I did the workout I planned yesterday earlier. Well, I tried to. I think I was a bit…Ambitious when I made it up. 
I did over half of it, and finished some of the sub-workouts, just not all. More on this later. 
I started off as normal – Three sets of jump rope, two-minutes work with one-minute rest between sets. Then I did the normal stretches. I’m really starting not to like jump rope, to be honest. I can’t seem to get going well that often, and keep catching it, whatever technique I use (although I can do bounce-step OK). It’s really annoying, especially when I only do about three jumps before catching it again (and this normally happens a few times in a row, probably caused by my annoyance). Also, when I catch it it normally swings right into me, and fast plastic thin rope hitting bare skin HURTS! I’ve decided from now on I’m going to keep to bounce-step only, and try and master it, getting my timing right etc.
Now onto the actual workout. It was just a simple circuit, consisting of pushups, squats and modified burps. There seems to be a LOT of confusions between burpees, squat thrusts, burps and others. Most people seem to use the names interchangeably, which annoys me as I don’t know what they’re talking about. For me, I use Ross’s definitions. Burpees include the vertical jump, horizontal feet movements and pushup. Squat thrusts don’t have the pushup, and stand up rather than jumping. Burps are “stripped down burpees”, and are burpees without the vertical jump. These mean you stay in the same position, getting maximum speed. In my modified version, I got rid of the pushup part to, so it was just the feet shuffling, as fast as possible. So yeah, pushups, squats and modified burps. I started with twenty seconds pushups, then twenty seconds squats, then twenty seconds modified burps, followed by twenty seconds rest. I repeated this ten times, meaning it lasted thirteen minutes. Bloody hell this was difficult! By the sixth set I was thirsty and it was starting to hurt. Especially my lower back was hurting, which, as you probably know, isn’t nice when trying to work out. But I pushed on, and finished them, although by the last few sets I was only doing five pushups and my feet were only moving about a foot each horizontal jump in the burps. But hey, I finished!
I spent the next few minutes on the floor, on my back, admiring my misty breath in the lights above. 
I don’t know how long, but I would guess three to four minutes. The next part of my planned workout was a core workout. I was going to do three sets, but I only did one, as I was already tired. I did ten crunches (holding at top part for three seconds each time), sixteen chinnies, ten v-ups, ten lying hip swings, then ten supermans (again, holding at top part for three seconds).
I was planning on also doing some pullups, chinups and sledgehammer swings, but my arms had died and decided not to completely trash them and hinder recovery.
This was also the first time I used my new trainers (Mizuno Wave Nexus) and matting (made my Marcy). I’m very pleased with both of them. The shoes were snug and comfortable, and the matting was a lot nicer than concrete! It was softer and gave a bit, plus it was warmer, and should’ve been kinder on my joints. Definitely worth the money!
Well, until next time! Possibly tomorrow (as I’m only in school until 11AM due to exams), although then again I should really be revising. I might just go a twenty minute workout, like jump rope or tabatas or something. Exercise is good for the brain too, so might help me revise.
Now my arms are aching, so I should go. I haven’t had lunch yet either, and now I’m hungry!
Sunday 06-01-08 – Conditioning = Pain
- 3x Jump rope (2-minutes work, 1-minute rest)
- Dynamic stretches
- 10 Circuits
- 20-seconds pushups
- 20-seconds squats
- 20-seconds pushup-less burps
- 20-seconds rest
- 1 Circuit
- 10 crunches (hold 3-seconds)
- 16 chinnies
- 10 v-ups
- 10 lying hip swings
- 10 supermans (hold 3-seconds)
- Die
