Month: August 2015

Focus T25 Day 10b (Abs)

322 calories

Barely made it.

More like not even close. With the exception of Speed 1.0, the Abs workout is the most difficult for me. I try but I just can’t keep up with the planking.

The trouble starts at the down dog + spider lunge, about two minutes in. It’s a disaster from there. I could do the side plank holds, but anything with ‘V’ in the name was trouble. Everyone’s form looks so good on the video. I wish they would at least put in a beginner or every-man so it doesn’t make me feel like crap that I can’t do everything.

To make matters worse, I had to stop midway into the routine to fill my water bottle. I forgot to reset my Fitbit so there’s a section of about eight minutes with no data. Since I knew my effort was not the greatest (it was the second of the double day), I made up for it with eight minutes of stairs. You can see from the Fitbit data where I began the stair climbing. Thus, it’s not a good representation of the Focus T25 Abs routine.

Stairclimbing was my former workout. We’ve got a flight of about 20 steps. Typically, I’d aim for 100 flights per day, which meant about 35 minutes of running up and down. It’s a great workout to do; it gets my heart rate up and I can listen to music or podcasts while I work out.

Focus T25 Day 10a (Lower)

269 calories

Barely made it.

Again, here was a double day Friday on a weekend. This time it was Saturday night. Again, in the garage, sans shoes. I’ve determined that the garage is not ideal for my workouts. There is a slight decline in the concrete that affects my balance. For example, typically, the deadlift taps/knee raises are not a problem, but balancing without shoes on a slight decline was next to impossible.

This would explain the difference between today’s routine and Day 5a’s routine. While I feel my effort was good, my issue with balance kept me from reaching my potential. I have to find a solution to it.

Be warned on this routine. There is a section of the program with deep lunge pulses, alt. front lunges, front squat lunges, front lunge 2x squats, lunge squat progression, abductor squats, 2 + 2 abductor squats, 2 + 2 stay lows, and then stay low abductor burn. It is a killer.

Focus T25 Day 9 (Cardio)

308 calories

Barely made it.

My schedule was off. I knew I was going to be unable to do the workout on Thursday, and Friday morning was iffy. So I had to push back this workout by a day and a half. It’s late Friday night and I thought, oh, it’s cardio again. I can do it.

Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned. I usually do the routine upstairs in the living room. However, I was afraid that the sound and the shake of the jumping would be too much for those sleeping, so I decided to go down into the garage.

I thought, this would kill two birds with one stone — I won’t wake the wife, and I can wear shoes, which (I believed) would have helped with the pivot lunges and other exercises. Well, not so…

Almost immediately into the program, my feet started to ache, especially when up on the balls of my feet. It progressively got worse until I was doing all the exercises flat-footed, and then it became ridiculous. I trudged along for about 12 minutes, but eventually I had to stop and was about to call it a night.

After a few minutes of rest, I decided to try it without my shoes. It may have been the combination of concrete floor (at least the carpet and wood floors upstairs had some give) and my shoes that caused my feet to hurt. Surprisingly, I was able to continue. You can see from the graph the time, about 12 minutes into the program where my heart rate went up significantly. My socks are a mess and I had to endure the annoyance of stepping on a few gravel bits here and there, but I finished the routine with little modification.

I still had problems with the pivot lunges with and without shoes, and I got very tired during the hop squats and hop hop up + backs. But other than that I felt really good about my second half effort. Perhaps it was because I got a lot of rest during the first half.

Like last week, I’ll have to push the double Friday routine into the weekend. At this moment, I’m not looking forward to it. I’m sure I’ll change my mind by tomorrow.

Focus T25 Day 8 (Speed 1.0)

317 calories

Barely made it.

What would be two steps below ‘barely made it’? Would it be ‘not even close’? That’s how I felt at the end of this routine. I definitely was trying, but this routine was way too fast for me.

Granted, this was my first time through, and I know that once I master the twelve or so moves, I’ll do much better. Coming into it without knowing anything was overwhelming. It started out easy enough with the quick feet up + back. Sure, I can do it, even at that pace. Moving quick jabs, sure; maybe not at that speed, but I can do it. Then 1-2-3 clap??? Holy cow! If it were slowed to half speed, I might be able to do it. That one is trouble. I never did get it right.

I think it’s the combination of upper arm movements with the quick footwork that does me in. I’m not coordinated enough (yet!) to do it smoothly. Even with the quick jabs, I needed to concentrate on moving my feet properly.

The whole routine was too fast. At the end, they’re changing up the exercises every few seconds, just as I got the last move down. I’m not sure how I will do in the future with this one. The Alpha cycle lasts five weeks, only four of which have Speed 1.0. I missed the first week by playing the wrong routine. Therefore I only have two workouts left to master it. Um…yeah, not a chance.

But, that doesn’t mean I can’t keep plugging though it.

Focus T25 Day 7 (Total Body)

311 calories

Barely made it.

I’d like to blame today’s subpar performance to this morning’s (unrelated) workout. This morning was also a total body workout, and I know what you’ll say about giving the muscles 48 hours to rest. Well, that may be true, but I fit in what I can.

That said, I’m still having trouble on the pushup and plank exercises. I start out fine, but my arms quickly turn to jello. I had to get up a few times to rest. Of course, a few seconds later, I’d convince myself to get down and continue. I’d like to say that I’m making progress, but it’s tough to see when I’m taking breaks.

However, by comparing the calories burned to days 2/3, (I knew that Fitbit data would come in handy), I see that I burned more calories today (311 vs. 275/290) and my cardio minutes have gone up (19 vs. 12/12). So maybe I was pushing myself a little harder.

And that is not surprising. In fact, my unrelated workout have been improving since I started the Focus T25 program. I find myself pushing myself just a little harder, and that’s a good feeling. Inspiration to do better can come from all different places.

There is a famous picture of NFL player Kellen Winslow taken after the 1982 AFC divisional playoff game between the Chargers and Dolphins – the Epic in Miami, arguably the greatest football game ever played. After giving everything he had, Winslow needed help off the field by his teammates. I use that image as inspiration for me to push just a little bit harder. If he could bring himself to the brink of dehydration and collapse after a grueling 73 minute playoff game, well then I at least can get in 1-2 extra curls.

Focus T25 Day 6 (Cardio)

344 calories

Barely made it.

This afternoon I began week 2 of the Focus T25 program. I’ve decided to also include the Fitbit data regarding each workout. We’ll see if it will be useful in tracking my improvement over the ten weeks. Looking at the graph between today and day 1, I’m interested to know why there are two peaks on the heart rate graph near the beginning of today’s session that are not present on day 1.

So here we are, back to the cardio program. I feel like I am improving, although the pivot lunges (+ hops or touch floors) continue to give me fits. It may be that I’m barefoot on either a carpet or hardwood floors, so I may not have the best traction. I have to slow these down or I’m sure I’d fall over. I suspect wearing shoes would help, with the added benefit that it would also ease the strain on my knees, but doing so would most likely ruin the rug and that’s something I’d like to avoid. Perhaps a yoga mat would help.

I feel pretty good about my effort. I still had to modify somewhat, but I also pushed myself a little more on the kicks and sprints. I’m not sure how I’m going to solve the pivot lunge problem. Hopefully, it’s not the bare feet. Maybe I just need more practice.

Focus T25 Day 5b (Cardio)

384 calories

Barely made it.

This was the second half of the back-to-back day. I was pretty beat after the lower body workout, and three minutes into this one, I was already checking the clock. But I have to admit, while each workout is tiring, they surprisingly go faster than you think. I was begrudging the time remaining again six minute into it, but before I knew it, it was at the halfway mark.

I would say that I did pretty well, considering it was part two on double Friday (or Sunday in this case). I had to modify on the a few of the exercises. Again, I slowed it down on the quicker footwork exercises, like the on-your-mark+up-downs (or sprints) or the speed+agility.

All in all, I felt good, especially at the end (naturally). This is a ten week program, and I made it through one week. There’s nothing in the Alpha program that I can’t do. So from here on out, it’s just keeping up and getting the movements smoother (and quicker).

Focus T25 Day5a (Lower)

315 calories

Barely made it.

I wasn’t able to do the Focus T25 program on the suggested day (Friday). That morning, I had my regular workout and we went for a moonlight paddle in the nearby bay in the evening. Saturday didn’t work out very well, as we had other commitments. I knew that I would have time on Sunday to do the double T25 workout, so I didn’t worry about it.

I know that’s not as ideal as a Friday session, which leaves two days of rest before the next week. But it’s the best I could do with my schedule.

So, the lower body workout. It wasn’t as bad as Day 4’s ab intervals, or day 2/3’s total body. But it was tiring. The squats and especially squat pulses almost killed me. That’s right, spontaneous human combustion because my legs were on fire.

Well, not quite that bad, but squat after squat was too much. I concentrated more on getting the movements right, rather than keeping up. This was especially true on the lunge squat progressions, where I was could not keep my balance during the hops. I slowed it down, and, while still a little off-balance, I didn’t feel like I was on the edge of falling over.