February 25, 2014-Shovelling the Snow!

On February 25, 2014 since it had been snowing a lot and there was a lot of snow built up on the ground, I decided to go out and shovel the snow with my brother.  This may seem easy but it was not because the snow was really heavy and my driveway was really big so there was a a lot of snow to shovel. When I was lifting the snow and putting it away from the driveway onto the grass, after awhile I could feel the burn in my arms. Shovelling the snow may seem fun to do, which it is, but it does require strength. Since I was lifting, reaching and bending and tossing the snow this obviously helped me with my muscle development and got me to work out my arms.  While shovelling I tried  not to overload my shovel because if you put too much snow on the shovel and try to lift it, it's not good for your back. Instead of being lazy and letting the snow pile up and  melt itself with the rain, we decided to go out there ourselves because sometimes I just like to get my exercise the old fashioned way. It tool about 40 minutes and at the end of those 40 minutes, I got to develop arm muscle, get a good exercise and plus a clean driveway. :)

February 22, 2014- Healthy Dinner

On Saturday February 22, 2014, my mom and I prepared a healthy and delicious meal for our dinner. As you can see in the picture, the meal included fresh steamed carrots and broccoli. There was stuffed chicken breast with green peppers in it, and roasted potatoes. Also on the side, I had a whole wheat bun and a glass of milk. Chicken is really good for you as it is high in protein, and potatoes provide you with a good amount of vitamin C, calcium and potassium. Eating roasted potatoes is obviously better than eating potatoes in the form of french fries and potato chips. Drinking milk was the smart choice over pop (coke) because of the calcium it provides us, in order to build strong bones. On the whole, this homemade meal was very healthy and it tasted really good!

February 19, 2014- Leadership

On Wednesday February 19, 2014, my younger cousins had a soccer practice and so I wanted to go along with them. I was able to take initiative by organizing who was playing which roles and I even took part in a few of their warm up games too. Before my cousins and I left the house to their practice, I made sure their team uniforms were ready to go and that they were feeling motivated to practice in order to become better soccer players. I helped everyone to become focused by giving them mini pep talks. Most importantly, I needed to make sure that everyone was encouraging each other and not putting anyone down. I helped set up cones and tied some of the kid's shoes too. I gave them an applause at the end because it was obvious that the whole team was working hard. Overall, I'm proud of myself that I'm starting to take more initiative and that I'm improving my leadership skills!

February 17, 2014-Choice

On Monday February 17, 2014 it was choice and I decided to play badminton because I really enjoy playing it and badminton isn't always one of the choices on choice days. Before we played badminton, Mr. Vaughan guided us through some fun and simple activities as a warm up. For example, we had to slide on  sliders while our partner slid /dragged us across the gym. The main goal for these activities was to participate to your best ability and  to have a good time and to laugh and smile. I was laughing the whole time and I thought the activities were really fun. At the end, most people just left their sliders and didn't bother to put them away in the bin. So I took the leadership role and put not only my sliders away in the bin, but most of the other sliders that were lying around on the floor. After I put my sliders away, I was just going to leave but then the following question crossed my mind: "What can I do to take initiative?" At that point I took the extra effort to help clean up, and I felt good about it too later on in the block.  While we were playing badminton, we first played four on four but then played two on two. My partner and I did a really good job and we made sure the birdie was always high up in the air. We were able to continuously pass the birdie to each other for long amounts of time without one of us missing the birdie. I made a smart choice by partnering up with her because we were both good players in badminton, so therefore our skill level was about the same. At the end of the block, my neck was a little sore from keeping it up for so long and my arms were exhausted because my partner and I barely dropped the birdie while playing. Also, while we were playing I made the extra effort to try to hit the birdie even if it was far away from me, because that's the only way your going to make the game fun to play, or else the game will be boring if you only hit the birdie when it comes directly straight to you. When someone missed the birdie when it came to them, instead of sighing, I encouraged them and laughed with them; not at them. I didn't want gym to end because I was having so much fun and it felt like the time went by so fast! After all these contributions I made to the class, this allowed everyone to relax, have fun and to have a good time.

February 13, 2014-Weight Room

On February 13, 2014, our class was in the weight room for the first time. Mr. Neufeld told us to come up with our own goal and find a video on youtube that relates to the goal you wish to achieve. The purpose of doing this was to take action to achieve your goal by following along with a workout video on youtube. As you know from my other blog posts, I want to improve in push ups and also I want to improve on holding certain exercise positions, such as the plank and also the side plank for a longer amount of time. So Karen and I decided to set a goal for ourselves to build and strengthen our ab muscles. By building abdominal muscles it will help me to do better/more push ups and to be able to hold a plank and a sideways plank for longer. After achieving this goal my structures for these exercise movements will be improved too. To add on to this, this video will also help me to increase the intensity of my workouts as well.  Some of the moves in the video were, side to side planks, side planks with a hip drop which I thought was a cool and different movement. I did Around the World Plank, Bridge Plank, straight plank, mountain climbers, straight plank with hip drop, spiderman planks and a side plank with reach. The spiderman planks were probably the hardest for me because I had to hold a plank and bring my legs in near my stomach area and hold it there for a couple of seconds. While I was doing the Bridge Plank I made sure my head was kept high and my stomach was up as much as possible. These exercises were all different variations of the regular plank and the thing I liked about this video was that it made the workout exciting by including unique exercises that were not boring. During the block, Karen and I replayed the video around four times and after the fourth time, my arms were aching. After gym as I was sitting in my fourth block class, I could feel a little pain in my arms. While I was doing the side to side planks my arm/body started to shake after 10 seconds. I researched about this and I realized that it is normal and the shaking means that my muscles are working hard and they are getting a good work out. However at the same time the shaking means that my muscles want to stop, but you have to gain the motivation in yourself to persevere through it. When I am having thoughts of giving up I always try to think of something else and try not to think about the pain I am feeling. This way I am distracting myself and it helps me to hold an exercise position for a longer amount of time or to keep on going by reaching a higher level on the beep test. Overall, the gym block in the weight room was beneficial to me as I am taking action to achieve my goal, and I have high feelings that I will be able to reach this goal by the end of the year!


Here is the video:

Here are a couple of pictures of me doing the side plank and the bridge plank:

Febraury 11, 2014-Insanity

On February 11, 2014 we took part in Insanity. I was glad we were doing insanity because we haven't done this particular fitness activity in a while now.  This was one of the hardest fitness days for me and it was challenging to keep up with the video, especially near the end. When we were doing some of the endurance exercises my legs were burning, but I had to tell myself to keep on going because just like Mr. Neufeld said "Nobody said this was going to be easy." As I mentioned my legs felt a burning sensation, but it's a good thing because that tells me that I am working my legs to their maximum. When taking part in fitness activities, you need to know how it feels to work hard and I definitely felt that feeling. When doing insanity this time, I noticed that I worked harder and felt more exhausted after the workout than I did the last time we did insanity, which was in mid October. I think the reason why I felt more tired and felt that I pushed myself harder this time, may be because my fitness levels have improved since then. I am very proud of my efforts because there was an improvement from last time we did insanity to this time. At the end of the block, I felt exhausted but at the same time very pleased on how I encountered  the obstacles I faced while working out. For example, one of the obstacles was during the end of the video when we were doing push ups. At one point during the end, I stopped doing the push ups for around 5 seconds, and with that 5 seconds I needed to regroup and refocus myself by listening to the voice in my head that was saying "you're almost done, don't give up now". After that, I went back into the workout feeling even stronger and tried my best not to stop again while doing the push ups. Overall I got an even better understanding of what maximum efforts look like and more importantly, what they feel like.

February 9, 2014-Soccer

On Sunday February 9, 2014, my cousins and I went to Chimney Hill Park because my cousins had a game there and so I decided to go as well. An hour before the game started I helped them prepare for it both physically and mentally. I told them that not only do you have to be physically strong when exercising but you also have to be mentally strong, because your mind plays such a huge factor into your overall success when exercising. I used to be on my grade seven soccer team so I showed them a few soccer skills and got them warmed up for their game. My cousins are younger than me and so they looked up to me and thanked me for my advice and tips. I was able to play a leadership role and I'm happy I was able to motivate my cousins and show them that my advice was very useful. I demonstrated leadership skills to my cousins, which is such an important skill that is essential to have in the real world. I acted as their coach or mentor and I think I actually developed stronger leadership skills that I will be able to use in the future. This day was more about initiative taking and being a role model to younger kids by giving them the support and encouragement that they needed.

February 6, 2014-Zumba!!

On February 6, 2014, it was choice and we had an option of soccer, volleyball, or zumba. I was thinking about asking Mr. Neufeld if my friends and I could play badminton, but then I thought zumba would be fun to do and so my friends and I chose to participate in zumba for the gym block. In the beginning of the class I was skeptical of how my participation was going to be maximized when doing zumba because I usually don't like dancing in front of people. However when Ms. Phillips played the video, I was able to get out of my comfort zone and dance. I actually really got in to it and I wasn't shy or uncomfortable at all while doing it. Both my friends and I got out of our bubbles and tried something we would not normally do before. I really enjoyed dancing and it was a fun way to get a good exercise too. I had so much fun that by the end of the block, I was sad that gym was over. I felt that the gym block went by so fast because I was so engaged in the activity I was doing. I made the gym block fun by having such a positive attitude and smiling while dancing. This allowed my friends to loosen up and to just have a good time. My friends and I were able to dance and not worry about who's watching.  I'm actually considering buying a Zumba DVD set so I can dance along with it!!

February 4, 2014-Beep Test

On February 4, 2014, everyone participated in the beep test. I got the same score as last time when we did the beep test. Last time I got 8.4 and I got 8.4 again this time. I was proud of myself that I was able to maintain my beep test level but I really wanted to get a higher score this time. In the very beginning of the block when I heard that we were doing the beep test, I was really excited and eager to do it because I wanted to improve my score by a little bit. Even though I didn't get a higher score, I was still able to match my previous score and I'm happy that I didn't go down. Since we already did the beep test a little while ago in the middle of January, it makes sense to why I got the same score. If we wait a while and then do the beep test, I think I would improve. After the beep test, we recorded our results for some of the small exercises. I was able to maintain a good structure for the plank. I was able to hold the plank for 80 seconds. This time I had a better structure than I did last time. I did push ups on my knees and I was able to do 15 which is an improvement form last time. Before Marcia started taking the video, I did around 5 practice ones without stopping also. Now that I watch my video of me doing  push ups, I realized that I should of went all the way down, so I will definitely keep this in mind for next time when I am doing push ups. As you know, push ups is something I want to work on and it will take both time and practice until I master this exercise. By watching the video, it gave me some feedback and I will take it into consideration the next time we do push ups in gym class. When I woke up this morning, the muscles in my arms and shoulders were sore from the push ups that I did, but this is a good sign because I know that my arms got a good exercise. I improved on the t-test and I noticed I got faster at it. For the sit and reach, I reached level one and I tried so hard to get to level two but it was difficult! I almost reached level two and I know that I will be able to get to level two the next time we do the beep test, because yesterday I came pretty close to getting it! I am going to keep my goal of getting 9.5 on the beep test by June. I also want to try to get 9.0 the next time we do the beep test.


Beep test level: 8.4

Height: 170 cm
Body Press (Push ups): 15
Body Bridge: 80 seconds
T-test: 12
Sit and Reach: 1
Max Vertical Length: F: 215
                                   S:245
                                  D: 30
Board Touches: 15

                                        

February 1, 2014-Basketball

On February 1, 2014 I played basketball with my cousins at an outdoor basketball court. I usually don't play basketball very often but I was opened minded to try it out. We tried playing a game and even though we weren't following the rules exactly, it was still loads of fun but tiring at the same time. Later, my cousins and I played 21 and I won two games out of three. I practiced my dribbling and spent some time just shooting the ball in the hoop. I am not an expert player in basketball but it was nice to have fun, to get some fresh air and to get a good exercise. Later I practiced running with the ball and shooting it in the hoop which is what got my heart rate to increase some more. We played for a little bit more than an hour and when I came back I had a big glass of water. Sometimes you can still have a good time and get a good exercise even if you aren't playing a game by the exact rules, and that's kind of what we did!

January 31, 2014-Community Run

On Friday January 31, 2014, we did the Community Run and my main focus for the gym block was to make sure I had a good pace throughout the whole run. In Grade 8 I always used to sprint in the beginning and then ten minutes after, I would have no energy left and I would slow down. This year, I learned that you can't waste all of your energy in the beginning; you have to learn how to balance it and spread your energy throughout the whole distance that you are running. I started the run with my friend who seemed to be as physically fit as I was. I ran with her in the beginning but then I had to leave her and run by myself because she was getting tired faster and needed more walking breaks than I did. Everyone has there own pace and I learned that my pace was different from hers. I finished the run in 24 minutes but next time I will try to get 20 minutes. After I left my friend, I increased my jogging speed and I was breathing more heavily. My heart rate increased because near the end I mainly jogged and didn't take very many walking breaks since I was going at my own pace. I'm glad that I didn't sprint in the beginning because then it would of been difficult for me to finish the run. Instead I gained more speed toward the end when I left my friend. So the beginning was more of a build up to what was going to happen near the end of the run. I was saving my efforts until the end instead of getting burnt out in the first 10 minutes. Whenever my friend and I needed a break, I counted for a maximum of 10 seconds before I was the first one to start jogging again. This showed her to keep on pushing herself even if you want to stop. Overall, you can count on me to improve my time the next time we do the Community Run!