Jerry Rice Inspires Campers

This week we've been hanging out at First Baptist Church of Smyrna. Why? Because Ryan wants us all to be the best NFL Wide Receiver ever to play the game.

Huh?

Not quite. But FBCS does have a lot more hills than the football field at Campbell HS and I'm sure the Spartans thank goodness for that! Jerry Rice was notorious for taking his other teammates to "The Hill" and leading them up and down hills in the San Francisco area, absolutely killing these professional athletes. Check out the first half of this video.

We weren't quite running 2 miles up a hill, but damn did it hurt! Yesterday we did "House of Pain", which were various length sprints uphill with a bunch of exercises in between sets. Then this morning we kicked it up a notch. We paired up and did towel runs, where your partner wraps a towel around your waist and provides resistance while you run. First, we did some flat sprints, then some with a slight incline, then the "Jerry Rice" incline. Ouch!

A Spartan Workout

This morning we ran 300 yard shuttles and circuits of sprinting and ab work called, "Ab Blasters". After one session, you look like this:

Getting Through the Golf Swing

Last Saturday, my dad, brother and I hit the links at Cobblestone Golf Course in Acworth. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to spend 4 hours outside chasing little white balls all over creation. As my dad says, "You can't beat it, we can't repeat it!"

Each golf season I get out to the course for about 5 rounds. I'm usually a poor-to-mediocre golfer who tries to shoot Bogey-ball, equaling a score of 90. Normally, I miss that goal and wind up in the high 90s. Last year I was even worse, mainly because of my fitness. My posture in the stance was terrible because I was carrying so much weight around my midsection. I had to reach down to the ball at the waist as opposed to being in a nice, balanced position a bit more upright. My core and leg strength was nonexistent so I would tire quickly. Lastly, my gut flat out just got in the way of my swing; it was hard to get through my downswing with a keg nestled beneath my shirt and I couldn't turn because I didn't have any flexibility in my core. Needless to say, I didn't hit many good shots and I didn't have a ton of fun last summer on the course.

Fast-forward to Saturday. Holy cow, what a difference! I've got a long ways to go before my gut is completely gone, but the improvements I've made since January are definitely noticeable when I swing a club. Not saying I lit up the scorecard (hello, 103!), but I could actually "get through the swing." My stamina was noticably improved. Last summer I would have struggled to make contact from fatigue later in the round. On holes 17 and 18 this Saturday, I took my backswing back further than I had all day. My torso flexibility was better than I was giving myself credit for through the first 16 holes. Man, did those last two drives soar!

SIU really is making my quality of life better and more enjoyable, even if I was muttering curse words under my breath at Ryan this morning for adding the last set of exercises. For example, I was able to meander around Philly with college friends last month without bitching and moaning about how out of shape I was. Now SIU is helping me – indirectly – with my golf game. Who can complain about that?

Mastering My Goals – March Posttest

See what I did there with these last two titles? Enough with the puns, on to the results!

The entire class absolutely rocked our post-test this morning. Ryan asked who improved their mile time and it seemed like almost the entire group raised their hand. Most of us were able to keep our hands up when he asked, "By 30 seconds? By a minute? By two minutes?" We had similar results for the planks and pushups. Great work gang!

Exercise	March 14	Goal	April 8
Mile Run	14:00	12:00	12:15
Regular Pushups	30	40	47
Assisted Pushups	20	10	0
Regular Dips	--	30	--
Assisted Dips	--	10	--
Sit Ups (in 1 minute)	22	30	21
Planks to failure	1:20	2:00	2:01

• My mile improved and I barely missed out on my goal. I ran most of it, but still walked about half of a lap. Hopefully next month I won't have to walk any part of it.
  
• My upper body strength had a breakthrough this month after the last few months being more or less stagnant. I told myself that I wasn't going to do a single assisted pushup. I cranked out my first 35 or so pushups really quickly, then spent the last few seconds working to failure instead of taking the easy road and doing the assisted.
  
• Sit-ups stayed about the same but I hit my goal for planks!
  

This month, especially the last two weeks, felt like we focused more on strength and sprints at the expense of "ab days" and some more intense core workouts. My results definitely suggest this was the case. We don't want the body to get too familiar with the workouts, because that's when plateaus occur. Thanks Ryan!

Tomahawk Chopping the Pounds Off

Another Boot Camp is in the books! I'm rewarding myself by going to the Braves game tonight. I've never been to a Braves home opener before, so I'm jacked up to see the Ted full of life.

When I left you last, I weighed 340.5 pounds on March 25. If you remember, my goal was to get down to 336, or 30 pounds since January and 10 for the camp. Last Friday the odds didn't look too great. After our Friday AM workout, I was only at 339, or about a pound from where I needed to be based on my weight loss trend (2lb/wk) the last three months. How was I going to lose three pounds in a week when I limped in at a pound and a half the week previous?

I'm not sure if I plateaued a little the week before last or perhaps my diet sucked that week. I worked out at home on Monday instead of making it in to camp due to weather, so my intensity level was less for one of my workouts. Regardless, the belt was tightened this week and really paid off. Yesterday morning I was down to 335! Groceries were sparse at home/work, so I wound up eating out for two meals yesterday. I was back at 336 after our post test this morning, or exactly making my target weight.

Achieving my goal feels great, especially when I believed myself to be in danger of failing even just a week ago. My long term goals are to lose 10 pounds a month for the rest of the year. If I can pull that off, hoo-boy I'd be lookin GOOD!