Holy Sh*!

This morning I was at the gym doing my normal workout. One thing I was practicing today was my chin-ups. Aside from working on building my back and upper body strength, I use the assisted chin up machine.

me practicing my pull-ups (taken a while ago)

After I completed a couple of sets, I was talking to one of the trainers about how my strength has improved. He said that he definitely noticed a difference and thought that it was now time for me to move away from the assisted machine.

I kinda laughed in his face when he told me that. He was like, 'Come on. It's time to try something new. Challenge your muscles.'

I'm all for challenging my muscles. He said he would assist me by holding my feet and having me push off against his hands.

I didn't really understand what he meant. I jumped up and grabbed on to the bar. I crossed my feet together and then bent my legs. He held my ankles and told me to pull up with my arms and push off against his hands with my ankles.

I tried. It was terrible. I barely moved a millimeter! I started laughing saying that was the best I could do.

He didn't buy it. He told me that my legs were too lax.

I tried again. I did slightly better this time, but I still wasn't sure exactly what I was doing.

We talked about the movement some more. He explained which areas of my body I would be using. He explained how the muscles were working together. He told me I was bending my legs too much, kinda to the point where my heels were almost touching my butt. He told me to keep them firmer and straight.

It made more sense to me then -- so I went ahead and gave it another go.

This time, my legs were firm. I kept my posture straight. I pulled up ... and what do you know, I actually started moving. I was pulling up and I was actually moving!

I kept going. I looked in the mirror and saw that I was quite close to the top of the bar and my arms were bent (instead of pretty much completely straight like during my first attempt).

The image startled me so much that I exclaimed 'Holy Shit!!!' really, really loudly in the middle of the gym. My exclamation caught both me, H, and everyone else in the weight room off guard, and then I started laughing.

Unfortunately that made me lose my concentration, but boy was I happy that I gave that a go. H said he's work with me whenever I wanted to try and really challenge my muscles and work on building up enough strength to do both chin ups and pull ups (which is perfect as it falls in line with the challenge I'm doing with Marc and his gang) :)

It was a good day.

Merry Christmas!

I didn't have any big celebrations planned for Christmas this year - just catching up with a few friends throughout the day. It was lovely laughing and chillin'; however, all of the social visits involved meeting up in food places - breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee. So, before I got started on any of that, I headed to the gym.

I had a great workout this Christmas morning - I completed 5 km (half on the treadmill and half on the cross-trainer) and then did FRAN - a CrossFit workout that involves 3 rounds, 21 reps, 15 reps, then 9 reps of thrusters (I used a 20kg/45 lb bar) and pull-ups (I used the assisted pull-up machine at a 43kg resistance). Obviously the workout was scaled, but I mainly did it coz' I hadn't done the workout in a long time and I wanted to warm my body up for the movements -- it was really good. I felt great after the workout. Here's a pic of me after my 5 km :) 

I went to a new place for breakfast - The Early Bird. Actually, the restaurant has been around for years but I've never been. It's run by 2 Americans and has a great reputation for serving American breakfast food. It's a small place (about 8 tables) and is really, really popular. There was an endless number of people just streaming in and out. 

One thing about American restaurants is the American-sized portions. As yummy as the pancakes and waffles looked, there was no way I could eat them (though my friend had a pancake - he ordered a single one even though they normally come as a stack of 3 and he said the 1 was more than enough). They had a healthy section of the menu - I ordered the eggwhite omelete that was made with onion, tomato, and spinach. I told them to hold the bread. All the regular egg dishes came with a side of hash browns, sausage, and bacon as well as the bread. This one, however, didn't. 

I was thrilled with my order. It was delicious - so fresh, light, and tasty! It was perfect for a post-workout meal. I was really pleased with my experience! 

It's been raining non-stop all day today. I kinda like it though it was a nightmare to drive in. On my way to the gym this morning the clouds broke and the peeking sunlight was absolutely stunning - lovely start to the day :)

Several Attempts

I only got 2 1/2 hours of sleep last night. I spent a good 3 hours tossing and turning, practically in tears that I couldn't fall asleep. WTF? I'm on vacation. I have no stress. Nothing that needs my immediate attention. Nothing that was distracting me ... and I was still tossing and turning.

The lack of sleep is really fucking with me. There's no other way to put it. I can feel the impact on my body immediately. I'm not lethargic, but there's something inside that doesn't feel right. It's almost as if my organs haven't rested. I know that sounds strange, but I don't have any other way to describe the feeling.

Despite the lack of sleep I still made it to the gym this morning. Today was going to be the only day before traveling that I would have to get a boxing session in. So somehow or the other I dragged my truly hurtin' ass to the gym and headed straight to the boxing bag - didn't even drop my bags at my locker.

I had four goals for my workout this morning:
1) Boxing
2) Practice double unders
3) Practice box jumps
4) Practice pull ups

The last 3 were mainly to help me with my CrossFit training.

My boxing session started off a bit shaky. I found it hard to get the force into my arms, but by the end of it, I had a really good combo set to worn on and the power came out. My poor knuckles! They're still  red, but it was worth it!

I've really improved on my jump rope skips. I can easily jump for about 2 minutes straight. So, the next thing to try is double unders - when you have the rope go under your feet twice in one jump. I must have tried 50 times -- and all I got were 50 whips on my shins from where the rope hit me. So - regular skips, about 800, double under attempts, 50. Successful completion - 0! Not yet ... but soon.

I think I've become obsessed with box jumps. I am so mad that I couldn't do the double box jump! Still, I'm not going to accomplish it just by being frustrated - I gotta practice. I actually started this yesterday (forgot to write about it). This is what I jumped yesterday: [About 17 inches high/44 cm]

I managed to jump that (both feet up at the same time from standing position) 5 or 6 times.

This morning I added another step - after a few false starts, I succeeded at doing that ... and then added one more. It was a no go. I tried so many times - I must have attempted it at least 25 times. :( Fail.
I would take it down a bit, jump that a few times, and then quickly add the step to psych myself into jumping again - ugh. No go!! WTF. I know it's in my head. Anyway. I ended by taking 2 quick steps towards the bench and jumping up one leg at a time. I did that several times. It's not a proper box jump, but I'm working on it. I really want to do this!

Finally, my pull-ups. I used the assisted pull up machine to help me out. I just want to continue to practice so that my body gets used to the motion. I'm doing much better than I did before. It was good to see some progress.

NROL4W - Phase 6

I was so excited to start NROL4W Stage 6 ... and a new stage = new playlist. Here were my workout songs of the day:

Dynamic stretching + Cardio warm-up

I Can Only Imagine (David Guetta, Chris Brown, & Lil Wayne)

We Found Love (Rihanna feat Calvi Harris)

How do you Do (Party Animals - DJ Picco vs. Jens O. Remix)

NROL4W - Stage 6A

Turn Me On (David Guetta & Nicki Minaj)

Lose Yourself (Eminem)

Stronger (Kanye West)

Check Yo Self (Remix) (Ice Cube)

Sweat (David Guetta & Snoop Dogg)

Hypnotize (Notorious BIG)

All I Do is Win (DJ Khaled)

Big Pimpin' (Jay-Z & UGK)

Little Bad Girl (David Guetta, Taio Cruz, & Ludacris)

Da Goodness (Redman & Busta Rhymes)

Abs

One Shot 2 Shot (Eminem & D12)

You Can Do It (Ice Cube)

Cool Down

Extraordinary Ways (Conjure One)

I'm totally going through a major David Guetta phase at the moment -- His album Nothing But the Beat is fabulous!!

So, on to the workout.

I warmed up with some dynamic stretching + 1 km on the treadmill (a few 1-minute jogs thrown in).

I then went on to the weights workout.

The first exercise of Stage 6 is a negative chin up.

Have you ever done a negative chin up?

I've never done a negative chin up ... and even after today's attempts, I'm not sure it can qualify as a negative chin up. OMG it was so difficult.

So the plan is to - jump up to a chin up position and slowly lower yourself down to a regular hanging position. Wanna know how slowly I lowered myself? Well, first of all, it took me ages to just psych myself up to get to the start position. Tough is an understatement. I barely held on for the first rep. I think I held on for about 2 seconds for the second rep and 4 seconds for the final one ... it was disheartening. I know they're tough exercises to do, but wow! I wasn't prepared at all for this. Well, it's just the beginning ... I sure can't get any worse!

Although it wasn't in the routine, I also did 4 sets of 5 on the assisted chin up machine. I just wanted to get used to motion.

The next exercise was 10 sets of 2 reps of lateral pulls. I did the first one at 41 kg; the next 8 sets at 48 kg; the final rep at 54.5 kg (tough!!).

Finally, alternating between barbell split squats and push-ups - 2 sets of 10)

I did 30 kg for the squats and managed to complete both sets of push-ups on my toes :)

I ended with some abs and back extensions followed by my cool down stretches.

Good first start to Stage 6! The whole workout took just over an hour.