Beast Mode: Post-burnout workout, promised and delivered

It's only been about three hours since my last post (which will challenge you if you're a one-a-day kind of reader). That post was about burnout keeping me from maintaining my Beast Mode status so well over the last week. It also suggested some tips for you to beat and overcome your own burnout issues when training too frequently and too hard gets you down. This is a continuation, delivering on my promise to update you with another Beast Mode workout that I'm using to improve myself and celebrate the ongoing 2011 Beijing Intensive for Yin Style Baguazhang.

Before getting on to what I've been up to since my last post, which is essentially *all* working out, one more tip on getting and staying ahead of burnout: accountability. If you can find a dedicated workout partner or partners, the accountability of showing up and putting out when you get together to train or work out will help keep burnout low. The accountability of having to answer for your training, development, conditioning, or lack thereof to your study group, school, or group of training peers can also keep you pushing and excited to continually improve. Not that anyone should need reminding, and not that anyone should make it a primary reason for pushing themselves in their training, but do keep in mind that He Jinbao will see your training eventually or again before too long. If it's again, you will be judged on whether you've had development or not, and no one wants to hear something like "Well, you've had some development, but not as much as I expected."

Anyway, here's what I did today, taking about two and a half hours to complete.
Phase 1: Abdominals and core, which aren't the same. Using a Swiss ball, which I've been doing for about a week or two now, I put myself through my paces with a variety of abdominal and core exercises. I rounded those out with some floor work. It was a pretty tough circuit that took about 10 minutes to get through once (I think... actually, I'm just guessing on that), and I did it twice before moving on to something else. It was also the last phase of my workout, when I did it once more.
Rough details of the circuit:

• "Curling" Swiss ball situps -- it's like doing a Bear System back shocking strike but on the ball, but if you don't know what that is or means, the idea is to lie all the way back on the ball and then curl the body up segment by segment so that you feel each part of your abs contract and your back is quite rounded at the top. I'd do about 30 of these before going into the next exercise without stopping the movement.
• "Flat" Swiss ball situp -- the goal is to do a situp on the Swiss ball keeping the upper body (waist up) as stiff and straight as possible. It works the abs differently, but it's easier than the curling kind. I'd do another 20 or so of these and go right into the next exercise without stopping.
• "Curl and twist" Swiss ball situp -- start like the curling situp but then twist as fully as possible at the top to engage more work from the obliques. I did about 20 of these (10 on each side).
• Oblique Swiss ball crunch -- lying on my side on the ball, crunch sideways upward. I did about 25 of these before going straight into the next exercise without stopping, after which I repeated the oblique part again on the other side.
• Oblique Swiss ball crunch with twist and reach -- start just like before but then twist the body so that the shoulders square up with the direction of the crunch at the top, reaching the "back" hand as far forward as possible at the top. These suck, so I did 10 of them before rolling over.
• Repeat previous two exercises on the other side.
• Knee-ins on the Swiss ball -- ankles on the ball, hands on the floor in a pushup-plank position. Pull the knees in to the chest. I did this 12 times.
• Knee-ins with twist on the Swiss ball -- same as above but twisting the legs so that when they're extended, the feet are stacked sideways on the ball, alternating sides for 12 repetitions.
• Mountain climb on the Swiss ball -- elbows and forearms on the ball and feet on the floor and spread about shoulder width. Hold the body up high and pull one knee into the chest before putting it back. Don't let it hit the ball. Repeat with the other leg. I did each leg 8 times (16 repetitions). This part sucked.
• Knee-hug situps -- lie on your back on the floor and pull your knees in as you do a situp, just far enough to hug your knees. Then lie back. 15 repetitions.
• Prisoner get-up -- hands on top of your head while lying flat on the floor. Without using your hands, use your abs/core to engage and pull yourself up into a position so you can stand. Stand up fully as quickly as possible before lying back again. I did 8 repetitions.

Phase 2: Turning. I turned for about 20 minutes tonight. It wasn't stellar, but it was some turning. I started with a little Lion but after a bit on each side switched to Phoenix, which was probably the last 12 minutes or so. I used that to segue directly into a medium speed, medium power review of the eight forms on the agenda for the Beijing Intensive this year. I ran through each twice at this pace.

Phase 3: Forms drilling. I drilled each of those eight forms one time each for two minutes apiece of "on" followed by 30 seconds of rest. This was the hardest part of the workout to gain momentum on. I really didn't want to do it. That's the burnout talking.

Phase 4: Feeling productive by shoveling five wheelbarrow loads of mulch and then wheeling them somewhere about 150 feet (45m) away and then spreading them.

Phase 5: Conditioning circuit to enjoy the fine East Tennessee weather today.
Details of one round (I did 3 of a planned 4):

1. Iron staff (14 lb, 6.3kg) overhead hand-switching side strikes (from karate), 20 strikes.
2. Three-step drill with lying step striking, eight times down and back (48 strikes).
3. Iron staff overhead no-hand-switch strikes (from karate), 15 strikes to each side (with overhead hand-switch in between).
4. 12 lb (5.4kg) medicine ball slams (overhead to straight down), full power, 20 repetitions -- making a nice "bowl" in my yard.
5. Bagua duck walk 75 feet (23m) and then walk a little bit to the "starting line."
6. Full sprint, top speed, for 200 feet (61m).

Phase 6 (intended to be the last, but ended up not being last): Walk/jog 440 ft (134m), a convenient distance in my driveway) -- walk that distance then jog it (with my step-daughter), repeated four times. For what it's worth, jogging this distance takes about 60s and walking it takes about 90s, which is pretty convenient too.

Phase 7: Joined part of my wife's workout for the evening. She's my usual "workout buddy." All I did with her was a Tabata high-knees (high-knee running in place at full pace for 20s followed by 10s rest for a total of 4 minutes, i.e. 8 rounds), though, and then did my abs/core circuit one more time through while she did other things because I was pretty well spent.

Phase 8: Made and drank a green smoothie with kale, fruit, whey protein, and some mixed greens. Mmmm.

Now, I'm cleaned up and going out for dinner with my lovely wife! Happy training folks!