Leg Punishment

Wednesday: Had a challenging time at the FS PT today. The recruiter that signed me (We will call him Staff Sergeant or SSG Coors.) decided to run the PT. This is the recruiter I mentioned previously.  SSG Coors is not a hard ass, but likes to push us a little harder than the other recruiters.  Having said that, I knew PT would be fun.

It started out having a PFC who is here for HRAP (This means they come and work for the recruiter for two weeks before going to their duty station) going over the new stretches and warm up excercises for the Army. SSG Coors says they are gay, but we have to do them. I know why they have been setup. Short explanation is that the gaming generation of kids who don’t go outside much has been getting hurt more in the last decade. If you want more info, here is a good link: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/28/132407022/army-ditches-boot-camp-in-favor-of-new-age-fitness

After the gay exercises, SSG Coors had us do some pushups, situps, flutter kicks, V-Ups, crunches, and a few others. He then split up us in to two groups: Weak runners and better runners. I went into the weak runners. The PFC took us on a run that equaled 1.75 miles. You can see the map: http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/27497404 We then did some more exercises: sprints, bear crawls, lunges, and few others. He then took us on a half mile jog. I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it, but it was a nice pace, and I even sprinted the last 100 yards. I felt pretty good after that. It made me realize I need to do more sprints to kick up my pace and endurance. I am thinking about doing some sprints on the weekends, rather than screwing off.

Thursday: Against my body’s wishes, I went to FS PT. SGT Carolina ran the show. Seeing that many of us were a little less than up to par from the day before, he decided not to do any running or serious lower body work. We basically did what the Army calls circuit training. This can be described as forming a circle with a group and doing various exercises.  SGT Carolina kind of gave our poison of choice in our exercises. Each person had to decide which exercise and the amount of repetition. He then razed whoever  gave a wimpy number of reps. I think the highlight was the motivators.  The version depends on the person running PT. It is basically doing sets of jumping jacks, jumping jacks minus the arms, hops, and calf raises, all the while counting down in a descending order. You can see the video that shows this in a form at this AIT location:

Friday: Was a bit of a long day. I was up at em’ at 0330 to drive the over and pick up her friend and bring both of them to the airport. I then had my personal training session with my trainer at 0700. She worked my legs for a bit with emphasis on my calves. The highlight was when she introduced the full body situp to me. This is unassisted situp where you bring your legs up and under you while you bring you upper body up. You feel the burn in the lower abs after the second set. The third set is all gravy. I then jogged a slow pace of about 5.5 MPH for about 20 minutes on the treadmill.

After the gym, I then got a last minute chance to work with a local company and do some residential construction. I don’t have boatload of experience in this field, but I can swing a hammer and push a broom. It was a fun day till I hit three fingers and let out a string of curses for each one. By the end of the day, all I wanted to was go and set my neck and fingers on some ice.

Saturday & Sunday: I took it easy on Saturday due to my sore muscles and fingers. I did spend a majority of the day doing laundry for my upcoming trip to New Jersey and New York. Sunday for fitness, I pulled out a P90X disc I got a while back. I felt like doing some serious cardio and strength training. I found the plyometrics disc and decided to feel brave. I felt good because the last time I tried that disc, I quit about 15 to 20 miuntes in. This time, I finished the entire session and kept up for the most part. If anyone has any interest in the concept or what is involved, check this out:

 

Not my trainer, but you get the idea.

Monday: Wow, the plyometrics was hurting pretty good. Lets just say I found some new muscles and feel like I was being punished.  Due to my trip flying out on Tuesday, I rescheduled my usual Tuedays workout for Monday morning with a different trainer. This guy seriously broke down the muscle groups in my arms. I should have seen it coming when I first saw the guy. I could only describe him as a tan Hispanic Hulk. 

Tuesday: If your like most people, you have seen the news with the load of snow that have been dumped on the Northeast. Well that snow dumped on our flight plans. Because of this we will fly out on Thursday. And because of the freed up schedule, I went and worked out with my usual trainer this morning. I let her destroy my legs some more even though they were a little sore after the P90X DVD. She had me do some lower back strength training and wall squats paired, she then tore up my calves, after doing some squats. On a side note, two gym rats maxed out the squatting machine next mine. They needed to find another 130 lbs. Well my trainer happened to weigh 130 lbs. She happily obliged to their need and fit herself in the machine and let them workout. I wish I got a picture to illustrate. Maybe I’ll see it again and take a pic to share. She then had me do some full body situps and V-ups with a stability ball in my legs. I did 20 minutes on the treadmill and called it a day.

I then took the wife to a picnic to Blanchard Park. It is a really nice place if you’re into running, fishing, or biking.

 I will update the blog when I get back and share my adventrure into snowy abyss.