Workout Update: 645 Cardio/MBF Day 1

This is the start of my new routine. As I said in the last post, I am going to do the 15-minute cardio routine from 645 (modified with moves swapped out) in the morning and then the muscle-burn-fat workout in the evening.

MBF is a three-week program that was filmed during the height of the pandemic. Megan Davies is the trainer in this workout. She leads the workout from one of the BeachBody sets, but the rest of the cast is working out at home via Zoom (or something like that). Basically, you see all the cast members in their own boxes that surround the main box, with Megan leading the exercises; then, throughout the workout, they go to a split screen showing Megan side-by-side with one of the cast members. One of the cast members does modify the moves, but it can get hard to keep track of her since the views keep shifting.

The Day 1 workout was lower-body burn. This workout has four blocks of exercises. In the first block, you do squats and reverse lunges. The twist, however, is that you are not holding weights by your side. You hold one weight up next to your head on one side, do the exercises, then switch to the other side. You do as many reps as you can for 30 seconds of squats and then immediately transition to 30 seconds of reverse lunges on the side you are holding the weight; then you do 4 combos in which you do two squats followed by a reverse lunge, then you do the entire thing on the other side. You do two rounds on each side. So, you have to think about how much weight you can hold on one side up by your head for about a minute and a half. 

In block 2, you do sumo squats followed by curtsey lunges (if you have done Chalean Extreme, they are the same as CE's bowler lunges). Again, you do each exercise back-to-back with no rest, and this time, you do three sets of each exercise.

In block 3, you do side lunges followed by what Megan calls RDL, which are a deadlift using one dumbell. Then you do a combo with the two exercises and then switch to the other side, much like block 1. Again, you do two rounds on each side.

The last block is front squats and calf raises. This block mirrors block 2, so you do each exercise for 30 seconds and do three sets without any rest. 

The MBF workout is very challenging. Between each of the blocks you use a weightless jump rope (basically jump rope handles with weighted foam balls on the ends) for 30 seconds of a cardio recovery and then go back to lifting. The lifting is higher volume (basically as many reps as you can do in 30 seconds) so it is a good idea to use much lighter weight than you would normally use, at least for the first round of each exercise.

Workout Update: T25/Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Day 54

This was the final day of the Hybrid workout. I did Speed 1.0 from T25 in the morning and full body HIIT in Lift 4 in the evening. Both of the workouts were tough (the double cardio days tended to be the hardest), but I got through them. For my next workout combination, I am going to continue to do the modified 645 cardio workout in the mornings, and then in the evening, I am going to do the three-week Muscle Burns Fat workout. Over the weekend, I am just going to do the 645 cardio workout and possibly do some stretching, but I want to recover a bit before starting up the new workout on Monday. 

Workout Update: T25/Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Day 53

Day 53 was shoulders and arms in Lift 4 and Cardio 1.0 in T25. As was the case in week 7, the shoulders and arms workout is a circuit workout with two quad sets and a three-exercise burnout. You do all of the same exercises that you did in week 7 just with the order of the exercises switched up. The  T25 workout went well. I was again able to do more unmodified exercises for longer.

Workout Update: T25/Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Day 52

Day 52 was the rest day in Lift 4, and for a cardio workout, I just did the modified version of the 645 15-minute workout (using some moves from Lift 4 and some moves from T25 in place of a few exercises they are doing in the video). I managed to make it a good workout with all standing exercises.  Because there is no warmup, I go a little easier in the first round, and then go all out in the second and third rounds until I get tired.

Book Review: Foreign Influence (Scot Harvath Series #9)

 

Foreign Influence, published in 2010, is the 9th book in the Scot Harvath series of thrillers written by Brad Thor. This book has two different plots that run in parallel through most of the book and then intersect at the end. The first plot is the one that Harvath is most involved in. It involves a bombing in Rome that points to Nicholas/The Troll being involved. The second involves a hit-and-run accident in Chicago that leads a couple of cops to an al Qaeda cell planning a series of attacks. The book also introduces a group of characters that will be prominent in the spin-off novel, The Athena Project.

The hardcover version of the book is just under 380 pages and reads like the other books in the series. Like the other books in the series, this one has a good blend of action and suspense. This book does not have as much of the political maneuvering that some of the other books have had (and definitely not as much as the Mitch Rapp series does). Thor definitely seems to be conservative and puts his stamp on the whole torture debate that was raging back around the time this was written. That is as political as he gets, however. Ultimately, if you are a fan of the action thriller/spy novel genre and/or have liked the prior novels in the series, this is worth the time to read.