Hacking a Home Workout

Now that I finished UBC I’m hacking together a workout for at home using kettlebells and body weight.

  • Main goal: overall strength and endurance
  • Performance goal: 30 minute 5K
  • User interface goal: six pack abs (currently a 2 pack)

Warmup:

  • Jump rope, jog in place, or jumping jacks for 5 minutes
  • Series of streaches for 3 minutes (don’t know the names, just know what ones work)

Strength Exercises:

1-2 sets, three times per week.

Two handed kettlebell swings – 50 – Hamstrings and legs

Run and really gets my heart rate up.

Jumping lunges – 20 – Quads

Guaranteed leg killer if the swings haven’t already.

Turkish get ups – 5 minutes – Shoulders

Switching sides every rep.

Scapula push ups – 20 – Shoulders

Really good shoulder workout. Used these the past 5 weeks instead of normal push ups.

Planks and side planks – 15 seconds each (45 seconds total) – Core and abs

Good “holding” exercise to wrap up each set.

(Will add more arms after my finger is healed)

Endurance Exercises:

Couch To 5K intervals on the trail and around the neighborhood three times a week. The trail should help with my form and the streets will help with my speed.

Resources:

 

Finished UBC

Finished up UBC this weekend. I’m happy with my results, they weren’t as good as I hoped for but I think my injury was the limitation(1). I don’t have the official results yet but it looks like I added 8 pounds of muscle, 2 pounds of fat, and cut a few minutes off of my 1.5 mile run. I was also really close to both a 2 minute quarter mile and 10 minute mile run/walk, 2:01 and 10:01 :(.

Hopefully my finger will be healed in 4 weeks so I can start training again. I’d like to complete a 5K before 2011 is over.

1: for comparison my injured arm could barely curl a red band doubled up  (20 pounds) while my uninjured one could handle black doubled up (40 pounds).

Purchasing Hack

I was chatting with Curtis today about finances and I was reminded that I never did write about a purchasing “hack” that I’ve been using for some time now.

Anytime I want to buy something “large” I need to find a way to create as asset that generates the income to buy it. In other words, I build an asset that then buys whatever it was that I wanted.

An example of this should make it clear. Last year I wanted to get an iPhone 4 and an iPad but I didn’t want to pay $800 for them. So after some brainstorming I created and sold my first ebook, Refactoring Redmine with the intention of raising enough money to buy the iGadgets for me.

The main points of this hack is:

  • by building an asset I’m getting value from it even after the purchases are made. e.g. after I raise enough for the iGadgets I can still sell the book.
  • going through the “build an asset” cycle delays the purchase long enough that you can make a more rational decision. e.g. once Refactoring Redmine made enough to buy the iGadgets I really didn’t want them any more by that point
  • shifting from a consumer to a producer is an entirely different point of view on how business works. (Something I’ve been thinking about recently and need to flesh out a bit more…)

So let your creating fuel your purchasing.

Pausing C25K

This last weekend I had to pause C25K. My recent injury has left me a bit scared and I don’t want to risk doing (any more) permanant damage. It sucks how quickly things can take a turn for the worse.

I have a follow up next week, if the news is good I might be able to pick up my training where I left off.