Insanity Workout Day 36: Turtle Power and Resistance

2-9-10: Today was the dreaded Power and Resistance workout. Though not making it through the warm-up, I felt encouraged that I should be able to make it farther in tomorrow’s regular warm-up. Who puts vertical jumps into a warm-up? Honestly. My legs were burning (figuratively) by the time the warm-up was done. They felt so wonderfully awful that I was unable to hold all of the stretches today. Not because of the pieces of leg being stretched out, but because the leg(s) being used to stay in balance were so burnt, stationary positions became difficult for them.

Of course, this boded well for the actual workout. Each exercise required a few second “no, no, oh God no” moment before starting. Shaun T starts the Power and Resistance workout with, what I’m calling, “Air Squats”. Since he already tried killing us with power jacks in the warm-up, he needed a new creative way to hurt us using the same squat structure. These involve jumping from a squat position, but, while in the air, bring those legs up, so that you are essentially in the squat position, only in the air, rather than on the ground. Then land in the squat position. Repeat until dead. I would guess Shaun T’s theory is that by making this one so awful, we forgive him for the meager power jacks from the warm-up. But, no…that doesn’t work, because we were doing the power jacks in a FREAKING warm-up!

Anywho, plenty of pain the rest of the way, with some noticeable improvement in certain areas such as the moving push-ups, and most other push-up or plank position exercises. At the very least, it seems like my arms have been strengthened enough to not cause hindrances for some of the other exercises.

I tried having one of my happy shakes pre-workout this morning. I am not sure whether this helped or not. My workouts are not consistent enough to be able to notice the impact after one day. I will need to try this several times before deciding whether this should become part of the normal routine or not.

All advice is welcome. The more the merrier actually. I’m relatively inexperienced in the ways of exercise, so if anyone thinks of anything about anything exercise/workout/nutritional related, please fire away. Even if it is as far out as alternative/additional workouts for the present or future to something as simple as certain foods to include or avoid. Aside from helping me, it will also give me more blog material.

Another side benefit of this program has been the increased dedication towards writing. I now spend some time writing daily (even if it is not always for this blog). Sometimes it is movie reviews (www.donutreviews.com). Sometimes it is more detailed emails. Sometimes it is working on script outlines. It is getting me back into the writing world.