Bodybuilding/Sculpting Challenge - Day 1

Hey friends :-) I had an awesome week off from my training and challenges. I did one hike during that time on the Signal Hill Trail in the night time. You know how much I love hiking in the dark...lol. For the most part I exercised my soul with good food, rest, good people, laughs, and even a few beers! A good time was had by all. Thanks to all who were involved :-)

Now it is time to get back to the challenges!!

As I mentioned before, this time it will be a body building/sculpting challenge. In preparation I have thought about how this challenge will play out. Unlike the previous hiking challenge, there is no set path to follow. All I have to go on is my past experience with trainers and my 3 year, 3 month relationship with established Gyms. What is that you might ask. Well I have identified a pattern in my life of every 3 years I get motivated to hit the gym and lose interest after 3 months. Which by the way is no coincidence that the challenges are only 60 days. So I am going to be using this challenge also as an experiment to figure out a few different styles of exercise that works for me. To start I I have decided to take a few old favorite exercises and create a quick circuit, then in a few weeks I plan to join a gym or established training program. Plus one day a week I will be joining a yoga class mainly for the stretching. Now that my rest period is over I will be back at the trails for at least one hike a week.

What's the goal you might ask? In the last challenge it was to complete the challenge. 60 days of the same task. The weight loss was a great motivator and was gravy for sure :-) For this challenge, it is a bit more personal. In my minds eye I have a picture of how I would like to look. All my life I have made half hearted attempts to get the ie - the 3 year 3 months. Now it is time to do it!! Like my friend Jim said, now that I got the weight lost it's time to get into the gym and cut that shit up!!

One of the the things I know about myself is that I always do best when I start out slow. So this morning I decided on a few tride and true exercises to get me started, and one challenge exercise. Here was my regiment for today:

Standard Push Ups - 20

Crunches - 30

Squats with 10lb medicine ball extended - 20

Standing twist with med. ball extended - 10/side

Decline push up(feet raised about 18 inches)

Challenge exercise:

External Hip Rotation w/ side plank - 2 per side
http://www.outsideonline.com/templates/ipad_video_player?id=247085821#ooid=AwMGd1azq8B15jA-iCUX1ObER4Ti1Usb

If anyone has any suggestions about what exercises work great for them, or what I should try differently, please let me know, also please remember this only day one ;-)

Thanks!
Johnny O.

P.s. - I also promised this would be a pictorial, pics coming soon!