Soccer practice and the gym

So this is what Spring soccer practice looks like in Utah. The funny thing is this was right before it got bad. I just thought it was cool looking seeing the clouds move in and collide with the mountains. Then it got windy, then rainy, then we started to see lightning in the distance at the end of practice.

It had been a pretty nice day, then we had a 10 degree temperature drop.

So after practice I decided to hit the gym. I'm not sure that was a great decision. Our trainer told us that he had been told that all the workouts were hard, so he was going to show us a hard workout.

I was never very big on jumping rope, even when I was young. I was decent at it, I just didn't think it was that exciting. That being said, I'm less of a fan now. We started the workout with 500 "jumps" over the jump rope. I can get out about 100 before I step on the rope. This is a huge improvement from when we started at <a HREF="http://muirfitness.com" target="_blank">Firehouse Fitness</a>, when I could only get out 20, and could only do about 80 total in one workout. I did have to teach my wife not to double bounce or you do twice the work, and it takes forever.

After the jump rope, we moved to 100 exercise band touch and reach. You take a heavy exercise band, stand on it with the handles in your hand, spread your feet apart, then squat down and touch the floor and stand up and press your arms all the way up. (I never did this as a kid but wouldn't have liked it either.)

We then moved into mountain climbers with our hands on a medicine ball. Mountain climbers are the exercise where you have one foot forward, and one foot back then jump and switch. The position of your feet. We did 200 of these.

Now to relax from these fairly aerobic types of exercises we did 100 jack knifes. We laid down, put your arms above your head, and your knees together, then raise your arms and legs and touch them together. This is a wonderful combination of a crunch and a leg lift. I actually like doing these, just not doing 100.

After this, Jason wanted to get our hearts pumping again. So we did a new TRX exercise. He called them "body thrusts". As he was explaining the workout he looked at me and said, "No dirty jokes." This exercise consisted of taking the TRX straps and holding them like you are doing a row. This leaves you leaning back in a squat. You then lower yourself to the ground, son your behind barely touches, then pull yourself back up until you're on your tiptoes. I asked if it was meant as a row, or a shoulder exercise and was told that it didn't matter it was just meant to drain your energy and get your body working together. I started these and they seemed easy, but they did drain my energy.

After that he wanted us to run. This didn't excite most of us because of the weather I mentioned earlier. Jason managed to convince me to do the run. Only one other person did, everyone else threw 100 roundhouse kicks per leg to get their heart rate up. By the time I finished my run our class was almost over.

There were two more exercises, throw 200 punches with five pound weights in your hands, and 200 bicycle crunches. He did have me get in the final part of class, which he calls the "Ring of Fire.". It was jumping squats.

It was a really good workout, and helped me fall asleep quickly, even though the weather is so rough for April.