Inaugural rambling

Heh.  I'm having way too much fun with this microphone.  I think the quality is really good, but I'm not an expert.  I guess I'm glad that the mic is directional since it doesn't seem to be capturing any background noise.  My house has a lot of echoes, but they don't seem to be captured as well.  Kick ass.

I have no idea why I sound like I have a bit of a Southern accent.

New domain

I got a bad ass USB microphone to help with my Rosetta Stone German so I thought I'd also give podcasting a shot.  My friend recommended getting a domain through Tiger Tech since they also provide 10 GB with no bandwidth restrictions for about $7/month.  I'm now the proud owner of www.bigmonkey.us.  Sweet.  I'll still keep this blog here, but I'll upload podcasts and pictures to my new domain.

Any suggestions for free/cheap web layout software?  Any requests for podcasts?  I think I can ramble on about just about anything.

Never Gymless Day 30

Morning: isometrics

• (wall press (3 angles), overhead press (3 angles), bent over row (2 angles)) x 5s x 4

Evening: explosive strength

• (8 plyometric pushups, 12 squat jumps) x 4
• (10 blue band arm pulls, 20 medicine ball ankle hops) x 4

I hit a milestone today since I was actually able to clap during the plyometric pushups.  There wasn't much margin, but it was a definite clap.  Sweet.  I'm definitely getting stronger.  I just need to curb the bad eating habits and I'll be set.

Never Gymless Day 29

Evening: EIT 1

• (12 burpees, 24 pushups, 36 squats, 90s jump roping) x 4

There are only 5 EIT workouts so this week I cycled back.  I was able to do this workout in 26 minutes even whereas it took 39 minutes the first time around.  A 33% improvement is definitely pretty good.  I think I could've done even better except for the stupid pushups.  I'm still not quite strong enough to do them for conditioning.

The next time I would change 90s jump roping to 100 rope turns so that there's an opportunity for me to reduce my time even further.  In any case, I sweated up a storm and feel pretty good.

Never Gymless Day 28

Morning: isometrics

• (wall press (3 angles), overhead press (3 angles), bent over row (2 angles)) x 5s x 4

Never Gymless Day 27

Morning: maximal strength

• (1 pullup, 1 glute-ham raise) x 4
• (3 1-armed pushups, 3 1-legged squats) x 4
• (3 elevated pike presses, 3 blue band good mornings) x 4
• (3 bodyweight tricep extensions, 10 1-legged medicine ball calf raises) x 3

I did fewer squats this week than last because I focused on dropping my ass closer to the ground.  I didn't quite do a pistol, but my thigh went a little beyond horizontal.  I decided a maximal strength workout should focus on more effort fewer times.  My pullups were also closer to legit so I'm definitely getting stronger.

Evening: core

• (10 crunches, 15 blue band pull throughs, 10 blue band rotational chops) x 3
• plank: 62s, 62s, 61s

My green band broke this morning so I had to use the thicker blue band.  I'm actually a little sore from the rotations.  I guess that's a good sign.

Never Gymless Day 26

Morning: isometrics

• (wall press (3 angles), overhead press (3 angles), bent over row (2 angles)) x 5s x 4 cycles

Evening: ICT6

• (100 rope turns, 10 plyometric pushups, 15 medicine ball slams, 20 lateral jumps over medicine ball) x 8

I did the 8 cycles in 31:15 which works out to be less than 4 min per cycle which isn't too bad.  I was sweating like crazy so I definitely got a good workout.