Workout of the Day

So I got sick about three or four weeks ago, and it really kicked me out of my workout routine. My routine was never that set to begin with, but in the weeks since my fitness schedule has been...sporadic at best.

Two weeks ago, I went into Phoenix to grab some work supplies, and I went to the only place in town I could find cheap kettlebells. Just in case you don't know what a kettlebell is, it's basically a cannonball with an iron handle attached to it. These devices have been used since the early 1900's at least, but were brought back into common use here in America by a Russian trainer.

This is an example of KB training.
http://www.expertvillage.com/video/540_kettlebell-clean-jerk.htm

I bought one. Kettlebells aren't cheap, and my 35 pound KB cost me fifty bucks, but it was worth the cost. The 35# KB is a little much for me when I do certain exercises, but all around it's working out well. The KBs seem a little gimmicky at first blush, but you can actually do a whole lot more exercises with them than you could with regular dumbbells, although I'm gonna have to get some dumbbells as well for doing certain exercises like man-makers, for example.

A Milestone

I made it my goal at the beginning of the week to get hardcore and go one week getting a full-blown workout done every day, no matter what. I did it! Every day, at least once a day this week I worked out, and some days it was twice!. Woo-hoo!

The fact that I didn't really have any work this week helped me in getting that goal accomplished, and now I'm making it a goal to go through another week of the same, minus the necessary rest day they recommend tomorrow.

This week my schedule has been thus.

Kettlebell work for power.
Yoga for Regular Guys for cardio and flexibility.
Crossfit training for strength and endurance.
Long fast-walks for leg conditioning and meditation.
Burpees; because they suck, and I hate them.

Burpees

Burpees are the horrible creation of some long-forgotten sadist, and his intellectual heirs have expanded the pain further by introducing variations, such as man-makers, burpulls, burpee box-jumps, etc. All of them make you wish you were never born.

Burpees are known as the prison workout, because they work out just about every major muscle in the body, and can be done in a very confined space, such as a prison cell. They're called burpees because after you do enough of them, you feel like puking. Seriously. Sadly, they work. Here's a video of them for the curious. The video shows burpees, modified burpees, and burpulls. I couldn't do a burpull if my life depended on it and I was hanging over a pit of razor sharp swords, BTW.

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_Burpees.wmv

They're hard to do, and I only realized I can actually do them about two days ago. Before that I didn't think I was capable, but it turned out it was because I has always tried to do them in jeans, and jeans are to constricting. I wish I still didn't know I could do them. :P

Day one I only did about fifteen before my legs were smoked. Today I did sixteen. I think I'll do seventeen tomorrow, rest day be damned. The idea is to do one more burpee every day than I could do the day before, until I can do four hundred in 30 minutes, a feat many regular guys can do. And if they can do it, why not me?

I can feel myself getting stronger day by day. It's awesome.

The work continues...