Making the Body Do What the Brain Wants

My left shoulder felt twingey this morning and I figure I slept on it funny. It worried me a bit as I still planned to whack the kickboxing machine. The rainy weather didn't help, and after I got my son on the school bus, it still took me nearly an hour to get myself together enough to head to the gym. I even ate yogurt with maple syrup with my coffee, because I hate being hungry in the middle of my workout. I still got hungry, but it was during the post-boxing cardio.

I like the ritual of affixing the moleskin, tape, cotton wraps and then gloves before I whack the machine. I'd have bruised and battered knuckles otherwise! The first 5 rounds at Beginner truly are the actual warm up, in spite of the prior 10 minutes of furious pedaling on the elliptical. The machine sporadically blanks the screen, and ignores several of my kicks and punches. Sigh. It's going to be one of THOSE days. It's okay. I'm really just here to work on my kicks and punches, improve my reflexes and stamina. Even if I score abysmally, the workout is worth it.

The first round Intermediate is the worst because of its frenetic pace and arbitrary combinations that might or might not be actual commands. I score very low for all three benchmarks. Thank goodness the subsequent rounds are more reasonable. By the time I get to the Advance level, I'm drenched with sweat and panting. But it feels great.

After I unwrap, I spend 20 minutes on the Precor. I've upped the post-boxing cardio to 20 minutes because it's easier to know when the machine will ask you to pedal backwards in the Performance Programs: every 5 minutes since 4 goes into 20 five times. Start out pedaling forward then at the 5 minute mark, pedal backwards until 10 minutes. Then forward again until 15 minute mark. Finally the last 5 minutes pedal backwards. Done. Well, not quite. I need to do some pull ups. My right shoulder is still a bit achy and my forearms are sore from yesterday. Actually my arms are tired from today, but pull ups are a back exercise, not an arm movement. Hence my justification for pulling myself up and keeping my elbows bent. The only real movement is in my back and that's just where I want it. I get 25 reps this way, then drop to a full extension just to see if I can do any real pull ups after this. I get 3 more. Yaaaay!

Tuesday Workout

Elliptical Training

Warm Up

Calorie :   94 CAL
Distance: 0.83 mile
Duration : 00:10:00

Machine KickBoxing

Follow Me

Lap/Rep :  15 Lap/Rep
Duration : 01:00:00

Elliptical Training

Prgm#1

Calorie :   176 CAL
Distance: 1.6 mile
Duration : 00:20:00

Hammer Grip Pull Up

216.53

Set 1 : 112x28

Photos posted for actual stats:

5 rounds Beginner
(I've been better)

5 rounds Intermediate
(The stats look better than my recollection
of the rounds today)

5 rounds Advance
(The first round really kicked my butt, but that was mostly because there were too many ghost commands)