health

How's it going?

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Whatever you do, don't ask me, "How's it going?" (or "How's it goin'?") if you don't care about the answer. I'm going to answer you, then ask you how you're doing. And if I ask, it's because I'm curious, and I would like an answer.

I'll stare at you until you answer, too.

ASA MVP mid-January workout, mostly lats

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Today was a thinly disguised upper body workout that was brutal in its simplicity.

We started out with ladders to warm up. We did the long (19 square) run, doing 2 sets of only like 6 - 7 runs. I'm kinda in a rut with those. :\

Next, we did progressive box jumps, standing two foot take-offs, followed by single foot take offs with double foot landing. Single foot landing (for either) is much harder. The progressive part was G putting the exercise pads on a handful at a time to increase the height of the landing. Kris ended up at about 4', I ended up under 3'. We jumped about 3 at each height. I had some good jumps, some not so good jumps (that didn't hurt because of the landing on the exercise pad) and some stalls (where I just stood there and could not get myself to jump - very strange). We started with the two foot take off, then left foot take off, then right.

Next, we checked our vertical jump (standing, two foot jump). I managed only 14" this way, which sucks unbelievably because I've done better. I don't know if the jumps beforehand hurt my height that much, but 14" is poor, poor, poor.

Surprisingly, we started in on upper body next. We did a set each of clappers (I did 8, and did fairly well), T push ups, chinese pushups, switch-hands jump over the ball (one hand on ball, the other to the side, explode up, switching hands on the ball), and walk over the ball.

Next we did the slapping swiss ball work. Man, this one was hard. Holding the ball under one arm, hold tight because it's going to be slapped, arm straight, the ball pressed tightly against the hip. G slapped it forward, backward, up, down and every other way. Switch arms, repeat. Then, hold it out in front, and slap away. Finally, balance in a pushup position, with the ball being slapped.

We did pullups next. I am going to do a pull up. Unaided. Damnit. But not tonight. I did 2 sets of 5 with Kris' help. Inner grip, palms facing out.

Abs came last. I told G I wasn't going to be at ASA on Wednesday, so I received a beating on this one. We did the normal bicycles, Russian crunches and V ups. I then did the incline bench rotations, partner pushdowns, and round the world ball toss with the 12 pound ball.

My abs and lats hurt. And it's not even tomorrow.

13-6, imagine that

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Today, after a week of crampy warning, marks the truly official number 6.

Menstruations are losing big time this year. I've had 13 migraines and only 6 periods. Each of those 6 were whoppers (so this is what it's like to be female), but there were only 6 (only 6, I say. ONLY 6. Only 6).

ASA MVP after Christmas

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We worked with Pat today, as G had to dash to get home before 17 closed (blame it on the rain!).

I started late, Kris had already started. We did seriously abbreviated ladders: 6 half ladders (only 9 squares instead of 19). I didn't feel completely warmed up, which is a bummer, because I really like ladders.

The first exercise was the L drill: run straight for 10 yards, turn to the side and sprint to the cone 8 yards away, turn around, run back to the corner cone, turn and sprint back to the starting point. 2 to the right, 2 to the left.

The shuffle T-drill figure 8 was next. Sprint forward 10 yards, around the top of the cone, shuffle to the right behind the cone 4 yards away, shuffle around the bottom of this side cone, then back to the top of the center cone. Continue shuffling to the bottom of the left cone, shuffle around this side cone, then back to the center cone. Shuffle around the top of the center cone, and run backwards to the starting cone. That's 1. 4 to the right first, 4 to the left first, for a total of 8.

Horse-shoes and one-footed side-to-sides came next. This was a bit of a mini-circuit. The first half was hop between two cones 2 feet apart on one foot for 15 seconds, then switch feet and hop between the two cones on the other foot for 15 seconds. Immediately switch to the other half of the circuit, for another 30 seconds. Do 8 of these sets.

The second half of the circuit was the horse-shoe jumps, which had four cones spaced 2 feet apart, each at the corner of a square. Starting at the top left cone, two-foot hop backwards to the bottom left cone. Then hop to the right bottom cone, then the top right cone. Reverse back to the bottom right cone, bottom left cone, top left cone. Continue for 30 seconds (while the other person is doing the one-legged hops between cones at the other half of the mini-circuit).

The killer part of the workout was next. We did 30 seconds of ankle jumps (legs locked, use your arms to jump up quickly, height doesn't matter, just quickness), 30 seconds of high-knee hops (feet together, jump bringing knees as high as possible, height does matter, not speed), and 30 seconds of squat jumps. We did 8 sets of these. I was unable to do the squat jumps at all. Kris cramped at set 7 or so, but finished.

Last was a shuffle shuttle. Start at the middle, shuffle 5 yards to the left, shuffle back 10 yards to the right, shuffle back 5 yards to the left. I kept up with Kris for the most part. We did only four of these.

Last was abs. We did a 4 mini-sets of 15 seconds each of raised leg toe touches, bicycles, lawn chairs (lie down on your back, arms over your head, raise your legs and arms up at the same time, so that you look like you're sitting in a Kraft-matic adjustable bed), sprinters (bicycles, but hold the twist for 1 second before switching), 6" leg holds, 12" leg holds.

I continued afterward with an upperbody weight workout: chest press, lat pull-dows, seated row (my favorite!), assisted pullups, assisted dips, pulley bicep curls.

*tink!* ASA late Dec Upperbody workout

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We continued with the upperbody workouts, which was really cool, because I can see a physical difference in my upperbody, and I know others have also noticed. I have muscles! Amazing!

Kris and I did different programs because he's progressed farther than I have (he's a lot stronger than I am, let's say). We started out on the treadmill (I walking, Kris jogging), then used the punching bag to loosen up our shoulders.

Next, we did the band workouts, which works on core muscles and rotator fast twitch muscles. I showed Kris the workout. We did only two sets because we didn't get started until 6:50 (class was from 7-8 tonight, because G was scheduled for a batting practice at our usual 6-7 time).

elevated clappers
medicine ball cross with lift
swiss ball slap with pushup stance
T pushups 
close grip pull downs
tricep pushdowns
swiss ball slap with arms extended

Then we went to abs, working out pleasantly hard because Pat (not Frost) was working out with us, too.

bicycles
russian crunches
V ups normal
legs straight up, medicine ball in one hand, touch ball to opposite foot
on back, with weight held straight up, press up
regular situps with medicine ball thrown to chest
partner pushdowns (I did well)
6-12" vertical up & down
cross overs
6 - 12" leg holds for 60 sec with mental torment

I think I'm forgetting things. I'll fill in as I remember them.

Oh, and about that *tink!* G told the story of how he had a 16 year old girl who was (according to her parents who may have oversold her enthusiasm to the ASA instructors) working out in the weight room (for the third time in her life) with G. She was doing wide grip pullups (of which Kris can do one unaided, I can do one with 60% of my weight assisted) with G supporting most of her weight. He told her she had to do 3 sets of 10. After seven in the first set, she gave up mentally, and wanted down. G refused, trying to get her to continue, help her out mentally. She broke down and fell forward into the lifting apparatus and *tink!*ed her face on the pulley cord of the weight machine. G felt bad, but made it a good story.

ASA workout: Upper Body!

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Today was an upper body workout. Today, and the next two weeks, to give my legs a rest. My cardio for the day was a mere 30 minutes on the StairMaster (whoo - I felt like one of those old ladies I've seen working out in the gym, not for a goal like kick-ass-in-ultimate, but to lose the 5 pounds that no one in the world knows is there but them). It was so short, but my legs were fine. Kris managed an intense lower body workout on Monday, which I missed for MPUL, so this complemented it well.

I've been doing rotator-cuff lifts every day. I'm using only 3# weights, but I've been very very consistent. Today I learned how to use the elastic bands to replace those exercises. I'm not sure if I'll do both, as the previous ones work well as shoulder exercises. These exercises are ones that I often see the baseball players doing.

I did only one set of the new exercises, because we were pressed for time. From now on, I'll have to arrive 15 minutes early to warm up with these.

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