Workout Update: T25/Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Day 2

Day 2 was Speed 1.0 in T25 and Back and Biceps in Lift 4, which was the non-HIIT circuit workout with two quad blocks, a burnout round, and the three sets of core.

The Speed workout in T25 is one in which you do a series of exercises and then stretch for about 30 seconds, and then you do another series of exercises and then stretch. There is only one burnout portion in which you do most of the exercises that you did earlier in the workout back-to-back without any stretching. The burnout portion lasts about 8 minutes and then you slow down for the last minute. The cast is the same except Susan (another fitness professional) replaces Christina. Tonia is modifying again.

I was able to modify a bit less in today's workout than in yesterday's. Although I definitely had to slow down and modify here and there. As I said a couple of posts ago, my lack of cardio fitness is what is really holding me back, so I am hoping that the two-a-day workouts will get that back close to where it was before.  

Book Review: Star Wars: Dawn of Rebellion: The Visual Guide

 

Dawn of Rebellion is another one of the Star Wars visual guides. It is one of the books that I would categorize as a coffee table book, with as many pictures as it has text. The book mainly has character profiles of the main characters (from the movies, novels, animated series, and live-action series) who were around during the time period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It is updated to include the characters in the Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi series so it includes, for example, profiles of young Leia and Luke and the updated backstory of Cassian Andor.

The hardcover version of the book is very short. The book totals just under 140 pages, but none of the pages are full of text. Some pages just have a picture and little to no text, and other pages have several pictures with text blurbs next to them so the book is very easy to read. There is also a timeline at the beginning of the book that shows the major events that occurred during the time period from the creation of the Empire to the Battle of Yavin. I think the book is good, but not really essential reading. Chances are most people who are going to be interested in the book are the die-hard Star Wars fans as opposed to the casual fans, and most die-hard fans will likely already know most of the information in the book. It does, however, have some fine details that you may not have picked up watching the live-action material so if you are more than just a casual fan of Star Wars it is worth the time to look over.

Workout Update: T25/Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Day 1

Today was the start of two-a-day workouts. In the morning I did the T25 cardio routine. This one has Shaun leading 4 cast members, Tonia (who was in the original Insanity workout, plus some of Shaun's hip-hop oriented workouts), Scott (who is Shaun's husband), Derek (who is Tonia's husband), and Christina (who is a fitness instructor and fitness model). Tonia modifies all of the moves.

The workout is set up such that you do a series of moves for about 30 seconds each move, then you do a burnout sequence in which you do some of the moves from the series going as fast as you can. Then, you do another series and another burnout. None of the moves are particularly hard, depending on your cardio fitness. T25 is really a program that was intended to prepare people for Shaun's Insanity programs, so even the unmodified exercises in T25 tend to be a bit less intense than what is in Insanity and Insanity Max 30. 

The Lift 4 workout was chest and triceps, which in week 1 was the 50/50 workout. I do think that lowering the amount of weight I used for the lift portion (and moving the weight more slowly) helped a lot because even using the lower weight I could barely finish the 10 reps, especially in the last set of each block. The HIIT portion was tough. I had to modify more than I would like, but hopefully once I get to week 3, my cardio will be much better because of doing doubles. 

Workout Update: Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Round 2 -Day 56

 For day 56 I did the two recovery workouts from Lift 4 again, and that wraps up round 2 of the program.

For the next phase I am going to go back to two-a-day workouts. In the morning, I am going to do T25 and then in the evening I will do another round of Lift 4. I really feel that my cardio fitness (or lack thereof) is holding me back right now. So I wanted to add in AM cardio that I can do on an empty stomach. Since I do not have space to put the Beachbody bike, I figured I would just do one of the more cardio-focused programs. 

I will do as much unmodified in T25 as I can, and then try not to modify in Lift 4 (or go as long as I can unmodified). I will, however, do all  the push-ups in T25 on my knees and then do all the push-ups in Lift 4 on my toes. Hopefully, that will allow me to get full range of motion in the push-ups by the end of this phase. 

I am still going to do the upper and lower body foam rolling routines from 645 on the weekends, and just do the Lift 4 recovery routines on Wednesday and Sunday. 

Workout Update: Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Round 2 -Day 55

Day 55 was the two lift 4 recovery workouts. Nothing really new to say about either of them.