25 April 2011

Oh heck yes

Good workout today.

Got to Clements at about 6:50, got right into the basketball court, and did an hour of warmup, stretching, shooting drills, Miken drills, free throws, and then ran the two-on-one and three-on-two break. It was a good long session! Went into the weight room, did upper body (7:55 to 8:25), and then finished with thirty minutes of intervals on the elliptical, and a cool down.

Basketball: 5-minute warm-up; stretch hams, quads, glutes; Miken drills; jump shot drills; free throw drills; run the two-on-one break; run the three-on-two break; three-point drills; finish with free-throw drills.

Weights:

  • Chest Press: 70# x 12, 80# x 12, 80# x 10
  • Lateral Row: 80# x 12, 80# x 12, 80# x 12
  • Preacher curls: 60# x 12, 60# x 11
  • Tricep pulldowns: 60# x 12, 60# x11
  • Shoulder shrugs: 60# x 12, 60# x 12
  • Military press: 60# x 12, 60# x 11
Elliptical: 30 minutes of variable resistance and incline, with intervals of 0:30 90% efforts interspersed with 1:30 @ 30% effort. Cool-down.

All in all a really good workout.

24 April 2011

Brief note

Today's workout was from the Wii EA Sports Active 2, and it was quite awesome. I had the game create a workout for me, did a half-hour of it, and it was nice and tough without being impossible. Very impressed.

Also, I did one yesterday on shift (GASP! HORROR! SHOCK! You mean you were 1) at a station where workout equipment exists, and 2) had more than SIXTY SECONDS to be in quarters? Yes. That's what I mean). I was at one of the new Green Valley Fire stations, and we were in quarters for a good solid sixty minutes. Of that, I was either on the treadmill, lifting wights, or on the nordic track/elliptical machine for forty-five or so. It was quite refreshing. Between the two days I've burned probably 650–750 additional calories, did probably three, three and a half miles of running, and got a full upper-body weight workout finished. I am quite impressed with myself.

I'm trying to figure out how to get EA Sports Active's website to let me link my workouts to either Facebook or my blog, without success. If anyone knows anything about this, please drop me a line.

19 April 2011

Reposted from The Fat Cyclist

Saw this article on The Fat Cyclist's blog today, it's an article about a man who lost more than 350 pounds by cycling.

I.
Have.
No.
Excuses.

Seriously.

Restart!

It's been a long time since you and I talked. Too long.

Recently, I had a friend turn me on to hiking, and have been doing a fair amount of that while trying to rediscover my workout mojo. I added some walk/jog workouts occasionally, and then added a couple of body weight workouts.

Now I think I've got a pretty good handle on how this can work. Nearby, there is a regional center from City of Tucson Parks and Rec, the William Clements Recreation Center. They have a large, full-sized (plus) swimming pool, a modest but complete weight room, cardio equipment, indoor walking/jogging track, and a full-sized indoor basketball court. The fees are CRAZY reasonable ($2 on a daily basis, $51 for a quarterly pass, and $195 for an annual pass). The gym was not crowded but there were a few people there (I was there @ about 0700).

As part of their package, you have to take a short course to certify that you can use the weight room equipment (it's basically a familiarization course, not really a "certification" per se, but you get the drift). So I took the course from a lovely and knowledgeable young lady, got certified, and hit the basketball court. Forty-five minutes later, I hit the weights, and then finished with a twenty minute power cardio on the elliptical machine. Did a five-minute cool down, and then headed out.

First impressions: I can totally see myself coming down here three or four days a week when time permits, but at a bare minimum I can do two days on my off days. There are quite a lot of choices, too, so the boredom factor should be minimized.

Today's workout

Basketball: 5-minute warmup, 40 minutes of running drills, shooting drills, dribbling drills, and specific activity practice (running the two-man break, rebounds, curl-and-shoot). RPE: 8/10
Weights (all upper body):

  • Chest Press: 50# x 12, 50# x 8
  • Low lateral row: 50# x 12, 70# x 12, 85# x 8
  • Preacher Curls: 45# x 8, 45# x 6
  • Tricep extensions: 40# x 12, 40# x 12
  • Shrugs: 60# x 12, 60# x 12
  • Military Press: 55# x 12, 55# x 12
Elliptical: 20 minutes of intervals (90/10 for 30 sec/1:30), 5 minute cooldown. RPE: 6/10

All told, 60 minutes of cardio and about 35 total in the weights plus warmup/cooldown. Not a bad day's work.

Estimated Calorie Expenditure: Just on the two cardio activities, about 950.