AX-1 - Week 02 DONE!!

Hi everyone,

I'm right back from the gym and drying after a good shower.
Perfect timing for a week review.

First thing to go with is what i generally think of the program ... after two weeks, i begin to have a fair view of it, and I stand by my word. It is great. It is well balanced, with loads of different exercises allowing a proper rest between categorized sessions. Motivation is definitely there, which is a good point.

In a bit more details now, a quick walk through the week ...

Monday was upper body push ... that was a good tough one for me as upper body is definitely not my strong point.
I got hit right from the start with the Burpees push-up pyramid. Man, that was so hard at the end that i had to finish on my knees. But i went through all the exercises ... next day, pecs and triceps were sore! :)

Tuesday was burst training and core ... shadow boxing was the main part. I was worried it would be light ... but when you really go for it, shoulders get warm! Great thing here is that i stayed home and did it watching TV. Excellent.

Wednesday was lower body. Another killing one. :) But no major issue. Went ok.

Thursday was a bit disappointing for a burst training. That was agility work out on a cross. Much less challenging to me than the agility ladder. Probably cause it is shorter. Well, i could have added a few rounds for sure, but i did what was on the list and took advantage of a "light session" to get some rest ... Friday was around the corner! :)

Friday was about upper body pull and core.
And the exercise i was dreading pointed its nose ... pull-ups! To make it short, i can't pull a single one! In my past training, I trained to shin ups using the walk the plank method. But like i said, i kind of did not get the best out of it due to a lack of challenge/motivation. I tried once to work out a walk the plank session for pull-ups, but it was too early. I was not stable and pulled a muscle on my back.
So today was not going to be fun!
Anyway, i did not follow the "as many as you can. don't worry if you cannot do many at this point" otherwise i would have done nothing! ha ha!
So i tried a walk the plank ... and it went well. Managed 6 the first set, 5 the second and 4 (roughly controlled!) on the third. And to make it 4 sets, and worth it, i did a set at the pull-up machine ... 85kg, 10 reps. Man, i don't get it! can't be 85kg for real ... why couldn't I do a pull-up then?
Anyway, i was glad about this exercise result and moved on to the rest of the session.
All-in-all, a great one again.

So that's it for this week.

Indeed i don't see great changes yet, but i do feel tougher. That's a feeling indeed, but i believe training is already paying off. I can feel that muscles are under tension, which is a great feeling and prove something is happening.
I hope to see some light variation this week-end while checking up my weight ... I'll let you know about it.

Next week I'm affraid i'll be able to train 3 sessions max, so week 3 will be repeated entirely the week after in order to get the best of it. I'll target the 2 upper body workouts and 1 burst training (or maybe a 10km run).
That means the first 400 challenge will be in 2 weeks time. I think that is actually a good point. :)

Note: again, no editing, so please don't shoot! :)

Cheers,
Seb

AX-1 - Week 01 done

Hi Everyone,

This is week 02, day 01 ... well, Monday basically! :)
Just had lunch and thought i'd drop a line to give my impression on week 01.

First of, I am really happy about the fact that i managed to train 5 times last week. It had been one of my personal target for few weeks now, but boredom was not helping and so i was only managing 3 weekly training ... 4 at max.
It is therefore already an achievement. And looking at week 02 planning, I am more motivated than ever to proceed. :)

As for the training content, the variety of the exercises has been great. Well, whenever you're motivated, please head to Athlean-X website to know more about. I can't share details as it would defeat the purpose of signing-up.

But what i can say is that i've been hit all over ... Ended-up the week with sore muscles all over the legs, bicepts and abs.

Clearly week 01 is a leg killer. And it worked. I have been challenged like i haven't in a long time. So satisfied so far.
I was a bit worried at first on Day 01 as I had the feeling i was not so tired. But i figured that first, i was totally out of shape, second i was exited by the program so a rush of energy kicked in. And third, in Day 01, i guess we are all a bit low weight thinking we need to save some for later ... well, that's not the point, and as long as you don't overload yourself to injury level, just put on weights that allow you to reach the number of reps in a burning muscle status! :)

What went wrong ... well, this is personal ... I did not manage my sleeping time too well. So at the end of the week, i was completly flat out. I'll have to be better from this week onward, if i want to make it to week 12.

This week seems to go on with more upper work-out. That's good. Bring it on! :)

That's it for now. If you are following the AX1 program and putting your follow-up in writing, please let me know where. I'm interested.

Cheers,
Seb

AX-1 ... Kicked-off!

Hey, hi everyone,

Seb here.

Maybe you guys know me through my other blog, my2013marathonproject.blogspot.com , or not! :-)

Anyway, point is, for a bit more than a year, i have been focused on one target, and one only ... Running a marathon. If you go through my blog, you'll see that i partially succeeded.

Yeah, i did cross the line, but i can say it was not with flying colors! And i want to rectify that as soon as 2015.

Why am i re-directing myself on the gym now? ... Well that's a good question ... And there are 3 reasons to that ...

ONE, along the 14 months of running i have done, one aspect has definitely been highlighted, although i was kind of aware of it, it is the fact that my upper body is weak and unbalanced. It causes me to face exhaustion too quickly and pains here and there that are really annoying.

TWO, weight loss. It is a fact that i have lost 5kg over a year of practice (from 89 to 84kg). But not much toward the end. I guess this is link to the fact i "fell asleep" along the way. I mean, i kind of lost focus (and was also disturb by nasty feet pain) and so intensity in the training, leading to some kind of plateau which i have not been able to overcome.

THREE, here again ... Intensity, speed, agility. I am not the best athlete around here, but i have been practicing football and tennis for years, and i was amazed to not be tired after a game, but to be upset that explosive sequences had been such a pain ... So stamina in the pocket, but for the rest, not much.

So i decided to get back to the gym ... This is definitely an area where i get bored after few week, not because of the type of exercise it is, but because of the variety .... Hey, don't jump on me ... I'll explain.

Of course, you can do a million things ... But where to start, how often, how many time/reps and so on ...

I looked up for some body weight info on the net ... 

I first came across Scooby1951 ... Man, this guy is great. He has a free full of good tips website for training. I started to build-up a planning from there, and practiced for 3 weeks ... But again, boredom was around the corner.

So i continued my research and found P90X. I watch a whole bunch of videos about amazing results. But i have not been caught by it.

Anyway, i started to feel i needed something like this, pre-planned, to guide me.

Then i found, clicking by mistake on one of his video, Jeff Cavaliere program, Athlean-X.

And again, i spent some time watching videos ... But what caught me here is that the videos are mostly from him, giving tips to complement your own training, or the AX program you are following.

I found him motivating ... And after 2 weeks of temptation, i signed up.

This week is WEEK 01 for me.

As i write, i completed DAY 03, and i am laying on my bed with weak legs ... Man, the sequence burst session with agility ladder yesterday + strength training for lower body today has just done the job ... I'm going to sleep tight! :-)

Well, that's it for today ... I will not commit on how often i'll post cause i know i won't stick to it ... Madam, work and training are enough to make me busy. :-)

Any, i'll post updates for sure ... Most probably some videos of the challenges when time comes, and some pics for visual follow-up.

To conclude this short intro, below is a summary of my measurements taken on sunday 2 june. Let where we are after week 04.

Note: it is a bit late here ... So i did not edit the text ... Apologies for the mistakes you might have found.

Cheers,

Seb