Repetitive...

So, I'm going to be repetitive as everyone on Facebook... it snowed! Like 3 or 4 inches! It's melting now, but hopefully it'll last until tomorrow (Christmas eve) because that's when we're celebrating Christmas.

Another repetitive thing I want to mention is being repetitive in your workout. Being repetitive can be a good thing. As in working out everyday, or every other day. Being repetitive as in doing exactly the same workout everyday, or every other day is bad. It's ok if you're just starting off though. Maybe for the first month or so you can be pretty repetitive. This way your tendons will get used to some basic workouts, such as the pushup, pull-up, running, biking, etc...

Your muscles have a good sense of memory. You can tell by looking at an athlete. A baseball player, for example, can throw a ball, hard and accurate without even thinking about it. A soccer player can kick a ball and hit you in the feet, with force, without even thinking about it. These actions become very easy after awhile, so it's almost effortless for them do one of those actions. But let's say you have been doing pull-ups and pushups everyday, with no variation in speed, grip width, reps, or sets. Your muscles will get used to it. So it might become almost effortless. Is that good? No. Effortlessness=no challenge=no gain=useless. Another thing that can happen is strained tendons. Using the same tendons over and over again can cause fatigue and strain, preventing you from working out at all.

So your workout should vary. How often? Well, everyday in a way. You shouldn't do the same workout everyday. Right now I'm not playing any sports, so I'm not really concentrating on cardio, I'm doing weight lifting. So I have split up my days at the gym into lower and upper body days. Some upper body days I use the cable machines, other days I use the free weights. With legs I mainly vary on my sets and reps. I still mainly am doing heavy weight though.

But how often you should vary your workout greatly? That depends. When you're older, your body adjusts quite quickly, so maybe every or every other month. At my age I can probably change it once every three months, and still be effective.

So pretty much vary as much as can while sticking to a plan. Like, for me, I'm doing heavy weight for a few months to bulk up, then I'm going to tone around when track starts.

Because I don't have gym days everyday, I have home days on my off days. During my home days I usually do body weight training. So that I stay fit, while bulking up at the gym... also I want to be able to do over 100 pushups and over 40 pull-ups. That requires muscular endurance, which is what most body weight workouts do.

Order

So, everyone should a goal. It could be to strength and tone your arms, get abs (or a flat stomach), or the ability yo run a 5k, 10k or even a marathon.

Anyway, what ever you want to work on most, you should do that first. Like lets say you wanted to build some bicep muscle. You'd concentrate on your biceps. So after your warmup you might start off with bicep curls, move on to something else, then do some pull-ups, do some other exercise(s) and maybe do some more bicep curls.

One of the harder muscle groups to work (in my opinion) are the pectorals. Also known as the chest. So let's say you're at a gym you want to work that first, so you'd do something like bench press. Why? Because if you did other arm parts first like triceps and biceps, then your arms would barely be able to do the bench press movement, because they're so tired. If your arms are too tired to so many bench press reps, then you wouldn't get a good chest workout, and you might strain your triceps a bit.

Another thing some people want to do is to get abs or get a flat stomach. This requires fat loss. So you should concentrate on cardio work. You should warmup, do your cardio, and then add in other exercises after your cardio. If you don't feel that tired, maybe finish with more cardio and a cool down. There are a few reasons you should do your cardio first: you'll be even more warmed up (unless you run outside in the winter). Second: if you did leg exercises before your cardio you may not be able to run or bike as far because your legs are just too tired. Third: whatever you work on first usually gets the best workout. Forth: doing ab exercise before hand can cause cramping during your run/bike. Lastly..: is that if you suddenly become busy, you can end your workout with your most important part finished.

So you can see the order of your workout can matter. For another example this morning I worked out at Planet Fitness. In the morning if I work my body physically hard, I get a stomach ache. So I need to to have my priorities down so invade I get a stomach ache, I already did the good stuff. Like my plan today was to do legs and core. Core is probably less important for me right now, so I did legs first. Guess what? I got a stomach ache near the end of my leg workout. I did some core yesterday, so I'm fine with today's workout!

A Few Goals Reached

One of my short term goals was to reach 160 pounds, yet keeping defined muscles including the abs. I've reached that goal! My long term goal is to reach 175 pounds. So I still have a while to go! But it's always nice to reach a goal, even if it's a small one.

Another short term goal I reached was to bench press 150pounds in 3 sets, each set being 8-12 reps (150x8-12x3). This goal was nice to reach, but the bench press at Planet Fitness is on a machine, so in actuality it probably would have been more like 150x6-10x3 if I had to stabilize it as well.

I did some dumbbell bench presses to try and use some stabilizers afterwards. It was a bit tricky...

I reached another small goal as well. I shoulder pressed 40x10x3. I might use lighter weights for a bit though. My shoulder has been hurting a little from the way I sleep on it. After my shoulder is repaired some, I want to do some heavy weight lifting (4-8 reps) so I can gain some mass, then I'll tone it and gain some endurance in a month or two.

Abbey is Home!

Abbey has returned from college! She will be staying here for a few weeks! I'm pretty pumped!

Also, today I'm going Christmas shopping. I haven't gone shopping yet. I only did some online shopping, so it should be interesting going now, with the Christmas rush going on! I'm not a big fan of shopping, and shopping with a big mob is worse. Oh well, at least it'll make hiding the gifts I get for siblings pretty easy!

Grand Weekend!

This past Friday I had a usual day of school, chores, then worked out that evening after the girls went off being girls. After working out went out to eat a with Mom and Dad, and ended my day with watching Pirates of the Caribbean: 4... so I thought. Shannon came home near the end of the movie with the three oldest Donahue girls. So we all hung out and talked. The girls were all overtired, I wasn't so it was pretty hilarious watch their reactions to everything. If you said some thing slightly funny, they'd laugh for about 3 minutes, and I'd laugh at them! So them being over tired, Shannon decided to invite Casey to come over. That's normal, usually... but it was almost midnight. By the time they convinced Casey to get out of bed (via text) and come over it was about 11:55pm. So we all talked and laughed for about another hour... Casey was overtired too so it's was pretty entertaining!

Around 1:20am we finally went to bed, but Jessi Donahue had to leave because she had work the next day. I reviewed my lines and went to sleep, the girls on the other hand could have stayed up making fun if one another for awhile.

Later that morning (about 7:45am), I got up and I was very hungry. So I showered and started to make pancakes and waffles. Jolie was the first girl up (besides my mom of course). She looked/sounded a little like a zombie, and then she said something along the lines about how when I get up I really get up, and walked off. When I finished breakfast, Jolie was the only girl up. So I went to wake the rest of them up. I got plenty of glares and a few growls, but they finally did get up.

That day we pretty much just hung out all day, played games and various fun(ny) thing. Jolie left for a bit because she had to do something, but I can't remember what.

That evening (Jolie was back by then) we all headed over to the Estes! Colleen being gone we could bring everybody in one car. We picked up Calvin on the way, so we rode with 8 people in our 7 person van. At the Estes we had a superb meal. Good everyone, for some of us guys all it needed was a little hot sauce and it was perfect!

After supper we talked for a bit, and then I convinced Nick, Joel and Kenan to play 4 way chess. It was a long game... even for chess. I'd say Nick and I played 'most logically', but Joel has easy access to Kenan. Kenan being the least experienced played gave Joel the chance to destroy Kenan's army. Joel then checkmated Kenan, but in this game you need to kill the king to beat someone. So Joel did. Another cool rule in 4 way chess is: if you capture someone king, you get their remaining army. That gave Joel the upper hand, so Nick and I stopped trying to kill one another. Nick almost had Joel in a checkmate, and Joel almost have Nick in a checkmate. I was the middle man. I could choose who I wanted to fight. I'd say they were about the same skill level, so it was a tough choice. I noticed that if I gave Joel Nick's army, they would lose a few queens so they would have one queen instead if three. That sounded like a good deal to me, and I had more offense on Joel then Nick anyway. So after Joel had his huge army, I attacked him. I had the upper hand in position, but he nearly tripled my size. I had his king I'm the corner and he held me off until us Clarkes, Donahues and Casey had to leave. We called it a stalemate, but I think he would have eventually over powered me with sheer numbers.

I realized on the way out from the Estes house that I could have checkmated him 4 moves earlier, but that's part of speed part of chess!

When we arrived at home that night, the Donshues and Casey left. After saying our goodbyes, I went to bed. I wasn't that tired, but I figured I needed more sleep for the up coming week!

Sunday morning we all got up (Calvin was still over), and ate breakfast and then headed off to church. We had another good Advent service, and then a church in Florida gave all the kids 16 and under gifts! I was quite surprised! So when our pastor announced it. I kind of laughed (as did a few other people around my age), and then he pointed me out and said "Yes, even you Billy!" that made the congregation laugh ending our great service!

That afternoon Calvin and Shannon watched Pirates of the Caribbean: 4. I uploaded the sermon and watched the later half of the movie with them. When we finished we had a small supper and headed over to our pastor's family open house! Calvin and I being young growing men, ate a ton. I rounded my plate a few times and then snacked until the end of open house.

At the open house were the Kidds, they were (and are) always fun to hang out with! But then the Hollens showed up! The Hollens are some old (but still great) friends of us Clarkes! So we hung out with them almost the whole time. It was pretty awesome to hang out with with for a few hours and catch up on life!

We were one of the last families to leave, so it as kind if late. We came home and talked for awhile. Mom and Dad went to bed, but Shannon, Calvin and I stayed up to about 11:30pm having a good talk.

Now to today! Today Colleen and ABBEY are coming home!!! Colleen had been gone ever since Friday, but I haven't seem Abbey since her short Thanksgiving break! I can't wait!

Tonight was going to be our last Spartan game, but just a few minutes ago we received an email notifying us that the game is cancelled due to not having enough players. On the bright side my ankles will probably heal faster!

Negatives

I'm not a huge fan of negatives, but that's probably because I've pretty much gone past them in my fitness level. So what is a negative? A negative is the reverse motion of an exercise. For example: the down motion of a pushup is a negative, so is the down motion of a pull-up.

To actually start a negative pull-up, you have to jump and catch yourself, then go down.

A negative in exercise isn't just the opposite motion of an exercise, because that would be too easy. You have to go down as slow as you can. This way you're building the muscles to do a pushup or a pull-up. In my opinion, once you can do a pull-up, you shouldn't do negatives. Maybe after you complete a pull-up you could, but if you're capable of doing a pull-up, you shouldn't just do negatives because they are easier. On the other hand if you can do a pushup, then you should do a pushup, then go on your knees or do incline pushups if you can't complete any more.

This can apply to most arm exercises. Try it out if you can't do a complete arm exercise!

Full Range of Motion

When you're working out, whether it's weights or body weight, I strongly recommend full range of motion. If you can hyperextend any joints, don't. That's bad for your joints.

Now what exactly is full range of motion? It's pretty much just using all your range of motion... like, in a Bicep curl, you want to start with your arm at 180 degrees, and then your curl it to as far as you can go: Your forearm should touch your bicep.

So what does this do? It works all the muscles in that motion. A pushup is a good example. If you didn't go all the way down, you're using so much less muscle than if you went all the way. I prefer going past 90 degrees on my pushups, because that way I get even more range of motion in there.

Now, I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think that if you don't use full range of motion, you'll probably lose some flexibility in that area. Your muscles would get used to doing work in the motion, and then it you try to use full range of motion later, it may strain your muscle.

Another benefit of full range of motion is that it's much more challenging than doing half range of motion. Challenging=muscle growth=good.

In some exercises you just can't do full range of motion. Like a wide pushup, or a wide bench press. So if you're doing some of those, make sure you're also doing some other exercises with full range of motion.

There are a few exercise you probably don't want to do full range of motion with. One is dumbbell flys. If you're on a workout bench (so your arms can go below your body), you don't want to do full range of motion if your can bend your arms much past your core. I usually stop when the weights in my hands are at or just below my core, or even with the bench. Depending how you think about it. Going much farther could strain or pull some muscles. If you're using a weight that is kind of light for you, then you could go a little farther and hold for a second if you want a good stretch. Which some people like after or before bench pressing.

So usually full range of motion is better for your joints, builds more muscle, and helps a little in flexibility! So why not do it?

I Like a Mixture...

I've noticed that pull-ups and pushups work a bunch of muscles. Which is great for getting fit, but isn't that great for isolation and building up muscle. When I do pushups, I want to build up my chest and shoulders. A problem with push-ups is that they seem to make my arms tired before my chest is really that tired. So the pushup is great workout, but has it's limitations. Another problem (kind of) is that I can do so many reps that it's more toning and building endurance than building up muscle.

I have the same issue with pull-ups. I don't mind the fact that pull-ups build shoulder strength almost more than bicep strength. Biceps aren't very good if you can't use them to their full potential if your shoulders are too weak. The problem I have with then is that I can do a lot of reps. The weighed vest helps, but sometimes the vest pinches or strains my neck muscles when I do pull-ups. A minor issue is that some times I want to isolate my shoulders or my biceps, but I can't with a pull-up.

You know what's very good for isolation? Weights. You can isolate almost any muscle at a gym. You can also use heavy weights. Instead of doing pushups (which is like pushing 50-70% of your body weight) you can use a bench press, which you can lift less than that weight, or more than that weight.

To isolate the back of your shoulders, you can do rows. These are great for pull-ups and pushups. The back of your shoulders are also the counter muscles for your chest. So mixing rows with bench press is a great shoulder and chest workout.

You can also do bicep curls which isolates your biceps, obviously. Mix all of those workouts and it should improve your pushup and pull-up capability.

Now, do NOT quit doing pushups and pull-ups! These don't only work the muscles I listed above, and they also work them all at the same time. I've seen very 'buff' guys on my track team. I was on the stronger end, but still they were much stronger than me. I could do 22 pull-ups then. Most of them couldn't do more than 12. That's probably because they lifted a lot of weights, but didn't do much body weight workouts. It was kind of the same result with pushups. Two of the guys came quite close to my amount of reps though.

So I'd say having a mixture of body weight workouts and weight lifting workouts is a good thing. You can mix them up all in one day, but if you only have a few days at the gym, you may want to do only weights then, and then body weight workouts on your home days.

I'd say over all weight lifting builds certain muscle groups faster, while body weight workouts make you more fit, while strengthening several muscle groups.

My Busy Weekend...

This past weekend was pretty darn busy for me. First off I went to the gym early Thursday, came home and did school until I had to go to SMASH which was at one. After SMASH we brought Anna home with us and had a grand meal of pizza. That night we went to Nick and Joel's Christmas concert! That was pretty amazing, and we got to hangout with the other SMASHers for a bit!

On Friday I got up early again to go to the gym, and then like the day before did school and went to SMASH at one. Corrie and us Clarke kids (Shannon, Colleen and I) stayed over at the Richards for the night. The girls went with Rebecca to do some various girly things and Rebecca had to practice for her concert she had on Saturday. Once they finished all that they headed off to a talent show that some fellow SMASHers were in.

Tucker and I one the other hand played Airsoft for a hour or two. It got dark during that time so we played a game that you had to shoot my sound, which was pretty awesome!

After Airsoft we both went over to help out at Awana. That lasted about two hours. That included a very good meal. After Awana we went off to the talent show. We missed it, but still had the chance go hang out with a bunch of SMASHers!

We came home that night and stayed up late talking and playing games. The girls stayed up even later watching a movie.

The next morning we got up ate breakfast. Pastor Sam, Corrie, Shannon, Tucker and I headed out to go find a Christmas tree for the Richards' great room and their house. We did a few errands on the way which included getting hot chocolate.

On the way into the woods to find a tree Shannon, Tucker, Corrie and I all rode in the bucket of a small bucket loader. Which was pretty awesome even though everyone expect Corrie had the back of the bucket in our backs.

After we found and cut down the trees we warmed up and then headed back to the Richards' house. When we got there we ate a little, and then Colleen, Corrie, Tucker, two of the Richards' neighbors and I played a short game or two of Airsoft.

We had to leave for Rebecca's concert. We stayed for most of that, but we then had to leave because the girls had to babysit Gabe at five.

On our way we dropped of Corrie, and the girls dropped me off at home so I could do school that I didn't finish on Thursday and Friday. That night I also did some pricing out of Christmas gifts I am planing to buy.

Sunday was a bit more relaxing. We went to church, hung out with Calvin and then went to home group until around seven.

So that's a quick some up of my weekend... I'm a bit tired still.

Stabilizers

As you already know, buildings, trees, and and almost anything else needs stability. That includes your body. If you have been working out for a short time, you don't really need to work on your stabilizer muscles. They are very important for athletes So they should work them out in their offseason.

So what are your stabilizer muscles and what do they do? Well, some major stabilizer muscles are the hip flexer (not only a stabilizer), the groin muscle, the obliques, and a bunch of smaller ones I don't know the name of!

So what do they do? Well, they stabilize. When you're making sharp turns, they keep you from falling over, and aid in the turn. Your quads' main job is to go forward, the hamstring goes backward. Now, without your hip flexers and groin muscles it would be much more difficult to turn your body. Now try turning while sprinting. Won't happen quickly. So now that I put it to the extreme, what if you do have those stabilizer muscles, but they are weak compared to your quads and your hamstring...? You pull your stabilizer. They are actually pretty easy to pull. I've pulled both. Not fun. You can walk normally (usually), but you can't run. Just going forward actually requires your stabilizers. Think about it. When you're running, you're almost never on both feet. Try standing on one foot. After a while you're probably going to have trouble standing up straight. But what muscles do you use to correct your unbalance? Your hip, your groin, your ankle, and your obliques. Your quads and hamstring may do some, but they are big enough that balancing shouldn't be a problem for them.

So that shows you need your stabilizers. So why not make them stronger and increase your agility and balance?

I've already written about how to work your obliques, so I'll just remind you with the oblique V-up: first, lie on your side. Your hand that is on the floor should be by your hips, and then your other hand should be on your temples. Now bring your legs and your shoulders off the ground, balancing on your hip. Crunch your legs and body together. Don't make them touch, but bring them closer together. There are a ton more ways to work your obliques, but I don't have a ton of time.

Now, the groin and hips are harder to work without a gym. Usually playing sports is enough, unless you weight lift your legs. Also some of the workouts in my plyometrics post work your stabilizers. They usually aren't that challenging, because they mainly work on balance. So don't skip the easy workouts because you think they are a waste of time! Usually they aren't!

Start it up again...

In case you haven't read about this, I had strep throat and some symptoms of pneumonia the week of Thanksgiving. I took antibiotics, but I haven't really fully healed yet. I still have a slight cough and stuffy nose. Last week I didn't quite feel up to working out, I still played soccer, but that was it. I realized that day that not working out for two weeks really took away your endurance. My cardio was extremely low, making it very hard to breathe while sprinting/coughing up stuff. Part of my poor cardio was probably due to the cough, but my cough is almost gone now. This weeks soccer my cardio was still down, but it was much easier to breathe.

So now that I'm feeling better, I'm starting up my winter training again! What better way to start up than going to Planet Fitness! That's what I did. Dad and I went yesterday. My plan was to work on my arms, chest and shoulders. Dad was just going to do cardio.

I didn't really have a plan yet, so I just warmed up and started trying out different weights on the machines.

Before I started, I saw a guy I knew: Ryan Goding. We said hello and then asked about when we joined and briefly what our goals were.

I don't really want to describe my entire workout because that would be boring and not the best example of what to do. I mainly was just testing out weights, because I don't really know what to use because I usually do body weight workouts, not weights!

It was pretty fun, and funny for me to try out weights. Sometimes I over estimated and I could only do a few reps, others I under estimated and could do tons of reps with ease.

Anyway, I worked my calves with light weights for a bit because I'm trying to repair my ankle. After that I did some flies, chest press, rows (variations), lat pull downs (variations), shoulder press, some triceps, biceps, and then finished with a short leg workout. I then stretched, and waited for dad to finish his shower. While I waited I did some forearm with my forearm gripper.

I was a little sore in the shoulders yesterday, but man. Today I'm sore! Everything I worked is sore! My legs are slightly sore, but my chest, arms, and shoulders are really sore! It feels great though! I missed being able to get sore!

Because I'm so sore, it'll be counterproductive to workout my arms, chest or shoulders today. So I'll just do some cardio. I would do a leg workout, but I plan to do a hardcore leg workout Friday.

I'm 'pumped' to restart my workout!

A Few More Weeks...

As some of you reading this might know, I pulled my Achilles tendon playing soccer this past fall. Me, thinking it was like any other tendon didn't stop playing until the season was over. I thought it healed by the time winter soccer started. It probably did, but was still very week. So I re-injured it. It has been bothering me after every game for a few days, then it usually would heal enough for me to walk with no limp or pain.

So that has been happening over the past month or two with winter soccer. I've been enjoying it, but I haven't been able to play to my full potential because of my ankle restriction.

Now that there are only two weeks left, I'm kind of happy. Don't get me wrong, I love playing soccer (even losing, but just not as much as winning) and I love hanging out with the guys there, but I can't wait for my ankle to heal!

On the note of soccer, I'll tell you of my game last night. Our game was against a team men in their 30 and 40s I believe, so they had the advantage of skill, while he had the advantage of fitness. I played sweeper most of the game, which was pretty nice because beforehand almost everyone had in there head that because I was fast, I played forward... but I don't. I'm a midfielder or defender. I believe I was put to much better use playing there. I was told I has 'an awesome save' by a few people: Our goalie stopped a small break away, but the ball bounced off the guy he stopped from scoring so it was heading straight for our goal, quite quickly. I was sprinting next to the guy that had the break away (trying to catch up and stop him) and when the ball did a few bounces off our goalie and the other player, it slowed down a little. So I had just enough time to slide in there and clear the ball out of there. I didn't know how close I was to the goal until my body flew into the net a second after kicking the ball. So I guess I made a pretty close call!

Our game as a whole was a much better game than we usually had, we had plenty of chances and the ball was going up and down the field the whole game. The other team was much better at finishing and we had a few flukes, thus giving them the win. The score was 4-0 I believe.

Wrights!

After SMASH on Thursday Anna slept over at our house because she didn't have a ride to SMASH. So after Friday's SMASH Shannon, Colleen, Anna and I headed over to the Wrights house! It took us a little while because Shannon didn't know the Bath or Topsham area that well and Anna was our GPS... but she got distracted by telling stories. So yeah, we missed a lot of turns.

When we arrived we met the younger Wrights, and then played Foosball and Round Robin with Josh, Ben, Maggie, and Caleb until supper was ready.

At supper we all talked, laughed, and obviously ate food! After supper we went to Dairy Queen for dessert.

Mr. Wright left in his car (we came in two) while us older kids were waiting for our ice cream. Mr. Wright and I both have goatees, we are both about the same height and we're both pretty fit. So Ben (he's 17) was looking around right next to me asking: "Where's Billy?" me, thinking he was joking just said: "I don't know...". He then looked at me turned away, and then spun around shaking his head. He then announced he thought I was his dad! After a few laughs and being served our ice cream we headed back to the Wright's house.

At the Wrights us older kids (Anna, Shannon, Ben, Josh, Maggie, Colleen, and I) stayed up playing games, talking, joking around, and getting over tired. We stayed up until about 2am. With all that time and over tiredness we made plenty of inside jokes... I could start listing them, but everyone would think I'm rather crazy and stop reading my blog. Hence why they are inside jokes!

Us guys got up around 9:30am. We were before the girls. Mr. Wright was frying bacon, so we decided to fan the smell towards where the girls were sleeping. A few minutes later they started filing up the stairs, so I guess it worked!

That morning we ate breakfast and talked about last night. We then decided to go outside and play some frisbee and soccer. Because they had a small cliff, I decided to climb it. So we ended up throwing the frisbee and kicking the soccer ball up and down the cliff, and then later from their raised porch to and from the cliff.

After some of us got a little bored (or cold) we went inside and played more Foosball until Ben had to leave for work. Sadly he left before we had pie that Corrie made for me (which was epically awesome!). So we saved a slice for him, I'm hoping he got it! After we had pie we had to leave. Anna was staying there so she could go to church with them. So after our good byes we headed home.

On our way home we stopped by the Donahues and said hi, gave then back their pie dish, and invited them and Jenna over for the later afternoon and early evening. They just got up (they stayed up later than us) so they said they would in a bit. We then gave Calvin a ride back to our house because he was near the Donahues and needed a ride.

When we got home Dad, Calvin and I went in town to buy some food, get a few plugs, get Calvin's church clothes, and buy Dad's and my Planet Fitness memberships. The Donahues and Jenna arrived at our house while we were gone. When we came home we all just talked, and then had a weird conversion about hugging. Calvin found it hilarious how long it took us to say good bye and talk about hugs. I did too!

On Sunday we went to church had a 'relaxing' afternoon with Calvin and then headed to our church's family prayer meeting.

Over all I had a grand weekend! Thank you Wrights for having us over!

Chess Stuff...

So, I've mainly been posting about my life and working out, so here's another post about my nerdy side! Because chess is probably where I'm the 'most nerdy', I'll write about chess!

This will be a post mainly about why you should develop quickly, what to and what not to develop quickly and controlling the board...

The first thing you do in a chess game is open. The opening is when you bring out your pieces and pawns. Usually white has a slight advantage because they go first, but no worries if you're black! Now, how do you do this? Some people bring out their knights first, but I don't think that's the best plan in the world. Why? Because pawns (if played right) can chase knights around until the knights forced to retreat (wastes time and leaves your opponent with open bishops, knights, and maybe their queen as well.) You on the other hand may only have a knight out, or you might have lost the knight.

So I think opening with the queen pawn or the king pawn are the best. Sometimes if you're black and the other player opens with the king pawn, then you could bring out the pawn to the right side your the queen. This way your queen can have an opening and when/if you bring out your knight on that side it won't hold back that pawn.

Before I go on to controlling, I want to tell you that even though some of your first moves should be with pawns you shouldn't over do if. You want to develop fast. Why? Because if your opponent opens faster, he has more mobility and control. So you want to be mobile control quickly, so bring out the queen! Right? Wrong. The queen is super powerful, but if you bring it out too early, your opponent's knights, bishops, and pawns could hunt down your queen and capture it, or make you retreat so may times that he has his entire army out ready to attack you, while all you have is a queen out and ready.

So, the next most power piece is the rooks! I should bring that out, right? No. Rooks are too slow to get out in the beginning. By the time you bring out one, your opponent will probably have at least three pieces out.

What's next? Bishops and knights? Yup. Bring them out. They are easy to get out and are pretty strong. Use them.

Now, why would you open in the middle? Because you want to control the middle. I heard a quote once thar went something like this: "Control the middle, and you control the game." the reason the middle is so good is because from the middle you can attack everything else, or defend everything else. From the corners you can only go so far with a knight, bishops can only attack the opposite corner, and the rooks can only attack the corners next to your corner. This doesn't mean put all you pieces in the middle because you want som well defended pieces in the corner. Another thing is that there is a difference between "controlling" and "occupying". So putting all your pieces in the middle could be a one way ticket to your devastation if you don't control it and your opponent does.

So try and control the middle and develop quickly! There is a ton more to chess, but I don't have 100 years to write about it!

So it Begins...

Today being December 1st you may think I'm going to write about December and Christmas, but honestly I haven't thought much about this Christmas. So what's beginning? SMASH is. Today is our first rehearsal. I don't have all my lines down, but I should have them down by the end of the month, or year actually. The reason I'm writing this post (beside the fact I don't want to write a long post about working out) is because SMASH takes up a huge amount of time. Our rehearsals are usually 2-4 hours long, that's a lot of time, and just practicing your lines is a lot of time too. Also I'll probably have to help out with building the set and fund raising. So I may have to shorten up on some of my posts. I said this before for soccer, but I wrote long posts anyway, so we'll see what happens!

How Music Relates to Working Out!

Have you ever tried working out on your own, and just got bored? I have tons of times. I found that Pandora had helped me not be as bored, and sometimes made me want to push harder. Now, you can choose whatever music you like, but country and classical probably won't pump you up as much as rock, rap and techno. Some "classical" songs can be pretty cool, but over all rock and rap are the best workout music types for me.

Music is really good while on a treadmill or if you need motivation for any run. It also can be good for wright lifting. Because honestly, lifting weights up and down can be boring for awhile. The music can help keep you pumped up. The same goes for body weight workouts... especially if you can do high reps.

I'm warning all of you who might want to make a hard rock playlist on Pandora: even if you base it off a christian band, you'll probably hear some bad songs by non-christian bands. Just thumbs them down...

Goals.

Have you ever had motivation problems with your workouts? I have. Usually that's because I don't have a goal, or my goal is too far out there to keep me motivated. Lesson learned: set a goal.

Now, when I say: "set a goal." I actually mean: "set goals." Why not only one goal? Well because if you do that it could be too hard so that you never complete it, or a too easy one that you finish, and you then don't see why to go on! So you need short term goals and long term goals.

Let's say you want to get a 4-8 pack. Most likely you're going to have to burn some fat first. So you should set weight loss goals. Now, you can set a goal to lose 30 pounds, but that's more likely a long term goal. So set a goal to lose something like 5 pounds in like 2 or 3 weeks. That's a short term goal. You can have your 30 pounds as a long term goal, and then an even longer term goal like getting your 4-8 pack.

Now. What if you don't really care about having great abs for awhile? You just want to get fit. Ok, your goals could vary here. You could want to be able to run a 5k in a short time, or 10k, or maybe even just be able to run a marathon! Well, chances are if you're reading my blog, you probably aren't about to run a marathon (that's like 26 miles). So you may want to work on the 5k or 10k times. You could set a goal time, or just try to build up to that distance. Don't just have a goal of a 15 minute 5k (3.1 miles I believe). Work up to that amount of beastness.

Now, you could want to be fit, but don't really want to be running miles and miles. This is what I want to do, because I get sick easily while running outside in the winter, and treadmills make me bored within 5-10 minutes. So what are you going to to? Well, if you have a gym pass, use that. Set some goals on weights...

There is a difference between strength and fitness. Do you want to get stronger this winter? Or stay fit? Or both? I want to do both. So yes, I'll set some goals on weights. And I'll set goals on pushups or pull-ups. What if you don't have access to weights? Then pushups and pull-ups will be your best friend/enemy. If you don't have a pull-up bar, try some unfinished door frame, or rafters. If you don't have any of those, then pushups will be your main way to build fitness and strength. Granted, you can do plyometrics, dips, leg work and ab workouts, but pushups are an almost full body workout. They work your entire core, your arms, a ton of chest, and even some leg muscles. Now, don't only do pushups. Pushups can be your workout that you set a goal for. With plyometrics is hard to set a goal, because once you get to a certain point, you're too tired to gain anything from it, dips aren't the best things to concentrate on because they only work the triceps and some shoulders. Ab work on the other hand can vary so much, and you want to work all of your abs, not just certain parts of it, so it's hard to set a simple goal for ab workouts. That brings us back to pushups. Now, it's many people goal to do 100 pretty easily. Well, that's a good long term goal. First off aim for something like doing a real, good form pushup, then go for 10, then 25, then 50, then 75, then 100, etc...

To sum up this post, I'd like to say don't only work on your goal. Keep mind that you have other muscles that need to keep up with the ones your building. I really don't like seeing a big shouldered guy, with big arms, fit abs, and then toothpick legs. You can't use your upper body to it's full potential if you have a weak lower body! Your legs are naturally your strongest muscle group, keep it that way. Also, another thing is when you see someone with jacked up legs, but a toothpick upper-body, then they can't run with good form for long. Their legs are too strong for their upper body. I proved this in a 400 meter sprint. A guy with much stronger legs than me, but a much smaller upper-body and I raced. I beat him by about 6 seconds. That's a lot in a sprint.

So, keep full body fitness. Don't just work on your goals. That doesn't mean neglect your goals. You should still concentrate on them, but not only on them. Still keep a long term goal goal and a short term goal. They make you want to keep coming back for more!

A Quick Summary...

Alrighty. Today I'll sum up my Thanksgiving break quickly, because if I went into details, you may fall asleep and I'd have waste time which I could have spent on math...

First off, Friday night the girls went over to the Donahues. Mom, Dad and I watched Captain America. I felt cold coming on that night. So I thought whatever, a cold is nothing.

On Saturday I felt much worse. Got some chills and a slight fever. Not enough to completely stop me, but I didn't workout because of that. That Afternoon Shannon and I picked up Sean who we had over for the weekend until Monday night. Saturday evening Tim, Angie, Gabe and Adeline came over for a mini Thanksgiving! That was great! I wasn't sick enough only eat one serving, but sick enough to not have three or four...

Sadly, I got even sicker on Sunday. My fever went up to 101. I couldn't go to church so I just slept, drank, and watched a ton of Doctor Who.

On Monday I felt the same, but I still had enough energy to hangout with Sean and play games. My chills never went away, so I couldn't go play soccer that night.

On Tuesday I felt a tad better, and only woke up once the night before to the chills. I was happy. I was healing! Then I took a nap. Woke up, felt horrible and then was told: "You look like death!" That night I went to the doctors. They told me that I had strep throat and maybe some pneumonia. So I took antibiotics for the rest if the week. I felt amazingly better after a day of them. It was great!

So, now that I'm on the mend no need to pay attention to being sick! I just couldn't workout.

Now, Tuesday night Abbey came home for her Thanksgiving break! It was great to see Abbey. We all just hung around on Wednesday, played games and talked.

On Thanksgiving we went over to my Aunts and hung out there all day, ate food and played some games.

On Friday we did a ton of cleaning. Because that night we were having 17 people over for a movie night. The movie night was awesome. Tons of fellowship, a great movie, games, and food! I was finally starting to get hungry enough to eat 2/3 of my normal serving sizes!

On Saturday, we were pretty lazy. All I did was some chores, and then watched movies with everyone one else. We also played a little Hearts. A good thing was that I was back to my normal eating habits! 7 muffins and I was still hungry!

Abbey left Sunday morning. The rest of us went to church. Our friend Jenna came that day! It was nice to see her... and after church the older Kidd kids came over, so did Calvin and Jenna! When they were all over, we talked, ate snacks, and played card games. At 4 we had home group. Jenna left before that. So we had a bunch of people over again. We discussed Galatians, and then had fellowship and desserts until everyone ended up leaving.

So that brings me to today. Today hasn't been very exciting, so I'll end my post with this sentence!

Some More About Abs...

Abs are a big thing in the exercise world. Pretty much every guy would like a 6 or 8 pack, and most girls probably want to be pretty thin, but not a twig without any strength (that's a guess...).

So the question is: How do I get abs with minimal effort?

Well, let's just say you won't get abs without effort unless you are pretty thin and are naturally strong or fit. Like most people, you probably aren't. I'm not. Just ask my sisters how much I train!

So you need to work hard to get abs! That's pretty obvious. If you want a 6 or 8 pack you need to burn off most of your fat. How do you burn fat? Cardio and eating better (and maybe less). I'll write about cardio first because that's something I know more about, and food stuff is boring.

Cardio gets your heart pumping! Hence it's name! This does not mean eat greasy food and get into a car chase. That will make your heart pump, but isn't the safest or the most effective way to burn fat.

So to cardio you need to use big muscles over and over again, because big muscles require a lot of blood. So what's your over all biggest muscle group? The legs. What workout gives great cardio? Running and biking.

So pretty much if you want to get abs, you have to burn fat. To burn fat, you need to run or bike. If you can't (like IRS winter and you don't have a treadmill), then bodyweight workouts are great.

Now that you did some running it's time to treat yourself to a big greasy hamburger with a side of fires and to finish it off, a brownie melt. Right? Wrong. That's really fatty, thus fating. I'm no expert on what to eat, but if you're trying to lose fat, then lower carbs and more protein is good. I'm no pro, so don't completely change your eating habits because of this.

Good things to eat: nuts, salad, chicken (not the McDonalds kind), tuna, eggs, veggies, fruit, and some pasta. There's more, I'm sure of it.

Bad things to eat: fries, chips, hotdogs, greasy hamburgers, fried dough sugary things like brownies, cookies, etc...

Good things to drink: water, Gatorade, Power-ade, protein drinks, more natural juices (not Kool-aid), tea and milk.

Bad things to drink: soda, Kool-aid, hot chocolate, iced tea, sugary tea, most energy drinks, coffee, alcoholic beverages and poison.

Now, some of these have exceptions to the rule. Like coffee. Coffee can be used the right way in some workouts to help you get more out of it, but usually it's not all that good for you. Another one is alcoholic beverages. Actually having some is good for you to have after some extreme workout (like running a marathon). I guess some people did a big test in these runners and the ones that drank some (not a lot) alcoholic beverages after their big runs recovered faster and got more out of them.

Ok, so don't only load up on things I call healthy and avoid things I call unhealthy because you need a little bit of everything, and I'm no where near being a pro with what and whatnot to eat.

Now to get off the food subject I'd like to mention something called spot fat removal. Spot fat removal is the idea that if you workout one muscle group over and over again, the fat there will go away! So doing tons of ab work will get rid of the fat on your stomach. This is a myth. Granted, doing ab work will make you lose a little fat, but you won't be losing it only in your stomach. You have to work your body out and let your body choose where to lose fat. This is another reason to do cardio, because that's what burns the most fat off of you stomach anyway!

Ab workouts aren't made to make you lose fat, they're to tone and strengthen your core 'muscles'. This is good for people like me, who burn off most of their fat, but are just kind of skinny. Ab workouts also help with almost every sport, because sports require core strength! This does not mean I should stop doing cardio, because I'll get some fat to cover my abs in no time, and I'll be much less fit.

To some up this blog post I'll say that if you want to lose weight and/or get abs, you need to run more, eat healthier (maybe less), and do some ab work in there! Good luck!

Workday!

This past Tuesday I received a call from Tucker asking if I could help him and his family out pretty much all Wednesday. I said I did, so I doubled up on some of my school (some I'm doubling up on today) so I'd have a free day Wednesday. That morning, around 7:20, Tucker, Mr. Frank and I headed over to pick up Kevin and then went over to the Richards' Bridgeton house.

We were the first ones there, and didn't have a key. Tucker, being the one that knows the place the best, showed Kevin and I the back cellar door. The cellar was poorly lit... More like not lit at all. We used our iPhones as flash lights until we found a light switch. After walking through the old cellar we found the trap door that led into the house. For some reason, something was blocking it making it impossible for us to get in without breaking the trap door, which was not worth getting in.

After we found our way out, Kevin and I noticed that the windows looked a ton easier to get in. Which they were. All we needed to do was slide up the window and climb in. So after a little while of Kevin looking around the house (he had never been there and found it really cool), and Tucker and I snacking, Malia showed up. We all then tried to get into the house we were going to work on that day. After trying about 20 keys, Mrs. Richards, Shannon, Colleen, Corrie, and Rebecca showed up with the right key.

After a round of hugs, we started to get setup. When we got a few things out Pastor Sam arrived. The bids was in the house! First off I started with helping the girls start the bonfire by collecting brush and wood. I only did that for a short time and then headed overt the roof project with the guys. We worded on that until around 11:30 then had a lunch break.

Lunch was awesome. I could have been there much, much longer eating and eating, but I had to go back to work!

Most of the rest of my work was on top on the roof or using the nail gun on the supports. After hours of working on the roof we almost finish! Then it started raining. So for the last hour or so we were working in the rain. It was still good, but the roof was metal, so it was getting a little slippery. Luckily we finished before it got too slippery.

It was now becoming dusk. Tucker brought my Airsoft guns I'm letting him borrow. So Tucker and I went into the pine woods. The trees all varied from 5-10 feet, and were pretty dense. This made for a very awesome game. You couldn't see 10 feet in front of you, so it was pretty much all about being stealth, listening, and watching the top of the trees. I knew where he was most of the time. Except once when he sprinted through and I followed him, he suddenly became quiet. I thought he stopped, so I was carefully was looking where I last heard him. Then I heard a snap and pop behind me, and a BB hit me in the back of the neck. He won. It was still awesome though!

After that round Colleen and Danielle (she came during lunch) joined. Colleen and I were on a team, Danielle and Tucker were the other. It was all going well and was pretty even. Then my gun jammed and I couldn't fix it. After that Danielle pinned Colleen and Tucker shot Colleen. So that was the end of it!

After the Airsoft battles we cleaned up and then had snacks and hot chocolate! When everyone was ready, Mrs. Richards brought us Clarkes to our Bible study on the previous sermon.

After the Bible study Kevin, Tucker, Pastor Sam and Corrie showed up. After hellos and goodbyes all of them (except Kevin) went off to their perspective homes. We then brought Kevin home. We all then happily went home to sleep!

This past weekend was quite awesome. First off Casey came over, then Dad dropped me off at Planet Fitness! I worked out for about one and a half hours. I was already a little tired and sore from my previous works outs that week, but I just went around trying a most of the machines. I maxed out two of the leg ones, but still got a good workout from them. Over all I had a great full body workout. The machines are great for abs, core, chest (my chest is still a little sore), legs, arms, and cardio. If all works out well, I'll be setting great personal records in track this year!

When I came back home I showered, and relaxed. I was tired from that week. Lost some sleep and worked out hard all week. Probably a little too hard, so this week I'm going to go a little easier. Shannon and Casey were out shopping, and within a hour or so after I got home they came home. Kevin came over a little later. We hung out and talked, then after supper went to a mini concert that Rebecca was in. From there we went over to the Este's for a "11/11/11" party. We talked, played games, had a fire, looked at the moon and Jupiter (and it's moons) with a telescope that the Estes' had, had great food, and just had a grand time.

That night Casey and Kevin spent the night. In the morning Casey left, and around 11 all of us 'kids' went and picked up Millie at our church and headed to Jenny's mini Deerwander reunion! At the reunion it was just our group, Jenny, her sister (Tina) and their parents. After a bit of snacking and playing games Ben arrived. When he got there we started (more like Mr. Ames did), and we played a little bit of darts, and then a couple games of ninja! Ben, Shannon and I were the people who won most of the games. After our hands started going numb we decided to go inside. While inside we played a bunch of card and board games, and some people made fun of them selves with the Wii.

Once we were all done with the games we had a grand meal. Tons of food, dessert and laughter! When we finished stuffing our selves, we went on a walk in the dark around the neighborhood and went out on a dock and looked around at the stars and the moon and fading light on the horizon... and rocked the dock around to make people scream.

When we returned from the walk, Ben had to go. After the goodbyes, the girls took pictures of everyone (sigh). When they finished taking pictures we headed back to Lewiston to the end of a church game night.

Overall, it was a grand weekend!

Ping Pong

To start this off, I'll just say I'm pretty bad at ping pong. I'm not really that much into it, but it's a fun game to play with friends! Last night Dad, Calvin, Kenan, Mr. Estes and I went to this local ping pong place. I played everybody in our group at least twice, and lost all but on game. I beat Kenan once, but he then beat me the second time. I was pretty even with Dad, but he always beat me by a little. Mr. Estes on the other hand was Mr. Spin. He owned me the first two games, and then just beat me the other two I played with him. Calvin played relaxed against me and still totally beat me, twice. It was an over all very fun night, even though I only won one game. I also got to meat the 60+ year old state champion! He was really good, he beat Calvin, Mr. Estes and my dad pretty handily.

On a side note, today Dad will probably bring me to Planet Fitness to sign up! I'm pretty pumped!

Various Things

This post won't be that exciting, I'm just writing about things that I would like to do with working out.

First off, my dad and I might be getting Plant Fitness passes soon! He wants to get in shape and lose some weight for tennis, and I want to get stronger and faster for track, soccer, and Ultimate. I don't have a ton of good equipment: I only have are a pull-up bar, a homemade forearm roller (too easy now), a heavy hand gripper (awesomely hard), two 20 pound dumbbells (and a way so I can combine them while doing curls), a 10 pound medicine ball (doesn't do much), and last but not least a 40 pound vest (the killer). That's probably more than your average 'home gym', but I can't do any heavy weight lifts with my legs. So going to the gym will give me many other weights, machines, and a good way to workout my legs!

A couple other things I would like to do is get 10-20 pound (per ankle) ankle weights. I mentioned this before. These are great for leg and ab workouts, and if they fit on your wrists, they could be great for arm workouts! The only problem is that to get good quality, heavy ankle weights is that they cost a lot.

Another tool that would be nice is a dip station. With one of these you can do much harder dips, body weight rows, and ab workouts.

Now, if I have the gym pass, I probably wouldn't want these as bad, but it's always nice to have things at home. Also if I get both of those (ankle weights and dip station), I might not really need the gym. I wouldn't have as heavy weights, but I could still do extremely challenging workouts. The main muscle group that a gym would be much better for is the legs. These are the heavy weights things I could do at a gym, but not at home: squats, leg curls, leg extensions, and leg press with calf raise. I guess that eventually the weighted vest and ankle weights with Plyometrics would be almost as good, but kind of hard on the joints.

I guess I'll add these to my wish list! For now, I don't really need the ankle weights or dip station, but in a few months I probably would like to have them. For example: Dips are already getting easier and easier: I dip 5 sets of 50 with the weighted vest on yesterday. That's a lot of toning, but not a ton of strengthening.

Now, to finish this off I'd like to mention that going to the gym would be great for me right now. Not only is it good for building leg strength, it has a much greater variation of weights and machines. The right now the best thing I can do for my chest (probably my weakest [comparatively] muscle group) is a push-up (with variations). At gyms they tend to have a bunch of chest machines and bench pressing benches. That would be awesome for me. Another thing is that my dumbbells can do 20 or 40 pounds. Right now I can curl 40 pounds only 7 times. Usually a good rep number is 10-15. So I'd say a 35 pound dumbbell would be perfect. Also shoulder pressing is very awkward and dangerous with two dumbbells in one hand, and none in the other, while doing one in each hand is too easy. To sum it up, I'd say I would benefit greatly from working out at a gym!

Insulation and Soccer!

Yesterday Kevin, a few guys from our church and I went over to our church around six am to insulate the windows for winter. This was kind of a project because the windows were more than six feet above the floor, and the windows were like 5-10 feet tall. It took is nearly all morning, but I'd say we did a very good job! You could barely even tell there was insulation plastic on the windows! The only problem with this was that I had to do my school in the afternoon, but that's a good advantage to homeschooling!

Now, on to something a bit more fun: soccer! Last night I also had a soccer game in the Topsham dome. A lot of our players were busy or sick, so we invited Calvin to come. He's plays for the local college. I though he'd be good, but not that good... He was probably our best player: fast, smart, skilled and agile. We still ended up losing, but we played MUCH better then we did last week. We actually had nearly as many shots as the other team, but the other team was very skilled and knew how to pick apart our defense, making their shots at a much more open goal than our shots. We lost, 5-0 I believe.

The Great Teen Weekend

Around 4:30pm last Friday Shannon, Colleen and I headed to Camp Goodnews for the Great Teen Weekend! On the way we went to Dunkin' Donuts and got some hot chocolate and Coolettas for the girls!

When we arrived there were not many people I knew, so I went to the restroom while I waited. I came out and there were about 20 people I knew there! A bunch of people I meant through last year's Great Teen Weekend, Teenpact and other various events. After that the fun started. I was among some of my great friends, there was soccer balls, Frisbees, a Foosball table, Ninja, a pool table, a ping pong table, great food, and great studies on being a leader!

I would write about everything I did, but I'm sure you would get bored of reading that, and I really don't feel like writing for a long time... so I'll just write about a few things that happened this weekend!

Probably one of the biggest highlights was the Ultimate and soccer games we had, even though my team didn't really win either. The soccer games were first. My team was pretty awesome. They all were there to have fun... and 4 out of 8 of us were soccer players. It was all fun playing soccer, but I felt a little bad for the non-soccer players. They were kind of out matched by the soccer players, so I was glad when we switched to a much more even sport: Ultimate. In Ultimate my team lost point wise, but got the golden point(the last point), which made it all good.

Overall, I had an amazing time, and can't wait for next year!

Plyometrics!

This post will be about Plyometrics! I have a love-hate relationship with Plyometrics. They are a great workout for me (being a sprinter), but they make me extremely sore until I'm used to doing them!

The reason I procrastinated doing this post is because it'll take awhile to write about... and I haven't done a Plyometric workout in months. I did one Thursday and my legs hated me until Saturday afternoon!

To start it off I'll tell you what Plyometric workouts do. They strength your legs, increase your speed, and increase your explosiveness! Explosiveness helps you start your sprints faster, and increases your jump! This is great for track and field, because a lot of races are won in the first 10-30 meters when you start. Also because there are a lot of jumping events in track. An even more important thing that Plyometrics do are help you in Ultimate Frisbee! Good jumping and running are very important things to have when playing the worlds best sport! Plyometrics pretty much help with any sport (besides golf and other not-so-active sports like that). That's a good enough reason for me to do them!

Alrighty, so because I don't know which workouts are the best, I'll just give you the workout my coach gave me!

To start this one off, you must warm up before hand. You should with all workouts, but this one really needs it! Good warm ups are high knees, rope skippers (pretend you're rope skipping), jumping jacks, torso twists, hug yourself (swing your arms back and forth so you're hugging yourself and swinging your arms out. This stretches your chest, arms and shoulders), and lunges with a hamstring stretch. Don't hold positions for long on the lunges, this is a warm up.

Now for the workout stuff! Try not to take breaks unless otherwise stated! If you have sharp pains or other bars things like that then stop. It's not worth injuries!

PART ONE

Jump Squats. With your feet shoulder width apart, touch the ground with your fingers (bending at the knees, quads parallel to the floor!) and then explode up and jump into the air as high as you can! If you have the celling room, throw your arms up to get a little higher! When you land, try to land softly (by bending at the knees) and touch the floor again. Do 10 jumps!

The next one the Four Count Rhythm Jumps. This time your feet should be slightly less then shoulder width apart. Your legs should be pretty straight, but always bend your knees some when you land so your won't injure your legs or back. Now that you're ready, jump a few inches off the ground three times and then on your forth time bend a little more at the leg and jump as high as you can. Then go back to the small jumps. You should keep a rhythm like: one-two-three-FOUR! One-two-three-FOUR!... Etc. Do this one 10 times. Each 'big' jump is one rep.

The Run-Stance Squat. I really like this one, it burns so much! To do this one, get ready to do a lunge (one foot in front, so that when you go down your legs bend at 90 degrees with your back leg's shin parallel to the floor and your front leg's quad parallel to the floor). Straighten your legs, but keep your feet in the same sport. Now squat down four times to the 90 degree position, then on your forth one jump into the air and switch your legs and do four more, and jump on the last one. Four squats and a jump are one. Do 10 (so 5 on each leg).

Airborne Heisman. This one works your hips and stabilizer muscles more than anything, not a lot of power, so this one will kinda rest your quads a little. To start off put your feet about shoulder width apart and jump to your left, and bring your right foot up so you can grab it with your right hand, and your knee with with your left hand. Hold for a couple of seconds, and jump to the other side. Jumping once to each side is one, do 10.

The next is Step Ups. This one could be hard to do if you can jump high, are tall, and/or have a lowish celling. To do these you also need a sturdy bench that you don't mind getting a little dirty. Now, stand facing the bench and step up on it with one leg and jump off off it, about 6-12 inches in the air. Drive your other leg up. On your way down, land on the same foot you jumped off of, and let your other foot hit the floor. Repeat 10 times, then switch legs and do that 10 times.

Now! The hardest one of all!!! Your water break. Should be less than 3 minutes. You may want to savor these minutes, because you just began!

Now, repeat part one. If you already repeated part one, then go on to part two.

PART TWO

Single Switching Runner Stance Squat. This one is just like the first runners stance squat, but instead of going down four time you switch every single squat. Doing each side once is one. Do 10.

Pogo! Start off with your feet a few inches apart. Then start bouncing your heels an inch off the ground (keeping the weight on the balls of your feet), do this 10 times, then add another inch, so that your feet are barely staying on the floor, do that 10 times, and then add a few inches so you're barely getting off the floor. Do that 10 times. Now add a few more inches and do that 10 times. Next do Four Count Rhythm jumps 10 times and you're done with Pogo!

This next one will make you look dumb. It's called the Circle Run! Yeah. So all you really do is run in a small circle (as small as you can while running) clockwise for 30seconds. Then go counter-clockwise for 30seconds. To run fast in a small circle you have to lean into it. This works your ankles a lot, so this is more of an ankle workout. Not really a speed workout.

Jump Knee Tucks. Very challenging if you don't have much hip or quad strength. To start do a Jump Squat (going low, bending at the knees and then jump as high as you can), but while you're in the air bring your knees to your chest. Make sure you can put them down fast enough so that you can land pretty softly, and not fall backward or land on your tail bone. That would hurt. If you can't bring your knees to your chest and land safely, then just don't bring your knees as high. Repeat 10 times.

Single Leg Jump Knee Tuck. Yeah. This one is probably the toughest workout on here. Do the Jump Knee Tuck but with only one leg. Your other leg should just stay in the up position, or maybe a little lower if that's easier to balance. Do 10 times on each leg. If it's too hard then switch legs every jump.

Now your favorite part! Water break. Once you finish your water break do part 1, water break, and finish with part 2 again.

Make sure you stretch your calves, hamstrings, your quads, and anything else that might be sore, tired or tight! Also don't forget to eat and/or drink some protein!

Driver and Soccer

Well, to start it off I'll tell you what happened today: Shannon got her license!!! Because she's 18 she can drive anyone! I'm pretty pumped, and I'm sure she is too!

Tonight I have an end of the year 'banquet' with my team tonight. Should be pretty fun, and tons of food! Although, it's a sad reminder that I only have one more year of playing soccer on Leavitt's team.

The Push-up

The push-up can be one of the easiest exercises, but with a little bit of variation, can be one of the hardest. I'm going to start with what a 'normal' push-ups is, then the easiest push-up I know, and work my way up to the hardest.

The normal push-up is quite basic, and you probably already know how to do one. Just in case you don't, here it is: to start off get in a 'plank position' (body straight feet and hands on the ground with your arms extended), then let your body down so that your arms are bent at 90 degrees. There are a few variations on the normal push-up that can be still considered "normal". I'll get to those eventually.

The easiest one I know of is "the girl push-up". I don't think it should be named that because most girls can do a normal push-up, but it is what it is. The girl push-ups is just like a normal push-up, but you have your knees on the ground, making your load much lighter and requiring less core strength.

The next up is a incline push-up. This one is just like a normal push-up, but instead of having your arms on the floor or ground, you put them on a solid object 1-3 feet high and do push-ups like that.

The next one up would be the normal push-up, but I'll describe the "normal" variations. The first one is you put your hands under your shoulders or slightly farther down your torso with your arms pretty close to the body. This isolates your chest more than your triceps. The other variation is with your hand at shoulder level, but out wide, not close to the body. This isolates your triceps more than your chest.

The next hardest would probably be a fist push-up. Exactly the same as a normal one except your hands are in fists. This is better for your wrists if you have weak wrists, but can be painful to the knuckles depending on your weight, hand size and what surface you're doing push-ups on. The reason this one is harder than the normal push-up is that you have to balance you body a little more (engaging your core muscles), and you can 'go a little deeper' in your push-up.

The next is the dumbbell push-up. This is in my opinion better than the fist push-up in every way. All you have to do is grab dumbbells while you do push-ups. This is also very good for people with weak wrists. The reason why I think it's better than a fist push-up because it works on your grip a little, and you can go even deeper in this push-up than the fist push-up, and it doesn't hurt your knuckles!

I'd say the next one would be a stacked foot-staggered hand push-up. This one is like a mixture of both the normal push-ups, with your feet stacked (optional, feet stacked makes balancing much harder thus engaging your core). The way you mix the normal push-ups is by putting one of your hand by your side, the other up by your shoulder and out wide. When you go to the down position your arm that is by the shoulder goes out to the side, and the other one by your side goes parallel with your body. Switch hands every 3-5 push-ups. This one works your core a lot more than your normal push-up.

The next one I'd say is the decline push-up. It's pretty much the reverse of an incline push-up. your feet are 1-3 feet off the ground on a solid object, your hands on the floor. This works more shoulder than chest, which maybe what you want! This also makes a lot of blood flow to your head, so be carful.

I'd say the next is the diamond push-up. If you have a really strong core, but weaker shoulders, than this would be easier than a decline push-up. The way you do this push-up is by putting your hands together under you, making a 'diamond' with your hands. Going a little more than 90 degrees is good! This is a fun one!

I'd say a prison cell push-up would go here... A prison cell push-up is like three push-ups in one. To start, put your arms in the air, then snap down, put your hands on the ground and throw/snap your legs back (or walk your legs back if you can't snap or throw you legs back). Now do a push-up, then bring your right knee to your chest, do a push-up, bring your left knee to your chest, then do a push-up and jump into the air ending with your arms in the air. That's one, now repeat!

The dumbbell raise push-up (I made up the name, forgot what it was really called). To do this one do a push-up with dumbbells, once you get up bring one of the dumbbells even with your body, do another one and switch arms! This one varies greatly on the list of push-ups. It all depends on the weight you're using!

The finger push-up. Yeah. This one hurts, unless you have really strong hands. This in this one all you have to do is a push-up, but on the tips of your fingers. I don't like this push-up one bit, but it's great for working on block starts in track.

The next push-up is a single clap push-up. In this one you do a normal push-up, and snap back up, throwing your body up and then you bring your hands together, clapping. On your way down catch your self into the next push-up and repeat! This one could be considered easier than the finger push-up, but that just depends on your body's strength. Warning: if you can't complete this one and try it, it will hurt your face.

Ok, here's the 'cheating' one arm push-up. Do a push-up with one arm, but have the opposite leg out wide balancing your body. Example: your right arm is doing the push-up, so your left leg is out wide.

Now to the great (easy variation) handstand push-up! This one isn't too hard, because you use a wall and spotter. Just do a handstand against a wall, and do some push-ups! Very challenging! Also it works your shoulders, not your chest.

The Plank to Chaturanga Run! This one hurts. To start off get in the 'plank' (up) position of a push-up and start running in place. Do this for ten seconds, then go to the Chaturanga (down, so at least bent at 90 degrees) position and continue running in place, but your legs will be going to your sides. Hold that for 10 seconds, come up and you did one! Repeat! If you have very good cardio and not-so-good strength, then this could be easier than a handstand push-up.

Two clap push-up. Do a clap push-up but clap once in front of your chest, and once behind your back, the try and catch yourself! Tricky one!

Now I'd say the 'real' one arm push-up is next on the list. Just do a fake one with your legs together and in line with your body. Good luck, I haven't done one yet. I've come close, but haven't got it yet!

I'd say the three(+) clap push-up goes here. It's like the two clap, but with three claps, or more if you can! I haven't don't this one yet, though I have gotten three claps, just all in front of chest. This one could be considered easier than a one arm push-up. I put it here because it will probably take some mental power to risk doing it! (unless your are on a mat)

To finish it off I'd say the one hand handstand push-up wins. It's a toughy. I would put a clap handstand push-up next, but I don't even know if that's possible...

Now I must add if you want to make most of the workouts (not the handstand) in here harder, add a decline, or for easier an incline. Another way yo make them harder is to add a weighted vest (recommended) or have someone stand on your shoulders while you do them (not recommend). Oh, and just so you all know, I'm sure there are more variations of the push-up, but I don't feel like looking them all up. These are just the ones I remember.

Push-ups are great full (mainly upper) body workouts and don't require much for equipment, so do them!

Spartans and Babies!

Last night I had my first indoor soccer game! Shannon and I play on a team called the Spartans! Our team is made up of a bunch of people from different churches. It's a open mens league (pretty much saying girls can play, but it's going to be tough). Our team is probably one of the weaker teams. Most teams seem to have college players or fit and skilled men in their 30s. We have a group with a couple younger players such as myself, and some older gentlemen. Only a couple of those more fit and skilled players. I'm more of a fit-but-not-as-skilled-player. I haven't had quite as many years of experience as some of the guys playing have. Now our game went ok. It was really fun, but you could tell we were a new team. We lost 0-5. Also my ankle injury from this past soccer season came back to bite me. I guess I'm going to have research how to recover it.....

Oh, another thing happened last night! My baby niece was born!!! Her name is Adeline Leach! I haven't met her yet, but hopefully I will soon!

Dad's Birthday and the Weather's "Trick"

Last Saturday was my dad's 50th birthday! Colleen and Mom planned a mini surprise party for him (it was a surprise for everyone, because we didn't know who was coming and who wasn't)! The first person to show up was our pastor: Per. He heard that Dad liked chocolate, so he wanted to get him something unique. He sure did. It was chocolate wine. I never heard of it, but Dad let me take a sip of it, and it actually wasn't that bad! That's saying a lot because I really don't like the flavor of wine, and chocolate wine just sounded weird. In a little while our neighbors (the Belangers) showed up and brought in this awesome chocolate cake. We all talked for a bit and then the Kidds showed up and after a little bit more talked everyone but the Kidd kids left and the girls and Darby started raking our yard while Dad, Kevin and I got dirt to fill in the end of our driveway.

After we got a few loads of dirt we spread it out and then Dad let me 'pack down' the dirt with the van. By this time the girls and Darby were about 2/3s done their raking and Kevin and I joined in.

It was becoming dusk when we finished all of our raking. It was getting quite chilly so we all went in and had some hot chocolate. We decided that all the girls would be going to the Richards for this dinner thing with a huge family. All of us guys (Darby, Kevin, Dad and I) went to Longhorn Steakhouse for supper. We had to wait a bit because it was full so we went to Best Buy and looked at different things there.

It was a little over 15 minutes when we headed back to Longhorn and were seated. I was super pumped because I was going to get some ribs. I love ribs! They're so yummy! Ah. I'm getting hungry just thinking about them.....

After some laughs and great food we went outside to leave and go play some pool at a local pool place. That's when the weather played it's 'trick' on us. It was snowing. I mean really, snowing in October! I guess that's the weathers Halloween trick!

Anyway, we played some pool, Dad and Darby vs. Kevin and I. The first game Kevin had an unlucky bounce which barely let the 8 ball roll in a pocket too early, thus making Dad and Darby win. The next game was much closer. I felt bad for Darby though, he hadn't sunk a single ball yet. As the game went in Kevin and I only had one or two balls left while Darby and Dad had the 8 ball left. It was Darby's turn to go, and the Que ball was on the opposite side of the table of the 8 ball. Darby hits the Que ball, making it slowly roll across the table, and actually hit the 8 ball, which rolled even slower into the corner pocket! That made Darby's day, and I'm pretty sure made everyone else's day!

When we finished with pool, we brought Kevin and Darby home, and waited for the rest of the Kidd family to show up and unlock their door. When they did show up, I decided to start my first snowball fight of the season! It was me vs. the Kidd kids. Let's just say years of baseball and dodging random objects for years gave me the upper hand... and I was only hit twice, while I had at least 10 hits. It was a short fight, but was an awesome fight. I love snowball fights!!!