Gotta sign em all!

Dear bloggie,

Pokemon theme song

I wanna be the very best  

Like no one ever was 

To catch them is my real test 

To train them is my cause
 

I will travel across the land

Searching far and wide 

Each Pokemon to understand  

The power that's inside
 

Pokemon, its you and me 

I know it’s my destiny  

Pokemon, oh, you're my best friend  

In a world we must defend  

Pokemon, a heart so true 

Our courage will pull us through
You teach me and I'll teach you  

Pokemon, gotta catch 'em all
Every challenge along the way 

With courage I will face I will battle every day 

To claim my rightful place
 

Come with me, the time is right There's no better team 

Arm in arm we'll win the fight It's always been our dream

Hahaha... I added the Pokemon song on top cause that's the first thing that pop into my mind when my instructor sign me off for 2 of M1 exercises (Super easy exercise: supine breathing and mermaid for demo)... Actually got chance to sign 3 exercise one, but one more exercise she say I still lack practice...

Still got (28 x 2) - 2 = 54 to go... Gotta sign em all... 

Pi La Tes, I choose u!

Weekend with a blast

Dear bloggie,

I can't remember the last time I felt so much fun. Sure I REALLY (capital letter, bolded n commented after to really highlight) struggle my verbal and tactile cueing, but I never experience such a sense of accomplishment since god knows when. Thinking about it now, perhaps it's the same feeling I had for Mathematics during my High School days.

It took me quite a long time to "click" with Maths. Never took maths seriously until form 1, where I got a REAL grilling for not completing my homework (The "Laziness" in strong in me since kid, Wahahahaha). That event really turn things around for me. My feeling to redeem myself turned into discipline which turned evolve into skill, pride and passion. 2-3 year later, Maths brought me confidence of being something or someone, rather than being a boring normal nobody. I probably had my best years of my life within that period of chasing Maths. Sure I closed my eyes to other things (other subject and "gals") from my life, but I was pretty contend chasing Maths. I would tingle during Math exam, the sensation of putting one's prided skill to the test. Back then I was looking forward, where Math would lead my life to... Fast forward, +10 years... I ponder where I went wrong. What the heck happened in between the way that had lead me here. Fate perhaps? Or bad career choice?

Anyway, pushing aside the top self reflection grumble (which I enjoy to do) above, I like to refocus my rant on how AWESOME tis weekend has been which is why I'm sitting here with a sore lumbar (due to sitting too much) in this early wee morning infront of my computer instead of cozying in my tempting bed sheets behind me right now. When I arrive at the studio for my 1st day course, I already was counting my blessing when I was introduced to the pretty chun babe trainer (Hallelujah!). Despite what people b*tch or say, it's really helpful to one's learning if your trainer is something "pleasant" to look at (Well, at least for me, lol).  So, we started off with a mat class by the trainer as sorta intro to the exercises we are about to learn on that day. The class was "great" (probably cause it's just the simple and intermediate exercises which will be taught in this course).

So during the course of these 2 days, I was taught how to organize a class (flow of exercises), how to do the exercises properly, how to teach the exercise (emphasis, faults, watch list, cue, modifications, who shouldn't do), and some hands on. I find the theory part edible but my hands on SUX to the MAX. My mind tend to freeze whenever I was given the instructing task, whenever I see the word "Inhale" (Starting phrases for the exercise) from the manual, my mind go blank and coupled with my verbal issue... -_-' I probably seriously question my ability to be an instructor. Yet again I learned so much from this course, how/what/why/when to cue, correct, look for faults... I seriously wished I could video tape the whole experience down so I can rewatch it again (and again and again...), cause I doubt I could catch all the knowlege that has been given due to my slow learning ability which tend to comprehend rather than memorize first (terrible short terms memory). I always am a believer of the best way to learn a skill is perhaps to watch as much time as possible someone that has master that skill do it. Also, 6-7 hour of nothing but pilates is really intoxicating... It's really feel like it's purging out all my negative feelings towards my normal dull life.

However I do have to some complain on the short period of time. While intense, I would think splitting this 2 days to perhaps 3-4 days would be better as the information provided is perhaps "too much" to be absorb in a 2 day period. And it's also abit taxing on the physical side as well. I been probably doing around equivalent to a 3 hour pilates class for 2 days and while I feel rejuvenated, my mind and body is perhaps stretch to the limit (Not to mention, I need to work today).

Finally, I got to drive the pretty trainer back to the hotel... Hahaha, been quite sometime since a girl graced her presence in my car... Cross my finger the final course will be this trainer as well. I personally think female are better teachers than male.

Life of 3.1428571

Dear bloggie,

Watched Perks of being a wallflower, Rise of the guardians and last 2 days ago, Life of Pi. My opinion? Life of Pi is without a doubt the best hands down.

The sheer amount of breathtaking scenes warrant a must watch. My personal favorite scene is perhaps the scene where both Pi and Peter Parker (the tiger) shipwrecked in the life boat in the middle of the ocean, was waking up the rising sunrise. The warm orange light reflecting on the ocean while the ocean seem like a mirror reflecting the blueish and orange skies... Phenomenal really... Something just feel spiritual about that scene for me.

I however do feel the "find god" theme of this movie a bit lacking. Do god exists or not? What are the odds of someone getting stuck in the middle of the ocean with a tiger? Not to mention surviving 200+ days with the tiger? I do find the realism of god quite real, Pi getting thrown trials after trials. There's anger, questions, doubt, faith and finally acceptance to god... Yet like always, never a confirmation of god... It could be god or just coincidence...

A recommended watch... Planning to rewatch it in 3D...

Starting Strength

Dear bloggie,

Just wanted to rant about my latest workout routine which I a couple of weeks ago implemented. It's the "Starting Strength" by Mark Riptose. What's the major difference of this routine? Well, for starters it's "strength" routine instead of "body building" routine. What this means is it's for building strength as in how much you can lift instead of how big ur muscle is. So how does the workout look like? Like tis:

Workout A
Squat 5x3
Overhead Press 5x3
Barbell Row 5x3

Workout B
Squat 5x3
Deadlift 5x1
Bench Press 5x3

Just do 3 session each week, repeat Workout A, then Workout B then Workout A again for 1st week. Next week, Workout B, Workout A and Workout B... Repeat and rinse. I sorta dig the simplicity of this workout, not to mention the time. In case if ur wondering what does 5x3 here means? Well 5 is the reps and 3 is the sets.

While it's just 3 exercises per session, let me assure you these compound exercises will stress ur body. Some probably be thinking, so little exercises where enuff for pump and build muscle in balance? Well, the concept of this exercise is to make strength gains, the best way is to do it as often as possible.

Hence the 2 workout split... We workout our full body thru these 5 big compounds exercises. A very different concept in strength training is that we stress out our CNS (Central Neural System) as opposed to "the pump". Hence each set is done with around 2-3 minutes rest, as we need to be at maximum recovery when we lift for 5 reps with heavy weights.

Personally, I find the workout more intense then my normal body building routine but it lacks the pump sensation as well as worn out feeling which I normally feel after doing around 3 exercises for a muscle group. My muscle also typically recover within 1 day or 2 which so far, with exception of the deadlift and squat day, where I had to sometimes take extra day off for my lower back to recover. Adopting this new routine, I introduce Squat,  Deadlift and even Overhead Press which I never done before into my routine. The squats are also killing me. Squats are actually performed every workout. While I feel my squats really haven't reached the weights to tax my quads yet, I find myself sweating and panting like crazy after performing these every session. As for deadlift, I still am unable to perform it with proper form as my lower back would still sometimes arc at the lowering phrase which put it at a high risk for disc herniation, so I really haven't rake up the weights for this exercise yet. And incase some of u are wondering where's the arms and abs work in this routine, the beauty of this compound exercises is that they indirectly workout the arms and abs. Try doing a overhead press and feel your core working to brace you body upright as u stabilize and push the weight on top of ur head.

Results... Well, nothing dramatic as I made some gains in bench, row and as well for overhead press. However my leg feels quite worn after doing this routine for some time as I suspect the accumulated wear and tear of doing squats every session stacks up. Oddly, I feel my legs are stronger as if there's a it's brimming with energy... Maybe it's just my mind trick... I also feel stronger around my lower back thanks to the squat and deadlift which targets the posterior chain muscle which include my lower back. My lower back is a neglected muscle which I rarely exercise in the past, hence when I did my 1st deadlift, I really feel this part sore.

Perks of owning a blog

Dear bloggie,

"We accept the love we think we deserve - Charlie, Perks of Being a Wallflower"

After a super depressing day a work today, I decided to let some steam off by watching a movie. Planned to watch the "Rise of the Guardian" but when I saw "Perks of Being a Wallflower' at the same time slot I had a intense struggle to either watch Santa Claus, Bugs Bunny, Jack and the Beanstalk and co. beat the crap out of someone or watch some teenage angst... After a LONG 1 second juggling my thoughts, I decided to ffk my plan to watch this movie with MFR and watch it alone now instead (after all, I can bet my shoes he will ffk me for a gal anytime).

The movie begins with,

"Dear friend..."

Hmmm... Sounds f*ckin familiar... Personally, I find the movie a bit disturbing. In the sense, I actually feel a kinship with Charlie. Being a wallflower myself, I can perhaps understand the emotional hardship he is going thru. Most people tend to think introvert want to be left alone but the truth is introverts still do crave for human interaction (talk, dance, look at each other, etc), it's just introverts find these activities very exhausting, hence their need to go in their hermit's cave to recharge. Anyway, back to the movie... Overall I feel it's a good movie but sorta get the feeling of lack flow to it, sorta like the "Zap", suddenly they best frens. "Zap", he has a girlfren... "Zap" he's groping hermoine emma watson's boobs... The movie does remind me of American Beauty in the array of elements the movie tries to display as American culture. While not as sarcastic funny like American Beauty, it does convey a rather darker tone in the story. I like the description "Coming to age" movie of a teenager to life. Main problem I feel for this movie is a lot of the themes such as love, self appreciation, being different, etc which is the core of the story is perhaps better suited to be read instead of seen. When u read, u can stop and ponder about it but when ur watching, it like a non stop stream of things go thru ur brain non stop and u don't have time to properly process it. Still I highly recommend this movie, or better still go instead buy the damn book, it's available at MPH or Borders at RM35.

So dear friend, while this most certainly is not the last blog entry of mine, I would like end this entry with another quote from the movie/book...