Days 58 & 59 - Blur

Blurring the Lines....

Talk about crazy busy. Yesterday I woke up late (first time in 9 weeks), missed my early morning workout and got annoyed with myself. Thankfully, we were cut-away early so I punished myself for 90 minutes doing an extended version of my missed workout. Endurance training for 90 minutes was hard work, but it got my head back in place and made me feel stronger. Sometimes we trip, we fall flat on our faces, but when we rise up, we stand up stronger and with greater purpose to not do it again.

I think being human about this stuff, whilst trying desperately hard to stick to a routine is why I am seeing results (both physical and emotional). I feel more together than I have before. I'm more zen and less hectic. Tuesday's yoga allowed me to reflect on that too. I still believe the goals we set ourselves can drive us crazy, can lead to tunnel vision of the rest of the stuff going on around us. That kind of perceptual narrowing, is totally going to mean that destination ends up overshadowing the journey. To me, the journey is still the most important element. We have our bumps, and our triumphs, but most of all we create an emotional attachment to the new way of being - it makes us feel good to step off the plane onto the tarmac at the start of an adventure, it lifts our spirits to see the sun rise or fall over a new back drop..this is why I travel, the destinations are not as important as how I get there....

Using this, helps. I've found of late, that the journey has been blurring somewhat, and this is causing me to get upset for the minor setbacks. Shit happens, to all of us, most of the time.. Remember, falling off your bike (as I've done a lot lately, dang cleats) just means you can get back on it and re-adjust. I suggest having a good laugh too. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we all need to slow it down, enjoy the bumps and sensations of the ride. We should all take a few minutes to ground ourselves,  take the time to align ourselves and carry on.

Chest, Abdominals, Arms & Abdominals

2 Days of tough training, like the rest of this week. Its pretty intense working for 60-90 minutes without a rest set. The endurance really shows when you're burning through fatigue. Obviously, as this is a new experience in the gym for me, I've dropped the weights (not by much) to maintain the work, keep the reps at 8 per set, and all exercises are 4 sets. Moving directly from a set of Chest or Arms to a set of Abdominals, then back to the original chest/arms set is not easy. My body is a little sore, but good sore, and I'm enjoying challenging my resistance workouts with a cardio-intensive rhythm. It's like I'm doing my own version of cross fit or something! I work really hard, usually I'm sweating before I get throughout the first "pair" of exercises. You see, I pair the exercises based on the logistics of what I need to do each. So for example, doing bent over rows (on back day) using the land mine set up is perfect for land mine 180s for abs. Or going from palm up forearm burners, leaning over a bench leads itself nicely for body based abs like plank or retractors.

Here's a sample of the last two Workouts: Remember I alternate between each set of each exercise....

Thursday:

1. Palm Up Forearm Burners & Plank (20 sec hold)
2. Palm Down Forearm Burners & Retractors
3. Standing Zuttman Curls & Plate Twists (10kg plate)
4. E-Z Bar Spiderman Curls & Side Plate Bends (20kg plate)
5. Inclined Bench Barbell Curls & Barbell Ab Rollouts
6. Standing Barbell Drag Curls & Heel Tap Twists
7. E-Z Bar Skull Crushers & Bicycle Twist Abs
8. Low Cable Overhead Extenders & V-Sits
9. Cable Reverse Grip Tricep Pulldowns & Cable Ab Crunches
10. Cable Tricep Pushdowns & Hanging Knee Up Crunches
11. 90 minute Bikram Yoga Workout in the evening

As you can see, its pretty full-on, and doing 4 sets of each is a real killer! This little lot took me an hour to pull off, so I was not hanging around! Yesterday's 90 minute punishment was tough, but worthwhile!

Wednesday:

1. Bench Press & Bottoms Up Raises
2. Incline Bench Press & Retractors
3. Decline Bench Press & Plate Twists (10kg plate)
4. Push Ups & Farmers Cage Walks (110kg max) - 6 sets just for fun
5. Incline Dumbbell Chest Press & Bicycle Twist Abs
6. Incline  Dumbbell Pectoral Fly & Side Plate Bends (20kg plate)
7. High Cable Fly & Land mine 180s (15kg plate)
8. Low Cable Fly & Pallof Press Core Holds
9. Pec-Deck & Single-arm Land mine 180 wiper catch & throws (10kg plate)
10. 90 minute Bikram Yoga workout in the evening

Bikram

It is the first time in absolutely months, that I have practiced Bikram so frequently. I've really missed the class and how it leaves me feeling. I've noticed that I'm calmer, less erratic, more balanced than usual.

When I'm in the class, of course I'm thinking "my gosh, this is hot", or "why can't I breathe properly", or "I wish I could stretch and bend like the person in front of me"... but after acknowledging my thoughts, I return to my breath and silently meditate on my mantra "Om mani padme hum" which really quietens my mind. I sometime just solely focus on my breathing, how I breathe determines how calm I feel. The other thing I've noticed is that as I can hear/feel my heart rate elevating, my meditation and thought process often leads to my thinking about calming my heart down. I can often feel the slowing heart rate as a result of my thoughts.

What I think I'm saying here is that I'm developing an internal self-regulation of my core functioning. My heart rate, breathing and thought processes are all being controlled when I take the time to slow things down, return to basics and calm down. I call it getting my "Zen On"...