Bill

Last Wednesday I started going to the Y to workout in the mornings and do some yoga. 

My knees kind of suck, mostly because my legs are weak and I'm not very flexible. Thus joining the Y, where I could address both issues, seemed like a no-brainer. 

So far I've been to three morning classes of sculpt fusion which is sort of a low weight cross training. They've been exhausting and they really wear our my core and cardio. Plus they've left a few different muscle groups with a pleasant level of soreness. I'm really glad I started with that class. 

I've also been to two afternoon kettlebell classes. One was a rotating station type of thing and then yesterday's was a series of exercises in a step down count. 50 squats, 40 of a squatting lift type of thing, 30 one arm bell swings, 20 burpees, 10 squat 180 jumps, and 10 Turkish get ups. Followed by a short 1/20 of a mile jog.  2 sets.

I've been to two yogas. The First,  last Friday morning, was pretty chill. The second was last night after the killer kettlebell class. It was not as chill. My legs were pretty jelly already and some of the poses were exhausting. I'm glad I did both though. 

I had my third sculpt fusion class this morning.  My legs were already pretty tired from last night but I pushed through.  It was a great workout and now my arms/shoulders and legs are all equally tired.  I'll bet my legs are sore tomorrow!  A nice part of working out in these classes is that there is a dedicated stretch time at the end.  I need as much stretching as possible so I'm glad I've sort of forced myself into a scenario where that happens.

I imagine all of this exercise will help my running as well.  Strong legs can only be good for my runs and helping my knees will just make me happier all around.  Another nice part of the classes is you push yourself as hard as you feel comfortable going and the weights are all so low that it is pretty low impact.  It is funny how heavy an eight pound dumbbell can feel after you've repeatedly used it a bunch of times.

The only downside to all this new activity is that I stay hungry now. It's like I'm 20 in terms of appetite 

#exercise #ymca

The ski trip we took was great but it really messed up my P90X flow. I'm not blaming anything but myself for it but day 8 was the last day I did any P90X. This will be changed as of tonight thanks to a casual inquiry from my brother Ted. While I don't blame anyone but myself I figure I should at least explain myself a little.

I had fully planned on doing some of the P90X stuff while on the ski trip (particularly the arms/shoulders/back/and abs) but I was just too tired at the end of each day of skiing to really get fired up for it. The cabin actually had enough room for me to get in my own spot and do the exercises but I just didn't do it. Then, on the last day of skiing I strained my right shoulder some while helping Shannon learn to ski. It was really stiff and sore so I decided to take a few days off from the workouts to let it recover; sadly, however, those few days turned into a week.

I was actually going to start back up last night and thus shifting my chest and shoulders day to Mondays from Tuesdays but I ended up being a work until well after 10pm the last two nights (yes, on Sunday) so when I got home last night I went to bed. However, on Sunday while driving home from work I did get an unexpected leg workout. A guy's car had run out of gas on the main street I was on - it was around midnight but there was still quite a bit of traffic so I parked nearby and helped him push his car out of the way. There was a gas station about one block away so I suggested we just push it there. It turns out the road we had to push it up was a steeper incline than I realized. By the time we got the car up there my legs were like Jello, my breathing was stupid heavy, and I was dead tired. I stopped leaning on the car and was instantly dizzy. I really over-exerted myself pushing that damn car. I walked back to my car and by then the cold had settled in my lungs and I couldn't stop coughing. It was really uncomfortable. I actually had a cough through most of Monday. It is gone now though and my shoulder feels pretty good so I plan on starting back at "week 2" all over again since I have basically been off for 2 weeks. Expect an update tonight.

#workouts #exercise #P90X #skiing