Here’s a killer series that I just played with.  The superman sets are what I built up to and man were they great.

100 pushups – That’s right, crank out as many as you can in the first set till you’re failing.  Rest 30 seconds, repeat until you’ve done 100.

25 Jackknife Sit-Ups – To start the core off right.

Lie on the floor on your back. Place your arms straight back behind your head. Bend at the waist while raising your legs and arms to meet in a jackknife position. Lower arms and legs back to the starting position. Keep your elbows and knees locked.

25 Mason Twists – Good to get those obliques involved.

Sit on the ground.  Feet off the ground with lower leg parallel to the ground.  Body at a 45 degree to the floor.  Clasp hands together in front of you.  Twist body to the right and touch hands to the floor, then back to the left.  That’s 1.  Keep back straight and feet parallel to the floor.

25 Bicycles & 25 Reverse Bicycles – These are just for fun and to get heart rate up.

Sit on the ground.  Feet off the ground.  Body at a 45 degree to the floor.  Hands off the ground – support head or out in front.  Pedal legs slowly in circles forward for 25 – then back pedal for 25.

3 Superman Sets – Alternating Supermans 2, 1 Full Superman

Alternating Superman

Lie on your stomach with arms stretched out overhead.  Raise right arm and left leg off the ground about 5-6 inches.  Hold position for 5 breaths.  Repeat with left arm and right leg.  Remember to breathe smoothly.

Full Superman

Lie on your stomach with arms stretched out overheard.  Raise both arms and legs off the ground about 5-6 inches.  Hold position for 10 breaths.  Remember to breathe smoothly.

Last night I performed in Boston, MA at a regular monthly dance.  This is the first time I’ve performed solo a choreography that I created.  The choreography is unfinished as the song fades out only halfway through and I’ll finish it someday.

You can also view the last time I performed it as a duet with Davis Thurber in Minneapolis here.

The performer is Suntae Lee at the Dong-A Dance Festival in Korea.

The grace of his movement is something we should look for in our natural movement, whether it’s dance, martial arts or just walking.

Op-Ed Contributor – Big Food vs. Big Insurance – NYTimes.com.

Fascinating read.

…reforming the food system is politically even more difficult than reforming the health care system.

…what happens when the health insurance industry realizes that our system of farm subsidies makes junk food cheap, and fresh produce dear, and thus contributes to obesity and Type 2 diabetes? It will promptly get involved in the fight over the farm bill.

The triplet is Squats, Situps, Pushups.  No rest inbetween. That’s 12 minutes straight, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off. 8 sets squats, 8 sets situps, 8 sets pushups.

Squat Sets:

1. 24
2. 25
3. 24
4. 23
5. 22
6. 20
7. 22
8. 22

Squats Total: 182

Situp Sets:

1. 22
2. 22
3. 21
4. 16
5. 16
6. 12
7. 13
8. 12

Situp Total: 118

Pushup Sets:

1. 20
2. 16
3. 10
4. 10
5. 6
6. 7
7. 5
8. 6

Pushup Total: 80

Overall I’m proud of the results.  I love squats so starting with those was great and I maintained more than 1 squat per second through all 8 sets basically.  The situps started much stronger than Day 3’s Tabata Situps and I think my technique has improved drastically. My end result was lower than the Situps alone but I think the technique was better and thus I feel less is better in this case.  The pushups started strong with 1 per second but I dropped off quickly and the second half was severely slower.  I noticed my back would start to go into extension instead of staying straight.  That made maintaining good form very hard so I rested more to get technically superior pushps in rather than muscling through with bad form.

Note to self: work on strengthening core with back extensions, supermans, etc.

Today was Tabata Situps.

My result: 125

A Tabata is an interval series where you go 20 seconds on (active), 10 seconds off (rest).  Repeat that 8 times.  Record your number.

It’s a killer interval and today was no joke.

Getting better at my situp technique but that means they are more intense.

7 Reasons to Eat More Saturated Fat.

Fascinating post about how eating saturated fats, particularly high meat diets like Atkins can be important for your body and mind.

It’s a 30 day CrossFit focused challenge.  I’m 3 days late, but day 1 was a rest day and I’ll call that today.  I’m going to be a couple of days behind but my goal is to add this to my regular fitness routine and see how I keep pace.

Tomorrow: 21-15-9 (x3) – 3 minutes rest between sets

Lunges
Sit ups
Chair dips

Rest 3 minutes between rounds.  Record total time.  I’ll update this when I do it tomorrow.

Update

Set Times:

1. 4:00
2. 4:30
3. 4:12

Total Time: 12:42

Full situps were probably the hardest part of this.  By the end of each set the last set of situps were seriously roughs.

Overall – killer interval.  Soaked in sweat.  Muscles definitely worked hard.  Back a little sore.  Look to hone situp technique.

In the modern world fitness is a gym exercise, something you go and gruel through because it’s good for you, it makes you look better, and so on.  You go, put in your time and get out.

That’s not my take on it.

Movement is a form of play and we forget that all too often.  And playing is fun.

Sometimes it’s hard work, sometimes it’s not in our comfort zone, but it should be exhilirating, a learning and exploring process.  If you’re not getting a mental zest from physical activity, you’re approaching it wrong.