peace and quiet

Well, if last Thursday was one of the busiest nights I've seen out at Pontiff, this Sunday afternoon was one of the more peaceful and quiet times. Which is of course to be expected, with Jazz Fest and other festivals, crawfish boils, and other such gatherings all over town. So with the more easygoing atmosphere, it seemed appropriate to do a slower paced workout. Not easier, by any means, but not a high tempo one. So in contrast to the interval training of the last couple of sessions, the key component of Sunday's session was slow-paced, form-oriented, balance-enhancing strength development. Cone-touch-T-bends and one-legged-squat-thrusts were two of the more challenging exercises we executed, while one-leg-low-hops with distractions (easy math problems) served as an unusual and interesting break between those. We worked some arms with lateral (in a circle) crab-walks, and I would not be surprised to hear about some sore shoulders and/or wrists on Tuesday (but that's OK...in this case, sore is good!) And of course we did not neglect the abdominals, repeating one particular drill (ankle-reaches, which is basically a continuous crunch-hold with twists) several times throughout the session.

The weather was glorious once again, with the sun keeping things on the warm side but the gentle breeze and the shade of the trees offering the refreshing cool (although Neil would disagree about the breeze being gentle, since he was doing a track workout and getting whipped by the wind from every side along the way...excellent workout for him though, with a solid set of straights and curves).

As I promised, I put together some challenges/workouts for the days we don't meet, which you can find below. If you choose to partake, please let me know how it goes! And remember (as much as I hate quoting well-known lines, this truism can never be overstated) that champions are made when no one is watching. With that in mind, here are your challenges for this week:

Monday -- "TV challenge" --> if you watch any TV in the evenings, use every commercial break as an opportunity to do a simple exercise; a few push-ups, maybe a couple of crunches or lunges; and when it gets closer to bed-time, change it up so stretching; and if you don't watch TV, then take short breaks from your usual end-of-the-day activities to squeeze in a few drills (a watch or a cell phone that has an alarm that goes off every so often can be of great benefit here)

Wedneday -- "The Energizer" --> get your day started just a bit earlier than usual with an early morning warm-up; nothing intense like the workouts we do, but a simple routine of stretching from head to toe; getting your heart beating just a bit faster than at rest; do this as one of the first things you do after getting out of bed; and have yourself a healthy breakfast afterwards; the idea is to get a headstart on the day, as opposed to slowly waking up over the course of the entire morning

Friday -- "Dance!" --> whether you go out to a dance club Friday night or turn up the stereo in your living room, just dance; no rules, no shame, no kidding; by yourself, with a friend, with you kid, no matter; the only catch is obvious and that's to keep it up-tempo; keep it moving; feel free to video it and impress us with your skills (or never let anyone know about it except for you)

Saturday -- "AB challenge" -- if you did this last Saturday, you now have a basis for comparison, which means do more this time around; if you haven't tried it yet, the idea is simply to get as many abdominal exercises done throughout the course of the day as possible, and keep track of it (so next time you can compare); for anyone following these blogs closely, I promised to share my outcome of this challenge from last week - it wasn't as many as I wanted, but I did manage to remember enough to do 200 sit-ups and 200 crunches over the course of the day.

GOOD LUCK and see y'all Tuesday evening,

~Phillip Glotser