Another Thursday, another update. I know you are looking forward to it.
So while I type this one out, I am watching today's stage in the Tour de France (I PVR it every day so I can watch it in the evening). It is strange knowing that these guys can't do my workouts as they don't have the strength, but they can climb a mountain that has an average gradient of over 8% at a speed of 20 km per hour. There is no way I can do what they do. I am not sure that I can wrap my brain around the dichotomy.
Anyway, today was more of the third phase, which is cardio and balance. I have to tell you that today was mostly balance. My abs are going to kill me for the next few days I am sure.
We started out with some warmups by first doing lunges on the bosu ball (15 per leg), then we placed a ladder on the ground and I had to start at on end beside it and step both feet in then both feet out into each gap down the length and back up - speed was the word for that little exercise. We did this superset 3 times, but I had to increase the ladder portion each time - down and back 3 times, then 4 times, then 5 times in the last set.
After that we moved to a 3 exercise superset consisting of one-legged sippy birds with dumbbells (I'll explain), squats on the bosu ball with only my body weight, and finally push-ups on the bosu ball. Ok, the sippy birds - picture that stupid little desk toy that has the bird that bobs up and down. The exercise looks like that. One leg is stretched out behind as I bend over so you can draw a straight line from my head to my toes along that leg for the entire exercise. While holding dumbbells, this exercise really works the legs and the core as I had to keep my balance. We did this 12 times per leg. The squats and push-ups were 15 reps each.
For the third and final superset, we used a larger exercise ball. This superset consisted of flys while I was in a table-top position. The exercise ball was one end where I rested my neck and my legs were the other end. This position meant I had to keep my stomach really tight to maintain my balance. We then moved to tricep pull-downs while balancing on one leg. Thirdly, we did Russian Twists - again the table top position on the exercise ball but this time I had to twist to each side and maintain my balance. The last exercise was lower back extensions (essentially supermans but upper body only). For this superset it was done 3 times with the reps as follows: Flys - 15, triceps - 10 per leg, twists - 15, lower-back extensions - 15.
It was also an interesting day from a trainer-trainee perspective. For some reason, everyone thought that today was the day to talk to my trainer - Karissa was little Miss Popular today. She was busy trying to watch me to ensure that I was performing the exercises correctly and trying note to be rude to the people that kept coming up to talk to her. Maybe they just don't get that I pay good money for my hour, but oh well. Also, we discussed ways for her to set up a couple of her other students that she thinks would make a good couple. I will be looking for updates as to how that works out as the guy that thinks would be perfect for someone has a thing for Karissa. She doesn't know it (well maybe she does by now) so that could be interesting.
I will be back with another chapter on Tuesday but I may post more this weekend as I am off to the Edmonton Indy to watch some car racing and enjoy the weekend.
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