kentcowgill.org/blog

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - all a whole lot of nothing.

No Yoga, no Legs and Back, no Ab Ripper, no Kenpo, no X Stretch.

Granted, I made a few trips to a few stores over the weekend, toting along a heavy car seat with a 19+ pound infant in it. And we got a lot of stuff from the trips to the stores, so I had to carry a lot. So that counts for something.

I just couldn't find the time, energy, or motivation for the regular workouts.

Also, I was running low on protein drinks. But that's just a lame excuse.

This week I'm back on track (again), for now. It might get rough when more family arrives for Thanksgiving. We'll see.

Yesterday was Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, and Ab Ripper.

I did a few more pushups than last time. 106, up from 99. The number of triceps moves I did went down a little, but the weights went up across the board. Shoulders, the same - down a little in the numbers, but all the weights increased.

Ab ripper I was pretty tired, so that number went way down, 332 down from 380. Overall, OK. I think my performance was a little lackluster because I got such a late start. I was still sweating like crazy, but I didn't finish until about 12:25. At night. Ugh!

I'll start Plyometrics tonight at a more reasonable time.

The week is about half way over, and so far I haven't skipped a beat. Unless you count skipping physical therapy (which at this point, is just like an extra "bonus" workout twice a week).

But I did Plyometrics yesterday, Back and Biceps as well as Ab Ripper today.

I hope Plyometrics eventually gets easier. Maybe the reason it hasn't done that so far is that maybe, just maybe, I'm actually doing it a little harder, squatting a little deeper, jumping a little higher, covering more distance each time. Maybe. I'd like to think I am, anyhow.

The Back and Biceps routine is still tough - I just finished up a little bit ago and my arms are feeling like jelly. Of course my triceps are still sore from Monday, but I was almost expecting that. Again, I increased the weight on nearly everything, all except the "static curls", where I increased the reps to 16 "c'mon, everybody does 16 of these". A lot of the biceps moves are hard, and since there are so many of them I'm not increasing the weight a lot. Which is another great thing about my Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells , tiny increments! Instead of going from 25 pounds up to 30 pounds, I can increase only one side of them and get 27.5 pounds. It's a little unbalanced, but I think that's OK.

As far as the non pullup back stuff, I'm increasing the weight a little faster, since I've been starting light in order to take it easy my shoulder, and these back exercises don't hit the shoulder too hard.

Pullups are plugging along. 56 pullups, 19 chinups, up from 45 and 16, respectively. Again, I might've gotten to a higher number were it not for those blasted corn cob pullups. I got 6 of those, but just barely.

Ab Ripper X was good. I did a few extra of a few moves, with a slightly different mix than last time, for another 380 move abdominal/core workout.

I just need to keep this up.

I lied.

Friday evening I didn't do anything.

Saturday morning, though, I did legs and back and the Ab Ripper X. 60 pullups of a couple varieties and 39 chinups, for a total of 99 pullups and chinups. I used 10 pound dumbbells through the exercises Tony says "everyone uses some weight on these", no weight on the "weight optional" moves. I think I'm far enough along to add in weights on the weight optional exercises, but I'll start light. I'm also thinking I can add a little more weight to the "everyone" moves, too.

353 core moves during Ab Ripper X - a nice improvement for directly after another workout. I was hoping to do Yoga X in the afternoon or evening, but Lisa and I went out for dinner (thanks to Michelle for babysitting!) and I felt like having a nice drink with my dinner. Which usually means I won't generally feel up for exercising afterwards - even though I should've - the restaurant we went to had gelato and I just couldn't refuse.

Sunday morning I did the Yoga X up through the side balance poses, and stopped again before Warrior 3 (which, the last time I tried, I just couldn't get anywhere near what they're doing on the DVD). So that's close to 50 minutes of Yoga, and judging by the amount of sweat on my yoga mat, still a pretty strenuous workout. I'm hoping all the plank/upward facing dog/downward facing dog moves don't weaken my triceps too much for tomorrow, since it'll already be time for another chest, triceps, and shoulders routine. I also noticed a lot of extra burn in my quadriceps during all the warrior 1 and 2 moves, most likely due to hitting legs the day before.

And of course I intended to do the Kenpo X routine later on in the evening.

Just once I'd like to follow the exact schedule and not feel like I have to do a lot of catching up on the weekends.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I passed on Kenpo X Sunday night. I noticed a little pain or annoyance in the achilles tendon of my right foot, so I figured I'd rest.

Monday, right back on schedule for Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, and Ab Ripper.

For chest - primarily pushups - and I did about 99, up from around 82 last week. I'm not really firm on these numbers, since I seem to add them up mid-workout, and my sweaty, hurried math hasn't proven to be extremely accurate. I had a big increase in numbers of the floor flys - I didn't try to slide my hands on a towel this time, which helped me do a bigger number. Everything else I increased the reps a fair amount.

For shoulders, there wasn't much of an increase in the raw number, but I increased the weight slightly for nearly every move - including one I shouldn't have (I only did 5 "fly-row presses" after having done 7 at a slightly lower weight last week. I also decreased the weight on the weighted shoulder circles, because I couldn't do all 40 last time.

For triceps, I did 116 moves, up from about 113 last week. No real surprises here. Increased the weight on most moves, increased the reps where I didn't increase weight.

And then right to Ab Ripper X. 380 moves, an all-time high - even more than when doing Ab Ripper alone! I felt like I had extra gas in the tank, so I busted out more than the minimum for the fifer scissors, hip rock 'n' raise, pulse ups, v-up/roll-up combos, and leg climbs. I'm still not up to 50 (!) cross leg wide side ups, but I'm getting there.

Now I just want to try to keep on track all week.

Sure, the date that's listed for this post is 10/28, but it's actually for 10/27. I just got a really late start. After physical therapy tonight, I came home, ate dinner, watched Heroes, and fell fast asleep. I woke up to walk the dog, and noodled around a bit, and decided to start on my Monday routine for the night.

I'm still progressing (as the chart below will show). 120 pushups, 31 pull ups, 15 chin ups, and 78 shoulder moves - whereas a week ago I did 112, 20, 10, and 77, respectively. Note the stair steps in the chart. I'll hit the shoulders more on Wednesday on "shoulders" day (Wednesday), and I'll end up doing more pull ups and chin ups on the other "back" day, Friday.

Also I'm thinking a raw rep count doesn't really tell much for the moves I'm doing with weights, since I increase weight if I'm able to do 12 or more reps. Maybe I'll just multiply the weight times the reps. And since that's likely to be off the chart, maybe I'll divide by 10 before charting.

Did I do the Ab Ripper routine tonight? Heck no. I just did it yesterday, and I really don't want to do that two days in a row. I'll just do it after work tomorrow. I hope ;-)

With Matthew in the hospital last week, it was about all I could do to try to keep up with the program. I think I did a fairly good job while doing my best to keep everything else under control.

Monday I had done the Chest and Back routine, but skipped the Ab Ripper.

Tuesday started early at 4:00am. After Matthew's surgery and after his recovery was well underway, I snuck home for a bit to do the Plyometrics workout and take a quick shower before heading back to the hospital and sleeping on the rock hard couch in the freezing Parent's Lounge. I took it a little less easy on Plyometrics because my knees are feeling a lot better these days.

Wednesday I managed to find time to get home for the Shoulders and Arms routine, but skipped the Ab Ripper routine. I should stop making a habit of that. Took a quick shower and headed back to the hospital to sleep on the rock hard couch in the freezing Parent's Lounge. I'm still moving up with weights on these exercises, so I'm not quite at my maximum effort.

So Thursday I went home in the morning for the Ab Ripper routine, took a shower, and went back to the hospital. Thursday night I went home with the intention of doing the Yoga routine, but I got back late and had a few other things to do, and ended up sleeping at home. But on the couch so as to not be too comfortable. I noticed that it was a lot easier to hit more reps on the ab routine without doing it immediately following another hour long workout. I did 317 moves.

I meant to wake up and do the Yoga routine Friday morning, but mornings and me still don't get along very well. The rest of Friday was a blur - I went back to the hospital, helped pack up the room, went over all the discharge paperwork, took Matthew to the car, and had Lisa drop me off at work. I got home, helped put Matthew to bed, managed to wrangle some grub, and practically fell asleep on the couch - but I had to walk the dog, so I did that and collapsed into bed.

Saturday was a nice family day, like nearly every weekend day since Matthew has come into our lives. But I still made time for that pesky Yoga routine in the afternoon. Later in the evening I did the Legs and Back routine, but since that was my second workout for the day, I skipped the Ab Ripper routine. Noticing a pattern? :) 34 pull ups and 26 chin ups.

Now it's Sunday, I've wasted some time creating a nice graph to track my progress with the program, and I haven't done the Ab Ripper routine like I've promised myself I would. And then later I plan to do the Kenpo X routine.

But first things first, I need to let my dinner digest a little more before I attempt the city of hurt that is Ab Ripper X. And then Kenpo X.

I'm sure I won't find anything to get in my way from doing these tonight.

I'm absolutely certain of it.

I think.

8-D

So I was sore, but I lived.

And the next day I did the full plyometrics workout. Slightly modified to be easier on my knees, but not so much that I didn't have a good heart rate going throughout. And my knees felt fine later that night, and the next day, and the next. Of course, by "fine" I mean "still hurting, slightly sore, still feels like they're recovering". But to me, that's great. More on how great my knees are later.

The day after Plyometrics was Shoulders and arms, and Ab Ripper. I'm still taking shoulder specific lifts fairly easy - like anything involving the deltoids or rotators, and I'm aggressively increasing the weights on mid- and high-back exercises - traps, scapula, etc. And I'm also increasing aggressively for my biceps and triceps. So those are all sore. And of course I also had more physical therapy right after work, and the Ab Ripper routine afterwards. I'm increasing the amount of core reps I'm able to do with Ab Ripper, but not very quickly any more - it's hard work, and a tough uphill climb.

The day after that I did the Yoga X routine. Or at least, a half hour of it. I got started too late, and I worked up a really good sweat in that half hour. Lots of isometric exercise of muscles. Next time around I'll definitely do more of the Yoga, but I was feeling pretty beat.

About those knees - I was walking spike and decided to jog half a block on the way back. And I'm still walking fine the day after. Hooray!

Since I last wrote, I've been doing a bit more of the P90X inspired workouts. I had been hesitant to start full bore into it, primarily due to my persistent knee issues, but also due to the fact that from the reviews I'm reading, I just might not quite be ready for it just yet.

And I recall with painful clarity what would likely happen if I start out with something too much too fast. Every time I take a step.

So I've been kind of noodling around, doing smaller version of the workouts, making sure I don't take off more than I can chew. Where the exercises use only bodyweight, I've been probably doing about a fourth or less of what I'm probably capable of, and very gradually working my way up. Where weights are called for, I've been taking it very light. I've also been avoiding the Plyometrics, the Cardio-X, the Yoga-X, and the Kenpo-X - all to avoid further damaging my knees.

But then I read something that made me change my mind a bit - at least with the Plyometrics, I've read that there are versions presented that have lower impact for those with bad knees.

So it sounds like I have less of an excuse to continue completely avoiding them.

I've done the shoulders and arms workout, basically doing various shoulder presses, biceps curls, and triceps work - but only one complete circuit (including the bonus round!). I've also done the Abs routine, and am slowly adding to the reps I do of each exercise. And I've done the Chest and Back routine again, but again with a very limited number of reps, and only one circuit.

I'll probably continue this approach, and try the other workouts I've been avoiding, and then probably launch into the grueling 6 day a week schedule.

It seems my hundred pushups plan as well as the couple of pyramids I did over the last few months at least has me to the point where I'm not sore after these workouts.

And the physical therapy that I've been doing seems to have adequately prepared my core muscles for the "Ab Ripper X" routine. At least the abbreviated version I'm doing.

I go back to physical therapy Monday so they can check in on the progress of the healing of my knees. They're slowly getting better - I can usually walk without limping, and I seem to be able to get up and down the stairs pretty well. But there's a few movements that seem to still jack up the pain so I'm nearly gasping with the suddenness and sharpness of the pain.

Pretty soon I'm really going to have to stop procrastinating and take some measurements so that I have more than just general "get rid of the fat" goals I can shoot for.