Workout diary: Session #17, June 17th

a) Warm up - 6 min

b) Walking lunges with shoulder press @ 20 steps x 4 sets

c) Jumping squats - 15 reps x 4 sets

d) Pull down @ 18kg x 4 sets

e) Bicep curls @ 14 lbs @ 15 reps x 4 sets

f) Shoulder press - 18 lbs @ 12 reps x 4 sets & lateral raise - 8 lbs @ 12 reps x 4 sets

g) Sit-up - 30 reps x 4 sets (mix of normal sit-up and side)

FB post dated June 18th - "Que Sera Sera" by my dad

[what-I-learned-from-Dad-lastnight] In the rather toxic matrix of the city's hustle and bustle, am often blinded by small problems, temporary hurdles, etc...I often forget to look at the big picture and get a grip of "What's more important?" and "What's the big picture?"

Drove parents out earlier to visit friends, after I absent-mindedly ate my dinner with them at home - mind crowded and distracted (stressing over logistics for the concert project early next year, in conjunction with album release, etc).  My dad asked me from the backseat if I knew the song title of a famous English song, he started singing a tune that wasn't anywhere in tune and his lyrics didn't quite make sense.

"Dad I don't know this song, I cannot tell what you're singing." (I just wasn't present enough in the conversation nor I had the patience then to try to figure it out)

He started telling us that the lyrics of the songs is about not knowing what the future brings.  My mom immediately said, "Oh I know the song!" :) I knew mom knows that it's Que Sera Sera that dad was referring to - she also sang it better than dad.

So I put on the song in the car for them, Pink Martini's version of Que Sera Sera from the Sympathique album.  And dad started relating how life is indeed like the song itself - you cannot tell what the future brings.

It brought a smile to my face thinking how, as a kid back in school, to live this life I have now would have been the wildest dream.  Who would have thought that my parents would be cool enough to let me live the way I do when I first quit my day job?  Never in my wildest dreams as a kid did I dreamed of working on an album of my own; never would I have believed that one day I would live my days as a storyteller on stage, singing songs of dreams and hopes for live audiences who indulge with me - even though I have written more than once in school homework that my ambitions and dream jobs were these: author, novelist, actor, singer and dancer.

"Hey you", I tell myself, "This is the moment - of being alive, staying alive, ironing out problems, big and small...charging along; both your parents still around and they are playing witnesses to your life's events - of your big and small achievements - being proud to have given birth to you." "So why so grim?  There's nothing you can do that can't be done...nothing you can sing that can't be sung..."

Yea, I gotta learn to set my perspectives right and understand the scale of my `predicaments'.  So thank you dad, for singing the song, though out of tune and lyrics not quite right - you have taught me and reminded me last night on "what's more important".   Que Sera Sera.

Workout diary: Session #15, June 6 + Session #16, June 10

Didn't take any diary for session #15 ;p

Session # 16 was a level up for me, Sargent Naim said "Ah today we are going to do tougher exercises.."

a) Warm up - jogging of 6 min

b) Clean & Jerk - Sargent explained to me what's involved and he let me did the first set of 10 reps without saying much, it was a bitch of course...my wrist wanted to give way to the bar when I lifted it to my shoulder and up to a shoulder press.

"You see I wanted you to learn the hard way...before I let you in on the trick of this exercise, on how to `cheat'!"  .......

He showed me the routine again with the proper usage of momentum to enable the lifting/pulling of the bar into a smooth transition into the next movement - a deep squat with the bar lifted on shoulder level, and in the exhalation shift from deep squat into standing position and propel the barbell upward into a shoulder press.

Felt like magic, haha...now that feels like a bit like dancing, getting the momentum right then the routine become possible to do, I  told Sargent.

So that's 10 reps in one set, I did 5 sets of that, the last set with increased repetition to 15.  The barbell was 10kg.

c) Walking lunges - 20 steps x 5 sets @ 14kg -- this is my absolute pet dislike exercise....so I put on music on my iPod to ease the boring routine while Sargent went on counting and making a clown of himself, tickling me to laughter while I juggled lunging and holding on to the dumbbells.

d) Shoulder press @ 16 pounds + lateral raise @ 8 pounds x 4 sets @ 12 reps

e) superman plank @ 20 reps x 4 sets @ 6 pounds

f) Leg raise @ 15 reps x 3 sets  -- I had to do something extra yesterday with this routine, adding a tummy crunch and lift both legs high up and reach from pelvis to touch Sargent's hands where he was standing in front of me.  A killer for the abs ...necessary evil I guess.

g) Normal sit-up @ 15 reps x 4 sets

Workout diary: Session #14, June 3

Poor Sargent was out of action for a week due to a fall in a drain (!!!!!) in a heavy downpour...his wound was infected.

a) Jog @ 5 min 

b) Pull down -- 4 sets 

1st set @ 14kg @ 20 reps

2nd - 4th set @ 18kg @ 15 reps

c) bend over roll -- 4 sets 

1st set @ 20 reps @ 16 pounds

2nd - 4th set @ 15 reps @ 18 pounds

d) reverse fly -- 4 sets 

1st set @ 20 reps @ 8 pounds

2nd - 4th set @ 15 reps @ 8 pounds

e) shoulder press @ 15 reps @ 16 pounds

+ lateral raise @ 15 reps @ 8 pounds

f) superman plank with dumbbells @ 8 pounds @ 20 reach x 4 sets

g) side crunch + normal sit-ups @ 20 reps x 4 sets

Workout diary: Session #13, May 23rd

a) warm up - 5 min jog

b) squats - 20 reps, (I have been spelling this wrong and I had no idea - that 'squad' is not 'squat'!!!) walking lunges - 10 steps, calf raise - 30 reps -- all with 9 pounds each arm, 3 sets

c) side plank @ 15 reps + hip abduction @ 20 reps -- 4 sets

d) side crunch @ 10 reps + sit-ups @ 12 reps  -- 4 sets

e) jog @ incline 3% - 5 min