Slight Improvement

Knife Draw x 200, Grand Total: 5600

Intuflow (RPT 8, RPE 2, RPD 1)

FlowFit (RPT 7, RPE 9, RPD 2)

Swedish in the car

It's still hot today, but much better than yesterday. So, I managed 13 rounds of FlowFit in 17:30 today. I did make one break for 20 seconds or so, but other than that it was "continuous". The quotes are because I had to do things like pause for a breath or two at the bottom of various movements, especially the mountain climbers. The week and a half off is very apparent. I felt like I was going to die by round 10 (incidentally, that's the round after which I stopped for my mini-breather). And there was still 30 seconds on the clock after round 13. I should have done another round, since I've decided to go more for time than reps, but damn I was exhausted.

In other news, one of the awesome Personal Trainers that works in the gym at my workplace has decided to offer a 10 week MMA (that's mixed martial arts for those not in the know) class. Or rather a series of them. I signed up for the Tuesday/Thursday morning 8am class, and I should know tomorrow whether or not I got the schedule I wanted or if I got waitlisted. This class won't work well with my 4x7 schedule, but oh well, it seems like an awesome opportunity.

So freakin' hot

FlowFit (RPT 7, RPE 8, RPD 1)

10 rounds of FlowFit. As expected after a week off, it was not continuous. *sigh* maybe next cycle.

It's over 90 degrees in my living room as I write this. It's nearly 10pm, and it's still over 90 degrees. I'm going to take a cold shower and go to sleep.

Pestilence strikes again

Knife draw x 500, Grand Total: 5400

My cold is getting bad. It's supposed to be a Low Intensity day, but I'm taking the day off to rest. I was going to just do 100 reps, but I was watching TV and ended up going for 500. Now my elbow is sore and hand is cramping up.

Damn

FlowFit (RPT 7, RPE 9, RPD 3)

Pullups (negatives and assisted)

Only 16 rounds of FlowFit today. Seeing as how I did 15 last High Intensity day, that's not great. On the other hand, it was 16 continuous rounds, so that's cool (and that took me about 18:15). I feel like I pushed it too hard yesterday, so I didn't have enough energy for a really good workout. I ended up pausing for breath in most of the individual exercises on the last few rounds. Still, that's closer to the goal than taking 90 second breathers every 3 or 4 rounds, which is what I had to do last FlowFit cycle.

On the pullup front, I very nearly managed a pullup tonight. I was going to wait until next Medium day to try, but I couldn't stop myself. I got about 90% there. I just couldn't bring my chest to the bar. I immediately made a second attempt, which got me about 2/3 of the way up. Then I jumped right into negatives, of which I did 5 total. I finished up with some assisted pullups (6, I think). I don't know that I'll hit my goal of 20 pullups, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do 2 or 3 by the end of this cycle.

Checking In

I haven't posted much lately, not because I'm not doing flash cards, but because flash cards are pretty boring when it comes to posting. Save for a couple of missed evenings, I've been pretty good about the flash cards this week and last, and I'm slowly gaining confidence with the forty-some-odd words that I've been concentrating on for the last week of so. Once I've got those down, maybe some time next week, I'll start the whole bunch in rotation using the Leitner System. Last week, while yomping, I listened to سورة ق(Surat al Qaf (an Arabic letter)) and سورة الذاريات‎ (Surat ad Dhariyat, "The Winnowing Winds"). Next up is سورة الطور (Surat at Tur, "The Mount"), which I'll be doing as a reading/listening exercise, maybe tonight if I can squeeze it in.

I mentioned last week that I've started working out, and I'm going to add that to my "reps" posts starting next week. Last week, I think I swam three times and yomped once. I'm going for at least the same thing this week, although if I don't swim today then it's likely that it will be three and one again. Next week, my hope is to start adding pushups and situps. I'll blog about it as it happens. Until then, take care, keep up on your own reps if you're doing something, and all hail Chops!

Non-stop action

Knife draw x 200, Grand Total: 4900

Intuflow (RPT 8, RPE 2, RPD 1)

FlowFit (RPT 7, RPE 7, RPD 3)

Pullup Stuff

Well, I hit 11 rounds of FlowFit level 3 today. Mrs Chops stopped at 10, since there was only 30 seconds left on the clock, but my goal was actually 12 minutes of continuous FlowFit, so I kept going and finished the round after the timer went off. It ended up being something like 12:40. The most "rest" I had was pausing for an extra breath or two between rounds. Given that, I'm pretty impressed that I was able to keep the RPT up pretty well.

I debated on whether or not to even attempt a pullup this week or just stick with the negatives. In the end, I gave it a shot. I got about 3/4 of the way up to the bar, which is actually pretty awesome for me. After that, I did a negative for 12 seconds, then after some rest, another for 7 seconds. Finally, finished up with 5 assisted pullups. I'm now very optimistic about my chances of doing one unassisted dead hang pullup on the next microcycle. This actually makes my night. I'm still smiling.

The Rollercoaster

Knife draw x 200, Grand Total: 4700

BER Prasara Yoga (RPT 8, RPE 4, RPD 2)

Intuflow (RPT 6, RPE 2, RPD 1)

Just felt kind of off with the Intuflow today, not at my best. I wonder if it's anything to do with this cold I'm coming down with.

I can't believe how awesome I felt after the Prasara, though. Holy crap, more people should try it. It's good. My soreness from the pullups is gone, for now anyway. I'm sure it'll be back in the morning.

Back to 200 reps with the knife today. I was actually going to shoot for 300, but my hand was getting tired, so I called it quits at 200.

Restful Day

Knife draw x 100, Grand Total: 4500

Intuflow (RPT 8, RPE 2, RPD 1)

No intensity day yesterday, so I just did some Intuflow, paying attention to what hurts (lats and biceps from the pullups). I also did my knife work. I had planned on doing more, but it was actually difficult to get the 100 reps in as it was.

Negative Progress?

Knife draw x 100, Grand Total: 4400

Intuflow (RPT 9, RPE 2, RPD 1)

FlowFit (RPT 7, RPE 9, RPD 2)

Pullups (Negatives, Assisted)

Did my knife reps while barbecuing dinner. Nothing special, still working on minimizing extraneous movement during the drawstroke.

We did 15 rounds of FlowFit level 3 in 18 minutes, which, upon further contemplation, is awesome. Two Months ago, we got up to 18 rounds of level 2 in 18 minutes, and now we're already up to 15 in 18. If I hit 18 in the next microcycle or two, I'm going to have to stretch the time out to 20 minutes. Which is cool because that was the original goal for this quarter, 20 reps in 20 minutes, but I think I was talking about level 2. I'm going to have to go back and check on that.

I managed to hold my first negative of the evening for 9 seconds. Tonight I rested in between for 5 minutes between rounds. The second round I did 2 negatives, the first one for nearly 8 seconds, the second was closer to 4. Another five minute rest and I had a 6 second negative followed by 5 assisted pullups (feet on a chair behind me). At this rate, I might actually be able to do 2 consecutive pullups at the end of this 4x7.

Enough push, how about some pull?

Knife draw x 200, Grand Total: 4300

Intuflow (RPT 7, RPE 1, RPD 1)

FlowFit (RPT 7, RPE 7, RPD 2)

Some Pullups, sort of.

8 rounds of FlowFit today. After round 8, there was 40 seconds left on the clock, so I didn't go for round 9. I think RPE-wise, I could have stacked another round on there and been fine. I'll try to do with a little less rest next Medium day.

After I was mostly cooled down, I took out the pullup bar and did a couple assisted (by my legs on a chair) pullups. Then a brief rest followed by a couple of negatives. A couple of sources say that if you can make a negative last for 8-10 seconds, you can probably do a pullup. My longest negative was almost 5 seconds. Still quite a ways to go there.

Re-evaluation

Knife draw x 200, Grand Total: 4100

Intuflow (RPT 7, RPE 2, RPD 1)

BER Prasara Yoga flow (RPT 7, RPE 3, RPD 2)

I did 100 knife draws yesterday, even though I didn't blog it. I did 200 today in the back yard while the kids were playing. This week I came to realize that my draw was too big, using as much shoulder movement as elbow movement. This is bad, for various reasons I don't feel like going into right now. After I had that (admittedly minor) epiphany, I've been working on making the draw smaller, more economical instead of drawing on the move, which was originally going to be my focus for the week.

Yoga day today. Pigeon pose especially felt great today. I really think I managed to release most of the tension on my hip flexors. The supine bridge (I actually don't know the yoga name for this pose, it's basically a back bridge on your shoulders instead of your head like I used to do back in my wrestling days) also helped there. Overall, I feel like my form on these poses is getting much better, and that means better compensation for my workouts and more tension released.

Super Fly Update

Okay, so, I haven't been as diligent this week as I have in some recent weeks. I've missed a couple of flash card sessions due to late nights or just forgetting to do the cards right after my صلاة (salat, "prayer") time في الصباح (fi as subuh, "in the morning"). Even so, I've only missed one or two times this week. During the last couple of weeks, I'd been doing the same fifty cards over and over again to learn those new words I put down. Now, I'm doing the next forty-five-ish cards to learn those words. Once I've done that, and fixed the cards that have issues (five or six at the moment), I think I'm going to finally take Chops' advice and start using the Leitner System of spaced repetition.

I've also started something that I'm hoping to turn into a secondary "repetitions" and/or accountability project for posting on this blog: physical training/exercise/working out. Since last Wednesday, I've been in the pool four times. I'm hoping to get to work at a reasonable hour today and go for a yomp this afternoon. The physical training plan I hope to (eventually) implement can be seen on the bottom of the sidebar at my blog, and includes swimming, yomping, pushups, and situps, with a possibility of eventually doing pullups. I may try to start the formal program next week, given that I've got momentum at the moment and want to keep going on it. The yomping seems to be the tough thing to motivate myself to do, but if I can get in the habit of doing one per week, I'll be golden.

Since Tuesdays and Thursdays are my designated Arabic days, and Tuesday evening was beyond chaotic, my plan is to do a Quran reading and maybe another chapter from my textbook this evening when I get back from work. If I do, I'll note it. In the mean time, have a fantastic day, kids.

Long way to go

Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 3780

FlowFit (RPT 7, RPE 9, RPD 2)

Only had time for 60 reps with the knife today. Busy busy. I did get 12 rounds of FlowFit level 3 done in 18 minutes, though. And even if I'd had another 5 minutes, I was done at 12. I had to slow down and concentrate very hard on keeping my RPT up for the last 2 rounds.

I talked to Mrs Chops today about me getting back into regular martial arts practice. Since I'm getting back on the Crazy Monkey wagon, we decided that if I could find a local training partner, I could have one night a week to work out. Also, I can go see one of the Coaches up in the North Bay once every month or two for a private lesson. Yay. Now I just need to find somebody in the area who wants to box in my back yard.

Explosions

Knife draw x 100, Grand Total: 3720

Intuflow Intermediate (RPT 7, RPE 2, RPD 2)

FlowFit x 7 (RPT 6, RPE 6, RPD 2) Level 3

2 x 2 minute rounds of shadow boxing

some pullup type activity on a tree in the back yard

Before dinner tonight, the kids were playing in the back yard. I was out there supervising, so I took the opportunity to knock out a couple of rounds of shadow boxing. I pounded on the heavy bag a little, but not enough to really document. I also did some pullups on a tree with leg assist (I was standing on the kids' slide).

The Mrs and I decided to kick the FlowFit up a notch and try the level 3 movements. I was worried that it would hurt my pace and get me less of a workout in the same amount of time, since some of the movements take more time. I worried for nothing. Sure, it's going to be difficult to hit the same numbers of reps, but it's still kicking my ass. The movements are a lot more explosive. For instance, the quad squat become a quad hop, where you bounce entirely off the ground, and the rotating table becomes the springing tripod, where you're bouncing your whole upper body off the ground with one arm. It's a pretty intense workout.

I noticed something else about RPE after this exercise. For those that don't know, RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion. If sitting on your ass watching TV is a 1, then a 10 is the hardest you've ever worked in your life. Before I started working out, I pretty much had two speeds, 1 and 10. Either I was surfing the internet or I was drenched in sweat, barely able to breath. As I continue my working out, the various levels in between are getting more pronounced. Since I'm a sweat hog and will break a sweat just wandering around the kitchen, I have to think about things like heart rate, breathing rate, and speed of recovery to gauge my RPE. At the end of today's session, I would have said it was an 8. I was sweating and breathing hard. But then I noticed that I recovered my breathing to a normal-ish state very quickly, and my heart wasn't thumping scary hard in my chest. After taking that into consideration, I revised my RPE down to a 6. Overall, I think that's a good indicator that my level of fitness is improving.

Yarr

BER Yoga Compensation (RPT 7, RPE 4, RPD 2)

Yesterday I did 100 knife draws, but didn't blog it, and today I'm blogging my workout, but I didn't do any knife draws.

Today's yoga was pretty good, even if the kids were literally running around, over, and under the wife and I as we were doing it. I felt like I got deeper than usual into most of the poses. I should totally be doing Intuflow, but I'm not in the mood. I've been cranky all day.

Another milestone

Knife Draw x 100, Grand Total: 3520

BER Fatloss Circuit C (RPT 8, RPE 9, RPD 2)

Swedish in the car

Okay, so I only listened to Swedish during the morning commute today, so I'll dock half a point there. Still, I've listened to lesson 7 three times now (okay, only two since I got back on the wagon this week), and I'm starting to get it. Sad, because these are supposed to be one lesson per day. Oh well.

No Intuflow today. The kids got to bed late, so I'm in a hurry to get worked out and go to bed. Again. It's kind of a theme for this week.

Last workout of the Fat Loss 4x7. In case you're keeping score, I can now hit the spinal rock to deck squat at will. I think I fumbled one of those, during the last round. I didn't lose a lot of weight during this cycle, but true to the name, I burned off quite a bit of fat and replaced it with muscle. Mrs. Chops didn't like the exercises in this workout though, so I'm thinking we'll do another FlowFit based 4x7 next. I'll show her videos of the various options, such as the other BER workouts (General Athleticism, Functional Hypertrophy, and Longevity) and maybe Forward Pressure, and see what she feels like doing. No matter what, I'm going to work pullups into the next cycle. I've made zero progress towards that goal. And I actually don't even remember what my other specific goals were. Since the family isn't going to leave me for the summer, I probably won't get to go play parkour anyway. Maybe I should just start running.

Ugh

Knife Draw x 100, Grand Total: 3420

Intuflow (RPT 8, RPE 2, RPD 1)

BER Fatloss Circuit C (RPT 7, RPE 7, RPE 2)

Swedish in the car

Today was supposed to be Medium Intensity, but the amount of rest between rounds has been decreased to 15 seconds. I really had to slow down my reps to keep my RPE under 8. As far as Intuflow, I'm probably 75% on the Intermediate program now. Good workout, all around.

So sleepy, going to bed now.

Back on the Wagon

Knife Draw x 100, Grand Total: 3320

BER Prasara Yoga flow x 3 (RPT 7, RPE 4, RPD 2)

Swedish in the car

Ooooh, the daily status list is getting to look a little like old times. As you can see from the last two posts, I'm back on the knife work. I upped the reps to make up for lost time. I didn't do anything fancy, but since I had planned to work on drawing on the move this quarter, I did all my drawing while walking around my living room and kitchen. It's not exactly as I had planned, but I think it's going to work for a while.

Yoga went well. I felt pretty good about my form in some poses, but some were kind of mediocre. In general, I got better towards the end of the set. I have chronically tight hip flexors, so pigeon pose is my absolute favorite. Rather than try to explain it, here's a video:

Oh yeah...

Knife draw x 100, Grand Total: 3220

Stabby McStabbin is back.

Ichiban Mumtaz

When I was originally taking Arabic, I was in the class with two active duty Marines who were getting their commissions. I think that both of them had been stationed in Japan, so when we learned the word for "excellent" or "fantastic" (ممتاز, "mumtaz"), they paired it with Japanese for "number one" ("ichiban" - I'm not going to try to get a translation because Chops will berate me if I botch it) to get "number one excellent" - "ichiban mumtaz". Today, I've been ichiban mumtaz.

So, I did my fifty-ish flash cards, both this morning after my Bible and BCP readings, and upon returning from work. (There are a few of them that have been yanked for one reason or another, mainly ones that need to be fixed, so it's not quite fifty.) I think I mentioned previously that I've been using the same fifty cards for going on two weeks now, because they're new and I want to get to know those words. Once I've got those ones down pat, I'll switch to the next fifty, the combined total of which are those flash cards that I finally did a few weeks ago after taking forever to just sit down and do them. So, anyway, forty-five-ish flash cards, twice today, which is a habit that I was pretty good about last week and have been good about so far this week.

After I'd finished with the flash cards, I did another study-reading from the Quran, this time being سورة الحجرات (al Hujurat, "The Apartment"/"The Chambers"). (Apparently God inspired Muhammed to write an entire chapter on how people shouldn't disturb him when was in his digs. Who knew?) Once that was done, I finally, at long last, broke out the Ahlan wa Sahlan textbook and did the CD-accompanied exercises for the first chapter. At some point, I'm going to have to start going through the lessons beforehand, it's going to take additional time, and then I'm going to have to do the audio bit; for now, though, it's all review, and pretty easy review at that, so it only took the eleven or so minutes for the first track of the CD. It's all stuff that I knew, but I want to go through the book from start to finish, just to make sure that I don't miss anything.

So, the results so far this week are fantastic. Also, I'm about to go hit the pool, which is a great thing, and could result in me emulating Chops by transitioning into a second bloggable activity. That, ladies and gentlemen, is great success at its finest.

Yay

BER Fatloss Circuit C (RPT 8, RPE 9, RPD 3)

Some lingering soreness in my knee from tweaking it yesterday. I took it easy on the one-legged squats by keeping my free leg toe on the ground to stabilize the descent. Also, I can still hit the spinal rock to deck squat, at at least 50% reliability.

It's late. I'd love to say I'm going to do Intuflow now, but I'm probably going to go to sleep as soon as I stop sweating.