Making the Cut

This week, I introduced my last set of new exercises to the mix by adding both Box Jumps and Broad Jumps to my Burpee workouts. Although there are many other variations of the Burpee that people have invented over the years, I felt these two were a nice final fit to my experiment.

Box Jump

Broad Jump

Over the remaining three months I'll not only be adding these two exercises, but I'll also begin increasing my reps on the Mix workout days to add in the other workouts I've come to know and "love" over the past 8 months. Those workouts included Lunges, Star Jumps, Diamond Buddhas, Mountain Climbers, One-Legged Burpees, Jumping Jacks, and Pull-ups.

"Lunges and Climbers and Buddhas, OH MY!  

Although it was great to incorporate some new exercises into the mix this week, they were anything but easy, with box jumps easily winning the award for hardest workout of the year. It'll be a great way to finish out the remaining months, pushing myself both mentally and physically toward the finish. With all that being said, I've posted my results from this past week below:

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time	Beak Time  Per Set	Total  Burpees
9/17/2012	Broad Jumps	6	7 min 34 sec	40 sec	60
9/18/2012	Ladder	15	13 min 00 sec	30 sec	120
9/19/2012	Pull-up	6	7 min 11 sec	30 sec	60
9/20/2012	REST
9/21/2012	Box Jumps	4	5 min 45 sec	60 sec	40
9/22/2012	Mix	7	8 min 50 sec	40 sec	70
9/23/2012	REST

In response to all of the other Burpee exercises I could have chosen for this experiment, I'll leave you this week with a funny quote from Steve Carrell's most famous TV personality, Michael Scott:

"I hate, hate being left out. Whether it's not being picked for a team, or being picked for a team and then showing up and realizing that team doesn't exist. Or that the sport doesn't exist! I should have known... "Poop-ball??"

L&R,

Drew

Stretch for the Finish

With 3 months left in this experiment, I thought what better time than now to talk about the importance of stretching. Throughout most of my adult life I've made sure to stretch for at least 5 to 10 minutes before I began any workouts because I've always felt it's an extremely important aspect to your body's health. Per livestrong.com, "proper stretching is thought to help avoid injury by increasing your flexibility, which can also help improve performance in physical activity".

Stretch Armstrong concurs...

I also feel stretching has played a large role in why I haven't had any significant injuries over the past year. Growing up, I never felt stretching was necessary and because of that my back always gave me problems and my legs were always tight. But now, thanks in part to both stretching and Burpees, I'm probably as close  as I've ever been to the top of my game.

In terms of working out however, this past week was a rough one, as I was out of town for a sales meeting and did my best to keep up with the two-adays. My puny girly-man results are listed below:

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time (Morning)	Total Time (Night)	Beak Time Per Set	Total Burpees
9/10/2012	REST
9/11/2012	Ladder	15	17 min 24 sec	Work	50 sec	120
9/12/2012	Ladder	15	Work	17 min 11 sec	50 sec	120
9/13/2012	REST
9/14/2012	Ladder	15	17 min 18 sec	17 min 04 sec	50 sec	240
9/15/2012	REST
9/16/2012	REST

This week I'll leave you with the simplest of quotes from the man, the myth, the mustache, Da Bears Coach Mike Ditka. Because if Ditka says it, you better do it:

"I do some weights, and I do a lot of stretching."

L&R,

Drew

On the Burpee Trail

In light of the current campaign going on in Washington, I thought I'd take some time to reflect on this nation's political and economic policies...Psshhhhh, yea right! I'd never bore you with all that media driven hullabaloo. But yes, I did mean for the title of this post to be a double entendre, if that's what you were thinking. And I know it was, right? Right?

Okay, okay. Onto the other meaning of the title. This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending one of my close friend's weddings in Colorado, which is why I unfortunately wasn't able to finish out the week. However, despite not keeping track of them, I was still able to do a few Burpees up on the mountaintop while we hiked 3.5 miles near our hotel. That's when one of my astute co-hiking buddies thought it would be clever to incorporate trail into the title since we were on a traill. Brilliant, I know.

So, even though I didn't finish the week, I was still able to at least complete the bulk of my workouts from the first few days. The results are listed below:

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time	Beak Time  Per Set	Total  Burpees
9/3/2012	Climbers	6	7 min 17 sec	30 sec	60
9/4/2012	Ladder	15	13 min 02 sec	30 sec	120
9/5/2012	Pull-up	6	7 min 15 sec	30 sec	60
9/6/2012	REST
9/7/2012	Vacation
9/8/2012	Vacation
9/9/2012	Vacation

And since I missed much of last weeks' workouts, and have a National Sales Meeting to attend this week for work, I'll leave you with a quote from the remarkably comedic styling of our most recent president, George W. Bush:

"The future will be better tomorrow."

L&R,
Drew

A Family Affair

Up until this point, I've been flying mostly solo on the Burpee Experiment. Sure, there have been a few times over the past 8 months where I've had a buddy or two work out with me, but for the most part I've been a one man show. However, this past Labor Day weekend brought about a welcome, albeit short, change to my workouts. As you probably know if you've been keeping up with this experiment, this past week was yet another grueling week of two-aday ladder sets. Well this time around, I had five other members of mine and my wife's extended family to join me in the process of "Grinning and bearing it".

Uncle Yogi

After grinding through 120 burpees, I'll say I was thoroughly surprised at how well our family members performed, especially after indulging in a breakfast of creamed eggs and enough bacon to feed a small army. This unfortunately and fortunately (depending on how you choose to look at it) always seems to happen when our family gets together. So to actually get a workout in while vacationing in Gluttonville, is something of an anomaly.

With all that to say, I managed to actually complete a full week of two-adays (bacon and all) and have listed my results below:

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time (Morning)	Total Time (Night)	Beak Time Per Set	Total Burpees
8/27/2012	REST
8/28/2012	Ladder	15	19 min 35 sec	19 min 38 sec	60 sec	240
8/29/2012	Ladder	15	19 min 27 sec	19 min 15 sec	60 sec	240
8/30/2012	REST
8/31/2012	Ladder	15	19 min 32 sec	19 min 28 sec	60 sec	240
9/1/2012	Ladder	15	19 min 27 sec	19 min 35 sec	60 sec	240
9/2/2012	REST

Today, I'll leave you with a quote from the late, great, American humorist, Erma Bombeck:

"I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage."

L&R,

Drew

Cruising Home

This past week I was lucky enough to take part in a relaxing trip to Cozumel via the Carnival Triumph cruise ship. And if there's a few things I can away take from my experience, it's one, there's actually a really nice gym on cruise ships, and two, you'll never use it. With the amount of partying and and pure laziness that occurs on a ship, to actually get up enough energy to workout, to me, is quite impressive.

So, after averaging around 4 hours of sleep each night, I actually impressed myself by finishing at least one workout while I was on the boat. If we were counting dancing as a workout though, then I shuffled my way into another new pants size...

Of course, this isn't the Party Rock Experiment (although that's an incredible idea for my next venture), but between the one workout I got in, and the 6 hours of wobblin' I did every night, I feel like I managed to do a good job of staying in shape while I was gone for 4 1/2 days.

With that, I ended up only missing one day last week while I was on the ship. My results are listed below:

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time	Beak Time  Per Set	Total  Burpees
8/20/2012	Climbers	6	8 min 27 sec	30 sec	60
8/21/2012	Ladder	15	13 min 19 sec	30 sec	120
8/22/2012	Pull-up	6	7 min 14 sec	30 sec	60
8/23/2012	REST
8/24/2012	REST
8/25/2012	Mix	7	9 min 46 sec	40 sec	70
8/26/2012	REST

Since I spent much of the last week either on the open seas or on a beach enjoying some adult beverages, I'll leave you with a quote from the greatest beach bum of all time, Jimmy Buffett:

"If life gives you limes, make margaritas."

L&R,

Drew

Losing Focus

This week started out like any other. I got up each morning, had breakfast, went to work, yadda yadda yadda. However, by Wednesday night, I knew something wasn't right with my body. You see, my wife and my kids and I had just got back from a two and a half week marathon of family vacations. I know, I know. Shed a tear for me.

Vacation?! How unfortunate.

Over the course of those two and a half weeks, we spent some time in two of the most germ infested places anyone can think of: an airplane and a baby pool. Obviously, anyone who's been on a plane before, knows unless you wear a hazmat suit, you aren't leaving that plane without, at the very least, a little cough.

And don't even get me started on the baby pool at the "world famous" Schlitterbahn... After sitting in that pool with my daughters for a few hours, I felt like I needed to take a bath in anti-bacterial hand sanitizer. If anyone has seen the South Park episode titled "Pee", you'll know exactly what I'm talking about...

So, long story short, my week was derailed by the black lung and my face feeling like it was going to explode due to whatever sickness I picked up along the way. Luckily it didn't, but I'm still recovering. Anyway, my results from this past week are listed below:

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time (Morning)	Total Time (Night)	Beak Time Per Set	Total Burpees
8/13/2012	REST
8/14/2012	Ladder	15	19 min 31 sec	19 min 45 sec	60 sec	240
8/15/2012	Ladder	15	19 min 37 sec	REST	60 sec	120
8/16/2012	REST
8/17/2012	Ladder	15	19 min 36 sec	19 min 39 sec	60 sec	240
8/18/2012	SICK
8/19/2012	REST

I'll leave you with a quote today that I hope motivates me in these last few months to push through any wimpy sickness or pain I may be feeling and finish strong. This quote is from an old Latin proverb:

"In times of sickness, the soul collects itself anew."

L&R,

Drew

Grin and Bear It

After coming back from a vacation in which I did little more than move my beach chair whenever the tide came in, I decided to go ahead and jump right back into working out with more two-adays. And if there was ever a time I wish I hadn't stopped working out for an entire week, this was it.

Not only was it tough getting back into the swing of things after being gone, but also, in that relatively short amount of time, my body must have decided to take a sabbatical. Because when I got back into it, my muscles let me know very quickly that they had 'gone fishin'.

My muscles have surprisingly good handwriting...

Out of all the workouts I've gone through this year, I'd say this weeks' were the hardest. Between the break, the bad eating/drinking habits, and jumping right back into two-adays, my muscles felt like hell and so did I. And although the timed results weren't quite up to par with how I've been doing, I'm proud of myself for at least sticking with it and finishing the week.

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time (Morning)	Total Time (Night)	Beak Time Per Set	Total Burpees
8/6/2012	Vacation
8/7/2012	REST
8/8/2012	Ladder	15	21 min 35 sec	21 min 40 sec	70 sec	240
8/9/2012	Ladder	15	21 min 47 sec	Break	70 sec	120
8/10/2012	Ladder	15	22 min 04 sec	22 min 05 sec	70 sec	240
8/11/2012	Ladder	15	21 min 59 sec	Vacation	70 sec	120
8/12/2012	REST

Today I leave you with a quote from an unknown source that I felt added a motivating spin on the phrase "grin and bear it":

"Some people grin and bear it; others smile and do it."

L&R,

Drew