Short update here because I haven’t really got much motivation to write up what I’ve done. Yesterday I didn’t manage to get the push up challenge week 2, day 2 done because I didn’t find the time to. I was busy up until 6, then I had to get to football training for half 6 and didn’t get home til 9, by then I had a huge headache and was laying on my bed in a trance for about 4 hours before attempting to get to sleep, so I didn’t feel up to it, so I had to do it today.
Now I’m trying to decide on whether to stay off course and have tomorrow off as I done the push up challenge today, or attempt it tomorrow and have the weekend to recover (except for the exhaustion test I’m going to do on Sunday), so I’m going to decide tomorrow what to do.
Apart from that, nothing to update, sorry for the crap update but as I said, motivation is quite low.
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
End of Week 1, Start of Week 2
Alrighty then, no updates for almost 3 days now, the reason being that there has been a lack of things to write about and a lack of motivation to write about the lack of things to write about. So I’ll just go through the last few days to explain what I’ve done and anything else I feel is necessary.
Sunday
So, Sunday, I didn’t have anything to do because last week was purely the push up challenge along with anything else I felt like doing (such as playing football etc), but today I did have a 6-a-side football match, which is different to normal football in a lot of ways. It’s in an indoor environment, its very hot, very exhausting and pretty much non-stop running for the length of time you are on the pitch. I didn’t really have a good game, we lost 7-2 and I got completely stressed out. I didn’t really feel up to it, playing in that game and I think it showed to be honest. I blame it on my lack of sleep …
Monday
Yesterday I started week 2 of the push up challenge and it was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. I looked at the 5 sets consisting of 12, 12, 9, 7 then a max of at least 10 and I thought it looked fairly easy compared to what I done on the Friday previously. I was wrong, to put it simply, it was absolutely shattering. I don’t have a clue about the reason for this, maybe it’s because I didn’t do anything over the weekend and it caused a decrease in my strength, or maybe it was something to do with the little sleep and the deranged sleeping patterns I have made up over the last week or so, but whatever it was it affected me, although I did complete it somehow. Hopefully Wednesday won’t be as difficult as that.
Tuesday
Today … nothing, to be honest, I still need a rest day at least once a week so today was my rest day. All I done really was had a bit of a kickaround with the football but didn’t really push myself or anything, just done it out of boredom.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) I’m aiming to complete day 2, week 2 of the push up challenge and also do some cardio work. I have football training tomorrow night so hopefully I’ll be able to get a good workout doing that, if not then it’ll be half an hour of fairly fast skipping (I’m rather good at it as I done it while I was a boxer for almost 8 years).
I need to sort out my sleeping as well, I keep on getting to bed for around 1, then not being able to actually sleep until 3, so I need to either find something to occupy myself to help get myself to drift off to sleep before 3, or go to bed a lot earlier than 1, but I don’t know. I’ll figure it out soon.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I’ll be updating this beast tomorrow night once I’m finished for the day.
Sunday
So, Sunday, I didn’t have anything to do because last week was purely the push up challenge along with anything else I felt like doing (such as playing football etc), but today I did have a 6-a-side football match, which is different to normal football in a lot of ways. It’s in an indoor environment, its very hot, very exhausting and pretty much non-stop running for the length of time you are on the pitch. I didn’t really have a good game, we lost 7-2 and I got completely stressed out. I didn’t really feel up to it, playing in that game and I think it showed to be honest. I blame it on my lack of sleep …
Monday
Yesterday I started week 2 of the push up challenge and it was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. I looked at the 5 sets consisting of 12, 12, 9, 7 then a max of at least 10 and I thought it looked fairly easy compared to what I done on the Friday previously. I was wrong, to put it simply, it was absolutely shattering. I don’t have a clue about the reason for this, maybe it’s because I didn’t do anything over the weekend and it caused a decrease in my strength, or maybe it was something to do with the little sleep and the deranged sleeping patterns I have made up over the last week or so, but whatever it was it affected me, although I did complete it somehow. Hopefully Wednesday won’t be as difficult as that.
Tuesday
Today … nothing, to be honest, I still need a rest day at least once a week so today was my rest day. All I done really was had a bit of a kickaround with the football but didn’t really push myself or anything, just done it out of boredom.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) I’m aiming to complete day 2, week 2 of the push up challenge and also do some cardio work. I have football training tomorrow night so hopefully I’ll be able to get a good workout doing that, if not then it’ll be half an hour of fairly fast skipping (I’m rather good at it as I done it while I was a boxer for almost 8 years).
I need to sort out my sleeping as well, I keep on getting to bed for around 1, then not being able to actually sleep until 3, so I need to either find something to occupy myself to help get myself to drift off to sleep before 3, or go to bed a lot earlier than 1, but I don’t know. I’ll figure it out soon.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I’ll be updating this beast tomorrow night once I’m finished for the day.
Saturday, 26 July 2008
Friday and Saturday - Week 1
Friday was a fairly good day to be honest, well … okay, no it wasn’t but in terms of the push up challenge it was good. I found it very hard though, but I felt so pleased with myself once I’d finished the last set of the day, and of the week as well, I actually completed the first week, go me! Anyway, I had 5 levels, with reps of 15, 13, 10, 10 and max respectively. I managed to get 17 on the max with the minimum being 15. Although after this I did collapse to the floor face first and didn’t move for at least 5 minutes, but who cares!? I done it!
So yeah, that was Friday. This weekend I’m just trying to figure out ways of keeping myself motivated and also trying to decide on what I actually want to introduce to week 2. Obviously I’m going to stick with the push up challenge (need to print week 2 out tomorrow), but I want to involve more cardio work as well so I can then attempt to lose the fat that is hanging around my stomach and other areas.
I’ve also decided, on Monday, that I will get up and measure the size of different areas of my body, then check this after week 3 to see the difference, then week 5 and then week 6 again. I’ll probably measure the size of my arms, chest, stomach (around the belly button area), quads and my calves as well. This way I have a measureable way to see if I have achieved my goals, because unfortunately being a man I find it against my nature to use a set of scales, I’m sorry but they seem girlish to me.
Anyway, tomorrow, I’ve got a football game (6-a-side) at 7, so that’ll be my main exercise tomorrow. And hopefully I’ll be able to sort out week 2 in advance to see if I can improve my workload even more.
So yeah, that was Friday. This weekend I’m just trying to figure out ways of keeping myself motivated and also trying to decide on what I actually want to introduce to week 2. Obviously I’m going to stick with the push up challenge (need to print week 2 out tomorrow), but I want to involve more cardio work as well so I can then attempt to lose the fat that is hanging around my stomach and other areas.
I’ve also decided, on Monday, that I will get up and measure the size of different areas of my body, then check this after week 3 to see the difference, then week 5 and then week 6 again. I’ll probably measure the size of my arms, chest, stomach (around the belly button area), quads and my calves as well. This way I have a measureable way to see if I have achieved my goals, because unfortunately being a man I find it against my nature to use a set of scales, I’m sorry but they seem girlish to me.
Anyway, tomorrow, I’ve got a football game (6-a-side) at 7, so that’ll be my main exercise tomorrow. And hopefully I’ll be able to sort out week 2 in advance to see if I can improve my workload even more.
Friday, 25 July 2008
Day 4 - 24th July 08
So, yesterday, I done nothing again but this is because I’ve had a change of plan. I’ve decided that I’ll introduce things slowly, as in week by week. I decided this because I’ve tried numerous times to try and get into shape but I lost motivation after the first couple of days. The reason for this I think is because I expected too much of myself too soon.
For example I would be expecting myself to do an abdominals training circuit and then go out for a run at night, but really this isn’t going to happen and I was expecting too much of myself, so I’m testing to see if my new approach will work, and this is what it is.
This week I will stick with just the push up challenge, then next week I will probably introduce skipping. Yes, I said skipping. I used to skip when I used to be a boxer a couple of years ago and I found it really good, I enjoy it more than running and I think it is a good exercise for burning calories. All I need to do is get my skipping rope, go in the garden and skip for as long as I want. So yeah, next week I’ll introduce some skipping.
The next week (week 3) I will introduce some training for my abs as well as continuing my skipping and most importantly the push up challenge. I think if I keep going like that then I’ll be more motivated to keep going because then I’ll be adding new things into it and keeping it more exciting.
But yesterday, day 4, I didn’t do anything as I said but I did decide on where I want to go from now so it wasn’t a complete waste of a day.
For example I would be expecting myself to do an abdominals training circuit and then go out for a run at night, but really this isn’t going to happen and I was expecting too much of myself, so I’m testing to see if my new approach will work, and this is what it is.
This week I will stick with just the push up challenge, then next week I will probably introduce skipping. Yes, I said skipping. I used to skip when I used to be a boxer a couple of years ago and I found it really good, I enjoy it more than running and I think it is a good exercise for burning calories. All I need to do is get my skipping rope, go in the garden and skip for as long as I want. So yeah, next week I’ll introduce some skipping.
The next week (week 3) I will introduce some training for my abs as well as continuing my skipping and most importantly the push up challenge. I think if I keep going like that then I’ll be more motivated to keep going because then I’ll be adding new things into it and keeping it more exciting.
But yesterday, day 4, I didn’t do anything as I said but I did decide on where I want to go from now so it wasn’t a complete waste of a day.
Thursday, 24 July 2008
Day 3 - 23rd July 08
This post is late because last night I didn’t really feel like getting onto the laptop and writing this up, so I thought to leave it and do it today, which is what I’ve done.
Yesterday I done the push up challenge, for the Wednesday of the first week and I had to do 5 sets of 12, 12, 10, 10, then as many as possible but at least 10 (which I managed to do 14). This was probably the hardest thing I have done in months, it took a lot of motivation from within myself to get the last two sets out, because my arms were just screaming in protest and I was forcing myself to get it done, but it was a great feeling once I managed to get through it. I was feeling it a bit this morning, mainly around my arms but its all good now! And I am actually looking forward to finishing the first week tomorrow.
I also had football training yesterday (soccer to the Americans reading this) which was quite a good workout in my opinion, included basically a fartlek training session by playing a game. I say it was more of a fartlek training session because I was constantly changing the speed I was moving, as I was always moving but at some points I was sprinting, others I was jogging, then it’d change to me walking then running faster so it was changing around a lot. The weather wasn’t really that good though, well, for sunbathing it would’ve been alright but for running around it was bad, I drank around 2 litres of water during the training which lasted around an hour and a half.
That was pretty much my exercise for yesterday, I’ll try and write up tonight what I done today but if not it’ll be up tomorrow, possibly with tomorrows write up as well.
Yesterday I done the push up challenge, for the Wednesday of the first week and I had to do 5 sets of 12, 12, 10, 10, then as many as possible but at least 10 (which I managed to do 14). This was probably the hardest thing I have done in months, it took a lot of motivation from within myself to get the last two sets out, because my arms were just screaming in protest and I was forcing myself to get it done, but it was a great feeling once I managed to get through it. I was feeling it a bit this morning, mainly around my arms but its all good now! And I am actually looking forward to finishing the first week tomorrow.
I also had football training yesterday (soccer to the Americans reading this) which was quite a good workout in my opinion, included basically a fartlek training session by playing a game. I say it was more of a fartlek training session because I was constantly changing the speed I was moving, as I was always moving but at some points I was sprinting, others I was jogging, then it’d change to me walking then running faster so it was changing around a lot. The weather wasn’t really that good though, well, for sunbathing it would’ve been alright but for running around it was bad, I drank around 2 litres of water during the training which lasted around an hour and a half.
That was pretty much my exercise for yesterday, I’ll try and write up tonight what I done today but if not it’ll be up tomorrow, possibly with tomorrows write up as well.
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Aims and Goals
Well there was no update yesterday, why? Because I was feeling the most unmotivated I’d felt in who knows how long, so basically I didn’t get anything done, didn’t get no exercise done I just sat around all day, which really made me feel like something a dog would excrete (to put it in the nicest way possible).
I didn’t manage to sort out my goals and aims that I was going to do, which made me feel even worse, I didn’t even manage to get out of my house to hand in the job application form that I needed to do, so yeah, yesterday was a complete waste of my day to be perfectly honest.
But this post is mainly to show I’m not giving up on this blog after the first post, and also to put down some aims and goals for myself to achieve you and people reading to see what I am trying to get.
Long Term Goals (6 Weeks)
• Complete the 100 Push Up Challenge and manage 100 push ups.
• See a slightly noticeable difference in my muscle tone.
Weekly Goals
• Do cardio work for 30 minutes or more 4 times a week.
• Complete each Push Up Challenge workout effectively.
• Drink no more than 3 units of alcohol a week.
They may seem simple but I feel I can achieve them, so I’m going to stick with them instead of trying to achieve goals that are far beyond my reach. I’ve decided to drink less alcohol because I’m afraid to say that I do drink too much of it, I wouldn’t class myself as overly drinking it but I do enjoy going out on the weekends and drinking, so I think I need to change this to help achieve my long term goals.
Anyway, I’ll be updating tonight after the day has been completed, thanks for reading.
I didn’t manage to sort out my goals and aims that I was going to do, which made me feel even worse, I didn’t even manage to get out of my house to hand in the job application form that I needed to do, so yeah, yesterday was a complete waste of my day to be perfectly honest.
But this post is mainly to show I’m not giving up on this blog after the first post, and also to put down some aims and goals for myself to achieve you and people reading to see what I am trying to get.
Long Term Goals (6 Weeks)
• Complete the 100 Push Up Challenge and manage 100 push ups.
• See a slightly noticeable difference in my muscle tone.
Weekly Goals
• Do cardio work for 30 minutes or more 4 times a week.
• Complete each Push Up Challenge workout effectively.
• Drink no more than 3 units of alcohol a week.
They may seem simple but I feel I can achieve them, so I’m going to stick with them instead of trying to achieve goals that are far beyond my reach. I’ve decided to drink less alcohol because I’m afraid to say that I do drink too much of it, I wouldn’t class myself as overly drinking it but I do enjoy going out on the weekends and drinking, so I think I need to change this to help achieve my long term goals.
Anyway, I’ll be updating tonight after the day has been completed, thanks for reading.
Monday, 21 July 2008
Day 1 - 21st July 08
Right, well let me start off by thanking you for visiting my blog. Basically this blog is to keep myself motivated and track everything that happens during the next six weeks as I aim to improve my fitness and lose weight.
I am Jake, I live in the United Kingdom and I am 17 years old. I wanted to do this to improve my fitness mainly for my sports, but also to lose weight because I find that I am carrying a bit too much weight and I want to be more defined, especially around the stomach area (which is always a problem area eh?)
Over the weekend I found the 100 push-up programme and thought to myself “I’ll take up this challenge I think” and so I am, along with cardio exercising and limiting my food intake to less “unhealthy” snacks to try and lose the weight I’m carrying around.
So yeah, today I started just with the week 1 push up programme, which I complete the “more the 10 push ups” column today, and I done this because yesterday I done as many push ups as I possibly could and managed 24 before I collapsed into a heaving lump on my floor.
That is it for today, I’ll explain more tomorrow but at the moment it is 1:16am and I am very tired and need my sleep. Tomorrow I will go through my aims and objectives, how I’m going to achieve them and tomorrow night I will explain what I done, so … thanks again.
I am Jake, I live in the United Kingdom and I am 17 years old. I wanted to do this to improve my fitness mainly for my sports, but also to lose weight because I find that I am carrying a bit too much weight and I want to be more defined, especially around the stomach area (which is always a problem area eh?)
Over the weekend I found the 100 push-up programme and thought to myself “I’ll take up this challenge I think” and so I am, along with cardio exercising and limiting my food intake to less “unhealthy” snacks to try and lose the weight I’m carrying around.
So yeah, today I started just with the week 1 push up programme, which I complete the “more the 10 push ups” column today, and I done this because yesterday I done as many push ups as I possibly could and managed 24 before I collapsed into a heaving lump on my floor.
That is it for today, I’ll explain more tomorrow but at the moment it is 1:16am and I am very tired and need my sleep. Tomorrow I will go through my aims and objectives, how I’m going to achieve them and tomorrow night I will explain what I done, so … thanks again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)