I’m behind on posting my workouts, so you all get to see the whole week at a glance!

Monday, 7/21: 10 Minute Trainer Cardio and Lower Body (20 min)

Tuesday, 7/22: MGS Beginner Blast Off, Intro Phase, Workout A (39 min)

Wednesday, 7/23: MGS Beginner Blast Off, Intro Phase, Workout B (29 min); Stationary bike, Levels 11-13 (16 min)

Thursday, 7/24: Hip Hop Abs Fat Burning Cardio (30 min); Elliptical trainer (15 min); Stationary Bike (15 min)

Friday, 7/25: MGS Beginner Blast Off, Intro Phase, Workout A; Stationary bike (16 min)

Saturday, 7/26: Unknown training program with trainer at LA Fitness (”free” new member session); REAL workout will be 20 minute HIIT run + 20 minute incline walk; possible swim afterwards

Every summer I have the noble goal of continuing to post regularly in my blog, and every summer, I am undone by the cyclical work crunch that accompanies a job in the video game industry. I’m doing user interface work for five different Nintendo DS titles at the moment, and at least three of those titles will be hitting alpha and beta phases within the next two months. This basically amounts to lots of unexpected late nights at work, and not much time for leisurely bulk food prep and hour-long workouts. I’ve also had a string of summer travel commitments (We are talking Alabama, Missouri, Philadelphia, and St. Petersburg, FL so far, and the Bahamas next month) that have thrown my normally well-scheduled life out of whack.

I really like the NROL workouts, but I need something that I can do on autopilot for a while. There are a lot of unique and new (to me) moves in NROL that I’m not comfortable performing with significant weight when my brain is elsewhere, and this leads me to NOT want to do the workouts at all. Stupid, but true. Because of this, I’m putting it on hold for a bit and running with Jason Ferruggia’s Muscle Gaining Secrets program (Beginner Blast Off) for a while. I just need to get back into the rhythm of *gym - meal prep - work - leisure time* again. A few months of back to the basics compound lifts with wonderfully heavy weights should do it. I don’t want novel new exercises or fancy workout periodization schedules right now. I just want to get stronger and make measurable progress at a steady pace without thinking about it too hard.

Speaking of not thinking too hard, I’ll also be varying my normal gym machine cardio options with cardio-in-a-box solutions like Hip Hop Abs and the 10 Minute Trainer DVDs from Beachbody as well as my trusty Yourself Fitness workouts, and Forza. Swimming is not coming along as well as I hoped since I still have some issues with figuring out when to breathe, but that is still on the slate, too. One day I will do it well enough to actually get a workout when I hit the pool! Right now, I doubt I’m burning much since I can’t sustain a steady swim for more than half a length. Sigh.