Wednesday, November 30, 2011

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...

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

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!

Monday, November 28, 2011

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!

Friday, November 18, 2011

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!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

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!

Monday, November 14, 2011

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!

Friday, November 11, 2011

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!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

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!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

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.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

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!

Friday, November 4, 2011

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!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

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.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

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!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

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!