Andrew’s (Spring85sigma) BodyBlog

Today’s workout marked the completion of my 11th six week workout cycle. 66 weeks of workouts! I’m feeling pretty good about where I am. The diet has been clean and consistent and, thanks to the encouragement of many of my BodySpace friends, my workouts have been great.

I’m adding some new exercises to the workout next cycle and will do a little more cardio on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I plan on keeping the diet clean throughout and to see just how lean I can get. The pecs are finally starting to get some definition! Emphasis next cycle will continue to be on the chest, back, and arms.

Planche training will continue to progress toward the one minute mark for the tuck planche. My goal is to be able to hold it for 35 seconds by the end of Cycle 12. Long term, I want to attempt one of those planche push-ups by the end of Cycle 13. I am gaining strength and endurance in the holds, so I believe these goals are realistic and achievable. Any feedback and/or suggestions for improvement are always appreciated.

Everyone enjoy the Holiday Weekend! Be Safe and Sober!

Here is what I did today:

Had a great ab workout and a surprisingly good run considering how little sleep I got last night!

I’m happy, however, to report that Grandma is alert and in good spirits. Once her blood levels are back to where the doctors want them to be. They will let her come home. She was dehydrated. With kidney disease and congestive heart failure she has to try to keep a good balance of fluid in her body. Too much she has trouble breathing, too little she gets dehydrated and naseous and the kidneys get worse. So, it’s a balancing act. At 92, however, she is still an inspiration and a miracle.

As far as the workout, I do weighted push-ups as part of todays workout, just to provide a little extra challenge to the chest. They are getting easier, so I will probably adding weight soon.  I will also be adding time to my static ab workout exercises (all of the planks and the evacuations). It feels as if I’ve moved into another level. As far as the run, I did a very easy 14:48 two-mile run. Overall, I’m happy with my progress as I conclude this cycle on tomorrow. I have to put up the next cycle. I’m considering using the page function to post my next exercise cycle.

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback! It keeps me working on the diet and working harder. Have a great remainder of your day.

Here is what I did today:

This has been a surreal day! I had a great planche training day and leg workout. I did the leg exercises as 1 huge cycle with 30 seconds rest between each exercise and 2 minutes rest between sets. I’m feeling the results. The cardio was very good in spite of my having it the legs hard. I will simply summarize what I did below.

We went down to see Grandma. She was in very good spirits. She was, however, complaining a little about some nausea. After she took her 3 pm medicine, she became ill. In fact, she fainted. Came out of it in less than a minute. Although she protested, we had her checked by the medics. Her vitals were good considering that she was a bit frightened. We decided to check her into the hospital to ascertain as to whether or not the medication caused the fainting spell. The side effects of the medication included "flushing, nausea, vomiting, AND fainting!" After a battery of tests EKG, CAT Scan, loads of blood work, it was determined that her kidneys have gotten a little worse. Not yet bad enough for dialysis, but worse. They are keeping her overnight to observe her levels and to adjust medications to get her back in balance. We left her in very good spirits. I will check on her tomorrow.

As far as the workout, here is what I did today:

93 Degrees…..HOT! LOL! I had to run a few unexpected errands today for some family members, so unfortunately, I wasn’t able to avoid the hottest part of the day. Nevertheless, after a challenging but GOOD workout, I hit the run. LOL! It wasn’t the fastest, but was satisfying because of the conditions. I’m getting used to running in hot temperatures.

I did planche training, worked chest, and did my ab superset (which for some reason really challenged me today)! I’m enjoying my summer workouts and feel I’m progessing towards my goals. I’m also trying to get the bodyfat down into the single digits. Diet is clean! I will need to up the cardio on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the next cycle to help facilitate fat burning!

I hope everyone is having great workouts this week!

Here is what I did today:

Completed the first full workout of week six of my 11th six-week cycle on today. I continue to concentrate really hard on good form during my exercises since I am still doing very high reps. Today it has obviously worked. I’m feeling the effects of the effort in my arms and shoulders.

I am continuing to work on keeping the diet clean. Purchased my spinach and veggies for this week and have gotten used to not eating the cookies and cakes—FINALLY . I’m happy with how I’m starting to look, but realize that I need to adjust my cardio to burn more fat during my next workout cycle. I will look hard at what I do on Tuesdays and Thursdays to see what I can add. I will also be adding a few new exercises to my workouts just to keep myself challenged.

I hope everyone’s week got off to a great start!

Here is what I did today:

I completed my planche push-up training today. It continues to go well. I’m happy with the progress I’m making. I continue to endeavor to keep the diet clean. Hopefully, my pictures will reveal my efforts.

Not much else going on today. Tomorrow, I begin my sixth week of my six-week cycle. I will, as always on Monday hit the arms and shoulders.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Here is what I did today:

I have completed week five of my six-week workout cycle. They seem to pass by very quickly now. I’m wondering do I need to go to eight weeks? I am happiest this week with the breakthrough with diet and with my planche push-up training. I see some good results from the change in diet. I am especially happy that my lower pecs are starting (barely) to emerge from their fat hibernation! Hopefully, I will be close to where I want to be bodyfat wise in a few more weeks. The planche training is great! I continue to get stronger and feel that I can push myself harder to work more on increasing the time in the tuck planche and then on to the modified tuck planche and a push-up attempt.

I posted three more "progress pics" today. These are more for me than for anyone else. I am closely scrutinizing how I’m looking as far as BF reduction. I’m so critical of myself that it also keeps me very aware of what I’m eating. I really try to crack down on the diet on the weekend and will try some more pics on Sunday afternoon to see how things are looking. Nevertheless, feedback and suggestions from my BodySpace friends are always appreciated.

Ladies and Gentlemen, have a wonderful weekend and, for those of you who work out on the weekends, have some great workouts!

Here is what I did today:

I completed my ab workout today. Thursday’s ab workout consists of mostly ab stability exercises (front and side planks), evacuations, etc. Since I’ve been really focusing on the diet, I’ve been trying to make sure that I am maintaining an intensity to my workouts to help encourage more fat burning (LOL, yes T, there is still fat on my body )! I feel a great deal better about what I’m starting to see emerge as far as my body is concerned. Although I haven’t gained much in muscle size, I’m happy that I can still look clean and athletic. My goal is to see a qualitative difference between last year’s body and this year’s.

I will work on planche push-up training on tomorrow and hit the back. I’m very encouraged by the progress I’m seeing with the planche training as well. It appeared about a month ago that I had reached a plateau as far as strength and endurance building were concerned. Interestingly enough, I tried integrating the tuck planches with the other specialized push-ups I use (pseudo and Tiger Push-ups) and found that I’m able to sustain the holds even after doing them. I was afraid at first that my arms would be too weak to do this. This was a major psychological breakthrough for me. I anticipate attempting to push-up and down (LOL!) by the middle of August. Wish me luck!

I hope everyone is having a great day and had outstanding workouts!

Here is what I did today:

Completed another very satisfying workout. The leg training was intense. I, also ran the planche training together as a circuit. This was somewhat tougher after having done planche training on yesterday as well. Overall, thanks to the encouragement of my friends on here, I continue to push the intensity of my workouts and not just go through the motion.

The diet continues to get cleaner. I may grill something and indulge in a baked potato on tomorrow just to shake things up. Right now, I’m eating mostly salads, greens, a little brown rice, other veggies, and lean meats. As mentioned before, I’m starting to see results but they are slooooow!    I’ve got to keep it up.

Today is HUMP DAY! Almost time for the weekend again! Enjoy your day!

Here is what I did today:

Today would have been a great day regardless of how the workout would have gone. Today is my Grandma’s 92nd Birthday. As many of you know, she was hospitalized in May. She was in for approximately one week. She is now staying with my aunt and continues to get stronger. We look forward to her returning home in early July. I talked to her this morning and she sounds great! Once again, I thank all of my BodySpace friends who posted comments and sent expressions of support and concern. You all really helped me get through a rough time!

The workout today was intense. I am trying to challenge my chest and really worked on keeping form strong for my push-ups. I also experimented with my planche training in that I integrated the pseudo and Tiger push-ups into the workout instead of doing them after the completion of my tuck-planche holds. This made for a more challenging circuit-like workout. The circuit was as follows:

Tuck-planche (hold for 20 seconds)

40 pseudo push-ups

10 Tiger push-ups

1 minute rest

Repeat (I did 3 x 40 Pseudo push-ups and 3 x 10 Tiger Push-ups, 4 Tuck planche holds)

Add this to my push-up chest workout and this became a pretty good workout!

I also had a very good 2 mile run (14:34). Overall, this has been a great day! I hope everyone else is having a good day as well.

I continue to focus on the diet. It appears that some definition is starting to show UNDER my pecs, which means some of the fat is going away! LOL! I had to fight the urge to have a Reese’s Cup today after my run. I’m going out later and buy some watermelon or cantaloupe to satiate my sweet tooth!

Here is what I did today: