Saturday's Workout

M and I didn't get home last night until almost 1 a.m., and I was ready to collapse before we managed to open our front door. I'd been up since 4:20 a.m. (CrossFit class waits for no one), and I desperately needed my beauty sleep.

Thankfully, the kids spent the night at their grandparents' place, so we got a couple of extra hours of shut-eye before dragging our asses into the garage to exercise.

"Isn't it pathetic?" M mused. "For once, the boys aren't here, and we could have gone out to brunch or the Farmer's Market or something. We could have gotten a ton of stuff done. But instead, we decided to work out in the garage."

Answer: Yes, we are pathetic.

M worked out to her Chalene Johnson DVDs while I did another day of my (customized and expanded) Power to the People program:

• 2 sets of 5 deadlifts
• 2 sets of 5 side presses
• 2 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups
• 2 sets of 10 weighted push-ups
• Handstand practice

And then, for no good reason (other than because we weren't in danger of being interrupted by a five-year-old demanding food), I pulled out my Insanity DVD set and did the Plyometric Cardio Circuit routine.

Big mistake.

At the time, it felt nice to get reacquainted with the pace and exercises in Shaun T's workouts. Having not done an Insanity workout in weeks, I even felt a wee bit nostalgic about the pulsing, mildly-annoying background music. The moves were just as challenging as I remembered, and I certainly broke a sweat.

But did I overextend myself today? Definitely. I'm zonked. After dinner, sitting beside my two-year-old as he watched a cartoon, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I realized that I'd collapsed on my toddler, and was using a small child as a pillow.

Wednesday's Workout

When I drove up to my CrossFit gym for my morning workout, it was still dark. Looking back, I probably should have stayed in bed.

Today's torture:

5-5-5-3-3-3 Front Squats (I'm continuing to work on my form, so I'm still just shy of lifting the equivalent of my bodyweight)



4 rounds (for time) of:

400-meter Cradle Carry (run 400 meters while lugging a 45-pound weight plate)
15 pull-ups

It took me almost 20 minutes to finish all four rounds -- much of which was spent trying to: (1) catch my breath, and (2) get the feeling back in my arms.

When I got home, M was just starting her ChaLEAN Extreme workout, so I popped the Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit DVD in the player and did that, too. Bad idea. By the end of Shaun T's 40-minute beat-down, I was dead tired, and it wasn't even 7 a.m. yet.

Round 3 / Day 72: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

I finished Plyometric Cardio Circuit without taking any mid-set breaks -- not even during the dreaded Ski Abs / In-Out Abs sequence!

It's kind of pathetic of me, though, to point to "not taking extra breaks" as some sort of awesome fitness milestone.

Round 3 / Day 35: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit + One-on-One with Tony Horton - Killer Abs

I'd planned on just doing Killer Abs today, but threw in Plyometric Cardio Circuit for good measure. And M joined me for it!

Sweaty, good times.

Round 3 / Day 2: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Having done more than a few push-ups yesterday, it wasn't easy staying in plank position for the repeated Level 1 Drill / Ski Abs / In-Out Abs sequences in today's Plyometric Cardio Circuit workout. But overall, revisiting this familiar workout turned out to be more pleasant than I'd expected. It's nice to finally be able to finish an Insanity session (albeit a non-Max one) without collapsing afterwards.

Post-Round 2 Recovery Week: Original Turbulence Training Workout A + Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

And now for something completely different.

I know I'm only a few days into my post-Round 2 recovery week, but I got a little restless this morning and decided to give Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training a try.

The super-ripped Ballantyne (pictured above) -- a fitness trainer, author and entrepreneur -- has been developing and refining his Turbulence Training workout program over the past decade. Using his website, he sells downloadable e-books that guide users through various iterations of Turbulence Training; in addition, paying members can access Ballantyne's online forum (similar to the Beachbody.com forums) to get coaching, support and advice.

Knowing that some of you have had success with one or more of Ballantyne's programs, I started looking into Turbulence Training a while back. Initially, I was turned off by the sheer ugliness of the Turbulence Training website -- it's cluttered and difficult to navigate, and its dizzying use of various font sizes, styles and colors made my eyeballs want to shrivel up like prunes and fall out of my head. Even more problematic was the fact that I couldn't differentiate between the products and packages offered for sale. Ballantyne desperately needs to hire a new web designer. (Of course, it's very possible that I'm just a tasteless idiot.)

But once I finally decided to plunk down $40 for the "Basic" Turbulence Training package and flipped through the materials, I was impressed by the content. Ballantyne's created a number of different exercise routines suitable for beginners and advanced athletes alike. Each workout combines brief (but intense) supersets of compound heavy-resistance exercises and interval training, giving users a full-body workout that doesn't eat up hours of time. Turbulence Training's greatest selling point is that it's meant to help you torch calories, burn fat, and build muscle -- all in a time-efficient way. Each workout is designed to take only about 45 minutes in total.

More after the jump...

Round 2 / Day 37: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

A half-hour after this morning's (rather grueling) workout, my preschooler ambled sleepily into the kitchen, muttered "good morning" and gave me a half-hearted hug.

He then started coughing violently and croaked: "Ugh! Dad -- your body smells FILTHY."

That's a sign of a good workout, my little friend.

Round 2 / Day 30: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Another Insanity workout completed without taking any extra breaks!

I don't want to jinx myself, but I feel like I'm getting the hang of this.

Round 2 / Day 23: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

I really, really, really hate Ski Abs and In & Out Abs.

That is all.

Round 2 / Day 16: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Plyometric Cardio Circuit was intense this morning -- M and I both tried to get through all the exercises, but had to take unplanned rest breaks intermittently. For me, Ski Abs and In/Out Abs are the toughest moves to get through, especially given that they're at the very end of the workout. But when we finished, we both felt like we accomplished something today. Not bad, considering it wasn't even 7 a.m. yet.

Round 2 / Day 9: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Today's workout was exhausting and I took more breaks than planned, but because I've completed the Plyometric Cardio Circuit workout once before, the familiar sequencing of the moves made for a less bewildering experience. And now that I've had a chance to repeat this video, I can honestly and objectively report that In-Out Abs and Ski Jumps were forged in Hell by Satan himself.

Round 2 / Day 2: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Based on this morning's workout, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if I ended up hospitalized sometime during my attempt to complete Insanity.

Plyometric Cardio Circuit starts with a bang. You start with a quick series of brisk jogging in place, jumping jacks, Heisman plyo moves, then some Heisman 1-2-3s (similar to the P90X Plyo Heismans with high knees, but faster), butt kicks, high knees, and mummy kicks. The sequence is repeated three times, and Shaun T demands that you push harder and faster with each iteration. After 10 minutes of this, we get a 30-second water break. At this point, I felt pretty good, until I was reminded that this was only the warm-up.

More after the jump...