First Day of Monkey Bar Gym

Today Tom and Craig came over for a modified Monkey Bar Gym workout.  We started with the Eischen's Yoga for Beginners DVD as the warm-up.  I felt better than the first time I followed the beginner yoga routine.  The poses were easier to hold and I felt my form was B+.

We then progressed straight into strength-building.  We did 4 sets of as many as possible (4 x AMAP) of Slide Thru's using the gymnastics rings and the power-wheel.  The gymnastics rings were adjusted to exactly 12" off the ground.

Tom's results: 4.0/4.0/4.0/2.5
Colby's results: 5.5/4.5/3.5/4.5
Craig's results: 4.0/5.0/3.5/4.0

Tom's total: 14.5
Colby's total: 18.0
Craig's total: 16.5

We ended the workout there.  We also discussed the idea of beginning a 60-day INSANITY challenge.  Tom and Craig will begin the challenge on April 30th and Colby will join in on May 2nd.

I am also considering how I plan to structure my workouts in the future.  As of right now, I would like to start every day with 15 to 30 minutes of Eischen's yoga.  Then, 3 times per week, I will follow it with 30 minutes of gymnastics skills training and 30 minutes of general fitness training via the monkey bar gym's Workout of the Day (WOD), P90X, INSANITY, or some other equivalent routine.  I will end each day with guided meditation.  I have not yet found a guided meditation routine that I like, so this is still in development.

Twice a week, I would like to do long runs after my morning yoga.  Also, once or twice a week I would like to do an extended yoga routine (GAIAM Yoga DVDs with Rodney Yee) or an extended stretch routine (P90X Stretch-X).

Speaking of stretch, I think I really need to work on my flexibility in order to improve my gymnastics poses.  Perhaps I will incorporate a short stretching routine as a cool-down.  I recently heard that Gold Medal Bodies released a DVD called focused flexibility.  I should look into that.

Anyhow, a sample week would look like this:


Morning - Mon/Wed/Fri
15 min eischen's yoga
30 min gymnastics skills training
30 min general fitness training
15 min stretching

Morning - Tues/Sat

15 min eischen's yoga
60 min long run
15 min stretching



Morning - Thurs/Sun
60 min extended yoga or stretch

Evening - Every Day
30 min guided meditation

I am intentional being vague about my "general fitness training".  Basically I can chose any full-body workout or create my own.  It should vary from workout to workout or change at least every 8 weeks without repeating any workout more than once a week.  The workout should vary its focus between the 8 measures of physical fitness: (1) muscular strength, (2) muscular endurance, (3) speed, (4) balance, (5) power, (6) cardiovascular endurance, (7) coordination, and (8) flexibility.  Obviously, less emphasis will fall on balance, coordination, and flexibility since these are developed at other points in the workout.