I stayed up last night past my bedtime putting up the last in a series of blogs that I thought might be useful to those who are setting goals and making plans for the new year! Based on blog visits, I should have gone to bed! LOL! Just kidding! I would post the blogs even if only one or two people found them useful, which is what has happened. I thank those people for their comments and private messages. Anyway, I was functioning on 5.5 hours of sleep, when I attempted to start the workout. It was not happening. I took a 30 minute nap and that made a HUGE difference going into my chest and back workout.

Today I am exactly halfway through the last week of my 30th Six-Week Cycle. I have completed 3 workout and have 3 left to go in this cycle. Tomorrow is the leg workout followed by the 3-mile interval run with the rope jumping, bounds and traveling lunges built sprinkled in between the running. I believe my legs have grown more this cycle than in any prior to this. I am really happy with this workout cycle overall and am looking forward to the 12 weeks of cycle 31 and 32, which will be my Transformation Contest Cycles. 

Well, back to today's workout: I hit chest and back. It was a good solid workout and ended with my running the fastest 3-mile of the cycle. I finished in 19:42 (6:32 mile pace). As I will sometimes do when I am contemplating major changes to an upcoming workout cycle, I will attempt some of the exercises that I have decided to include. Today I attempted two things---3 sets of 50 push-ups wearing the 20-pound weighted vest and 1 set of pull-ups to failure. Both were tough, but I was able to do them. During the next cycles, my goal is to add more muscle to my physique. One strategy is to add more resistance to my bodyweight exercises using the weighted vest and other means. The other is to do more of the exercises that I know will help to build my physique. I am still trying to make sure I don't injure my arm and shoulder, so I want to be careful about the total reps I do during any given workout. 50 push-ups is the most I have ever done wearing the weighted vest and I figure, it is better than going back up toward 100 push-up sets that I did prior to my injury. The chest felt good after I completed them. The pull-ups are a breakthrough of sorts, because I was not sure how many of them I could do to failure. I did 25! I have not completed 25 pull-ups since early last year! I will add 1 set of pull-ups and chin-ups to failure to the workouts where this is not the primary exercise to help with back and bicep development. Doing those 25 pull-ups also means I can add the 300 workout back to my workouts without having to modify the workout! I am excited. This also means, most importantly, that the arm and shoulder are almost 100%! Next week, during Intercycle, I will attempt Teagen Rose's ab workout on the pull-up bar. This is going to be NASTY! (I will post the video for you all to see!) LOL! It will replace one of my current ab workouts. I cannot wait for the challenge of this contest. This is about making the progress that I want to see. If someone wants to throw in a few prizes, I won't be mad! LOL!  In all seriousness, this is about giving additional challenge to myself, my workouts and avoiding complacency. 

Everyone, have a GREAT Tuesday evening!

Here is what I did today: