The Best Shape of My Life!

i did a really nice workout yesterday. just a mixture of things in the gym. started with a great warmup and a bit of a sprint on the treadmill for about ten minutes, then moved into the weight area for some upper body work. after some machine presses, rows, and lateral raises, i went back to the legs and did some balance squats on a wobble board and some rope jumping. mostly an upper body focus day, but wanted to get some leg work in as well.

i’m aiming to do some major legwork today. possibly a bike ride or some running, along with some agility/sprint drills, and, if i still have the energy, some squats, or bodyweight variations of squats. either way, tomorrow morning i’ll probably be really really sore, and what better way to hit the gym at 5 am!?

time. that seems to be the biggest variable in my life at this point. no time for extra things. it’s work, grad school, and then pretty much off to bed. getting some good quality sleep would be nice, but there really isn’t even time for that. sometimes i curse myself for going back to school, but the only way to advance myself and open up opportunities (and definitely get more of an income) is to go to school. funny how that works (well, funny really isn’t the word i’d like to say here).

so i’m finding that trying to gain a bunch of mass, strength, endurance, etc., is pretty much out of the question. i’ve been focusing lately on simpler workouts. not that they’ve been easy, but they aren’t heavy lifting or anything (well, kind of). i’ve been using kiddy equipment at parks lately to do pullups, pushups, dips, leg raises, and just to climb on. i’m finding that hanging and climbing on things is a great way to give your entire body (especially upper) a great workout! add to that a 30-45 minute bike ride around the city (at least to the park and back) or a nice run, and the workout becomes pretty intense. I’ve been sore after each one, so i think that’s a good thing.

i’m trying to maintain bodyfat, weight, etc. i reached the 190 mark, and so far i’ve been holding steady at about 13.5% bf. i think about how i was at right under 10% at one point, and again curse myself for going back to school. but such is life, and i need to get over it. don’t get me wrong, i love school, and i love what i’m studying, and i know that i’ll be able to do a lot of cool things with the phd. but it’s really messing with my pscyhe when i’m so tired to do anything, and when i don’t have the time to fix myself a healthy meal. so i guess i should be happy with and consider myself lucky that i’ve at least been able to keep my bf as low as I have. i guess it could be worse.

according to the acsm, 13.5% bf puts me right around the 50th percentile. so once again, i fall back into the "average" category. ggggggrrrrrrrrrrr. but what can i do?

today i hope to do another workout, if i’m not overly exhausted when i get home. oh, and i’d also like to spend some time with my wife and daughter. go figure.

i was going to measure myself this weekend, but didn’t get to. probably haven’t changed much anyway, so i’m not going to worry about it for now.

i did do some pretty good workouts. not lifting weights, but doing a bunch of other stuff. i’ve probably done about 200 pushups in a variety of ways this weekend! i ran for quite a while on saturday, and then today i went for a bike ride. i stopped at a couple of parks and used the kiddie equipment for some pullups, pushups, swings, ab work, etc. i even took my jump rope with me today and jumped rope for a bit at one of my stops.

i’m pretty sore tonight from all of it, and probably will be sore tomorrow as well. i’m hoping to be able to do more bodyweight stuff tomorrow, too. i’m really liking it, and i’m finding that it works my muscles in ways that traditional weightlifting can only begin to dream about! now, let’s see if i can cut some of this fat by this method. of course, that would require major changes to my diet, which i know, i’ve said it over and over again, need to happen!

it’s overwhelming sometimes. but now that i have a blackberry, i can keep track of myself and what i’m doing. and, i can listen to music while i’m working out, which is a huge plus!

later.

today’s my long day of the week. getting ready to go to work now, then off to two grad classes, each about 3 hours in length. i’ll be done around 10 pm tonight, and i’m sure i’ll be very very exhausted at that point. sometimes i wonder why i decided to take 9 hours of grad classes this semester…but oh well. i’m enjoying it, it just is a nightmare sometimes with my schedule.

yesterday i did do a workout! i get excited when i’m actually able to do one. not a lot of heavy lifting; rather, a more bootcamp style workout. i just picked random pieces of equipment in the gym and "went to town." it was fun, and i’m actually quite sore and worked up this morning.

i doubt i’ll be able to get any kind of a workout done today (though i’m going to try in between work and classes), but i’m going to attempt to do something tomorrow morning when i wake up, or definitely when i get home from work. maybe it won’t be raining and i can get to a park and do some cool stuff on the kiddie equipment. i love those workouts!