Plyometrics aka “jump training” or “plyos”, welcome to the past week that I have traveled though. I have no idea why or how I talked myself into this but alas we are on day five and I have survived. Playing around on the web, see something interesting and go “What the hell”. Truer words could never be more expressed than by the adventure you take on when you are doing plyos for the first time.
It has been far too cold, too rainy or too windy to head out on the mountain bike. I have actually not even been on a ride since October because of this and partly due to taking a break from it. Let’s face it, I really do not want another human in deer’s headlights moment. I decided to take the hard winter months off and just get back into working out a little at a time.
Some of the time I spent on the recumbent bike and other times I split my somewhat free/squeezed in time with strength training. Let me just say as tom boyish as I am, I love my pink, green and purple weights. They do the job they should and it is not something ugly that sits on the floor when not in use.
People can also give me as much shit as they want for using a recumbent bike too. No, I have no issues keeping it on the floor with the wheels as this bike has none. Yes it really can help you to get back into shape. No I will not broadcast a video of myself while spinning.
Last week I came across something that caught my eye, “32-minute plyometric workout“. Seriously half an hour? Yes, count me in please. I say this because if I mountain bike in the morning I need to be out the door, done and back within about 45 minutes in time to make a school run. Plyometrics world, here I come.
During the work days when I am on the recumbent bike it is a 30 minute spin and it is over. Since I normally use my “lunch” as my exercise time this worked out great. Most of the geeks you know are playing around on the computer during lunch eating at their desk. I tend to burn the lunch hour out by burning calories and eating at the desk while actually working instead.
I would rather find the time to exercise even if it is only 30 minutes a day and eat my lunch in front of the PC while working than skip it all-together and gain weight that I don’t need. If I can learn plyometrics and even half way do these (free) videos I don’t see why anyone else can not try either. You learn something new each day, right?
Day 1 – I seriously thought I was going to die. The last time I jumped was on accident. No soreness, but I can only speculate that my body must have played dead that evening.
Day 2 – This felt a bit easier because I kind of knew what was coming but still, even a decade later from the wreck I still have issues with upper body strength. A bit sore but nothing major.
Day 3 – Before I even started I was sore from the day before. We also had a snow day so I required everyone to vacate from the living room while I worked out. This was after playing out in the freezing weather and having a massive snowball fight.
Day 4 – I was not sore when I started but I still had issues with the high jumps and push ups. It seems over the years my body forgot what a true push up is but if being sore is any way to notice a change I have the chest of a champ now.
Day 5 – It is Friday and I have successfully made it! The week was hard learning something new and while I did not execute every exercise as good as the person leading everyone I still gave it my all. For that I am thankful, I am also thankful for two days off to do nothing other than the women’s class I will be taking tomorrow.
So this is my first week into the world of plyometrics and to be fair, it could have been worse. I still have some issues with my ankles and knees from skating but in the end they held up. My balance is amazing when it comes to the one-legged squats and I still have some stuff to work on. In the end I am content with the results. I am either going to take a week off to rest or I am going to start an eight week challenge. Hopefully by the time Monday rolls around I will have made my mind up.
