Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Friday, October 27, 2023

Workout Update: Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling Day 1

Today is the start of my "new" workout program. I decided to go back to Lift-4 for my "main" workout and then do the various corrective workouts and foam rolling workouts from 645 that I did not do when I did the original program. For the Lift-4 workouts, I decided to do the Before Lift-4 workouts, which are basically shorter versions of the type of workouts that you will do throughout the program. So, today was the traditional Chest and Back workout in Lift-4 and the Corrective Shoulders routine in 645.

The chest and back workout in Lift-4 consisted of two blocks of two exercises, one chest exercise, and one back exercise that was done for three sets of 10 reps. In the first block, the chest exercise was a bench press and the back exercise was bent over back flys. In the second block, the chest exercise was a chest fly, and the back exercise was bent over rows. Between the sets, you only got 20 seconds of rest for a transition. Then, you did three sets of push-ups, as many as you could do in 30 seconds, without stopping. Then, you finish the workout with two core exercises (sit-ups or crunches and then prone side bends) that you do for 30 seconds each for three sets. There is no HIIT component in this workout, so it is a bit shorter than the regular workouts (just 20 minutes), but because you have almost no rest between the exercises, you do get a cardio workout.

The corrective shoulder routine in 645 requires a foam roller. If you do not have one they are pretty inexpensive these days and not hard to find. During the 15-minute routine, you foam roll your lats and pecs, then you roll your mid back (basically laying across the foam roller and moving your back but not rolling down too high or low, and then there is a move in which you almost do a crunch on the roller. Between the time you are actually using the roller to work out knots, you do a couple of stretches that will help your shoulders. Those involve setting the roller on end, putting your hand on top, and then lowering your chest toward the ground. All in all, it is a very good routine and definitely helps with shoulder mobility.

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