Training blog - page 17

Day one hundred and nine: Wednesday 24 May 2006

Yoga.  Before starting this session of Yoga, I warmed up by doing two sets of 30 hand grip squeezes.  Just to update on this particular exercise, my forearms are showing signs of developing and Monday's biometric strength readings appear to back up the visual signs.  Two sets of 30 reverse curls and ab crunches followed and as always, by the end of each exercise, my abs felt like they were on fire.

Moving on to this evening's Yoga, I started by doing several warm up exercises.  Firstly, I tuned in and followed this by doing spinal twists, shoulder shrugs, neck rolls, leg stretches and a spread stretch.

I wanted to focus today's session on Hatha Yoga, so most Hatha exercises were performed.  A mountain pose (Tadasana) was first, shortly followed by the open angle pose (Upavista Konasana).  A reclining pose (legs up the wall pose (Viparita Karani)) came next.  Next, I settled into a bridge pose (Setu Bandhasana) and decided that a downward-facing dog pose (Adho Mukha Savasana) would benefit me next.  A spinal twist (Ardha Matsyendrasana) followed, along with a tree pose (Vrksasana), which was performed on both legs.  The child's pose (Mudhasana) was the final Hatha pose performed this evening.

To complete tonight's session, I relaxed into a corpse pose, which I held for approximately 3 minutes.

Day one hundred and ten: Thursday 25 May 2006

Bike.  Today's ride took me on a 30.54 mile round trip at an average speed of 16.4mph.  Although this was a training ride aimed at "getting the miles in", the main emphasis was to reach a location to fundraise.

My legs felt fresh and strong, and having worked on body conditioning since January, preparing for the mountains, I estimate I have increased in physical strength by 40/50%.

Over the next eight weeks or so, I will be working on endurance, speed and continuing the gym and yoga work.

Day one hundred and eleven: Friday 26 May 2006

Gym.  Today I concentrated on increasing the weight load on certain exercises and introducing my legs to these to see how tolerant my muscles were to it.

Firstly, I leg pressed the current weight of 250kg (3 sets of 10 reps) and then moved on to leg extensions where my legs raised 85kg (225lbs) for the very first time.  Predictably, after 6 or 7 reps of each set, my quadriceps were burning so I had to dig very deep to do the remaining 3 or 4 of each set.

Leg curls came next and my hamstrings managed 3 sets of 10 reps at 50kg.  On the 6th rep of the last set, I could no longer curl a full rep, only about 85/90% of maximum travel.  Inner thigh squeeze resistance went back up to 165lbs for the two sets of 20 reps.  At this weight, the muscles worked did fatigue by the start of the second set.  Again, I had to carry on through the intense burning sensation to complete the maximum workout.

Unfortunately on outer thigh pushes, I had a muscle tweak so only managed the one set of 20 reps at a resistance of 115lbs.  Torso twists remained unchanged, before I moved on to  the tricep pulldown machine.  I could only manage 5 reps at 20kg; I experienced severe elbow pain, so I decided to abort rather than risk longer term damage.

Finally, I did the usual two sets of 20 reps on the 'Superman' ball.

Day one hundred and twelve: Saturday 27 May 2006

Rest day.

Day one hundred and thirteen: Sunday 28 May 2006

Yoga.  Firstly, yesterday's rest day was spent at the RSPCA shop in Queens Road, Norwich.  I raised a further £63.99 which has been added to the total sum raised / pledged.  During my time there, I met some wonderful people who gave me so many compliments and kind words of praise and good luck.  Thanks to everyone who popped into the shop to sponsor me.

Before starting the Yoga, I did my forearm development exercises (two sets of 30 reps), followed by the same number of reverse curls and ab crunches. 

This evening's yoga session was centered around classic yoga postures.  Firstly, I did three neck exercises and repeated each of these five times.  Next, I performed five eye exercises aimed at working eye muscles.  Four of these workouts were repeated 10 times each.

I then moved on to core exercises, firstly performing a classic Cobra pose (Bhujangasana) which I held for approximately 30 seconds, then a half locust pose (Ardha Salabasana) on each leg and a very similar pose called a Locust pose (Salabasana) where both legs are raised simultaneously.  After this, I tried a Bow pose (Dhanurasana) which during the passing months I have consistently attempted.  Unfortunately I am still unable to do this posture.

The next group of postures performed were the following:  a Head to knee pose (Janusirshasana), a Forward bending pose (Paschimothanasana) and a Shoulder stand (Sarvangasana).  The latter is extremely difficault for a beginner like myself to perform 100% correctly but I am pleased to say that my legs and back are gradually straightening to a more vertical position.

Next, I settled into a Fish pose (Matsyasana), which I performed twice; the first time I was not convinced that my posture / positioning was correct.  However, the second attempt was textbook.  A Half spinal twist (Ardha Matsyendrasana) followed, which I performed on both sides and the penultimate pose of today's session was the Yogic seal (Yoga mudra).

As always recommended to me, I finished relaxing into a Corpse pose, which I held for two and a half minutes.

Day one hundred and fourteen: Monday 29 May 2006

Yoga.  With today being Bank Holiday, Lakenham Sports and Leisure Centre was closed. 

Training on the bike has been temporarily halted as I have recently ordered a pair of sunglasses which automatically adjust to changes in light conditions, without changing lens.  These will be extremely useful particularly when riding in the mountains; I am told light quality regularly changes at high altitude.  I am expecting to collect them on Wednesday, when I will resume training rides on the bike. 

As any regular cyclist will tell you, wasps and other insects cause havoc when in deep concentration, riding at speed.  Recently, there have been significantly more insects around than I can ever recall previously and several have flown into my eyes at such an intensity that I have  suffered with temporary blurred vision.  Fortunately there were no motor vehicles around at the time these incidents occured.

This morning, I did the usual quantity of forearm development exercises followed by reverse curls (two sets of 30 reps) and the same number of ab crunches.

On to today's Yoga session.  I wanted to focus primarily on Viniyoga.  Firstly, I performed a standing forward bend, which I repeated five times.  Next came five upward legs and arms stretch, followed by five bridge pose reps, five cobra poses and the same number of knee to chest postures.

Before performing a couple of Iyengar postures, I settled into a corpse pose for approximately two minutes.  Shortly afterwards, I performed a Triangle pose (Uttihita Trikonasana) and a Warrior pose II (Virabhadrasana).  It is also worth mentioning that to do these two postures, I started out in a Mountain pose (Tadasana).  

Day one hundred and fifteen: Tuesday 30 May 2006

Gym.  Rather than starting the day at the gym, I firstly did the usual forearm development exercises (two sets of 30).

At the gym today, the only exercise not attempted was leg presses.  I increased the weight loads/resistance on three workouts today.

I did twelve exercises in the following order and weights :-  calf raises, 3 sets of 15 reps at 100kg (an increase of 10kg), leg extensions, 3 sets of 10 reps at 85kg (unchanged) and the upright rowing bar at bar weight plus 5kg weight disks (3 sets of 15 reps).  These were followed by:-  torso twists (2 sets of 20 reps per side) at 25kg.

Tricep pulldowns followed and I managed significantly more of them on this visit than the previous one.  I persevered with a weight load of 20kg even though my elbow was still in pain today and managed a full first set of 20 reps, followed by a second set of 11 reps and a final set consisting of 10.  'Superman' ball raises came next and I did the usual two sets of 20 reps.

The second weight increase came on inner thigh squeezes, where I decided to further increase resistance from 165lbs to 170lbs.  I managed these fairly comfortably and performed the usual two sets of 20 reps.  Outer thigh pushes (two sets of 20 reps) were unchanged at a resistance of 115lbs.  Again, hip flexor raises (45.3 kg)were unchanged at three sets of 15 reps per leg. 

However, the final change came in total hip kickbacks, where as predicted, I increased the resistance from 73kg to 80kg.  I managed to perform the usual three sets of 15 reps per leg at the heavier resistance.  Next, I did some leg curls and strangely found my hamstrings asleep on the first set, where most reps were curled at about 85% of the maximum travel.  On the second set, the first 8 reps were pulled by the hamstrings at the complete distance so that the lower legs reached my gluteal muscles, with the final two reps not quite reaching maximum distance.  For the third set, my hamstrings did not seem to respond and most reps did not reach the gluteal muscles.  I left the leg curl machine and was left puzzled as to why the hamstrings responded on the middle set only.  Maybe this is a question that my instructor can answer. 

I completed today's session by performing 3 sets of 20 pullovers with a 15kg dumbell.

Yoga.  Before starting tonight's yoga session, I did 2 sets of 30 reverse curls and the same number of ab crunches.

Today's yoga was centered on Hatha postures.  I started with a mountain pose (Tadasana) - an ideal starting posture as it balances the body and mind.  An open angle pose (Upavista Konasana) followed, which I held for a little over a minute.  Afer this, I performed a legs up the wall pose (Viparita Karani), then a bridge pose (Setu Bandhasana).  Both of these postures were held for 60 seconds.  A spinal twist (Ardha Matsyendrasana) was performed shortly after, with a tree pose (Vrksasana) coming next.  The tree pose was performed twice by balancing on each leg.

I wound up tonight's session by doing two relaxation postures - a child's pose (Mudhasana) followed by a standard corpse pose, which I held for approximately 3 minutes.

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