07.05.2020 - Healthy Performer - Mr Lemon

DAY 11

Today I focused on legs and glutes.  The exercises I did were:

• Squats
• Lateral leg raises
• Fire hydrants
• Donkey kicks
• Hip thrusts
• Bulgarian split squats

From last week, I changed two of the exercises to donkey kicks and hip thrusts to suit my level of progress.  I also changed the reps and sets of each exercise to challenge myself.  Last week I had only 10 reps and 3 sets of each exercise, and although I felt the burn when I was doing the exercises, I didn't feel as if I was challenging myself and I didn't feel the burn or ache the next day.  I did 15 reps and 4 sets of each exercise today and I really struggled.  I was thinking about not completing it, but I knew that was my mind quitting and not my body so I pushed through and eventually completed it.  I felt so proud afterwards.  The Bulgarian split squats were definitely the most painful and hard for me, as it's really targeting the quads and glutes on one leg at a time rather than the easier version of normal squats.  For cool down, I did a quick 3 min leg focused stretches:

• Butterfly
• Butterfly with chest down
• Hamstring knee tuck
• Hamstring and calve straightened leg
• Spine twist
• Pretzel stretch

These stretches really helped to cool down the burning feeling in my legs and glutes.  They also brought my heartbeat down closer to it's resting rate, and cooled me down.  The most relaxing one I did was the spine twist, however I didn't feel it do anything for my legs.  My favourite stretch was the butterfly stretch, even with the chest down as I really felt it work the adductors.  

06.05.2020 - Healthy Performer - Mr Lemon

DAY 10

Today was my rest day when it came to anaerobic exercises, but I still had a HIIT workout to do.  I followed the one that I was doing before, but I felt a lot more strong and wanted to alter the exercises to make them a bit more tough.  The 15 exercises in this HIIT workout were:

• Windmill
• Squat punch
• Slow crunch
• Ballet half kick
• Inch worm
• Legs only ab bike
• High plank to down dog
• Front lunge
• Plank
• Standing ab bike
• Leg drop
• Arm and leg raise
• Walking burpees
• Legs Flutter
• Shoulder tap and thigh tap

I did each of these exercises for 45 seconds and then rested for 15 seconds before moving onto the next one.  These are the exercises I altered:

• Inch worm 
• I stayed longer in the high plank position and crunched my abs
• Legs only ab bike
• I decided to do bicycle crunches and I definitely felt a big difference
• Leg drop
• I did leg raises instead which I felt was more effective but I did struggle to keep my back on the ground
• Walking burpees
• I started of with doing the normal burpees where you jump when you stand up and jump your legs out when your hands are on the floor but I didn't do the pushup at the bottom.  After a while this was too hard for me so I stopped jumping at the top and carried on

Yet again I think the most challenging exercise were the shoulder tap and thigh tap and the plank, but now that I changed a few of the exercises, I also found the bicycle crunches to feel very effective.  The burpees had my heart beating super fast and I was out of breath, but I know that I wouldn't have been able to do that a week ago so I'm proud.  As for a cool down, I followed a 10 minute full body cool down.  These were the stretches:

• Sky reach and toe touch
• Neck 
• Triceps
• Shoulders
• Chest
• Quads
• Calves
• Forward bend
• Hip flexor
• Wrists
• Cat and cow
• Abs 
• Shoulder rollover
• Hamstrings
• Butterfly
• Body twist
• Knee to chest 
• Glutes
• Happy baby
• Child's pose

These really helped stretch and relax my muscles.  I definitely felt these stretches but the pain felt good and effective.  

05.05.2020 - Healthy Performer - Mr Lemon

DAY 9 

Today was my chest and shoulders day.  The exercises I did were pushups, reverse fly, dumbbell lateral raise, overhead dumbbell press, Arnold press and standing chest fly.  After doing this workout, I felt a lot more tired and worked out than last week's session which is down to my increase in reps and sets of the exercises and also switching an exercise out that didn't work for me to one that did.  I think I was a bit ambitious at the start and also increased the weight from 3lbs to 5lbs dumbbells, but I had to stop after a bit as I knew I wouldn't be able to carry on much longer if I stuck with the heavier weights.  With regards to pushups, I managed to do 10 reps properly without a break which I'm very proud of considering I could barely do 1 fully 2 weeks ago.  I can definitely feel that my right arm is stronger than my left but I tried to keep the left doing as much work as the right.  The standing chest fly exercise was the most challenging for me, probably as it was the last one and I had been getting progressively more tired, but also because I really felt it work my trapezius muscles.  After this workout I followed a 5 min shoulder, upper back, chest and arm stretching cool down.  The stretch felt painful in a good and relieving way and I felt a lot more relaxed afterwards.  I also made sure I have been hydrated throughout the day.

04.05.2020 - Healthy Performer - Mr Lemon

DAY 8

Today I did the HIIT workout.  I'm really proud of myself for not eating unhealthily today but I still think that I should have drank more water today.  The HIIT workout consists of these 15 exercises. 

• Windmill
• Squat punch
• Slow crunch
• Ballet half kick
• Inch worm
• Legs only ab bike
• High plank to down dog
• Front lunge
• Plank
• Standing ab bike
• Leg drop
• Arm and leg raise
• Walking burpees
• Legs flutter
• Shoulder tap and thigh tap

I can feel how much progress I've made with this workout as I feel so much more strong and able to do each exercise.  I still want to carry on with it because I can't make it through the entire workout without stopping.  I could tell that I'm a lot fitter now as I was so much faster at the walking burpees.  What I like about this workout is that once I'm confident in one of the exercises I might adapt it to fit my needs, so I might do the bicycle crunches instead of the legs only ab bike or do leg raises rather than leg drop.  I think next time I will incorporate some of these.  After the workout I followed a 10 min full body stretch and cool down video.  This consisted of 20 stretches targeting all muscles:

• Sky reach and toe touch
• Neck
• Triceps
• Shoulders
• Chest 
• Quads 
• Calves
• Forward bend
• Hip flexor
• Wrists
• Cat and cow
• Abs
• Shoulder rollover
• Hamstrings
• Butterfly
• Body twist
• Knee to chest
• Glutes
• Happy baby
• Child's pose

This felt so good to stretch out all of the muscles that got tense and contracted during the HIIT workout.  I felt a lot more relaxed afterwards as well as strong.

03.05.2020 - Healthy Performer - Mr Lemon

DAY 7

This morning I went on a 2 hour walk with my dog.  We walked for just under 5 miles.  It wasn't a vigorous walk but it was very hilly and i'm glad that I got out of the house and put my mind to it.

After the walk, I focused on core and back.  The exercises I focused on were crunches, leg lifts, Russian twists, swimmers, high plank to glute kickback and arm and leg extensions.  Yet again, I had the exercises grouped in pairs and I did 10 reps per exercise and 3 sets per group.  I used a 5lb dumbbell for the Russian twists.  The group I felt work the best were the crunches and leg lifts.  I really felt my abs working really hard.  The most difficult exercises for me were the high plank to glute kickbacks.  This workout really got my heart beating.  I tried to keep my core tight throughout.  After this workout I made sure to stretch.

02.05.2020 - Healthy Performer - Mr Lemon

DAY 6

Yesterday I had my break day and today, I focused on arms.  I made sure to stretch my arms before and after.  The exercises I did were reverse curl, dumbbell lateral raise, tricep kickbacks, tricep extensions, push ups and front raises.  Yet again, I had these in groups of 2 and did 10 reps per exercise and 3 sets per group.  I used a 3lb dumbbell for the reverse curl, dumbbell lateral raise, tricep kickbacks and front raises and a 5lb dumbbell for the tricep extension.  The most difficult exercise for me were the dumbbell lateral raises and push ups.  I think I might need to focus on my form on the tricep kickbacks because I didn't feel them that much.  After this workout was done, I didn't feel massively tired and challenged so I decided to do the 15 min HIIT workout.  This consisted of windmills, squat punch, slow crunch, ballet half kicks, inch worm, legs only ab bike, high plank to down dog, front lunge, plank, standing ab bike, leg drop, arm and leg raise, walking burpees, legs flutter and shoulder tap and thigh tap.  This definitely got me out of breath and feeling much more worked.  I really felt the plank working for me and the walking burpees had me really out of breath. 

01.05.2020 - Healthy Performer - Mr Lemon

DAY 5

Today I had a rest day.  I was supposed to have 2 rest days this week but I decided to just have 1.  It felt good to rest but I also felt that I could do a bit more on my rest day.  I made sure to keep my hydration levels up to help with keeping my body working well and feeling refreshed so I drank around 2L of water throughout the day.  As for diet, I didn't exactly succeed like I'd hoped to.  I gave in to a lot of cravings today and my family and I didn't have the healthiest dinner possible (fries and meatballs with baked beans).  Although it was a good feeling at the time, I felt a lot groggier afterwards and like all my hard work went to waste.  I'm going to try my hardest to not fall back down that hole again, and I think the groggy feeling is great motivation for me.  I got around 8 and a half hours sleep the night before so I was well rested which helped in resting my muscles.  I also had a few naps throughout the day for a couple hours each which felt great.  As today was a bank holiday, I didn't have school and so I didn't get up very early, and I also didn't do much throughout the day.  A majority of the time I was lying in bed watching movies and although today was my rest day, I think it would have been a lot more beneficial if I got up and moved around a little bit. Next week I might do the HIIT workout in my break day like I did the other day.  Having said that, I did do some preparation for tomorrow's workout which were focused on arms.  I did some gentle stretches like the across body stretch, the bicep stretch, some arm circles and some shoulder circles as well as gently stretching my neck as I find that gets quite tense when I do arm exercise.