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!

New Campers! What’d you think?

We've had a ton of new people this month, so I'm curious how other newbies are handling their first month. What do you guys think so far? Have you gotten through your soreness yet? Did I give a realistic picture of what it Boot Camp entails? Share your thoughts in the comments; it's always great to hear how others are doing because someone else is probably thinking the same thing!

March Camp Goals

I thought I'd release my March goals out into the wild so you all can keep me accountable. Going to try and keep it short and sweet.

1. I will do at least one day of the homework workouts each week for the rest of the camp.
   
2. I will weigh 336 pounds or less on April 8. That will bring my total weight loss to 30 pounds in 3 "boot camp months" and a hair over 3 legitimate months. We started back on January 4.
   

This morning, I weighed in at 340.5 pounds. This is on track with my 2 pounds per week that I've averaged thus far and will get me to 336 by April 8 if I can keep dropping at my current pace. I really think the homeworks are going to make a huge difference. I don't think I'll have to use Monday and Tuesday to whip my butt back into shape from the weekend. It would be great if the homework gets me to 336 by April 4, which would be three months on the dot!

I should be able to average 10 pounds a month for a while. Hell, I'm carrying around a spare tire around my stomach and waist. I'd love to be down to my long term goal of 266, or 100 pounds, by Halloween. That seems so far away but actually more realistic than I would have guessed back in December. I'm going to count on Ryan to push me through the plateaus if they come. He switches up our workouts so frequently I don't see them as a huge risk.

P.S. – Boy, are my legs sore from all the squats we did on Thursday!

March It Up!

"Tomorrow's" update took a while to write, eh? I'm just going to skip the Mini-Camp post, but know that it was brutal. We did lower body exercises just about every day, so I was pretty sore all week. Last week was Spring Break in Cobb County, so SIU had a true off week. I planned to get out and jog Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning before work but only made it out on Monday. Normally I never hit the snooze on my alarm. Last week was a different story. My bed felt too good to leave when I had the opportunity to stay under the covers for a few more minutes. A positive side effect from the week off is that my ankle is feeling better. I haven't noticed it the past 2 workouts which is the first time since January 20^th!

That brings us to this month's boot camp. I'm beginning the camp weighing 344 pounds. This is down 4 pounds from my March 3 post and 22 pounds since January started. My weight has consistently dropped 2 pounds per week for a while now, so I hope I can keep it going at least at that pace. It can be frustrating hearing about other people losing huge poundage in a week or month, but my weight is coming off safely, the changes I've made are sustainable, and my fitness level has skyrocketed. Not only that, but there is plenty of room to improve my diet still. Last weekend was especially bad and it showed in my Pre-Test fitness results, as you can see below.

Exercise	February 25	March 14	Goal
Mile Run	--	14:00	12:00
Regular Pushups	35	30	40
Assisted Pushups	5	20	10
Regular Dips	19	--	30
Assisted Dips	8	--	10
Sit Ups (in 1 minute)	26	22	30
Planks to failure	1:50	1:20	2:00

At the end of February we did 55's instead of the mile, and in March we skipped the dips, presumably because we had so many new faces this month that space on the benches were too limited. That's a great problem to have!

The real differences in February and March tests are not likely as severe as the results indicate. Some days are good and some are bad, and Monday definitely felt like a bad day. I mentioned above that I didn't eat well last weekend. SIU's Nutritionist Bethany says food is the gas for your body. If you put junk in, you'll get poor performance. I ate out just about every meal, drank lots of beer, and didn't exercise at all. I'd say that qualifies as junk. Those statistical losses should be quick to recover and may already have. Towards the end of today's workout my body started responding better and it should be no surprise that I ate cleanly since Monday.

Check back soon to see my goals for March! It shouldn't take me two weeks to post again, I promise.

February Recap

After last Friday's workout, I weighed 348 pounds, the same as the previous week's end but down 18 pounds since January. Given that I missed a workout due to work travel and didn't eat particularly well on the road, no gain or loss is about what I'd expect.

You can see the results from my February 25 post-test below. SIU had an off week this week, but Ryan and Danny – from the Whitfield camp – are holding a mini-camp so we don't get fat and lazy. Next week regular camp starts up again so I'm sure we'll pre-test, and I'd guess we'll be outside and swap the mile for the 55s.

Exercise	January 31	Goal	February 25	% Change
Fifty-Fives (55s)	11.5	13	13	+13%
Regular Pushups	35	40	35	0%
Assisted Pushups	10	10	5	-50%
Regular Dips	23	30	19	-17%
Assisted Dips	10	10	8	-20%
Sit Ups (in 1 minute)	17	20	26	+53%
Planks to failure	1:04	1:15	1:50	+72%

While I didn't meet my goals for strength, I blew my fitness goals out of the water. My endurance and core strength skyrocketed. Man, I was rocking it to get 13 laps on the 55s. I am not sure how much more room those have to go up before I plateau due to just not being fast enough. I had a sneaking suspicion that sit-ups and planks were going to go up, but I didn't expect that much! Feels great seeing tangible results like that.

I'll have a post after tomorrow's workout about the mini-camp's agony and ecstasy. Agony seems to be winning at the moment.

The Agony and the Ecstasy – 3rd Week of Feb.

The Agony

The weather cooperated last week, so the class moved outside to the football field. Man, that's a different work out than inside the gym! The best part about being on the field is that you can really get a good stride going. In the gym, you are changing directions as soon as you reach top speed so there isn't a lot of sustained sprinting. Since we're on the football field, our warm up sprints really start feeling like the actual workout. The important difference about moving outside is Ryan's ability to get us moving in one direction for longer distances. Thursday's workout instructions basically were, "Run half a mile then climb the bleachers. Rinse and repeat for 40 minutes." Thank goodness Ryan warned everyone to bring an iPod so we were mentally prepared for a distance run.

We did a lot of shuttles and circuit training this week. The 300 yard shuttles Ryan mentioned on Tuesday were a killer. What you do is start at the goal line, run to the 50 yard line and back, then 100 yards to the opposite goal line and back. Friday can mean a lighter workout some weeks, perhaps concentrating on abs or running relays and competitive games. This Friday was definitely a work day though. Ryan had us doing pushups, crunches, burpees and Mary Catherine's – think lunges combined with jumps – sandwiched between 100 yard sprints. After that, we did towel runs with a partner. A towel run is when a partner holds a towel around your waist and provides resistance as you're sprinting 30-40 yards. After the towel runs, we did sprints, lunges and bear crawls around cones spread out about 30 yards between each point. And that was just the first set! Do a couple circuits of those exercises and you'll sleep really well at work.

The Ecstasy

Sounds like a lot of hard work, right? It is, but each and every day I can do a little more, run a little faster, or sprint a little further. My fitness level increases every week so the physical limitations are subsiding and I can really push myself longer. When I started in December, for example, bear crawls were torture and I didn't make any bones about it in a previous post. I struggled to even bear crawl 55 feet across the basketball court once. Now bear crawls are probably one of the exercises I can push myself the hardest in and perform the best at. In a similar vein, I stayed away from mountain climbers and burpees for a while because my hip flexibility wasn't good enough to get my feet into the correct positions, not to mention my gut was probably in the way too. Burpees still give me problems but I can at least do a few no whereas I substituted body squats before.

I feel light years better, but what about tangible results? At the start of the January camp, I weighed in around 365 pounds. Friday morning I weighed myself at 348 after the workout and 350 after I got fluids and breakfast in me. 15 pounds since January started, and I think 10 of those pounds were dropped so far in February. Not too shabby! No doubt the nutrition plan that I followed to the T last week has been a huge boost. Thanks, Bethany! You probably know that I spent last weekend in Boston with Sarah, and she could definitely notice that I was slimming up, gaining muscle, and getting lean. She particularly liked the muscle mass building up in my arms and shoulders.

Want another reason to be ecstatic? It's 70 and sunny, and today is my diet plan agreed day to enjoy some frosty beverages! It's time to go enjoy a patio out in the Highlands somewhere. I'm playing golf tomorrow with some coworkers, so this weekend can't get much better.