Working Out: Week 3

Week 1   Week 2

Still working out. Weight lost has been rather small, but I am not expecting anything too big yet. I'm still using Wii Fit Plus and EA Sports Active: More Workouts on the Nintendo Wii. Sometimes, I do other exercises, such as walking the dog, or playing some Dance Dance Revolution/In The Groove at the arcade. A few years ago, using all this, I was able to lose 15 lbs. Now that my BMI is considered overweight, I need to lose about 20lbs, so I'm at it again!

Most of this takes place in my basement unless otherwise stated. However, because my basement has a very low ceiling, I can't do stand-up Yoga poses down there so I do those on my own in my room. The rest are done on Wii Fit Plus with its Yoga routines.

Video links are randomly found on youtube and not my own.


 July 24 - Tuesday (Day Off)
After yesterday's heavy In The Groove aerobics, I'm seriously glad I don't have to strain myself today. I still need to do some Yoga poses to keep my body stretched, but that's not so awful. As it is, I'm feeling very lazy today, not wanting to do anything other than play video games.

Finally got myself to do the yoga work outs. Did my usual; Sun Salutation, Half Moon, Palm Tree and Tree poses upstairs in my room, then using the Wii Fit Plus downstairs, did the Chair, Warrior, Standing Knee, Triangle, Downward-Facing Dog, Cobra, Bridge, Spinal Twist, and the Grounded V poses. This time, however, I added a 10 rep version of Jack Knives to the mix as apart of my warm ups. I figure this could help me get a little extra strength exercise each day while not being to strenuous. I considered another Yoga pose, but not many others I really like/can do.

Rest of the day will likely involve me playing video games and such, though a friend and I are making cookies right now.

July 25 - Wednesday (Strength)
Was, again, lazy for the day. Eventually got started where things went mostly smoothly. I can almost touch my toes without bending my knees when doing Sun Salutation, so thrilled about that!

Sierra joined along with me during the Wii Fit Yoga. Normally, having company makes me a bit nervous, but I managed to do fine. Did the yoga poses, plus 10 reps of Jack Knives. Triangle seems to be getting a bit easier, as is Grounded V.  One thing I hate about Jack Knives is that the on-screen trainer tells you to not use momentum while raising and lowering your legs, but then doesn't give you enough time to lower your legs slowly.

Next I moved onto EA Sports Active: More Workouts. Did the usual Crunch & Core workout on Easy mode with the normal eliminations of Good Mornings (Too low a ceiling to do them) and Bent Over Rows (Don't find them helpful at all). Sierra left around side lifts. I think I did well with all the exercises, though i still have to manually count when I do Mountain Climbers (3:01) cause the rep counter sometimes fails to recognize when I do a rep. I probably am doing Mountain Climbers slightly wrong anyway, since you aren't supposed to let your hips bounce, but I can't help that.

Push Ups went better than expected. Normally, I have to cheat and fake a rep or two to catch my breath or give my arms a rest, but I managed to keep going without cheating. Unfortunately, my back may have arched slightly on some reps. I find the Boxing parts of the workouts as breathers more than work outs, but I suppose it helps arm speed and whatnot.

Mostly pleased with this workout considering last strength work out, I used Wii Fit Plus's exercises instead. One thing that went weird though was when I was doing cool downs where I had to lean on my side for s stretch, my elbow started to hurt quite a bit. Guess too much weight on the elbow or something, but it hurt a little after before going away. Gotta be more careful.

July 26 - Thursday (Aerobics)
Did the usual yoga upstairs. Went downstairs and before starting the usual Yoga and jacknife routine, played some of the Obstacle Course on advanced, but failed it the first time. A little annoyed, went right into the usual routine. Afterwards, did 10 minutes of Super Hoola Hoops, a more successful Obstacle Course then took a 10 minute break. When I came back, I finished with a 10 minute Free Run.

Wrote this a day after it happened, so my details weren't so up to snuff.

July 27 - Friday (Day Off)
I was up really late last night, getting hooked into this story I been reading. When I woke up, it was already 1pm and felt very unmotivated. So, I didn't even do my Yoga today. I feel a bit like a slob, but hoping perhaps one day where I don't do anything will be too bad, just gotta force myself to keep going the next day. I gotta see if I can get myself up earlier in the days and stay up so I can sleep okay at night. And not get distracted by things like stories or video games.

Also, looked at myself in the mirror. I still have a small pouchy stomach, but some definition in the muscles near my ribs is showing!

July 28 - Saturday (Strength)
Today, Sierra came over and we watched the Olympics Soccer games, names USA's Women's team. Won 3-0! After that, there was a park grand opening in our town nearby that Sierra wanted to take some photos of. We walked to it and around there for a bit and back. 3DS says I got about 1200 steps from it so that's cool.

Did my usual warp ups. During the downstairs portion, Sierra joined in with me again. Today, I decided to do Wii Fit Plus's strength exercises for a change of pace. Started with a 15 rep Lunge, which really got to my legs a bit. Then we went into Push Ups with Side Planks. Rep was 10, but I only did about 8 good ones. My wrists were killing me. 6 reps of Torso Twists were next, which still didn't feel like much.

Then we got into the nitty gritty; 30 reps of Jack Knives. Loved the feeling it gave my stomach after we were done. After that, we decided a small break was good and decided to play some balance games. Sierra played a round of Candle Mediation, where you need to sit as still as possible on the balance board and hold it for a period of time. I'm not much a fan of this really, but she likes it. Normally, she can beat it without much problem, but today she couldn't get past 35 seconds. I want into a round of advanced Table Tilt.

After that small fun break, it was back into the strength exercises. I think next we did Single Leg Twist (Max reps), which I was able to cheat slightly since I could touch the ceiling to hold my balance some... Still got something out of it, just probably could have gotten more out of it in my abs if I tried balancing myself without help.

To give our legs a small break, we did Arm and Leg Lift. Although I didn't feel a lot of muscles going with that, it was great to make us sweat some and I suppose stretch our legs and such. Sideways Leg Lift was next, which could have really put some strain on our legs without the Arm-and-Leg-Lift exercise in between. I like this one though, as it gets the side of my thighs into working out, and I can't cheat with the ceiling as easily. My thighs and belly is where most of my extra weight went.

For some ease off the legs, we did 10 reps of Jack Knives again, then 30 seconds of Plank exercise. I actually did pretty well on this one and felt some burn. After this, i think I did a quicky break with Obstacle Course (Advanced) and managed to get through without one mess up! Sierra passed on playing another balance game or anything so we went right into our finale.

Another 30 reps of Jack knives! Felt very good for me, and surprised Sierra kept up with me! She did admit to slowing down on some exercises though, but wanted to push herself. After that, we cooled down with an extra helping of Cobra and Spinal twist Yoga poses.

In total, I did 80 reps of Jack Knives today (10 with my usual warp up, 30 in beginning, 10 as an ice breaker, and 30 at the end). When 30 doesn't seem to feel as much, I may do a Jack Knife Challenge once each strength exercise day. Last time I did it, I had to do 100 reps, but it was well worth it! Sadly, that was a few years ago though. Still, It would be fun to do that again!

I may have a few of the exercises out of order or did a little more, but this was basically everything. time spent playing totaled around 58 minutes. Sierra working out with me did help make the time fly faster and push myself a little harder too, so I hope she continues wanting to join in.  I gotta say I felt a lot less lazy today too, which was a great feeling!

Tomorrow for Aerobics, I think I'll try EA Active's aerobics exercises for a change of pace as well. If I like it, I may keep this as my usual work out method; First strength day = EA Active, Second = Wii fit. First aerobics day = wii fit, second = EA Active.

July 29 - Sunday (Aerobics)
After the usual warm ups, I jumped into EA Sports Active: More Workouts's version of aerobics; Calorie Burner (Easy) work out. Most of it involves running. Some exercises included needing a stretch-band, so I just skipped those; I'm too afraid I'll snap the band!

After the warm ups (EA has a few of their own), I started with Footfires, which is pretty tough on the ankles. Basically just spread your legs out while trying to keep your back straight and move your feet up and down rapidly. It made Skipping a little more achey.

Then there was a thing called Mountain Boarding. I'm rather surprised such a game is on EA Active. You basically squat and have to jump, switch position, and run during the play. The controls were finicky at times, such as not recognizing when I switched positions. Also, the running is set at such a slow pace, I may as well just jog. I did like it for being different though.

Next was Basketball Running. The introductory video said while running, I may need to switch into different styles of running/walking, but I was never asked. After that was Basketball Shooting. I suppose that helped me out with my legs, but I really found the exercise trivial. The Stride Jumps afterwards was a little on the painful side though; since my legs were already tired.

Then the workout brought an old foe back to me; Mountain Climbers. Surprisingly, I actually felt all right doing them, but the game surprised me when it had a higher rep than in my strength workout; normally it was 40, but now I had to count to 55. Yeah, the game sensors still don't pick up all my reps so I simply counted instead, but I did attempt to do a few extra.

Soccer Running ended up being basically the same as Basketball running, so whatever to that.The Soccer Heading game was all right, but I was missing the right time to do my jumps. It may as well been called "squat jumps" though. Also, I nearly hit my head on the ceiling when jumping so I may not do that anymore.

Alternating Drop-Lunges was a REAL workout. My legs were so tired, I had to take a break before being asked to do another round of foot fires. Skipping right after that was also very tiring on my feet, but usually can be a bit of a breather for me.

The game surprised me when it threw in Leg Raises on me... I started doing them, then noticed they made it 20 reps instead of the usual 10 for my strength routine. After about 8 leg raises, I decided to turn them into Jack Knives since they were a little easier and still gave me a work out. It ended up feeling harder than normal, admittingly.

Then there was Straight Arm Plank, nothing too challenging, and then... Flutter Kicks. THAT was a bit of a challenge on my body; my stomach was still sore from the Leg Raises/Jack Knives. I forget if I cheated or not, but I know I did most of them.

There was some repeats of exercises during the work out, but didn't feel I needed to mention every instance. During the cool-down exercises, I found out they had a version of Wii Fit's Spinal Twist, and called it a Leg Over. Very minor differences.

Over all, I was all right with these exercises, but they felt more like strength exercises than aerobics. I'm not sure if I'll continue with them... Thinking I'll stick to Wii Fit for aerobics. Maybe when I want something different for strength exercising, I'll try the different exercises on EA Active, but for now, I like focusing on my core.

July 30 - Monday (Day Off)
 Just did my usual warm up exercises with nothing else. Sadly nothing too exciting today, or as many details. I decided I may skip days off from now on, restricting such days off to once a week or something; unless I truly need it after a hard work out. Perhaps that will help me with the weight loss a little more.