Workout P#1: This'll be a fun one too!

No Insanities because time was short, but the workout was
intense enough anyway!:D

Monday evening was my first time with Workout P. I rearranged some of the pieces in my structure when I made these Phase 8 workouts -- I think I wanted not to have the Explosive Push Ups on the same day as regular Push Ups. Maybe.

I'm honestly (and sadly) not sure. I don't remember (and it was just a week ago).

Anyway, I did something and it's got both workouts feeling really good to me right now. At least after one go at each of them. Certainly Workout P was a lot of fun -- and a tremendous feeling of accomplishment. Some of these moves are *hard* and it's really satisfying to be able to do them.

This is the fun post about Workout P -- with the links to videos (or at least pictures) if I can find them.

Monday's workout was:

• Slider Pikes - 3 x 10 - (You can see a video of someone doing these here, though I have a pair of sliders rather than using a towel. Of course the floors at the gym aren't so slippery that a towel would work.) I'm not nearly as smooth as the lady in the video and I don't have anything resembling *speed* at these. These are in here as a core exercise, and they're good for that, though I also feel them in my quads. This is one of the moves I learned from Travis. This is one of those exercises that I don't exactly *enjoy* in the moment, but I feel really fierce after I've done them because dammit they're hard!! I'm ultimately hoping to get to sets of 12, or even more, but 10 was as much as I could do on Monday. I also want to work on speed and fluidity -- so I might be doing these for more than one Phase. 
• Kettlebell Swing - 3 x 30 seconds (with 30 second rests) - (You can see a video of someone doing these here, only I'm doing them with both hands on the kettlebell rather than one.) These are in here for a lower-body power exercise, and they're awesome for that. They'are also awesomely fun which makes them a winning addition to any workout. I used a 30 lb kettlebell for these on Monday and that will probably be right for at least another couple of workouts. With that weight, these really are both a cardio and a leg workout. (When I do these for Insanities, I use a much lighter weight (15lbs instead of 30) so I can go faster. I might need to move that up to 20 lbs though. 
• Reverse Lunge and Cable Row - 3 x 12 - (You can see a video of someone doing these here, though I do them a little bit differently. And maybe also screw them up a tad.) If you watch the video (it's 14 seconds long, so go ahead), you'll see that a) she's rowing while she's going down into the lunge and b) she's rowing on the same side that her leg is stepping back into the reverse lunge. My instructions (from The New Rules of Lifting for Life have me rowing while I'm coming back up out of the lunge -- that's how I do it differently. Instructions are clear that I'm *supposed* to be rowing with one the same side as the leg I'm stepping back with, but I'm not entirely positive I've been doing that right. I'm a little slow about left and right (I'd love to find exercises that would help me with that) and which side of my body should be doing things. (I very likely failed the Hokey Pokey as a child.) Anyway, this is in here (as it has been before) as a combination exercise that uses my legs, core and shoulders. It's kind of a break after the Pikes and the Kettlebell Swings, but not too much of one. I did 35lbs which is about as much as my shoulders and back can do. I might try to ramp it up by speeding up until I can move more weight. 
• Alternating sets of:
• BOSU Squats - 3 x 10 - (You can see a video of someone doing these here.) The woman in the video is much less wobbly than I am, but she might be making it easier on herself by sticking her arms out in front like that. That might make the balance easier. I do these fairly close to a wall -- partly to make use of Travis's trick to keep my torso from collapsing forward while squatting and partly so I can catch my balance if I start to pitch totally over. Which I didn't do on Monday. The amazing thing is that I noticed *definite* improvement in my stability just between the first and last sets. The first set took forever because I was totally having to reset my balance between each squat. By the third I was getting maybe a little bit of continuous movement going on. Maybe. This is a move I learned from Travis and I love it with a passion, even though it's hard and I wobble like a baby giraffe on a teeter-totter on it. 
• Stability Ball Pullovers - 3 x 12 - (You can see a video of someone doing these here.) For once, the video shows pretty much exactly what I'm doing. Only I'm doing it with less weight. On Monday, I used a pair of 8lb dumbbells. I'll probably go up to a 20lb dumbbell next time, because that wasn't too hard. These are in the "chin-ups, pulldowns, pullovers" lat exercise slot in my workouts. The 16lbs I lifted on Monday wasn't enough for me to feel like I was doing much though. That's why I want to go up. I was lifting 30lbs with the standing cable-machine pullovers I was doing last phase, so I'll probably go up pretty quickly once I get used to the move on the stability ball. 
• Alternating sets of: 
• Crossover Step Ups (with Dumbbells) - 3 x 12 - (You can see a video of someone doing these here.) This is my "single leg at a time hams and glutes" exercise, though it also puts some work on the inner thighs. And the whole balance apparatus is pretty well worked as well. When I did the walkthrough, there was a step box (I included a picture a couple of posts ago) and I was able to make it a little higher than I had been (4 layers rather than 3) and that was a good challenge for these (but not as high as stepping up onto a weight bench, which I think would strain my knees too much). I deliberately have the weights pretty light while I'm getting my balance together and getting my body used to the move; Monday I used a pair of 10lb dumbbells, which is pretty trivial given that I'm moving my whole body weight as well. On Monday, the step-box stuff wasn't there, so I was on the actual stairs -- which are a lot lower, which was unsatisfactory. It's also a little more confined (because I stay to the edge of the stairs so folks can go up and down) so I can't balance as well. I'll make sure I bring down the bits for a 4 level step box for this next time. 
• Push Ups - 3 x 10, 10, 8 - I'm not going to find a video of these. You know what push ups are. Since July, when the best I could do with push ups was off a bar at about waist high, my plan based on the walkthrough was to do these on the same 4-level step box I did the step ups on. Since the box wasn't available on Monday, I did them on a weight bench.  As noted above, that's a little higher and therefore a little easier. Dang it. On the other hand, I've never been able to do 10 on a bench before, so yay! These are obviously the chest exercise in my workout format -- I was doing the Swiss Ball Chest Presses for the last couple of phases but it seemed like time to get back to Push Ups, though I don't exactly enjoy them. I do find satisfying that I"m getting better at them. 
• Cardio Intervals -- Nope. I was kind of pooped, there wasn't any obvious place where I was going to be able to swing a kettlebell and the step wasn't available and we'd been running late already. I got plenty winded throughout the workout though.

I may have achieved something like perfection with this phase -- both of these workouts are a lot of fun and very challenging. :D Woot! 

In related news: Patrick has decided he's going to stay with cardio work on the elliptical for the foreseeable future, which means that I get our last session with Travis on Saturday! :D I've asked him for something that's chest, back, shoulders focused so I can get some new moves to do in future workouts. I'm enjoying immensely all the stuff I've learned from him so far! 

Next workout, however, is scheduled for this evening. It'll be O#2 and I expect it to be fantastic -- Lunge Pulses and Squat Cleans and Russian Twists and all manner of fun things. :D Goal for the workout -- see if I can do one set of the lunge pulses without holding on to anything.