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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Working Out: Week 4

Week 1     Week 2     Week 3

As we enter the 4th week, a few changes have occurred. I still am using Wii Fit Plus and EA Active More Workouts on the Nintendo Wii. My workouts are mostly the same, but now a change in the schedule is to be made.Originally, my weekly schedule alternated going Strength exercises, Aerobics, day off, then back to strength and repeating... Now I am going to attempt to not have a day off so often.

My weight starting this was around 177lbs, but since I started this work out regime, my weight fluctuated around it slightly being lower, but not much a huge difference. Since this is week 4, I think it's time to take a bit more action. Perhaps I just need a little more exercising with less days off to make this work. I'm sure some of this ties in with only being active part of the day instead of all day long, or my eating habits, but I'll try to change that.


July 31 - Tuesday (Strength Exercises)
Got a slightly early start on my exercises today. Started with my usual warm ups; The upstairs yoga (Sun Salutation, Half Moon, Palm Tree, and Tree poses) and the downstairs warm ups on Wii Fit Plus (Chair, Standing Knee, Warrior, Triangle, Downward-Facing Dog, Grounded V, Jack Knives [Rep 10], Cobra, Bridge, and Spinal Twist). Sierra joined right at the end, but left when she found out today's strength exercises would be done on EA Active; she's not a fan of it.

During the Yoga and such, I did feel a bit more out of breath than usual. Not sure why that is, but I decided to do Deep Breathing to get myself back on track. It helped a little, though I still felt slightly more winded than usual.

I did the usual "Crunch and Core" on easy for my strength work outs. I managed to do Push Ups all right, but had to do break right after doing them, mainly cause Mountain Climbers always follows after. Speaking of which, Mountain Climbers were not too challenging strength-wise, but I was having a hard time breathing so I couldn't wait for the rep counter to catch up correctly. I did convert the Leg Raises into Jack Knives again, but they come right after Reverse Crunches, meaning my legs are already tired. I rather put more effort into my abs anyway.

After all the strength exercises were done, and I was good and sweaty, I put back on the Wii Fit Plus and decided to do 10 minutes of Free Step as a cool down. Been thinking I'll make myself do more when it comes to working out in a day. The EA Active work out does about 30 minutes of exercises, while my warm up yoga things with Wii Fit and upstairs stand-alone Yoga, comes out to about 25 minutes. Figure I'll make it a nice steady hour+ each day.

Another thing I need to do is keep myself active later in the day and wake myself up earlier. I set the alarm to 9am, and plan to try going to sleep around 11pm-1am. The active at night part is something I gotta figure out.

August 1 - Wednesday (Aerobics)
Woke up plenty early today. Unfortunately, I was still a bit tired so ended up having a late starting time for the work out. Also, I was hooked on watching the Soccer Olympic games.

Did my usual warm ups before doing Wii Fit Plus aerobics. Started off with my usual 10 minutes of Super Hoola-Hoops. It tired my ankles a little, so I put in a breather of Obstacle Course on advanced, which I completed without errors. Next was 10 minutes of Free Run. My right ankle was rather sore during the run, which makes me wonder if I put a little more weight on my right foot or it just happened to be sore.

Just to be safe I did some Table Tilt Advanced, which I completed with only 5 seconds remaining. I also decided to so some Snowball Fight, but only on Advanced to get warmed up. I do have expert mode unlocked, but didn't want to frustrate myself after not playing it for so long. I scored 48 points on it, which isn't too bad.

To finish everything off, I did 20 minutes of Free Stepping. Wii Fit said that totaled my time working out to 70 minutes, so I'm happy with that. Tomorrow, if I'm not sore, I plan to do some Wii Fit strength exercises. If I am sore, I'll still do some exercises, but only ones that don't involve the sore areas. Maybe I'll make my "third" say the wild card day, where I can I choose to experiment with different exercises or work out games.

August 2 - Thursday (Wild Card Day)
Wild Card days will be where I experiment with different work outs or ideas. After my usual warm-up, I was going to use my sister's game New U Mind Body Yoga & Pilates Workout for the wii, but after sampling it for about 5 minutes, found it really obnoxious. You pick one of three female trainers, all with breathy voices that either are meant to be soothing or seductive, I can't tell... I picked one called "Kiren" which, when pronounced, reminded me of Cartman from South Park when he says "Kenny" as "Keyenny" or "Kyle" as "Keyile." The game did yoga poses in succession of each other, which seems like not a bad idea, but unfortunately, I run into the problem of the low ceiling in the basement. I decided to just give up on it instead.

For today, I instead did Wii Fit Plus's balance games! I managed to break a few of my old records today, as well as shame myself in others. I started with Soccer Heading on beginner. I think I need to wear my glasses when I play this so I can see details better; normally I don't need my glasses much since I see pretty well, it's just meant for across the room or seeing details. In any case, I scored 142 on it.

Next was Tightrope Walk. I used to suck big time on this game. The first time I played, I only passed it with 5 seconds remaining on the clock! After getting used to it, I finished in 29 seconds. I learned to use my arms to help influence my balance, which made things go a lot faster. Feeling bold, I played it on advanced. Admittedly, I failed the first time. The freaking feathers messed me up and I couldn't see which way I was leaning. One of those weird monster things were closing in on me, so I jumped and ended up jumping off. The second try was much better; finished in a minute!

Played Penguin Slide next. Learning from tightrope walk, I used my arms to help my balance more. I did fall off once still, but managed to score a solid 94. My highest is only about 106, so I think 94 is decent for me. After that, did some Table Tilt on Advanced. Managed to get my best record ever, speeding through to score 134 points on completion! Beat my old record too!

Bird's Eye Bullseye was the next game. This one really works your arms!  I played on beginner and managed to get another top score of 224. Next played it on advanced (5:14) which I never had beaten in the past. I think it's mainly because I was impatient when I played it last time. In any case, I managed to beat it this time with a score of 120. Decided not to try expert mode (10:02) this time.

Next came Snowball Fight on Advanced again. Played it twice, even! My first run had so many snowmiis popping up, I couldn't keep up! Snowmiis are more coordinated on their assaults, and have faster snowballs, take 2 hits to knock out, and generally are annoying. My first score was 49, and second was 52.

Skateboard Arena on beginner was next. This one actually helps your legs if you squat a little while you play. I had fun with this, scoring only 115. Had similar mechanics to EA Active's Mountain Boarding, except I think EA Active helped more in strength, but wii fit had more freedom to do things and more fun.

I played Tilt City on beginner next. This really wasn't so much a work out as it was for testing my balance and coordination. My first try, I got a bit confused and only scored an 87. Second try, started getting the hang of it and scored 204! Not sure if I can do Advanced or Expert too well though... The game can get easily frustrating.

Up came Table Tilt Plus next! I used my arms again to help me with this. Unfortunately on my first play, I failed at the 7th stage, scoring only 60 points. Next play however... i managed to beat it for the first time ever! Scored a 104, but I was surprised to have even beaten it! I think I got lucky on the seventh stage when a mii-ball fell down. it caused the table to spin and I had the ball furthest from the goal in a cannon so it shot straight up and onto the goal, speeding up my progress!

Rhythm Kung Fu on beginner was annoying. The Wiimote and nunchuk were having delays on their sensors (sometimes failing to pick up my movements),  so I could score too well. I probably have to readjust my rhythm to make up for it, which is really frustrating. I ended it with a 410 or something. It's actually pretty nice for balancing and movement though, so maybe i'll ignore the game telling me I'm late, early or missing.

Played some Obstacle Course, one of my favorite games, on advanced as usual. This time, i figured I'd try to speed it along to get to the end, managing to get a high score of 626! I think it was my best, but I'm not sure. I finished off with Balance Bubble on beginner. This game annoys me a little, but it does a great job for balance. My main problem with it is the music change towards the end... makes me nervous, and slip up some. I played it twice, first time popping at the music change, and second time I finished with 51 second left.

Tomorrow will be strength, and next day aerobics as usual.

August 3 - Friday (Strength Day off)
As it happened, today I had a rather bad stomach ache that kept coming back each time I ate. I didn't want to work out on a completely empty stomach either since then I'd get hunger pains. Thus, today was a bit of a forced day off. Tomorrow I'll continue my strength exercises. I only managed to so Sun Salutation before pain started to get to me.

August 4 - Saturday (Strength)
Did my usual warm ups before doing the Wii Fit Plus strength exercises for the day. Felt much better today, and did a lot of exercises.

 Started off with 20 reps of Lunges. I did pretty well, but the last two reps I did were a bit off... started to lose my balance. I also sometimes didn't do the lunges completely correctly; it calls for going straight up and down on your legs, but I moved forward do them instead at times. Just couldn't help it.

Over the span of the work out, I did 30 reps of Jackknives 3 times, spread out of course. Managed to do them all with a nice feeling in my abs. It means I did a total of 100 jackknives today if you include the 10 in my usual warm-up. here's hoping I can do the 100 rep Jackknife challenge soon!

Did 6 reps of Torso Twists. It's hard to know if I'm doing the diagonal twists correctly since according to the trainer I'm supposed to "twist, not bend forward" but it feels like the same thing to me. Also forced myself to do 10 Push Ups with Side Planks and ended up doing 4 bad ones. I really think doing push ups and side planks on the balance board hurts my hands to much to do, so thinking I may do them on my own, away from the game, or stick to doing them on EA Active. As it was, I did a 6 rep version later on to see if that was more bearable... I managed to get through it but was very sloppy. Thinking the side plank part messes up my footing.

Did two 30 second Plank exercises (not together). First time was bad, but I had just done it after the miserable Push Up-Side Planks. Second time I got a decent score, somewhere in the 60s instead of 30s like first time. Did decently on Sideways Leg Lift as well as Single Leg Twist with both on max reps, despite that whenever I switched legs, my left leg would be really struggling to keep up. Not sure if my left side id just weaker (wouldn't surprise me) or just tired from before.

Got a 96 on Arm-and-Leg Lift, always love doing that. I still don't always feel the muscles working in that exercise, but it damn well makes me sweat. I also threw breaks in between exercises with balance games, such as Penguin Slide (scored 97) and Snowball Fight Advanced (44). Last real strength exercise I did was 20 reps of Side Lunges. I did complete all reps, but I wonder if I was leaning forward to lessen the work out for me. I know for a fact I did one rep wrongly at least, since it was close to not counting to the game. Maybe it's just something I need to keep working at though.

I ended my workout with a 10 minute Free Step session. By the end of all this, my muscles shook all about when I tried to close my legs together when sitting. It was funny, as if they were magnets trying to pull away from each other. I do know I need to work with my arms a little more so I can do push ups a little more, as well as do some wrist stretching so they won't hurt either. Maybe on the wildcard day, I'll just lift dumbells after my warm ups... who knows!

August 5 - Sunday (Aerobics)
Did usual warm ups. I am starting to get annoyed with Standing Knee, hard for me to notice if my body is twisting to the side instead of staying straight forward.

Did my usual 10 minutes of Super Hoola Hoops, 10 minutes of Free Running, and 20 minutes of Free stepping. In between, I did to Bird's Eye Bullseye Advanced, scoring 175 this time. Considering making Bird's Eye Bullseye an every day thing as it does give my arms some exercise. I first need to see how it is on advanced though.

While doing my Free Run and Free Step, I was thinking about how cool it would be if in the next generation of Wii Fit, or other fitness stuff that comes to the Wii or Wii U, if you could hook up your mp3 player to it and have you step the the music beat. It'd be a pseudo DDR, I suppose, but still pretty awesome. The wii does have USB ports that can be utilized for it. Right now, I try change the pace of Free Step to the beat of my music playing, but it only has three settings. Generally never syncs with the songs. At least with Free Running, I can run to my own pace, thus do so to my music.

August 6 - Monday (Wild Card Day)
Unfortunately today, I was drained from the amazing Olympic Soccer games, and couldn't motivate myself to do a special work out. I don't feel as bad since it was a wild card day, but I hope to change that. I did weigh myself in and do the usual warm-ups still though.

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