Project Exercise

I have a couple of days of posting to catch up.  On Friday, day 12, I did legs and back.  Last week I did burpees during one of the circuits.  That’s not a good exercise to do during a leg workout.  My legs get so wasted during the i30×5 workout that it is hard to get up off the ground and jump.  So at the suggestion of one of folks (Steve a.k.a boxcarvibe) who regularly stops by at Project Exercise, I sub ‘d out the burpees with plank pillars.  It was a good choice.  It was funny though.  I have never done these and I looked like an uncoordinated buffoon trying to do the movement.  By the third round I was getting the hang of the exercise, but I was so wasted that it still looked ugly.  Anyway, the leg workout was pretty decent.

I also had a good shoulder workout.  After round 3 I had to drop the resistance a bit.  2o sets and around 250 reps will give you a pretty good burn.  The i30×5 workout will exhaust the muscles if done correctly.  At the end of one of these strength workouts, you will leave everything behind.

I cleaned up with about 20 minutes of abs/core.

Today, just for the heck of it I did Interval X Plus.  This workout is extreme.  It comes close to the Insanity plyo sessions.  It starts out easy enough, but by the time you hit the mid-way point, the going gets rough.  For those of you who of done this P90X+ workout, you know how you feel when doing the Calito 3 ways.

Here is a video Steve recommended. They do the pillars at around 34 seconds.

I jumped on the bike for an hour today.  It was nice to get out and ride.  I did a three laps around Diamond Head crater and around Kapiolani Park.  So I was able to get some hill training done.

Not much to report.  Other than the workout, the whole day has been sort of boring.  So I will sign off with my video pick of the day.  You know, the workouts are getting stranger everyday…

This is probably my favorite i30×5 workout.  The arm workouts were also my favorite when I was doing P90X.  Oh, heck, I like doing arms no matter which workout I am doing.

I have a real love-hate relationship with i30×5.  I love the intensity, I hate the intensity.  Oh, what is it that Tony Horton says about Ab Ripper X, “…I love it, but I hate it”.  i30×5 is extreme.  My arms feel like they are going to bust right through my skin at the end of the workout.  The plyo at the end of each circuit just wipes me out.  I was dragging during the 4th round.  The plyo was getting sloppy.  Since form is more important than reps, I slowed it down until I could do the movements correctly.  I had to drop some of the poundage to get at least 10 reps in my 30 secs during the 4th and 5th rounds.  The cool thing about i30×5 is that even when yoru muscles feel beat, you can lower the weight and crank out more reps.  That is what is giving me the incredible pumps.

I was so wasted after biceps and triceps I just did ARX and I only did the minimum number of reps.

I remember coming across this video last spring. It is kind of long, but watch it if you have time. You will be rolling! LOL!!! The first part is before he starts his very first P90X workout.   At around 1:30 he is back after the workout… that is where it gets amusing.

Today is cardio day so I cycled for an hour.  I did the session on my indoor trainer.  Sitting on that bike seat for an hour is hell.  I think my boys went numb!!!  I had to get off the seat to pedal every once in a while.  So then I decided that I may as well pedal hard and do some intervals.  I did that for a while, then I went back to just pedaling.

Ok, so it was an easy training day (compared to yesterday’s workout).

Today’s video pick shows our troops trying to train the Iraqi Army recruits…

Today is day 8 of i30×5.  I did chest, back, plyo circuits and abs core.  I was gassing today.  This new workout program is no joke (if I do say so myself).  I was hammered by the time I got to the third round.  To be quite honest, I wanted to call it a day at the end of round 3.  Those jump knee tucks really test one’s mettle.  I had to really suck it up at the beginning of round 4.  By the end of the workout, though, I got all 5 rounds done.

After chest and back, I rested for about 15 minutes then did an abs/core workout.

My chest and back are feeling pumped right now… almost 5 hours later.  This workout is the real deal.

I would like to invite folks to try my chest and back routine.  Put everything you have into each circuit.  The magic of this program is to perform intense exercise during each interval.  Give me feedback on the workout.

Many of you remember Mark Briggs of P90X+.  Here is a video of his plyo pushups…

We will keep it short today. Yesterday was cardio day so I decided to cycle for an hour. Today was rest day and I needed it! Both days uneventful!

I like to see how others put together their workout programs. I came across something called Primal Blueprint Fitness. Here is a video about it.

I had shoulders and legs today…

The workout is tough.  I tried to find cardio/plyo exercises that put minimum stress on the legs.  I think I have to find something to replace the burpees.  The mountain climbers aren’t too bad since the legs are not pumping against gravity.  The plyo claps push ups are okay, however, the shoulders are involved a bit.  With all the shoulder work, by the 4th round you can feel it.  I may have to find a replacement for those as well.  If anyone has a good replacement for the burpees, let me know.

My shoulders and legs are screaming from this workout.  The i30×5 is turning out to be a pretty good program (if I do say so myself).  I can still feel the pump in my arms from Wednesday’s workout.

After the shoulders and legs workout, I did abs/core.  I want to formalize the abs/core workout.  It is still a work in progress.  Actually, it works for me just the way it is, however, I wanted to create a workout with a defined outline that anyone can follow.  I would also like to create it so it is progressive over the 90 days.  Something like starting phase 1 with 3 rounds, phase 2 with 4 rounds and phase 5 with 5 rounds.  I will go ahead and continue doing 5 rounds throughout the entire program.  However, I would like design it so that less advanced folks can build up their fitness over time.  Sorry, just thinking outloud

Oh, btw, I tried using an interval timer app on my iPhone.  It is called “Round 1″.  It works great.  I set it so that is gives me a warning 5 secs before the completion of each interval.  When the warning sounded, I knew that I had to crank out a couple more reps and get ready to move to the next exercise.  I also set a 20 second delay at the beginning of the workout so that I could start the timer and have enough time to get into position.

This is the second video I have posted by this woman.  Her workouts are pretty cool.  In this particular video she does 4 different rope skipping routines, 25 reps of each.  She continues to do as many rounds as she can over 15 minutes.  It is sort of i30×5-like.  Check it out…

I have a cardio workout on the schedule today so I decided to do a 5k run.

I was talking to a friend at work about my i30×5 workout program yesterday.  He is considering doing it so he asked me what he needed.  I told him that he would need either some dumbbells or resistance bands.  I also told him that an interval timer, while not required, would be highly recommended.  The Gymboss Interval Timer, I said, would be a good choice.  It’s a pretty cool timer and it works out great for the i30×5 workouts.  It has become the “gold standard” for Tabata training.

As a fellow iPhone user, my friend said that he was going to look for an interval timer for the iPhone.  Why didn’t I think of that!!!  So we searched iTunes for interval timer apps and we found a bunch of them.  In fact, Gymboss makes an iPhone interval timer app.  These apps pick up where the hardware Gymboss leaves off.  It is way easier to set the timer.  The settings are very flexible.  You can set delays at the start.  You can use different sounds and many of them can play music from your playlists.  Another great feature of these timers is that you can have it sound a different tone to signal the last interval.  You can even set some of them to signal a few seconds before the end of each interval.  The cool thing is that many of these apps go for “free” or for very little ($1.99 or less).

So for anyone thinking about getting an interval timer, check out software timers for your computer or smart devices.

I have biceps, triceps and abs/core on the schedule today…