Three Day weekends and the Rise of the Cooler workouts!!!

Three Day weekends and the Rise of the Cooler workouts!!!

Would you believe if I told you I was actually on a four 3.5 day weekend right now?  Yes it is true.  I have I took a half day Friday.  It was marvelous.  I got to the pool for much needed backstroke workout, followed by 20 plus minutes of in pool flexibility work you know just your walking forward and backwards, high knees, side step, butt kickers, and fart licks.  Ask me about the last one sometime and I will tell you about it.  That was followed up with one of the best massages I have ever had.  Warm Touch Massage and Inti really knock it out of the ball park.   It is like when I used to see Manny for massages, a love hate relationship, love because of the relief I am getting, hate because some times to get that relief you have to have your ass kicked a little bit.  Now that is just about a perfect day off and I want more of them.

The truth is really this has been my third long weekend in a row.  Yes, yes one of those was working from home and the morning was really busy, and I had calls in the afternoon but working from home isn’t so bad.  Kona monkey was at day care and I was able to get to the pool early, which was nice.  Plus it allowed me to sleep in bit which after having 7 a.m. calls multiple times during the week is needed.  The next week I just decided I wanted Friday off, it was the first time in I don’t know how long I didn’t have a call with Big Brother.  Big Brother is what I have come to call them b/c it feels like they are always watching.  I had seen Deadpool 2 the night the before (loved it!!) and I wanted to sleep in, so I got up at 7:40 took Kona to day care, came back, had a personal call from 8 – 9 and then I went back to bed till noon.   I can’t remember the last time I had slept till noon.  It was fantastic.  I loved it!  Then I went to the pool spent an hour and half in the water and then went and met Inti for the first time and really got my ass kicked.

So I have been pretty spoiled the last few weeks and I love it.  I am starting to think man was not meant to work 5 days a week.  I think four is plenty.  Then again work and I, and how I want to do it is a completely different conversation for a different day.  One we don’t want to go into right this second. I don’t have the time and or energy to go into it right now, and I really am not sure I want to share that publically yet.  Let’s just say if at 42 I am having a mid-life crisis it is, well, leaving it alone. 

The next few weeks are going to be hard, when I have to go back to working five days a week.  Ugh.  The thought of it just sickens me.  Oh wait, I only have to work four days this week!!! Whoot! Whoot!  How exciting.  Well after that it is going to suck balls, until we hit July 4^th weekend and I get not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4 but a 5 day weekend!!  That is going to kick ass!

Something interesting happened last Sunday.  I was sitting out with Kona in the back yard and sunning myself.  I love sitting in the sun.  Tanning my body is one of my favorite past times.  I put it up there with grilling, writing, and the like.  I love the feel of the sun on my skin.  Since I have started adding podcasts to my routine it has become even better. 

I will admit though, tanning can be a bit boring.  Sitting outside with Kona can be a bit boring.  It’s not like she wants to go out there and play.  No, she wants to go out there and lie down and chew at the grass.  She is like a god damn Billy goat that one her grass grazing.  After a year of doing this a few weeks ago I broke down and bought a lawn chair and a table for the back yard.  I made sure they were portable b/c they come in after every use, b/c I am not gonna let the spiders get them.  Stupid spiders and there nonstop spinning webs on everything in the back yard.  God I hate spiders.  Plus a lawn chair will be a lot more comfortable than what I have sat on for the last year and a half. 

A cooler, a big igloo cooler, a blue one with a white top is what I have sat on for the last year and a half.  It’s true.     I have lawn chairs out back, but they are covered with cobwebs and when I clean them off the next day they are re-spun.  Plus, I am fat, and well I am 99% sure that If I sit in one of the chairs left behind for me from the previous owner, it is gonna break in half.  I just don’t trust the design. 

So about a year ago, I bought my own chairs.  You know those camping like chairs.  The ones that fold up and you put in a little bag.  I got them to support my weight.  I had some before and I loved them.   Well the ones I bought must have been for Ents or Giants or something really tall.  Whenever I sat down in them my feet wouldn’t touch the ground and the chair would cut into the back of my legs.    So I said fuck it.  I will just sit on the igloo cooler and for a year and a half it worked.  However, two or three weeks ago my back started to hurt and I wondered if it was not from sitting on this cooler with no good poster for multiple hours on multiple weekends.  So I gave in and bought me a nice lawn chair.  It is beautiful.  It is comfortable too.  It just got here this week and I gave it a test drive yesterday, loved it.  Burnt my tummy but that is ok. 

Anyway last weekend on Sunday, I was feeling a little guilty I hadn’t left the house.  Now, let’s remember I spent last Sunday cooking chili and tacos so it was not as if I did nothing.  I also did all my laundry as well.  However, I just hadn’t left the house to go to the pool.  It wasn’t on the schedule.  However, I still felt like I should get a work out in?  No.  That wasn’t right; I wanted to get a workout in.

So, I said why not.  If you want to do some movement what is stopping you.  So, sitting on my trusty cooler I decided to stand up and sit down 12 times.  Look for a fatty like me sitting down and standing up isn’t an easy feat.  Then I sat back down I did ten raises of my arm straight out to my shoulders, making a t shape.  Next I did twelve shoulder thingies where I pulled my shoulders to my ears, then twelve arm curls, then twelve shoulder presses, then twelve dumb bell like lifts where I pulled out in front of me (dumbbell raises?).  I did this three times each and it took about 20 minutes or so.  I like it.  So I asked Rachel if I should by some dumbbells and make good use of my time outside with Kona.  She said yes.  So weights were order and the birth of the cooler workout began. 

I have done the cooler workout twice this long weekend Saturday and Monday.  Sunday I went to the pool for an hour and did my flexibility exercises, but I added ankle weights this time around.  Made things a little easier b/c it held me down in the water when I took a step but also hard b/c I had ankle weights on and even if they were only a pound it made a difference. 

Anyway the cooler workout evolved as I watched more and more you tubes about sitting dumbbell workouts.  What was finally constructed was a thirty minute workout that goes something like this.

Grab two 5 lbs dumbbells (I bought 10 lbs too but let’s start where we start I haven’t lifted weights in like 10 years maybe?).  Then I got pound and a half ankle weights.  That is right I am going nuts on the ankle weights, anything to give my big ole doughy body resistance.  Then I go went out back with my flex ball and my cooler. 

Starting out on the flex ball I did the following routine 3 times.

-          Bench press making a table out of my body 12 times.

-          Fly 12 times still making a table out of my body.

-          Then I got into a squatting position using the ball the prop me up and did 12 incline presses.

-           

Then the big black ball goes into the house and I strap on the ankle weights and sit down on the cooler.  Kona comes over to play but I have to ignore her unless I am on one of my minute brakes in between my three cycles. 

The cooler routine goes like this three times each:

-          Stand up and sit down while holding the dumbbell.    I try and make sure my knees don’t go over my toes like a good squat motion.   This is done 12 times.

-          Then I do lateral raises 12 times.

-          Then I do shoulder shrugs 12 times.

-          Then I do overhead press 12 times.

-          Then I do shoulder rolls 12 times.

-          Then I do front raise 12 times

-          Then I do foot tapping pulling my toes up as high as I can.  I do it 24 times to start then go up by each time I do it, I got up to 80 today.

-          Then I do curls 12 times.

-          Then I do these leg lifts where I just pick my foot up, curl the toe and kick out and put it back down 12 times for each leg.

-          One minute break, play with dog, and then do it again.

I got to the end both days I did it and realized, I forgot my triceps extension.  So I do it three times and each time in between I rotate between my toe taps and my leg kicks.

The toe taps for me are a life saver.  When I used to marathon I would get really tight in the shins and calves.  My coach told me to start toe tapping and do it at my desk and much as I could.  Shin and calve issues when away.  So while it might not be a conventional activity it is always part of my routine. 

Time to start smoking!

That is meat smoking, silly, not smoking, smoking.

Happy Long Weekend!!