Workout Update: Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Round 2 -Day 53

For Day 53 I did upper body foam rolling from 645 and the shoulders and arms workout from Lift 4. This week, the shoulders and arms routine is a circuit workout, doing two circuits of four exercises, and then a bonus circuit of three exercises, followed by core. Since my shoulder was still hurting and had less range of motion than usual, I decided to back off on the amount of weight I was using for some of the exercises and that definitely helped. Even so, it was still challenging. 

Workout Update: Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Round 2 -Day 52

For Day 52 I again did upper body foam rolling from 645 and then the two recovery routines from Lift 4. The foam rolling definitely helped my sore right shoulder. Other than that, there was really no noticeable difference in any of the routines. 

DVD/TV Series Review: Alias: Seasons 1-5

 

+++Warning, this contains some spoilers from throughout the series.+++

This is the complete series of Alias which ran from 2001 to 2006 and starred Jennifer Garner, Michael Vartan, Victor Garber, Ron Rifkin, Kevin Weisman, Greg Grunberg, Carl Lumby, and David Anders. In the early seasons, it also starred Merrin Dungey,  Bradley Cooper, and Sarah Shahi, and in later seasons, Lena Olin, Melissa George, Rachel Nichols, and Mia Maestro.  Alias was a great concept that got a little weird when it started to focus on the Rambaldi storyline. The first few seasons where the Rambaldi storyline was merely in the background and would be advanced in one or two episodes each season were great. Once it became the focus and the supernatural elements got more and more silly, the show definitely took a downturn. 

The crux of the storyline in the first season is that Jennifer Garner's character, Sydney Bristow, believed that she was working for the CIA (which she could not reveal to anyone), while she was really working for a shadow organization run by criminals. When the organization discovered that she told her fiancee that she worked for the CIA and he was killed by the organization she discovered who she was really working for and what she was really involved in. From there the show focuses on her life as a double agent and her attempts to bring down the rogue spy agency/criminal organization.

Where Alias really shined was character development and perfect casting. Every character that was around for a significant amount of time changed from the time they were first introduced. And of course, Alias was a world where being dead did not always mean staying dead. I think the best storyline of the series was the time jump and the way it was done. Sydney having lost two years with no memory, then finding out exactly how and why her memory was erased was a great payoff. Especially when that is the kind of story that often falls flat at the big reveal.

The one drawback to the series as I said before is by the end the entire focus was on the Rambaldi storyline, and making the whole supernatural/eternal life storyline. It really did change the feel of the show, and while it did provide a good explanation for Sloane's motivation from the beginning, I think it did better when those parts of the storyline were in a few episodes of the season as opposed to the focus of the season. Overall though if you are looking for a show that combines action, comedy, great acting, and a unique take on the spy world (plus the bonus of Jennifer Garner in skimpy outfits on a pretty consistent basis) this is a good one.

Workout Update: Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Round 2 -Day 51

For day 51, I did upper-body foam rolling from 645 and the Legs 50/50 workout from Lift 4. I have decided, at least for now, to skip the corrective ankles and hips routines from 645 because I feel that my hips and ankles are doing well and I get more benefit from the shoulders, upper, and lower body routines. The Lift 4 workout was another rough one. I decided to drop the weight on a couple of the exercises like front-load squats and the lunges so that I can get deeper into my squats and my lunges and use the correct form. I think that will help a lot more than using the heaviest weight I can and only doing a partial range of motion. The HIIT portion of the workout was tough again, but the format, like in last week's workout, was to do all three of the exercises for 30 seconds. I did swap out catcher jumps for speed skaters because I was not feeling doing the plank move. 

Workout Update: Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Round 2 -Day 50

Day 50 was corrective shoulders from 645 and the start of week 8 in Lift 4. That meant the Lift 4 workout was again chest and back, this time doing a circuit workout. The circuit consisted of two quad blocks which had you doing two chest exercises and two back exercises, back-to-back, with no rest. You do three sets of each exercise in both blocks, The final block is a burnout block with regular push-ups, back extensions, and wide push-ups, each done for 30 seconds back-to-back with 15 seconds of rest between each move. You again do three sets of the burnout and then finish with three sets of core.

I can definitely feel that I can get deeper in the push-ups (but I am still modifying them). I am not sure why my range of motion has diminished from when I was doing 645, but thankfully, it is coming back.