WEEK 6 - DAY 7

Fully recovered from basketball on Thursday, I hit the gym with Ben on Saturday to get in some weight training.  I've been focused on circuit training the last 6 weeks, so we decided to start going a little heavier with our workouts.  Today's workout we decided to hit chest and back.  We started off by warming up with 1 set on the flat bench press and then moved into a superset with flat bench press and bent over barbell rows....


--Bench Press: 135lbs x 10 reps 


--Bench Press: 205lbs x 12 reps
          superset w/
--Barbell Row: 135lbs x 12 reps 
--Bench Press: 195lbs x 12 reps

          superset w/

--Barbell Row: 135lbs x 12 rep

--Bench Press: 185lbs x 12 reps

          superset w/

--Barbell Row: 135lbs x 12 rep

We did 12 repetitions on each set here but the last couple of reps of each set were forced reps. We then moved on to incline and decline bench and finished each set with a few forced reps.

--Incline Bench Press: 3 sets - 155lbs x 12 reps

          superset w/

--Barbell Underhand Row:  3 sets - 135lbs x 12 reps

--Decline Bench Press:  175lbs x 12 reps

          superset w/

--1 Arm Dumbbell Row: 65lbs x 12 reps

-Decline Bench Press:  2 sets - 155lbs x 12 reps

          superset w/

--1 Arm Dumbbell Row: 2 sets - 65lbs x 12 reps

We were all done with weights at this point but my main goal on this program is to lean out, so Ben had something more in store.  He had me follow him to the basketball court, where he had a dumbbell sitting in the middle of the floor and a cardio step set up next to the court with 4 risers.  The plan was to finish the workout with a burnout.....

--Step Up: 10 reps

--Step Up(knee up): 10 reps

--Step Up(short kick): 10 reps

--Step Up(full kick): 10 reps

--"X" Drill: 1x

--Push Up: 10 reps

--Squat: 10 reps

--Push Up: 5 reps

--Squat: 10 reps

--Push Up: 5 reps

--Squat: 10 reps

--Sprint: baseline to baseline

For the "X" drill I started off in the bottom right corner of the basketball court, sprinted and touched the dumbbell placed in the middle of the court, sprinted to the bottom left corner, sprinted to touch dumbbell, sprinted to the top left corner of court, back to dumbbell and then sprinted to the top right corner where I completed back to back sets of push ups and squats.  I was totally wiped out after this burnout circuit and those sets of push ups were killer, since my chest was already destroyed from our chest workout earlier.  Great workout and I was glad to be done.  Now to look forward to Step class on Tuesday night.

WEEK 6 - DAY 5

I had an appointment to get to today, so I wasn't able to join in on the last day of Star Max training.  I planned on lifting but just as I was about to go workout, I heard the "bump of the ball. On the floor ... on the wall", had a Cornbread, Earl and Me flashback and decided that I just had to hit the court instead.  I know I took some of you waaay back with that reference but that movie is the reason I ever set foot on a basketball court and if you haven't watched it, you need to stop reading right now and go get it from somewhere.

I injured my knee playing basketball last fall, so I haven't played in a couple of months but it's been holding up pretty well in Star Max over the last couple of weeks.  I strapped up and hit the court, and everyone was looking at me like they had seen a ghost(told you, it's been awhile).  I ran about 5 or 6 games,  and my knee didn't give me any problems.  I knew I was missing out on my regular workout, so I tried to make it a point to run as hard as I could on every play.  As we played I found myself turning into the old guy on the court and yelling at the youngest guy on our team to "play smart and stop making the game so hard".  Of course he just wanted to show what he had learned on And 1 and waived me off.  I remember those days though and as I ran the court I thought that what those guys were really saying was  "Stop wasting all that extra energy on the court, be smart and let's win as many games as we can before our bodies realize what's going on and shuts this thing down.".  We lost the first game, won our next four and then on the final game I think we ran out of gas and the other team pulled off a comeback for the win.

After it was all done I felt good.  A little tired but not overly winded like I might have been a couple of weeks ago.  I reveled in the tightness in my thighs and joked around with the guys a bit before running off to my appointment that evening.....yeah, I still had it.  About an hour later the throbbing in my thighs had spread down to my ankles and by the time we were done with our appointment, i was having trouble getting in and out of the car.  No worries though.....guess I'll just have to soak when I get home.  By the time I got home, made my way back and forth, up and down the 3 flights of stairs to walk my dog, the throbbing had moved to my glutes and my lower back had started to tighten up.  I was so tired, I fell asleep talking on the phone and never even made it into the bathtub I was so looking forward to.

When I woke up in the morning everything still hurt.  It was great out there on the court posting up, setting picks, throwing my weight around and grabbing every rebound but now it was all coming back.  I was hurting in places that my workouts over the last couple of weeks just hadn't touched.  Now I know what those "old guys" on the court really meant ..... "it's gonna take me a week to recover from this, so play smart so we can win this and I can at least have some good memories to hold me over when the pain sets in.".

WEEK 6 - DAY 3

So this is the last week of Star Max and I feel great.  6 Weeks of Star Max training has definitely helped to jump start my workouts again.  I'm back into a routine and feeling leaner, stronger and faster than just a few weeks ago.  I told Kevin that this would be my last day of Star Max because I had an appointment on Thursday at our regular Star Max time and as soon as I told him I began to wonder if maybe I should have kept that to myself.  No need to give him any extra motivation or reason to to turn this thing up.  No worries though because either way I was planning on finishing strong.  We started off with our regular warm-up and then grabbed our dumbbells and got to work....


--Sprints: 6 x baseline to baseline
--Dynamic Stretch: high knees(2x), butt kicks(2x), frankensteins(2x), heel tuck(in), heel tuck(out) baseline to baseline and broken up by sprints


--DB Squat Press: 30lbs x 20 reps
--Ab Leg Raises: 15 reps
--Side Plank Dumbbell Raise: 30lbs x 20 reps


These plank dumbbell raises were brutal.  Should have known Kevin was going to find something new to throw into the routine.  We did these five at a time on each side, for a total of 20 reps(10 on each side)


--DB Flyes w/ Flutter Kicks: 30lbs - 3 x 30 secs


Kevin actually claims he had a dream about this exercise the night before and I actually believe him; nowhere on the internet have I been able to find any combination of these two exercises and you know the "internets" has everything.  We did the dumbbell flyes while doing flutter kicks and Kevin counted down the 30 seconds for flutter kicks.  I have to say Kevin's 30 seconds are waay longer than any 30 seconds I've experienced.


--Ab Toe Touches: 50 reps
--Backpedal Suicides: 3 x baseline to baseline
--Ab Bicycles: 50 reps
--Frog Sit-ups: 20 reps
--Sprints: 10 x baseline to baseline

Don't know what was up with all this running but I have to admit, I wasn't as gassed or winded as I was in the beginning.  Also, we were missing a couple people, so it was only us big boys sprinting across the court and I was winning.....well at least that's what I told myself to get through it(hey, you gotta get motivation where you somewhere)

--Dumbbell Bicep Curls: 30lbs x 15 reps

--DB Power Clean: 30lbs x 20 reps
--Acceleration Wall Drill-Run: 3 x 30 secs 
--Walking Lunges:  sideline to sideline
--2 Arm Dumbbell Row: 30lbs x 20 reps
--DB Squat Press: 30lbs x 20 reps
--Side Lunges: 20 reps


And we were done.  I kept trying to get Kevin to tone down all that running by saying that this was a "big boy" workout but he wasn't listening.  Since Star Max is over, I'm going to have to fill in for it next week.  I already told a couple of ladies in the Step class that I'll be joining them next week, so that's a start.  I have never in my life done a step class, so stay tuned for that story.  Think I might have to film that one.

WEEK 5 - DAY 5

So, I think Kevin's goal is to see just how much weight it would take to get me to tap out of one of these workouts because we're going up in weight every workout now.  This time I walked in and noticed that Kevin had loaded up 3 plates on each side of my cardio bar.  We just jumped up from 55lbs to 66lbs(each plate is 5kg) and I knew he wasn't going to lower any reps.  There was no point in complaining though, so I just muttered some mama jokes to myself and got to it.......


--Sprints: 6 x baseline to baseline
--Dynamic Stretch: high knees(2x), butt kicks(2x), frankensteins(2x), heel tuck(in), heel tuck(out) baseline to baseline and broken up by sprints


--Barbell Squat: 66lbs x 20 reps
--Side Lunges: 20 reps
--Bar Hops: 30 seconds (2x)


Bar hop is an agility exercise in which you repeatedly jump back and forth over a bar.  For this one we were hopping back and forth over our barbells, and I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but I'm over 260lbs, so doing this for 30 seconds straight was no easy feat.  I got it done but it sure wasn't pretty.


--Ab Leg Raises: 15 reps
--Bench Press: 66lbs x 20 reps
--Barbell Push Crunch(Flat): 66lbs x 20 reps

--Barbell Squat: 66lbs x 20 reps

--Side Lunges: 20 reps

--Bar Hops: 30 seconds (2x)

--Barbell Bicep Curls: 66lbs x 15 reps

--Hang Cleans: 66lbs x 15 reps

--Barbell Push Ups: 15 reps

--Barbell Row: 66lbs x 15 reps

--M Drill(Regular):  3x 

--M Drill(Shuffle): 3x

For the regular "M" drill, 5 cones are set at angles in the shape of an "M" to provide quick acceleration forward to quick hip turns in the back pedal. 1-5 represent the different turns in the "M".  From Cone 1, you run to Cone 2. Next, you back pedal to Cone 3.  Turn your hips, run to Cone 4.  Back pedal to 5 and then turn and sprint from 5 to 1 and repeat.  For the shuffle "M" drill, you slide from cone to cone, turning your hips at each cone and staying in a crouched position.  At Cone 5, sprint back to Cone 1 and repeat.  I was totally gassed out after doing all of these drills.  

We took a 60 second break at this point and I ran to get some water......well, it wasn't really a run but I was trying.

--Ab Bicycles: 50 reps

--Ab Toe Touches: 30 reps

--Ab Bicycles: 50 reps

--Ab Toe Touches: 30 reps

--Barbell Squat: 66lbs x 15 reps

--Side Lunges: 20 reps

--Barbell Front Squat: 66lbs x 15 reps

--Acceleration Wall Drill-Run: 3 x 20 secs (see Week One - Entry One)

--Barbell Push Ups: 10 reps

--Barbell Row: 66lbs x 10 reps

This workout was rough and I was glad to be done with it.  As we get towards the end of Star Max our breaks are getting fewer and I'm realizing that I really don't need as many.  I more week of Star Max to go.  Let's see what Kevin has in store.

WEEK 5 - DAY 3

Finally kicked that virus in the butt and back to 100%.   I was aching for a workout and had been planning on adding another day of resistance training, so I decided to try and get in a quick chest and back workout on Monday.  Had to keep it short and sweet because there was alot to do around the gym since I had been out all weekend but I did manage to get in a couple of sets of 135lbs for 15 reps and went up to 185lbs for 12 reps.  This was a whole lot better than the 95lbs I was struggling to do during my Week One - Day 5 workout with Ben; or not being able to do a single push-up just a little over a year ago.  Scar tissue from my surgery still hurts a bit if I try to bounce the bar off my chest, but that just forces me to focus and maintain proper control as I do my repetitions.

Tuesday hit and it was time for Star Max again.  Today Kevin had switched up the dumbbells for barbells.  Every workout with Kevin is something new to shock your system, so even though we had used these barbells before I had no idea what he had in store for us.  When I walked onto the court my barbell was all set up and waiting for me .........and Kevin had raised the weight on me again.


--Sprints: 3 x baseline to baseline
--Dynamic Stretch: high knees, butt kicks, frankensteins, heel tuck(in), heel tuck(out) baseline to baseline and broken up by sprints

--Deadlift, Clean & Press: 55lbs x 15 reps

**This exercise is a combination of a regular deadlift, a clean and military shoulder press

--Chest Press w/ Leg Raise: 55lbs x 12 reps

--Wide Push Up: 15 reps

--Mountain Climbers: 20 reps

--Shuffle to Burpee: 15 reps

--Barbell Bicep Curls: 55lbs x 12 reps

--Diamond Push Up: 12 reps

Here we took the 45 second rest that I thought we should have had after those burpees.  Kevin said that the bicep curls were active recovery and we could catch our breath then though.....yeah, right.

--Alternating V-Ups:  40 reps 

--Ab Toe Touches: 30 reps (Legs up and feet apart)

--Russian Twists: 30 reps

Another 45 second break and my abs were on fire.  

--Backpedal Suicides: 3 x baseline to baseline

--Heel Walk: baseline to baseline

--Toe Walk: baseline to baseline

These backpedal suicides are a quadriceps killer and I really couldn't get through them fast enough.  Just like regular suicides except you have to backpedal the entire way through.  Heel and toe walks as active recovery, a  60 second break to catch our breaths and then we went through the entire circuit again, starting with abs.

--Alternating V-Ups:  40 reps 

--Ab Toe Touches: 30 reps (Legs up and feet apart)

--Russian Twists: 30 reps

--Deadlift, Clean & Press: 55lbs x 15 reps

**This exercise is a combination of a regular deadlift, a clean and military shoulder press

--Chest Press w/ Leg Raise: 55lbs x 12 reps

--Wide Push Up: 15 reps

--Mountain Climbers: 20 reps

--Shuffle & Burpee: 12 reps

--Barbell Bicep Curls: 55lbs x 12 reps

--Diamond Push Up: 12 reps

All done and a great start to the week.  I was worn out after this workout though, so I grabbed a protein shake on my way out of the gym and then headed home and jumped right in bed.  Two more workouts and some extra cardio should wrap up this week quite nicely.

WEEK 4

Okay, I'm back.  No, I didn't quit the program; just been fighting off a virus all week.  I  wasn't able to workout all week because I wasn't feeling well, but I used the time to focus on my diet a little more.  I've been on a roll though and not being able to workout was killing me, so on Thursday I grabbed a Monster Milk protein shake and walked into the gym to give it a go.  I'm pretty sure Kevin knew I hadn't been feeling well all week but I had a feeling that really wouldn't matter.   They had already gone through all of the warm-up when I walked in and, sure enough, he already had a pair of 30lb dumbbells waiting for me.....

Russian Twists: 30lbs x 40 reps
Ab Leg Raises w/ Hip Thrust: 30 reps
Ab Bicycles: 50 reps
Arnold Dumbbell Push Press: 30lbs x 15 reps
Dumbbell Bicep Curls: 30lbs x 15 reps
Diamond Push Up: 15 reps
Static Anterior Raise: 30lbs x
Suicides: 2 x baseline to baseline
Alternating V-Ups:  40 reps 
Frog Sit-ups: 20 reps
Jumping Jacks: 40 reps
Walking Lunges:  sideline to sideline
Farmer's Run: 30lbs - 3 x baseline to baseline


Kevin made a deal with us on these Farmer's Runs.  If all of us could go non-stop for 3 trips back and forth that would be it, but if anyone stopped or paused we would all have to do 5 trips baseline to baseline.  I think the thought of 2 extra trips was pretty motivating because we all raced through our sets without even thinking about stopping or pausing.  After this exercise we got a 1 minute break to catch our breaths.  After the break Kevin informed us that we would be running through this final stretch with no breaks......


Balance Sit-up: 20 reps (see Week Two - Day 5)
Ab Bicycles: 50 reps
Acceleration Wall Drill-Run: 3 x 20 secs (see Week One - Entry One)
Dumbbell Bicep Curls: 30lbs x 15 reps
Diamond Push Up: 15 reps
Russian Twists: 30lbs x 40 reps
Ab Pike: 20 reps 
Advanced Planks: 20 reps (see Week Three - Day 3)
Ab Plank: 2 x 30 secs
Wide Push Up: 15 reps
Regular Push Up: 20 reps 


Even though I felt horrible coming into this workout, I made it through and felt great afterwards.  It was downhill from there though.  Guess I was tired from working out because the bug I had been fighting off all week finally caught up with me and brought any thoughts of working out on Saturday to a halt.  I spent the weekend loaded up on Nyquil and hot tea, only coming out on Sunday to watch my Green Bay Packers take the Lombardi Trophy back home.  I have to say, it was really nice of the Steelers to go all the way to Texas just to give us our championship trophy back:)


The plan for the next week is to increase my cardio in order to make up for my missed workouts last week.  Think I might try out a spin class or two this week......

WEEK THREE - DAY 5

Three weeks into working out again and I feel great.  It's been over 2 years since I've worked out regularly and but I can feel muscle memory kicking in as my muscles get reacclimated to being ripped up over and over again. Half way through the 6 week Star Max program and every workout has been a surprise, so far.  I walked in on this Thursday evening wondering what Kevin had in store for us.  I moved up from 20lb dumbbells to 25lb dumbbells on Tuesday and when I walked onto the court today Kevin had the 30lb dumbbells lined up and waiting for me.  I guess I made our last workout look too easy??

Sprints: 6 x baseline to baseline
Dynamic Stretch: High Knees(2x), butt kicks(2x), frankensteins(2x), heel tuck-in, heel tuck-out baseline to baseline and broken up with sprints.
Walking Lunges: 330lbs sideline to sideline
Dumbbell Bicep Curl w/ Shoulder press: 30lbs x 15 reps
Lying Leg Raise w/ Hip Thrust:  20 reps
Ab Toe Touches: 30lbs x 30 reps
Plyometric Push Up w/ Clap: 15 reps
Diamond Push Up: 15 reps
Wide Push Up: 15 reps
Alternating V-Ups: 50 reps
Medicine Ball Toss: 11lb x 10 reps
Back-to-Back Medicine Ball Pass:  11lbs x 20 reps


Between the weather and people being sick we were a little thin today and the only other person working out with me had to run out on an emergency.  We were about 35 minutes in and instead of staying on the court and having Kevin run me to death I asked if we could finish up with a quick back and shoulder workout.  I guess I must have spoken in Spanish by accident because Kevin heard me say "let's scratch the last 35 minutes of our workout and do a full back and shoulders workout instead" .......


1 Arm Dumbbell Row: 1 set - 60lbs x 12 reps, 2 sets - 70lbs x 12 reps
Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 1 set - 40lbs x 12 reps, 2 sets - 30lbs x 25 reps


We did 3 sets of these two exercises as a  superset.


Wide Grip Pulldown: 130lbs x 12 reps
Close Grip Cable Row: 140lbs x 12 reps
Cable Front Raise w/ Rope: 30lbs x 12 reps


We did 3 sets of these three exercises as a  tri-set.


Romanian Deadlift Row: 105lbs x 10 reps
Cable Lateral Raise: 40lbs x 12 reps


We did these two exercises as a  superset.  The plan was to do 3 sets but by now I was totally burnt and have to admit I tapped out.  I was trying to push through but at this point we were almost and hour and a half into the workout and my back and shoulders were completely burnt out.  I had already been threatening Kevin for the last 20 minutes or so to no avail and as I tapped out I think I noticed a little smirk cross his lips.  That's cool though....I don't plan on tapping out again anytime soon and I'll be back for more next week.