break between each of these sets.

Now the comedy I thought we will build it up again like that in the reverse. 

It turns out that this is bell curve type where you gradually shed an exercise in the later half. This is where I lost the hop in the exercises. Surprisingly I kept it for the jumping jacks. With each time I saw, the lag in reaction from Go to Jumping Jacks.

Loved this exercise. Even the last fun quirk bit where the exercise is changed on you.

Switching it up. Enjoyed all the exercises and the breaks.

8/30

Core+ Abs

At the Home core workout by Ashley Conrad, followed by 20 Min ab workout . This has good music.

This felt good. I was sweating by the end of it.

Not sure if it was Conrad's authoritative tone or the last 2 weeks core and abs workout, my reverse crunches were rocking. Also loved the plank walkouts and walk ins.

Dead bug seems a bit like reverse bird-dog.

Feeling like practising - did some scapular exercises and about 25 of the Level 1 Squat to Headstand progression.

Monthly Reflection - Month 1

Initially your goals bring energy to you and as you make progress, your energy improves. For the last 4 weeks, I was doing cardio twice, upper and lower body for 4 days of the week and walking on the alternate days. 2-3 months of weekend inactivity has taken a hit on fitness. Today's surge in energy has made me take on more. Good chance to insert core workout and some abs workout. With the abs, I could feel it.

Probably I will add the abs workout to everyday's especially when that day's workout is in the 24min timeframe. 

Its been a month since I came across The fitgurl Total Body Turnaround program. Since then, I have been watching my macros. For a long time now, I have been fitnessie. Sometimes, alesson that comes across sharply is the need for intensity which Jillian Michaels identifies as one of the four tenets in her The 6 keys to unlock your genetic potential for Ageless Strength, Health and Beauty.

Of the four tenets, Intensity, progession/variety, recovery and consistency, adding one extra like intensity with 60 min elliptical workout compare to 30 min has worked wonders for me. I had consistency pat down before that. But during the pandemic, weekend consistency wasnt there. But now I  am in a place where I can bring the energy required.

Success doesn't come from what you do occasionally, it comes from what you do consistently. - Marie Forleo

Knowing when your consistency is dropping down is the key.

A Stanford study identified the top four reasons for weight loss goals as being kids role model, lifestyle, health and clothes. Antony Lolli is a raw story where he wanted to be healthy and enjoy family time. Brittany has to run, its doctors order - meaning for health issues. Unsupersize me in Cuba opens whole new world for Ridiel. 

I have heard some stories of people who went into fitness competitions or went on to become fitness instructors, because they wanted to change and be role models for their kids. Clothes fitting well is a bonus.

What makes us go on this journey? There is an innate desire to be able to do something that you are not able to now. For example, a pull up. When skies open up, you are exhilarated to keep going on. When its cloudy you make your own sun and energy with all the emotional, mental and physical prep. Its not always about adding things, sometimes its weeding out bad foods, habits and beliefs. 

Consistency is the soil. Intensity is the water. Nutritious food is the rain maker. 

There will be hurdles. Jumping over them hurdles and continuing to run makes you stronger. 

Pushing yourself

Something in this tweet, spoke to me and made me realize that once you are able to do your workout regularly, you should push your limits and do something that you are uncomfortable with. I dont mean pain but growth. I looked up for strength training first. But when I found all that need weights, I recalled body weight strength training.

I’m not a type of the girl who will post a video of myself wiggling my butt in front of mirror saying - I crushed my workout. I’d rather post a video of 160kg deadlift where I say- if I have to, I’ll die; but I’ll lift it first #GirlsWhoLift #powerlifting pic.twitter.com/vgO4d2THxZ

— StrengthCoachEwa (@EwaGoszczynska) October 30, 2019

Started with the Deep squat. While it asks for a timer to finish 15 in a minute and rest the remainder. I had only finished 13 in the minute.

I did 8 of the minutes, taking a small break after the minute as I was taking up the whole minute.

There's more in this workout

My first self EMOM workout. Every minute on the minute.

Yesterday I was surprised to find that even after feeling drained,  I felt awake after 2 min of Tae bo.
I didnt have to change, I didnt have to summon my abs and muscles, just the stretching of the body in different directions activated me. A workout that meets you where you are.

sliding discs deepen lunges.

Dani Thompson Glamour Workout

Dani Thompson Glamour Workout 

Dani Thompson makes kettlebell look so benign with the ease with which she does tricep workout. There are many new exercises in this 4 volume workout - bent extensions, side leans, diamond crunches. Love the one-side boat stretches. You might take longer than the video says for the counts of exercises. If you want to reach the vount, pause the video, finish it and then move on or move on with how many counts you have reached, so you follow all the exercises. Either way, you can have a 5-20 minute workout as your schedule, body, energy permit.
Without too much jumping, you get ins erious exercise with strength training, core, abs and stretches.

One of the exercie is called spotty dog named after a puppet from the 'Watch With Mother' tv programme 'The Woodentops'.

Another is called grapevines.

Volte face workout

I thought I was getting into the pattern of 10-15 elliptical and then 20-30 min stregnth training. Surprise, Surprise, I wanted to do The perfect Total Body workout. Started off well with the lunge warmups in different planes and then when i went to squat, I could feel the strain in the back of the upper arm. Reduced weight, still the same feeling. Thats it for strength training. Its recovery time. Who do you call, in times like these? Shaun T with 8-Minute Flat-Abs Workout was a good change. While waiting for the next exercise to start, I was using bridge as my neutral waiitng posiiton. After that. Then it was this 10 Minute Standing ABS WORKOUT // No Equipment. Liked it with the music. I could feel that I was doing an exercise with impact. I was sweating and feeling the heat. This repeated but I was into it and didnt mind it one bit. Loved the standing pike exercise. Even in Shaun Ts the first exercise takes you from bridge to pike laying down. Its the reverse of  another of his pike pushup where you are on your all fours. Shaun T's exercise had some chair exercises which were fun and you could feel the core. Great workout all in all.

Exercise from Memory

Do you have a workout that you could follow if you dont have any access to TV, internet? Recently when talking to a friend I told her about popsugar workout videos. She then said that she as a 30 min routine that she could follow.
I think the value in watching a workout video, other than timing the exercises is the mirror neurons that get triggered when you see someone else working out.
Recently I have been bitten by the pull up bug.
I had an hour to spend. Usually I take a book along with me. But I hadnt done my exercise for the day yet. In a previous instance, I worked out to Christa Dipaolo workout in the courtyard of the community center. Today, my phone wasnt charged enough.
I took a walk to the play area. The circular arm walk is too high. I rose to the pedestal and hanged onto the hand hold just for a second and back to the safe ground. I have noticed that once you get comfortable in a position, you increase the count time.
Then I started with the legs raised high from the 360 Sculpt Day Front Core (It takes a while to know about the core and then to know that there is Front Core, Back Core and Side Core)

                                                   Image Courtesy:wikihow
Then moved onto the staple, plank, pushups, fast bicycles, bridge, squats, Banana, Superman (holding the contraction as long as possible), Russian Twist. Soon my heart rate went to 180. I did quick in lace runs and sprints. It turned out to be a fun session. I felt proud of doing a self-directed workout. I felt warm at the end of it, even though it was cold outside.
If you look at enough exercises, you will have enough in your memory to recall.

WK 6 Day 1

8/27 

Leg Workout + Standing Abs.

Wow, that leg workout from Hasfit is the toughest workout I have ever done probably. But feel so good too. With strength training, I have never been so out of wind or didnt push myself so.

So the abs has to wait.

8/28

Day 7 Core 

Because of yesterday's workout, this had to be the low impact versions. Even though it was leg workout yesterday, with dumbells in hand, I feel it there too.

Atomic Habits

                                                       Image Courtesy: Amazon

It is always fun and insightful to read about habits.

I felt great after reading these different ways of looking at my workout. Yay, I am an athlete.
Each time you start a workout, you are an athlete.
Instead of “I need to go run in the morning,” say “It’s time to build endurance and get fast”
I listen to music during ellipticla workout, so I can find more fun workout music. Habit Loop right there. But we should be careful of not falling into the dependency of music or heart rate tracker. have you heard of Shapa?

When I lost weight, many thought it was my will power. It was actually reuslts. But I was fortunate that the results never landed in the valley of disappointment. But I do recognise the valley when I have tried different diets and when it does not yield results, you start questioning the diet.

Image Courtesy: www.samuelthomasdavies.com

There's a double differential created between the right direction and wrong direction, they move away from the mediocre in opposite directions.

                                            Image Courtesy: James Clear on twitter

Before you trash a bad day, look where the decisions went south.

                                                      Image Courtesy: Geek Rodion

Finally, systems not goals says James Clear for persistent results.

Less is more

Sometimes finding the right workout for the time that you have, can make it feel like you won the Tetris game. I was trying out an isometric workout (I was warm by then with a 30 min elliptical). when I realise dthat I had t repeat what I had just done 2 more times, I looked for kettlebell workouts. At first I thought 20 min, but there wasnt that much time. 10 min kettlebell workout seemed just right. It is well structured too. You end it with three sets of kettlebell pull throughs. I was silly the rest of the day that in technical terms I exercised the posterior chain. Between these sets was a tricep, what else can you ask for? And I am still in the high of feeling that I am an athlete and getting stronger.

Image Courtesy: marioAshley

I remind myself of this, but nah not there yet. Sometimes I am just glad that someone else does the hardwork of counting in all the exercise videos. Heard of it in Arnold schwarzenegger speech.

Later I was thinking of why BodyFit by Amy felt good to work with. Well, its better than a book even with wonderful pictures. Especially with strength workouts. Real people, not too televised.

I think its the neuron mirroring part of having a person workout alongside, even though you are the one trying to do the atchup. Attic Mystery no. 7 at 5:57 is a very funny riddle of how you think the world is like you and vice a versa that you are like the world you are in.

After a week of cold and no exercise, I started elliptical yesterday and I knew that I was going to feel it this morning. Its just weird to have to feel that as a person who worksout atleast 4 days a week.

Christa DiPaolo exercises

When I started boxing workout, it felt like a casual thing as the ladies in the video or talking. I didnt pick it in this video, but the 1lb exercises are cute.
In this cardio boxing workout, Christa makes you realise that when you have to focus on what move to do next, you lose track of the time.
I added a 3lb weight each side, to the Kenpo Cardio. Within 10 min into the workout, I realised how tired I got. Those weights work.
While I dont have 1 lb at home, I recalled a 2.5 pound purple dumbbells from a zumba workout. Lets see how that goes.
Christa is a big fan of  Reaction drills. You will love them too.
The moody girl's guide to getting fit
Tracy Anderson exercises.
The boxing circuit thatll get you a knockout body like J Los
More Christa

WK 12

Pushing to 60 min whenever possible.

 Day 1

10/13

 Chest & Triceps workout

some HIIT too.

Day 2 10/14 - cold

10/15

Legs Workout

50 min legs, abs & cardio. Missed the last 10 mins.

Day 3 10/16

50 min Back & Biceps

with Sydney Cummings

Missed the last 7 mins.

Day 4 10/17

50 min Sydney's legs workout

Day 5 10/18

60 min Shoulder & Abs

 workout with Sydney Cummings

core the remaining 2 days

Ultimate bodyweight workout for Advanced

Ultimate bodyweight workout for Advanced

I had recently done the Ultimate bodyweight workout for beginners and liked the muscle activation, dynamic warmup, resistance circuit and the bodyweight cardio circuit format. This is done in 2 days.
Having just done the resistance circuit of the Advanced workout and sweating, I can say that it is advanced and difficult but fun too. There's 15 seconds rest between each exercise.

More workout

Today we did the p90x total body plus abs. Usually I stop at the kids play. But today we went through it. 3x3 (3 squats and other things) and 1x1 (one push up, one pull up)  were tough and fun. You get through them at your pace. Spiderman jumps where I started jumping after a couple of mimicing jumps. You do these for 2 minutes each. After all this, I wanted to do a bit more strenth training especially after liking 10 min kettlebell workout previously. I only did a few minutes of Full body workout  with kettlebell, but it was fun. I want to understand the motivation of these various workouts.
I felt my core stronger, as I was asking more of it.

Insanity

Today while exercising along with insanity, I considered Shaun T as a legend. I could see a difference in my intensity since the beginning of year 2019. I have done alternate days - M,W,F - P90x or Insanity and now I can push through knee taps to side in a plank instead of slow.
The hard sell of insanity.

Pure cardio shaun t

Cardio power and resistance
21 Aug 2019 - I sweat so much today. It was wonderful seeing beads of sweat hitting the floor. I was happy with the vertical jumps.

T Is for Transformation: Unleash the 7 Superpowers to Help You Dig Deeper, Feel Stronger, and Live Your Best Life

8/30/2019

These days I do 20-40 min of cardio/core of insanity/P90x and then 30-15 min of strength training. We did the insanity upper body-weight training which is for 47 min. It felt great at the end. At the remaining 15 min work, we knew that we would finish it. While doing the workout, we thought we might have soreness the next day. It is a long weekend, so there is time for recovery. In the morning, I had very faint remembrance of yesterday's workout. As soon as I started off with my routine jumprope workout. I could feel the upperbody soreness as well as the hamstrings. Thats funny.