KEMPO X!!

My neck is feeling much better today. Although my neck is still sore, I am able to move my head and neck more freely than I was able to yesterday. That meant I could push hard again =D

Today we slept in and didn't even hear the alarm clock go off. The kiddos woke up at 6:30 and knocked on our door wondering why we were not in the garage working out. Isn't that awesome!! Even our kids are making sure we work out now, I love it!

We waited until the afternoon to do our workout since it's harder when all three kids are around. Of course the downside to working out in the afternoons now is that it is warmer later on in the day. Anyway, enough about that. On to our workout.

As I mentioned we did Kempo X. We love Kempo X and we tend to push harder and harder each time. We can do all the jumping jacks at their pace. It is good to see that we are getting better at keeping their pace in most of the exercises.

Toward the end of the workout we do a series of exercises that require us to get down on horse stances. I don't know why I love horse stances so much. They are so difficult for me to maintain in good form. Since Tom has martial arts background I follow his stance. He can get pretty low on his stances and is impressive for me to see him do the exercises.

Although my stances are not as low as they should be, they are improving each time I do them and I am feeling stronger. We will take pictures and post some as we go on with the workouts so you can see what I'm talking about.

Tomorrow we will do our favorite workout of recovery week, Stretch X. Although right now we don't remember what the moves are, what has lingered from last time is how wonderful we felt after doing Stretch X. Stay tuned and we'll keep you posted =D.

RECOVERY WEEK!!!!

So we finished last week with legs and back on Friday and Kempo X on Saturday. This week we started our recovery week. How is that going? Well, Monday we started with Yoga X. Really? more yoga? Y'all know how we feel about Yoga by now. We are still chugging along and are seeing improvements in our poses. Which makes it better for us.

So, Monday we did Yoga X. It was hard to clear our minds on that day to concentrate on the poses. We pushed hard and did our best. We are amazed at how each time we do Yoga, even though we don't love it, we see improvement. Yes, every single time! Even if it's just holding a pose for the first time, or holding a different pose for a few more seconds than the last time. This of course is encouraging for us and helps us keep going.

Yesterday we continued our week with Core Synergistics. We woke up pretty early and I could not move my neck. I had a horrible krick on my neck that didn't allow me to move my neck very much. I could not turn to look to the left side unless I turned my body. It was hurting SO bad that we had to postpone doing Core Synergistics until I felt better.

I took some Motrin and kept tilting my head little by little until I was able to move it enough to work out. Wow!! I had forgotten how tiring and hard core synergistics is. We worked hard and succeeded in finishing the workout. We will be doing it again on Friday so we will keep you posted. Our next workout is Kempo X. Woot woot!!!

YOGA THURSDAY!!!...WOO HOO!!

If we pretend to be excited about Yoga X, will it be less boring?  I've heard it said many times that it is all about attitude. If you have a positive attitude you are able to face tasks without much trouble and have a positive outcome. If your attitude is negative you will struggle through your task. With that in mind we got up early and went to work out.

We did our best, since that is all we can do, and hoped for the best. In previous postings I've mentioned how the first 45 minutes are always the hardest for us. It is too many chaturangas, downward dogs, etc. Too many push ups if you ask me.

Anyway, we pushed on and finally completed the first 45 minutes! Then it was on to the last 45 minutes, which are not as torturous as the first (for us anyway). I know I complain too much about Yoga, but I can see improvement. Take Tom for example, he was able to hold crane a little longer than last week.

Isn't he a stud! This was as he was coming out of it, you can see that his toes have not reached the floor yet and his face if serious with concentration.

My stretches are also getting better and I was able to do wheel for a few seconds today. I used to be able to do it just fine. Now I struggle with it. My goal is to be able to do wheel and hold it for the whole time required.

Another exercise we've struggled with is the one where you stand on one leg and lift the opposite leg forward and go into toe lock. I don't remember what it's called but this is what it looks like.

Again, I am so impressed with Tom's improvement. They say females are more limber than men are, but I cannot do this pose yet. Look at Tom's facial expression, total calmness. I tell you, he's a stud!!!

He is still working on keeping both legs straight while I work on not stumbling all over the place. Next week we'll report on our improvements in Yoga. In the mean time stay tuned for our update on Legs and Back tomorrow =D



WOOT WOOT!!!

Today was a good day. Well... almost. Tom was feeling better last night but this morning he woke up not feeling as well. He still pushed hard and I feel so proud of him for doing so.

Today we did Shoulders and Arms. This is the other day I look forward to for the first 3 weeks. I love working my arms and I am starting to see some growth in my arm muscles. Tom's muscles are also getting bigger and you can see more definition in the arms. Not to brag or anything, but he is looking HOT! (hotter! because he was already hot =D)

Anyway, Tom pushed even though he was feeling sick. I tried to do a couple of the exercises with heavier weights. It worked because I am now feeling sore, a good sore of course. Tom did his best and I think he pushed too hard at times that he got sick. Poor Tom =(

During Ab Ripper X Tom did not feel good at all and he laid on his mat and tried to do a couple of the exercises but could not. He still wants to keep pushing but for now I think he should listen to his body. Feel better Love.

I had a goal to reach and I pushed as hard as I could. My goal has been to reach 300 on the 349 exercises they do total. As you may know, Friday I got really close and then Monday came and I was still close but not as close. I am happy to report that today I hit 311!!!! Woot woot! I was so happy but was sad that I could not celebrate it with my hubby. Friday will be another day and we hope both of us will be able to celebrate together breaking 300.

Tomorrow I will report on Yoga X, I hate it! but I... don't love it yet ;-D

TUESDAY IS PLYOMETRICS DAY, WOO HOO!!!

Tuesday is one of my favorite 3 days of the week for the first 3 weeks. I love doing Plyometrics. It is a lot of jumping and hopping around and it makes me sweat like crazy. I normally don't sweat very easily. I have worked my butt off many times and I do sweat but it's never like some people who have beads of sweat dripping off their noses. For me, I get very red and my shirt will be wet from working out, but I don't drip from my face.

This workout makes me sweat and I still don't drip but I do feel my face getting wet and keep wiping my face often. I LOVE it!!! Tom is always dripping. He starts dripping in the warm up.

The exercises we struggle with most are the Mary Catherines, SUPER STAR!!! We can't help it, we yell it each time. I have to do the modified version which is without the jump switch. The other one is the hot foot. We were so proud of each other today since we were able to finish the whole minute of hopping on one foot, thirty seconds on each foot. It felt great!!

When we were done the cool down felt great. I keep telling Tom to not skip the cool down but he doesn't always do it. Today when I did the cool down I noticed that I was able to stretch more than before. Here is a picture of the cool down stretch that I did and made me feel great!

With this stretch you open your legs wide and breathe in with arms up and exhale arms down. You then fold your arms and relax. I think I relaxed too much since my elbows are actually touching the floor. It felt great to be able to touch the floor while keeping my legs straight. Woot woot!!

I just wish my children would stay in bed longer. We have tried putting them to bed later and they still wake up pretty early. Oh well, at least they join in the fun =D. Tomorrow is the day when I will push to get 300 stomach exercises.  Let's do this!!



BYE, BYE CHEST AND BACK...

Well, not forever, just for a few weeks. Yesterday was our last workout of Chest and Back, for now. If you thought this routine was killer, HA! you haven't seen killer yet. I am looking forward to pushing harder, but at the same time I remember dying with the new routine last year when we did it. Of course we'll keep you posted =D

Tom was still not feeling well yesterday so it was easier for me to almost match his reps. Yes, I still can't match him, but I got very close. Again, I have to use the chair when I do the pull ups and chin ups but hopefully that will change soon.

I was really happy though because yesterday I did all real push ups instead of the girl ones. I don't think they should call them girl push ups though. I'm sure there are men who do push ups on their knees out there somewhere. Let's call them what they are, assisted push ups =D.

We then went on to doing Ab ripper X. I gotta say that when I did my totals I had mixed feelings. I worked harder at doing more reps of the exercises I struggle with most that I did not realize that I did not complete all of the ones I don't struggle with as much as the others. I by no means do any without trouble because each one makes me sweat. My total was 292 and I was feeling bumbed until I saw what my daughter was doing while we were working out. I won't spoil it for you. You can see for yourselves.

I guess she was feeling hungry at 6:30 in the morning and she could not wait for us to finish our workout to feed her. She can fend for herself. I just gotta teach her to make better choices. Oh yeah, we were out of bananas or she would've been all over those =D

Dad of course is very helpful and cleaned her right up. How? see for yourselves.

Aww, so helpful. The vaccum? Really?! Well, at least he got her clean =D



FORGIVE US TONY FOR WE HAVE SINNED...

On Friday Tom had to go stay at his parents' home because Saturday morning he had a final exam to take. We worked out Friday morning and planned on doing Kempo on Saturday afternoon when he got home. That unfortunatelly did not happen. He got home too late in the afternoon and came home not feeling well. We kept puting it off and night time came and we still hadn't worked out.

We had company in the evening and thought about working out after they left. We didn't, not because we didn't have time, but because we were just not feeling it. Tom still didn't feel well and I didn't want to work out on my own. Do you now see why we HAVE to work out first thing in the morning?

Sorry Tony, we feel bad =( Especially since Kempo X is our favorite workout of the week. Monday we will bring it and push ourselves extra, extra hard.

On a happier note... I signed up to run a 5k next month! It will be my first one ever! I have been wanting to do one since starting on the "Couch to 5k" program.

The nice thing is that I will not be doing it by myself. I will be running it with some ladies from the church's Relief Society. It will be next month after my birthday =D Isn't May such a wonderful month? So this is all I have to report for now. Tomorrow we will bring it again and start week 3. Feel free to chastise us for slacking off ={ Lol.