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!