My work out for 17 September 2009

The weather outside was gloomy today. It rained last night and randomly throughout the day. I questioned if I would be able to do an outside work out today, would settle for indoor calisthenics and body weight exercises, or wait until jujitsu and try to grapple my self into submission.

The rain stopped, so I taped my toe and was ready to go. I grabbed my two 5 lbs dumbbells and gymboss timer and began my work out. The work out consisted of 30 minutes of heavy hands walking, consisting of 6 cycles. Each cycle consists of 50 seconds of a particular heavy hands exercise. I have mentioned the technique that I use before, but I'll go through the sequence quickly. 1) Walk and pump, 2) chest flies, 3) Walk and pump, 4) lateral raises, 5) Walk and pump, 6) overhead press.

The humidity level was high, so I knew that this would be an interesting. I decided to change things up today and tried a different route. I'm glad that I did, this new route is way more challenging that my old one. The hills are steeper and the general route is more exciting.

I try to keep these work outs as balanced as possible. I don't live in a neighborhood where I can easily walk around the block and return to my house. I must navigate the neighborhood and return using the same general route (the general exception is if I'm biking, which allows me to cover more distance and be more creative in my return path). To do this, if I intend to perform a 20 minute work out or 4 cycles, that's two cycles to a particular point, turn around and come back home.

Today, as I was nearing the end of the 3rd cycle, I passed a sign that said "dead end". Today's work out did not take me to that destination. However, my new goal for my heavy hands walking work out is to reach the end of that street within 15 minutes or 3 cycles. This is a way to self monitor both my intensity and progress, and it gives me a way to compete with my self and a goal to reach.

Once I returned home, I place my weights and timer on the ground and began performing burpees and mountain climbers. These are normally not a problem, but I was jelly after 10 of each. I then finished with some cool down exercises and stretches.

Thank you for your time. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below. Remember, stay strong and keep improving.

SDG