Day 50 - My Half Century!

And here we are.... 50 days into regime to build functional strength and endurance, and to see if I could travel from Fat to Fit. Time is ticking along, and I am moving steadily from unhealthy to healthy - which I guess is the first stepping stone.

Today, not too dissimilar to most early mornings, I was out of bed after a very therapeutic sleep, at 0515h. I was at the gym by 0600h and was stuck into my workout really promptly.

That's me.

Shoulders

Super Strong Shoulders, train them hard and turn them into boulders! Well, that's the plan anyway!  Following on with endurance strength training, I decided to start with shoulder press (military style) using the barbell. With a slightly gingerly taken start, owing to slightly sore shoulders from last nights swim. I did a quick warm up with 10kg loaded on the 20kg bar, 12 reps. I then added an additional 20kg to the bar, and knocked out 8 more reps. I continued to add in 5kg increments over another 3 sets (total weight including bar was 55kg). The last set was only 4 reps, but at this point I dropped to 20kg on the bar and pumped out 8 more reps. After this, I worked back in 5kg drops each 8 reps until I was on an empty bar!

I then warmed up my trapezius, by conducting 12 straight up (to my chin) rows. I then added 5kg to the bar and did 4 more sets of 8. Nice!

I moved to dumbbells to work the front and side raises. I worked with a set weight (12.5kg per dumbbell) for front raises and knocked out 3 sets of 8 reps. After, I felt my shoulders starting to burn (endurance training is so much harder than low rep training) and dropped to 10kg dumbbells to to 4 sets of 8 reps of side raises...well, on the last set I needed to drop to 6kg weights to maintain technique, but thats most important so as to avoid injury!

My workout continued onto the cable cross-overs for a final isolated burnout. My shoulders were pretty much cooked after 60 minutes. I moved to abdominals, gave myself a good 15 minute burnout - the usual exercises. I think I'll be adding some new exercises soon.

PFT Training Circuit

So, as a serving member of the RAN, I am required to annually pass the Physical Fitness Test (PFT). That is 25 Push-Ups, 25 Sit-Ups and complete a timed cardio event (2.4km run, 500m swim, Beep Test are the usual methods). HMAS Cerberus has a really good team of trainers (PTIs) and they like to keep us ahead of the curve - so here we arrive at the PFT Training Session. Nobody likes this session, because its simple yet very effective maximal workout. Do as many push-ups, and sit-ups as possible. We were told that today PFT training would be "army style" - i.e. time based, not cadence for push-ups. So 2 minutes and off you go.... I knocked out 75 reps, which is a heck of a lot more than during NEOC (37 reps). For the sit-ups I did the full 100 reps (50 unassisted, 50 held - as ordered), then for the beep test, I got to level 9.4 or something like that...felt a little twinge in my hamstring and backed off...no sense in returning to step one again! So, at last, I listened to my body. Very happy with my performance.

Squish...

After catching my breathe, taking in some hydration and stretching, I asked Commanda Handa if he fancied a game of squash. Squash, is a fantastic sport, great for endurance, speed, agility and well breaking a sweat. Its not a game to 'get fit playing', but one that keeps you fit. I love it, and its been way too long between playing... Again, I reference my heyday in squash, playing box leagues, sunday evenings and just for fun, back in the UK. Well, today's game was a peach. I played from the 'T', used some lovely straight drives (backhand and forehand), added a few little, tight drop shots and a whole lotta aerial floaters! Commanda was not giving up easy, even though we were both tired. It went to 4 games, nearly a full 5 games! I won out in the end, but a good game around. Mr Peds and Crawf-dawg were playing in the next court, looked like a great match too...

Perhaps not this good....

Our game ended up 9-5, 7-9, 9-4,  9-7 - so as you can see, a pretty good game. Plus, it seemed to help stretch out my hammie, and glutes which meant no injury! Phew.

After a long morning of activity, I was actually really pumped, but looking forward to an easy class and a well earned relaxing evening. During class there were a whole heap of giveaway scones, with jam and cream, plus little cakes and treats...Clearly, I did NOT take any, and showed a new level of self-control... I did take photos, they can't hurt me! See You tomorrow....

In swoop the vultures!

Staring at me, eat me, eat me, eat me.... I didn't eat them.