The No Excuses Workout - Day 2

No excuses is just about right...

I spent a good chunk of time in the Emergency Room at the local hospital yesterday.  After a couple of days of what I thought was a low grade bladder infection that the usual treatment of cranberry juice and lots of water refused to touch, I got hit by a runaway truck.

In the midst of hours of excruciating pain accompanied by non-stop vomiting, it was announced that I had the honor of passing a kidney stone.  It was large enough that had it been 0.3 mm larger, it would fall into the range that was extracted via surgery.

Hooray for me! I get to expel and asteroid on my own! ;)

The pain passed (we're waiting on Stage 2 and it's fond farewell from my body), I completed the No Excuses workout this morning.

If I can do the workout after hours at the ER (and some really wonderful narcotics), there will never be an excuse worthy of me skipping a day's workout.

Exercise:

Once again, I'm performed the Table Top described in yesterday's workout.  The only difference?  I did it three times (a brief, two to five second break between each) instead of just once like yesterday.

Cardio:

Today's walk went two blocks instead of one.  My walk is now up to 0.6 miles without even blinking.

PM Workout

This is where the real payoff begins.

I have a theory that our body is constantly going through a process that I call micro-evolution in response to what we do with it.  For instance, if we sit in an office chair all day, our body evolves to meet that - no sense wasting energy on things like muscle tone and lung capacity if all we're going to do is sit!

The secret is breaking exercise into small pieces throughout the day.  Working out a minimum of twice a day is key to convince our body, "Yes, we really need you to tone the muscles and lose some fat.  Look at how frequently you're called upon to do something."

But who has time to work out twice a day?

So the PM Workout has been designed so it can be done - in its entirety - while watching TV.

If I'm going to watch a show anyway, why sit around and tell my body "slack off" when I could be telling it, "Get in shape," you know?

Exercise:

I call this exercise, "Twist (No Shout)."  Like all exercises in the PM workout it's performed SLOWLY through a full range of motion with the corresponding muscles tight.

First, I stand up tall, imagining that there is  string coming out of the top of my head that is pulling me erect.  My feet are a comfortable distance apart.   I clasp my hands behind my head and pull my navel toward my spine, just like in the Table Top.  Then, counting silently to four and keeping my hips pointed forward, I slowly turn toward the right, keeping my stomach tight the whole time.  Then four counts to the front.  Then four counts to the left.  Then four counts to the center again.

That is one repetition of Twist (No Shout).

Tonight I'll do a total of five repetitions - a little less than two minutes of exercise when performed properly.

I'm not sure where I can find an excuse to NOT do less than two minutes of workout.

And that's it for Day Two.