Changing Gears

I have made the decision to be done with Jillian's 3o-day Shred. I have completed about 23 days of the Shred this month (and about 15 days in March) and am ready to move on.



Quick review:

• I liked a lot of the strengthening and cardio routines, but some things were hard on my knees.
• Most of the ab routines I was already encorporating into my workouts, just not on a daily basis.
• It is kind of time consuming, and juggling it with my other workouts just wasn't working very well.
• If it's the only thing you are doing in regards to a workout for the day, then it's perfect. I am sure I will refer to parts of the workouts here and there for additional strengthening exercises.

Now, I am ready to move on to bigger and better things!



John over at SmokeTraining recommended TriPower to me a couple months ago. According to the book, it is "The Ultimate Strength Training, Core Conditioning, Endurance, and Flexibility Program fro Triathlon Success".




There are 4 phases:

1. Foundation and Adaptation (2 months),
2. Building (3 months),
3. Power (2 months), and
4. Maintenance (4-6 months)



I have read the book and have done my pre-assessment to see where I am at prior to starting the program. Every four weeks I will be posting my progress and comparing to the last assessment. This isn't just a one month challenge peeps, this is a long term "training" program. I look forward to achieving balance and seeing results in my swimming, biking, and running!



Pre-Assessment: 4/26/2009

Pushups (in 60 sec): 15
Wall Sit: 44 seconds
Flex-Arm Hang: 14 seconds
Side Plank: 25 seconds
Side Plank Bent Knee: 38 seconds
Prone Plank: 41 seconds
Extensor Chain: 56 seconds
Core Strength: 60%



Here's a little summary of the assessment areas:

Pushups: We all know what these are. Focus on bending arms to 90 degrees. I did all of mine the right way, not the girly way.
Wall Sit: Placing a physio-ball between the wall and your back, lower into a sitting position, and crossings arms at shoulder height to keep them away from your legs. Knees should be directly over your ankles.
Flex-Arm Hang: This is just holding your chin above the chin-up bar as long as you can.
Side Plank: I think most of us know what a side plank is.
Side Plank Bent Knee: Same thing as a side plank but you have the lower leg bent for stabilization and then your top leg is raised, just above hip level.
Prone Plank: Another very fun plank.
Extensor Chain: You lay your tummy on a physio-ball, place your feet under a bench to keep them in place, and stretch your arms back - kind of like superman.
Core Strength: This one was kind of interesting. A lot of the time we end up using our hip flexors rather than core strength. What you do to measure this is start by lying flat on the floor and put one hand, palm up, under your back below the belly button. You should notice an arch in your lower back. Lift your legs straight up in the air and bend your knees at 90 degrees. You should notice pressure against your hand. Lower you legs until your lower back in no longer pressing down on your hand. Try to guage the percentage that your legs moved. Mine moved about 60% before my lower back began to raise from the floor. The higher the percentage, the mroe core strength you have. Pretty neat, eh?




I am pretty please with my pre-assessment results. My weaker areas are not really a surprise to me. I must admit that doing all those days of Jillian's Shred has helped a bit. I will start Phase 1 this evening.I will get into what each day looks like in Phase 1 in a future post! If all goes well over the next month, I am looking at signing up for a triathlon in July!