Tuesday Night

So Monday night, for family home evening (fhe) we discussed values. We told the kids that we were going to focus on increasing respect in our household. Respect for each other, respect for the rules, and respect for the things we own. This was a lovely discussion, and the kids agreed that respect is important.

Fast forward to Tuesday. Any feelings of goodwill and respect are gone. Everyone is mad at everyone else, people are plugging their ears when others speak. There is yelling and name calling. Rules are being disobeyed. It was a pretty sever turnabout from Monday. It looks like our work is cut out for us.

We did get to break away and get to the gym last night. The wife wasn’t feeling 100%, but decided to try it anyway. After a few exercises she had to go lay down as she was feeling dizzy. I made it through, but found a new exercise that is weird.

In all fairness, this isn’t a new exercise, just new to me. My brother-in-law described it to me, and told me how much it sucked. I agree. It is called “Turkish Training”, or “Turkish Get Up.” Below is a picture. You start on your back, with a dumbbell in one hand, extended toward the ceiling. You then have to get up to your feet without using your other hand, or letting the dumbbell drop below head height. You then reverse the process for a single repetition. We did ten reps per arm, and I had to drop the weight I was using a couple of times. They were hard, but interesting.

Tuesdays are strength days. We focused mainly on lower body, but threw in a couple of chest exercises as well. The most interesting chest exercise was “Three Ball Push-ups.” You put both hands on medicine balls, and get in push-up position. You then put both of your feet on the third medicine ball and do push-ups. Getting on the balls is interesting. It’s important to have your butt down, if you try to put your feet on a medicine ball in a jack knife position it is a recipe to roll off to the side. We don’t do these to get extra-deep push-ups, but in order to cope with the instability. These are hard, but  I like them.

The third exercise I’ll mention is “Bag Slams.” These are simple. We have a number of heavy punching bags in the gym. They are not suspended, but laying on the floor. The idea is that you pick one of these up onto your shoulder, then slam it down on one of the tractor tires in the gym. These movements reflect picking up a big bag, like rock salt, and putting it on your shoulder. The slam is like using a sledge hammer. Both pretty useful motions to master. Yesterday we changed our technique a little bit. In the past we would pick the bag up by setting it on its end, bear hugging it, then sliding it onto your shoulder. The new technique has you squat in front of the bag, with the end in your lap. You then reach out and grab the bag, and use leverage to torque it up onto your shoulder. I kept thinking that this didn’t feel like something I would do ever, until I got home, and our youngest had fallen asleep on our bed. I used this exact technique to get him out of our bed, and into his. The wife commented that obviously the gym was working, because I just used the technique we learned tonight.

As of this morning, I’m officially down 38 pounds.