Getting Started in Karate

A quick break from the normal Add Deal promoting and updates… we’re pleased to say that last night we attended our first karate lesson.  As some of you may know, the whole keep fit routine has fallen by the wayside and as for getting on that Wii Fit, we reckon that would take a lot of bravery at this present moment in time.

So yesterday, we took ourselves along to the long karate dojo for our first sample lesson… now given the fact that we don’t have great coordination at the best of times, us trying to do a wide range of moves tended to look more and more like we were mocking the other people more than taking it seriously.

Looking back on it now, we must say that we learnt a fair bit, although trying to remember what we learned this morning is certainly proving to be somewhat difficult.  Our next session will be tomorrow morning between 10 and 11am, so we’re going to go along and see what happens as it were.

So from here on in, the exercising begins as well as learning a new skill, it is certainly different from the web development world.

More on this soon…

Day 8: Weighing In and Working Out #blogboost

With today being the 8th Day, today was the big day in which I would go for the weighing in to see if all my hard work was really paying off.  So morning routine get the children off to school, have some breakfast and get myself onto that Wii fit for the all important weigh in, partner home today so all being well should prove an interesting day.

So with breakfast eaten, a bowl of Weetabix and the coffee drank, it was now straight onto the Wii, turning it on, even I was slightly nervous, even knowing what I had seen on Friday.  As I went through the motions of the body test, I finally took the necessary step of opening my eyes to reveal that I had lost a further 3lbs.

My weight is coming down at a nice even pace, all I have really changed in my diet, thus far is my activities – I am now carrying out my 30 minutes of daily exercise in the morning, I am also meeting my partner from work which is also taking another 20 minutes of exercising time, so I’m out and about for at least one hour.

This accompanied by the alteration of diet, I am now well into my first box of Weetabix, and today I will be picking another food to stop myself from snacking (or rather if I need to snack I can reach for this piece of fruit).  So without further a do this weeks healthy choice for me will be a banana.

Working Out

So with my head firmly set on the loss of 3lbs I got straight into my workout this morning, with some torso twists and some upper arm bends.  I did really well on both of these.  This was followed by some boxing taking me up to my first 10 minutes being completed.  With the body now fully awake and ready to get active I thought doing the step ups would be a great way in which to get my lower half moving.  

I’ve been talking about my partner at number one for a couple of days, well today I finally knocked her off her top spot with a score of 324 points, after a good 3 attempts at trying to beat her.  I then rounded off my second set of 10 minutes with carrying out a bit of hoola hooping.  I did 6 minutes overall, and I must admit my hips, back and joints were all clicking and crackling as I moved myself (or tried to) in a round about circular shape.

With both my left and right hip circles, looking a little better I got an excellent score and managed to, unknowingly, knock my partner off her top score with a massive 1500 spins .

Once complete, I went straight back into my boxing rounding off an excellent work out with not only beating my score but getting another star on the overall performance.

So this weeks exercising has achieved a 3lb weight loss and an excellent set of results for me.

Day 7: Back to it #blogboost

So it has been a week since I started doing all of this Wii fit exercising.  Over the weekend, I have to admit I didn’t think it all through.  As I didn’t eat healthy and as for cutting down on the alcohol well that didn’t happen either… so not a good end to a really progressive week.

Anyway, today I thought I would spend my 30 minutes doing a wide range of exercises, my sides weren’t hurting as much as they have been and I have to also admit I don’t feel as groggy as I have done these past few days.  So this morning normal routine, get the kids sorted, and the missus out the door – no need for me to pop to the shop this morning as we had done a weekly shop yesterday.

Once kids had been sent out the door, it was a case of have a bowl of weetabix and then get straight onto the Wii for my 30 minutes of exercising.  With that said, I unplugged the Xbox 360 and got myself onto the Wii balance board for what would prove to be a highly interesting and successful work out.

Last week I was talking about not doing too well on some the tasks, such as boxing and press ups, today was the reverse of this.  My boxing I did 3 or 4 times today resulting in 12 minutes of constant battling with a punch bag.  Each occasion I kept beating my previous score, I have gone from a score of 319 to 324 .  I’m really pleased with this.

Once I’d done this it was onto my twists and turns… now I didn’t beat my personal best however, I did do really well on the overall performance.  I then completed 20 reps on each arm of the upper arm stretch… which did rather hurt.  However, I did that and it felt really good to have achieved this.

I then thought, right let’s do some step ups, I had a good 3 or 4 tries at this… but I still have been unable to beat my partner at this…she still holds number one for this… but that will all change over the next couple of days.

After this it was a case of a quick go on the old hoola hoop, I did really well at this knocking one of my partners children off number one.  :D

Excellent work out and now ready to really start the day!!

Day 3: Synch or Lack of #blogboost

So yesterday I blogged about the aches and pains of this exercising lark, today I’d like to talk about one of my weaknesses, something I don’t like doing but I think its imperative.  I have quite a problem with coordination, and this affects my ability to do certain tasks, such as drive a manual car etc (que the jokes for automatics lol)

Well today I had a go at the rhythm step, for the advanced user, now given I struggle with the basic, the advanced one would be quite difficult for me, but hey I thought I’d have a go.  True to form, my feet, arms and legs were everywhere, so I’m confident the exercising I did on this task would certainly not go down as one of the top fitness tricks of 2012.

Anyway, that said, today wasn’t a great day, woke up late and I’m still aching from the past couple of days worth of exercising.  So onto today, I started off with my first set of press ups – and true to form they were awful, I could barely get 1/2 way down without my arms and back giving in, let alone doing a side ward stand, so wasn’t a good start here.

Then I got back up and carried on with the twists, focusing on my pelvic and torso areas, and yes they bloody hurt.  However, as the saying goes no pain no gain.  After the twists I did a quick 3 minutes of boxing which resulted in  a pretty good score, so at the end of my 10 minutes of warm up I was pretty amazed with what I had/hadn’t achieved.

Next, I thought I’d do 5 minutes of jogging, now if you know anything about the Wii Fit, you will know that you simply stand still and jog on the spot.  I didn’t do too bad at this, and achieved a burn rate of 76%, not my best by any means as my previous scores indicate I achieved a burn rate of 80-90%.  Once complete, I was back onto doing some hoola hooping, only a quick 3 minutes as the sides were aching quite a bit.

Once complete, I did another 3 minutes on the step ups, before finally going all out on both the rhythm step that we spoke of earlier which took another 7 minutes.  I rounded the session off with a good old fashion boxing session, which almost saw me knocking my personal best off the top of the chart.

Tomorrow, I want to focus more on these press ups as I think if I’m a big guy, my arms should at least be able to support the weight.  Feeling pretty bad about that work out as didn’t get some of the scores I wanted – but hey onwards and upwards.

More tomorrow…