After laying off on Friday, I combined today's scheduled 2-mile walk with Friday's full bodyweight workout. It FELT GREAT! After all of the work inside, it was great to get out there in the bright sunlight and considerably warmer temperatures. We made it into the mid-50s today! My course was passable, but still treacherous in places! LOL! I was able to slip and slide my way to a 6:32 mile run! Tomorrow should be similar to today in terms of weather and I will look to improve the time a bit more. Tuesday and Wednesday are different matters! We are projected to have some of the coldest temperatures of the winter with our highs not getting out of the lower 30! Tuesday will be a Tabata workout, so I won't be out there that long and Wednesday is a walking day! I will just put on a bunch of layers and keep it moving.

Today's workout marked the beginning of my second and final week of Intercycle workouts and the countdown to beginning the 2012 Transformation contest. My 12 weeks (Cycles 31 & 32) will cover the period from January 27-April 20, 2013. I created the most ambitious cycle for myself in almost a year. I increased reps and am adding more resistance to the majority of my bodyweight exercises (This should yield some muscle growth) For this reason, Cycle 32 is simply Cycle 31 repeated. I believe that my arm and shoulder are healed enough to be able to do the work now and I don't want to risk injury in the middle of the contest by adding more rigor.

My dilemma is whether to enter the MEAN (muscle-building) contest or the LEAN (cutting body fat) contest. Although I had gained a lot of muscle prior to my injury with some tough bodyweight and dumbbell workouts. I am not sure how much I can add in 12 weeks with workouts that are tough, but not up to my pre-injury levels. My friends who have weighed in (Thanks guys) have said to go MEAN! LOL! I guess they think I need more muscle! My thinking, however, is to enter LEAN, go MEAN in my training for about 9-10 weeks and cut every thing up in the final 2-3 weeks of the contest to see how LEAN (I would like to see what 5-6% body fat would look like on me) I can get. If I have more muscle, that is a plus! I have a couple of other folks I am waiting to hear from before I make the decision. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Because I have to take some baseline pictures next week, I decided to forego the usual weekly progress pictures. I took a week's worth of profile pictures, some of which show my abs in a "washed out" state because I did not adjust the camera's sunlight settings as I should have. They are still there! LOL! I could, however, be a bit "leaner" now!

I am wishing you and yours a great week!

Here is what I did today:

• Stretching Regimen
  
  
• 3 x 50 Quasi Sit-ups
  
  
• 3 x 50 Push-ups
  
  
• 3 x 50 Reverse Crunches
  
  
• 3 x 50 Crunches
  
  
• 3 x 50 Reverse Push-ups
  
  
• 3 x 50 Bodyweight Squats
  
  
• 3 x 50 Bodyweight Calf Raisers
  
  
• 3 x 15 Pull-ups
  
  
• 3 x 15 Chin-ups
  
  
• 3 x 15 Reverse Pull-ups (Head in FRONT of bar)
  
  
• 3 x 15 Hanging Leg Raises (Straight legs with chin-up grip)
  
  
• CARDIO:
  
  
• 2-mile walk
  
  
• 1-mile run (A slippery 6:32)