Feeling yoga power
The first night after the poor weigh-in, I decided to run some stairs at a local elementary school to help burn what I had failed to do seven days prior.
The stairs took 30 seconds to complete from top to bottom and I decided to do that 25 times.
Forty-five minutes later I was so dead tired, basically crawling on my hands and knees up the last set of stairs.
I’ve had shin splints ever since. No pain no gain is what they say it takes.
Friday night I had a full body session in the gym with my trainer Gabrielle Payne and she pushed me again to the limit.
Chin-ups again are the focus and I’m doing some every day.
No surprise I had a hiccup Saturday in the form of three slices of pizza and a beer around 3 p.m.
I was so mad at myself that I went to the gym Saturday night to interval sprint it off.
Sunday was more of the same, interval sprints on the treadmill, but no pizza or beer!
I’m starting to get in a groove and getting used to the daily workouts; I just need to take it easy on the pizza.
Gabrielle threw in a new wrinkle to my schedule. Today, I took in a power yoga class.
What a sight I must have been. Downward dog, deep breathing, “Namaste”! Lots of fun it was.
Power yoga typically involves strenuous movements and I fully felt like I was working out.
But man, my lack of flexibility was exposed and I almost fell over a few times.
I’m going into Thursday’s official weigh-in pretty confident.
I stepped on the scale today and I’m down about a full pound since last week, plus Gabrielle measured me and I’ve lost 4.5 inches around my stomach (since this started).
That is amazing to me! Mongoose has been bragging about losing weight, but I’m past that now.
I’m getting stronger and muscles are getting harder and more defined. It’s all about body fat percentage now. Bring on the calipers.
Take that, Mongoose!
Fearing the dragon
He’s packing on the pounds and eating spaghetti dinners at midnight.
I am, on the other hand, raising my tempo, cutting my carbs and attempting to cut alcohol altogether for the remaining three weeks.
Then, my bubble bursts.
I walk into the City Centre Community Centre (C4) and give my trainer, A.J., a week seven high-five and he informs me that, in fact, this competition technically ends on June 6, which means another full four weeks of training.
Four more weeks of this.
Four more weeks of battle ropes, crab walks and lizard crawls.
If you are over the age of 22 and can do a lizard crawl, my hat off to you.
I can only imagine what my face looks like when A.J. tells me it’s “lizard crawl time.”
I bet it’s somewhere in between what my old elementary school teachers looked like when I defiantly told them “school was for fools” and how my cat, Izzy, looks at me when I attempt to snuggle her for the 57th time of the day.
And what’s with the names of exercises anyway?
Just because you call something a lizard crawl, crab or a walk etc. doesn’t mean you’re fooling us. I know these exercises aren’t going to be fun.
The only actions with animal names that are fun I have already perfected anyway.
Believe me, I am a master of the “hungry bear,” the “lazy dinosaur” and the “angry dragon,” just ask my wife.
Well, maybe she is the one who’s perfected the angry dragon; I am just fairly good at it.
Did I mention it was Richelle’s birthday this week? Happy birthday, baby, I love you.
Back to C4; if you remember back to last week’s article, my plan now is three days of weights, two days for the circuit and cardio on the weekend. Sounds like a lot, right?
Well, it is. I am 38 going on 39. I remember when I was young we would play road hockey, tag, or flat out just run around the neighbourhoods like lunatics for hours; every day, all day, all night.
You could run head on into walls, jump over fences, bend wrists and ankles in ways they shouldn’t go and it wouldn’t matter; you’d bounce right back.
Now 60 minutes of a workout and you will burn, your muscles will ache and you’ll want to want to crawl into bed with your cat and sleep for hours.
But then something strange happens.You’ll wake up. You’ll look better and you’ll feel better, too.
My goal this week is to perfect the lizard crawl and abandon the lazy dinosaur.
Until next week, Richmond. #TeamMongoose
