Continuing Building a Fitness Base

I had another double session on Christmas day. In the early afternoon, my sister Jen and I had about 25 minutes to get a quick workout in. We did the following in a city park in Middletown, OH. We used an eight pound medicine ball for all the exercises with a med ball.

Walk 1/4 mile to park.
Easy Lateral med ball tosses, each side.
Balance walking forwards x 4
Balance walking backwards x 4
The gauntlet! x 6
(this is done by going to a row of swings, pushing each swing in the opposiste direction, creating a gauntlet of sorts. Then run through as many times as possible before the swings stop swinging. Oh, and don't get hit by the swings!)
Various Play Ground Opstacle courses (we just made up fun ways to crawl through and over various play ground equipment).
Med Ball Chest Passes x 20
Run up Hill
Med Ball Granny Passes x 20
Run Up Hill
Med Ball Shoulder Passes x 20
Run Up Hill
Med Ball Trunk Twisting Passes x 20
Run Up Hill
Med Ball Leg/Hip Extension Rolling Passes x 10 each leg
Run Up Hill
Med Ball Alternating Squats and Granny Rolling to partner x 20
Run Up Hill

1/4 mile walk home


This work out was done on Christmas day after all the festivities and stuffing of the face! I worked out in a very basic gym (a treadmill, a couple of benches, and a few machines and some dumbbells) in the middle of a neighborhood of condos. My sister went with me just to do the eliptical and stationary bike. We had 45 minutes to get it all done.

Warm Up
Walk 1/4 mile to gym.
Eliptical
-10 minutes
-every minute switching between no hands, two hands, and one hand

Core Circuit three times through, no rest between rounds
1. Quadraped, 30 seconds each side (I did variations each time through)
2. Oblique Bridges with side flexion, 20 reps each side, moderate pace
3. Single leg squat holding 10 pound dumbbell, 12 reps each leg, moderate pace

Jump Circuit, one time through, all jumps 20 times, moderate pace
1. Wall Jumps
2. Soft Bounding (stationary) alternating legs
3. Scissor Jumps
4. Four Point Star Jumps
5. Side To Side (Right to Left to Right to ....)


Mini Circuit, 3 rounds, no rest between rounds
1. Dumbbell Bench Press, 40 pounders, 12 reps, moderate pace
2. Bent Scapular Row, single arm, 20 pounder, 12 reps, moderate pace

Mini Circuit, 3 rounds, no rest between rounds
1. Lat Pull Downs, medium weight, 12 reps, moderate pace
2. Stationary/Isometric Lunge w/ single arm shoulder press, 20 pounder, moderate pace

Eliptical
go until it says you've burned 100 calories

1/4 mile walk back

Recovery Day

For my recovery day on 12/24/08 I did the following:

In the morning:
Stationary Bike
20 minutes
moderate pace
moderate resistance

At night:
I also went on a walk with my sister
2 hours
constant walk
the terrain: city streets, trails, hills

Double Session

The theme for the next couple of weeks is building a a solid FITNESS BASE.

I want to be ready and prepared to do any type of sport or physical activity, whether it be helping someone move heavy awkward objects all day long or play a pick up game of touch football on campus. I'm doing this by primarily focusing on the OXIDATIVE ENERGY SYSTEM through doing exercises that will build STABILITY and STRENGTH.

I did the following work out at the new YMCA in Middletown, OH. I was really impressed with their service and their facilities and would highly reccomend this place to be a homebase for working out for you and your friends and family.

Duration: 1 hour, 15 minutes

WARMUP
-forwards to backwards running
-active flexibility
-dynamic flexibility
-form running

Jump Rope
-100 jumps
-100 jumps with criss cross
-100 jumps forwards
-100 jumps backwards (rope moving forward body moving backwards)
-100 jumps backwards w/ criss cross

Core Circuit (through 3 times, 45 seconds of race between rounds)
1. Leg Lowering with single arm medicine ball hold (10 pounder) 10 each leg, moderate pace
2. Single Leg Squat w/ single arm medicine ball (4 pounder) raising, 10 each side, moderate pace
3. Bridge (hip extension)w/ long arm medicine ball (10 pounder) hold (engage the lats)

2 minute drill
(alternating athletic movement continuously every 15 seconds)

Mini Circuit (rest 45 seconds between rounds)
1. Squat, 135 pounds, 8 repititions, moderate continuous pace
2. Pull ups, up to 30 reps, moderate pace
With this circuit I set out to do 30 pull ups in total. So I would do 8 squats into doing however many pull ups I could do in a row. Then I would rest, then back into doing 8 squats, then however many more pullups I could do. If I could have done 30 reps in a row, I would have only done one round on the circuit. This is what the rounds looked like for me yesterday: 8 squats-10 pull ups-rest-8 squats-8 pull ups-rest-8 squats-5 pull ups-rest-8 squats-4 pull ups-rest-8 squats-3 pull ups.

2 minute drill

Mini Circuit 3 rounds (30 seconds of rest between rounds)
1. Machine Hamstring Curl, 30 pounds, 12 reps, slow continuous pace
2. Bench Press, 135 pounds, 10 reps, moderate continuous pace

2 minute drill

Lunge to curl to press
10 pound dumbbells. 12 reps each leg
walking lunge to curl to press, single arm, 20 total

Eliptical
go hard until 100 calories have been burned

Cool Down
-active flexibility
-gentle move through of various ranges of motion

This workout really made me sweat and made me really tired. I did the work out with my sweat shirt on. I think i really like working out with it on and my hood up!

Later in the evening I took a kick boxing class with two of my sisters at the YMCA in Maineville, OH. The instructor was very motivating and we had a lot of fun while doing some challenging moves and burning a lot of calories.

Yesterday's Workout

I did this work out with my 33 year old sister. She's in really great shape. We both found the workout to be very doable, but still challenging. Try it out! Comment if you have questions. I might begin to post pictures if there is a need.

Total time of work out: 30 minutes

1/4 mile slow jog to fitness center.

Warmup: Active flexibility to Dynamic flexibility
-general slow athletic movements
-upper extremity
-lower extremity
-combined lower and upper extremity

Core circuit
2 rounds, rest for 45 seconds between rounds.
1. Isometric Oblq. Bridge for 30 seconds into OB w/ lateral flexion, 10 reps
2. Single Leg Squat and touch (alternating hands), 10 reps each leg, moderate continuous pace
3. Superman w/ long arm shoulder blade squeeze, 15 reps, moderate continuous pace

Pass the dumbbell situps, 10 pounds, with partner, moderate continuous pace

2 minute drill with partner
Change a continuous athletic movement every 15 seconds. Be spontaneous. Each partner picking athletic movement of their choice. Can be any athletic movement, from bouncing, to leaping, to hopping, to boxing, to jumping jacks, to bear crawling, to rolling. Level of difficulty depends on the partners.

mini circuit
2 rounds, rest for 45 seconds between rounds
1. Dumbbell bench press, medium-light weight (30 pounders) 15 reps, moderate continuous pace
2. Dumbbell squated bent rows, medium-light weight (20 pounders), 15 reps, moderate continuous pace

2 minute drill with partner

mini circuit
2 rounds rest for 45 seconds between rounds
1. Step ups, medium weight (30 pounders), alternating legs, moderate continuous pace
2. Single arm shoulder press, medium-light weight (15 pounder), 15 reps quick but controlled

2 minute drill with partner

1 Get Up and press for each side, 5 times
A "get up," is a total body movement that begins laying down, flat on your back. Hold a dumbbell (or preferably a heavy awkward object) on your shoulder with both hands. Simply, try to stand up without using your arms to help you. This looks like first, doing a sit up, second, rolling onto a foot with one leg tucked underneath, and third, pressing with the planted leg to a standing position. The press is simply pressing the dumbbell into the air, straight over head. This movement should be very tiring since you have to use everything in your body to get to the standing position.

Cool down
active flexibility
-various slow athletic movements
-1/2 mile walk back home