Posts Tagged ‘ exercise ’

WWYWT? Pruning the Roses

May 9, 2012
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No music today, just the sun, my shears, gloves, raggedy jeans and my sunny I Love California tee shirt. I also had a few power tools for the edging and trimming of the shrubs, but you get the idea. Last week I finished off the week and yesterday, with my Wii Workout. I have also added 30 pushups before bedtime to the repetoire to build a little mass. While 30 push ups doesn’t sound like much, it is actually a great thing to do before bed if you do them slowly and with a lot of control instead of using momentum to carry you through them. Anyway, back to today.

The Workout: 1st 30 minutes I pruned the roses. This gave me a pretty good shoulder workout, wrist and fingers as well as a leg squats and lunges. It also provided me with about 6 pricks from the thick ass thorns on my long stems. I had blood spots up and down my arm, but hey it’s worth it to have my roses come back strong after the first blooms. 

Next 15 Minutes: I took out the old trimmer saw and shaped the four shrubs. This was a good arm workout of course.

Next 30 minutes I edged the lawn. This was a back workout and legs since I had to walk slowly around the edge of the yard.

Final 20 minutes I plugged in the blower and got rid of all of the shavings. I didn’t cut the grass since I’m trying to get some thickness to it. Overall it was a very good workout and something a little different. If I could have avoided getting a face full of spider webs when I was pruning this would have been a great workout. However, I really didn’t need the unexpected cardio from running my big ass around the yard trying to get this tiny spider off of my face after putting my whole face through the web. smh

Stay motivated Fam! WWYTD?

WWYWT? Running To The Roots “Undun” Contemplative Jogging

May 3, 2012
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I will be writing a ‘Get To Know” on the Roots’ undun on www.cbpublish.com in a few days. My wife recently bought me this album and while I don’t like downloads, I haven’t stopped playing it since she put it on my desktop. Running to Undun placed me into a trance as I did my 5K for the week. The album itself, without having researched the album outside of reading some articles on Okayplayer.com begins with the high pitched sound of a flatline and then begins telling a story. It is not a disjointed narrative, but very similar to Nas’ Rewind it begins at the end and snakes its way back through the fatalistic desires of being born in the ghetto were a story begins, like the picture on the album and an allusion to Lauryn Hill’s lyric, “flipping in the ghetto on a dirty matress.” Unlike the introspective Hip-Hop of a Kid Cudi and Lupe, running to this album was not a hindrance, the music is kept in the pocket by Questlove’s drumming and while many of the songs are not uptempo the backbeat drives the songs and drove me although as I said I didn’t even think about the run. Below is the track Sleep from undun.

Temperature: 72 degrees. It was drizzling as I took off on my run, so I put on a hoodie. Big mistake… I was drenched at the end of the run as it began warming up and the rain stopped.

Terrain: Street, sidewalk and grass and rocks. I hate when cars see you running and make an effort to get as close to you as possible. Just because your ass is lazy don’t hit me because I’m not.

Distance: According to Google Maps it was 3.2 miles.

Time: 46 minutesI stopped at the bank had a short convo with my favorite security guard and heade back home.

Soundtrack:The Roots – Undun. This is not your kid’s hip-hop. This is skillful storytelling and subtle in your face music. Contemplative art. Undun is studying a work of art, auditory illustration.

What was your workout today? Leave comments in the bottom if you want.

Stay motivated.

Need some running shoes visit the site www.arch-usa.com

 

I changed my mind and decided to go with Tip The Scale, listen and see why:

WWYWT? More Roadwork – 5K? Better believe it.

April 25, 2012
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Wednesday morning!!!!!!Yesterday was officially my last college class as an instructor/professor. Very bittersweet moment overall. It was a great class, but it’s time to start a different phase of my life away from education after over 17 years. Sigh… enough of that. Today was more road work for the kid. I plotted a great map on Google and took off.

Temperature: 65 degrees. By the time I finished the run it had edged up to about 70 and the sun was pretty bright. It was still very nice weather for a run.

Terrain: The suburban concrete jungle, the skreets, the hood, actually just the sidewalk with moderate hills. Then again a lot of the street didn’t have sidewalks and the road was too narrow so I actually went off road today. My legs don’t like the instability of the grass and dirt.

Distance: According to Google Maps it was 3.3 miles. A 5K and it felt pretty easy just for the record. I ran a pretty decent pace as well.

Time: 36 minutes, give or take a phone call and some texting about a buisness meeting with my PR guy. Aspiring writers have to eat and if he can get some books sold (shoulder shrug).

Soundtrack: Pharoahe Monche channel on Pandora. I just can’t stop listening to this one channel.  Dopest song of the run? I Try: Talib Kweli featuring Mary J. Blige. For the life of me I can’t figure out why people really respect a lot of Hip-Hop artists out there. I guess it’s all a preference thing, but if I can get motivated and get political with a song that I can run too, why would I listen to anything else? I know… sometimes I just want to bob my head. What was your workout today? Leave comments in the bottom if you want.

Stay motivated.

Need some running shoes visit the site www.arch-usa.com

 

WWYWT? What was your workout today?

April 17, 2012
By

Everlast Wrist weights

I’ve been playing in a basketball league and running as usual, but not enough. Last week during the game I dislocated my finger so for the past week I haven’t been really running (which has nothing at all to do with my finger), but I have been consistently doing my favorite workout… Wii Sports. Unlike most people who play the Wii, I get a full workout because I run in place (cardio), I do squats and lunges and between certain sports I get down and do pushups. Anyway, it’s a great workout and today’s workout was more of the same. The difference in the past workouts and today is my inclusion of the Everlast Wrist Weights (everlast should be paying me for this). Since the Wii requires you to hold a remote in one hand and the small nunchuk in the other hand, their is an imbalance of weight. I bought the Everlast Wrist Weights and using these helps to one the left arm while the right arm tends to do most of the work in Tennis and Bowling. These things are highly recommended.

Workout: Wii SPorts 45 minutes.

First I warmed up with the best of 5 tennis match. The tennis match allows for squats, slides (side to side to mimic the action) and a slight arm workout, if you stay on your toes and really move and step into the swings you can also do lunges. I won the tennis match 3 sets to 1.

Second was baseball. I don’t know why but baseball actually makes me sweat a lot. I think it’s my desire to mimic the actual movements so much. I squat when batting and get some trunk twists in when swinging. Once again a small shoulder workout is included by default when pitching and batting. I lost the baseball game 7-4. It sucks, but I’m just not the good in baseball.

The third part of Wii sports is bowling which is really just a cool down before taking on the toughest aspect of the game… boxing.

Boxing is an incredible workout on the Wii. If you actually use your core you can get a great workout and moving side to side and leaning, squatting and alternating punches (long jabs, short quick jabs) will make you sweat like you wouldn’t believe. I won every match in boxing. The best part about this workout is that it is competitive and allows for you to have an opponent although it is very isolated.

I cool down after boxing with golf. Today’s match was 9 holes and I finished 1 under ( I can’t remember the score) but for me that is pretty good. Yesterday my Wii fit age was 20 which is the best you can get. Today I finished with a 22. This is all pretty good considering I’m holding the controller with one finger sticking out. Which is kind of painful.

If you worked out today, write down your workout. I’m going to be more consistent in posting this here because you never know who you might inspire to begin there own workout routine.

Stay motivated!

WWYWT? What Was Your Workout Today? Introducing the Kinect

January 9, 2012
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Xbox Kinect

Okay those of you that follow the site know that I either post here or on Facebook about my daily workouts. Sometimes I forget to post (not really, I just don’t do it) which isn’t very cool; but anyway… I actually did a two part workout. The family took off for a bike ride and since I jog and I don’t have a bike, I walked with my daughter who has a Balance Bike. She is getting really good on the balance bike and I actually had to trot to keep up. It was kind of chilly out so I realized that I just didn’t want to face cold air jogging today, so I came back in and jumped on the Christmas gift: The XBox Kinect Sports. I’ve been playing this already, but this is the first article about it. I have to make a comparison of course. The Wii provided a very good workout, but holding the controllers created an unnatural stress which could contribute to joint stiffness or the old Carpal problems. More importantly, I tended to focus on the controller movement instead of isolating muscle groups. The Kinect utilizes a sensor that reads your body and therefore doesn’t need controllers. What a difference!

There is a more complete overall body workout because your range of motions are not limited by the controllers and therefore you can actually torque the body, twist, lunge, jump, squat and place yourself into more realistic workout positions. While the Kinect Sports lacks all of the games needed on one disc Season 1 is not bad at all. It has Boxing, Track & Field, Beach Volleyball, Bowling, Soccer and Table Tennis. I actually have both Season 1 and 2 which also includes Football and Tennis as well as Golf and Darts.

Today’s Workout: 1 mile walk and then 45 minutes on the Kinect. Nice warm up and then I jumped into boxing. Boxing uses the core: trunk twists, side bends and extensions when punching. You get a serious burn when punching in your shoulders as well. There is also a slight leg workout when squatting to uppercut. After Boxing, I rolled into Track& Field which provides you with an explosive workout. You begin with running in place for the 100m dash, running and throwing in the javelin, a great core and leg workout in the long jump and then the hurdles and then the discus works on the core. I capped off the workout with bowling which is basically a cool down. Overall an excellent workout with sweat dripping from the beard.

What Was Your Workout Today? Oh yeah, buy some kicks and stay motivated.

WWYWT? What Was Your Workout Today? 11-29-11

November 29, 2011
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Okay it’s been a long weekend and all of the Turkey and fixins are firmly settled into the rolls of stomachs across America. I haven’t done a WWYWT in a minute with all of the sneaker updates, so here is what I did to start getting rid of the Apple Pie and Sweet Potato Pie, both a la mode, that I killed this last week.

Temperature: 37 degrees. I stayed in the house. I had been using the weather as an excuse not to run. I was also using my lack of cold weather running gear as an excuse, until last night. In the middle of the night the Treadmill sitting in the corner of the room spoke to me. It said, “I can smell the turkey and dressing seeping from your pores into the sheets of your bed. You are getting chunky, chunky, chunky.” Then it shut up. So I woke up this morning did a couple of blog updates and jumped on the treadmill for a jog.

Workout: Program 1 Calorie burner 300 calories. I ended up at 296 calories, but that’s okay it was a good jog.

Distance: 2100 steps, which I equate to 2.1 miles in 30 minutes. I know my pace though so I had to be closer to 3 miles.

Soundtrack: A mix of music. What stands out? Wu Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin To F With right when I needed it most and during the cool down, The Police -Wrapped Around Your Finger. I can’t help but feel like the treadmill was sending subliminal messages with these two songs.

Overall an excellent workout. Make sure you get out and do something today.

Stay motivated

WWYWT? What Was Your Workout Today?

October 25, 2011
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Everyday you should do something that keeps the heart pumping. I hit the pavement again for today’s workout. While the weather may have changed at around 10pm the temperature is perfect for a nice jog. While most of you are probably working or in school at that time and you may find it hard to run, the weather is equally as nice at around 5-6pm. Let me know what you do in the comment area for a change. I know this is a sneaker site, but sometimes you have to use those expensive sneakers to relieve stress and keep the body in tune.

Exercise: Jogging/Running Shoes: ARCH CG097 II ES

Distance: 2.5 miles

Time: 25 minutes

Surface: Streets, concrete and grass in certain areas, moderate hills with one really big hill that I stayed on my toes and pushed it hard to climb

Soundtrack: Aesop Rock, Del, Talib Kweli, Common and Bilal.

Most motivating song of the run: Guerilla Monsoon Rap (Talib, Black Thought and Pharoah Monche)

What did you do today? Stay motivated and buy some kicks.

Chris B.

WWYWT? Running at Shelby Farms

October 2, 2011
By
Woodland Park Shelby Farms

Actually I was supposed to post this on Friday. After playing some backyard soccer with my son and daughter, and basketball as the workout during the week, we took a family day to Shelby Farms in Memphis. They have an incredible park for the kids named the Woodland Discovery Park, which is surrounded by bike paths and trails. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to get in a run out of the neighborhood. I only intended to run about a mile, since I was not familiar with the trails, but about 1 mile in I pulled a Bugs Bunny and took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

So instead of a 1 mile jog, I ended up running past the Pavillion taking a turn and entering one of the older trails that was off of the new path. Since I was lost, I just kept running and saw some of the coolest parts of the park, that I’m sure I wasn’t really supposed to see considering I ran across a family of deer. 

One of the many trails

Yep I ran far enough to actually experience wildlife and a mouth full of a swarm of gnats or some random bugs. I ended up gone for about 35 minutes, but with the change of scenery I kept a great pace and pulled off about 3.5 miles. My biggest issues when running is still my weight overall and actually my shoes. The CGs are going flat, and it’s about time. My feet actually were sore a little the next day, but overall it was a great run and my goal now is to find various locations and run them throughout the city of Memphis. Maybe I will keep everyone posted and you can join me, beat me, run past me… whatever you do get up, get out and do something.

Stay Motivated

WWYWT? What Was Your Workout Today?

September 20, 2011
By

Wii Training… Okay now that you are done laughing I dare you to take Wii Sports for a test drive. As far as motivation is concerned, it’s tough to get to the gym sometimes and when you are working through a calf injury like mine, you have to stay active and running on a calf injury for a 6-2, 220-5lb guy can wreak havoc on your legs and lower back. In other words, as much as I have grown to love jogging, I can’t do it with this leg injury.  I have to find another workout that will allow me to get cardio, stretching, legs and arms in. It is an overall workout.

Okay so this is the key to a great Wii workout using Wii Sports.  When you are playing, clear out enough space and perform the actions in the same manner that you would the actual sport. During the workouts make sure you keep a focus on your core, twisting and flexing while making the movements. Here is the breakdown of my workout today.

Wii Tennis: Best of 5. My level is Pro +2000. I do a full body extension with toe raises when serving the ball. I also do squats between matches. When I perform backhands and other swings I use my core and it is basically a trunk twist. This works.

Wii Baseball: I am only at the +1000 level in baseball. When I swing I crouch and make my strikezone smaller which is like going to basketball practice and sitting in defensive position for an extended period, which works the quads and glutes. Instead of simply using the Wii remote and moving it, I use my shoulder and perform a full swing. When pitching I lift my long and step through which is a lunge.

Wii Bowling: Wii Bowling is not a strenuous exercise and simply allows for a cool down before diving into the hardest part of the Wii workout… boxing.

Wii Boxing: If you are looking for a way to get those biceps burning and shoulders toned, Wii Boxing is perfect. Wii boxing is also a great cardio workout. I typically go for 5 bouts. I stay on my toes when I am not boxing and then I use lunges, trunk twists, side bends and I jump probably 200 times during these 5 bouts. My pro level is 2000+ which makes my matches very difficult. Between matches I sometimes get my Billy Blanks on and use the remotes as the height bar to lift my leg which also works on the core.

Wii Golf: After Wii Boxing, golf is a perfect cool down and in all honesty it will work on your real game. Using the correct form for swinging off of the tee is another alternative workout for your core and balance.

Overall my workout on the Wii extends to about 1 hour 10 minutes. If you are having trouble getting motivated to workout, start working on your Wii fitness routine to stay motivated.

WWYWT?: What Was Your Workout Today?

August 2, 2011
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Since I redesigned the website I erased a lot of information on the update of the CG097II running shoe. I will try to update as much as I can here. I took about 9 days off from running to concentrate on the business since the big collapse from ebay and the market. Read about that below. Big mistake in regard to my conditioning. I was getting my mile back to under 10 minutes and moved back to 2-3 miles per day. Today, just to get the feel back I ran a short distance, but I used long strides.

Distance: 1.1 Miles on the sidewalk with one medium sized hill. 

Temperature: 90 degrees, heat index 95.

Notes: I am still working on my forefoot strike form to reduce injuries, knee and hip pain, and it is working. My calf muscles are burning and it feels like my achilles is straining some, but there isn’t any pain at all, just tightness. I was able to complete the mile without resorting to using my whole foot when I felt slightly tired.

Shoe Notes: I have had the sample for over a month now and Ian and I have redesigned the shoe. We lowered the collar around the ankle which is the biggest change. Ian suggested an increase in the size of the logo and an added heel pull tab. I wish I could go ahead and make another sample and do the order, but finances have slowed the project down considerably. Which is perfect since the side panels on the shoe were made for Fall running and wear. Back to the shoe. The foam is beginning to compress, which place the foot closer to the ground when running. This isn’t a bad thing. I can feel the ground and I am responding a lot better and not resting my feet between each footstrike. I am staying on the balls and midfoot where the rubber is on the shoe. I have been using the outside of the my foot some and the foam is shredding some, but the shoe is still very responsive. It is still an 8 out of 10. I need to decide on the shoe insert. The thicker foam insert slips some although it does provide additional cushioning, heavier runners may feel some problems with stability.

Soundtrack: Mos Def “Roses” from The Ecstatic 3:42 seconds, Fashawn “Intro” from Boy Meets World 2:17, DJ Quik feat. AMG “Trouble” from the Best of DJ Quik 3:39, Mos Def “Ghetto Rock” from The New Danger 2:00 minutes. Total time 11:00

Overall: Not a very good time, but that’s my fault for taking all of that time off. Anyway, What Was Your Workout Today?

stay motivated

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