Welcome back, everybody! Today we are back on repeat starting with upper body exercises. There have been significant improvements implemented in today’s upper body training. Let’s learn a little more.
Before we get into the post, there are a few posts that you should check out before reading this if you haven’t already. First, you should look at the Badminton Training Regime #2 – GGAB Fitness Training post to get a quick understanding of what we are doing here. Second, take a look at GGAB Fitness Training Regime – Day 1 post so you can compare with today as it is last week’s upper body day.
Let’s get started.
The Exercises
- Quick jog and stretch
- 10 sets of 20 footwork
- 3 sets of 20 push-ups
- 3 sets of 45-second planks
- 3 sets of 30-second v sit
- 3 sets of 20 rotation v sit with weights
- 3 sets of 20 touch heels
- 3 sets of 20 touch knees
- 3 sets of 20 tricep pushdown
- 3 sets of 20 supermans
- 3 sets of 20 bicep curls on each arm
- 3 sets of 30 wrist curls
- Stretch
Take a look at day 1 of the GGAB Fitness Training Regime. You will notice a few differences between today and a week ago.
The exercises that have been removed are sit-ups, the wall sits with pushing arms up, and the flexibility shoulder workouts. I removed these exercises because I felt that they were either not doing much or fit better on another day.
Although sit-ups have been labeled as an essential core workout, I found that they weren’t beneficial from what I felt and articles that talked about how sit-ups did nothing for your body. The wall sits with pushing arms up were ineffective because I didn’t have a stretch of wall conveniently designed for two people. And finally, the flexibility shoulder workouts fit better on the stability day instead of the upper body day.
With those exercises out, I added two new activities in. One of the complaints I had from the previous 
upper day was that I wasn’t working out the arms enough. I decided to add in weight lifting in the form of approximately 10-pound bicep and wrist curls. So far, I’ve been liking the changes.
You will also notice that I have increased the intensity on many of these exercises.
The most drastic increase was doubling the amount of footwork we were doing. 5 sets of 20 pointing footwork felt way too relaxing, so we decided to increase the number of sets we were doing. This wasn’t too much either, and I feel like it was a significant change.
After all, getting good at badminton is one of our main goals, and footwork is one of the most crucial aspects.
Among doubling footwork sets, I also increased our planking times to 45 seconds and added 10-pound weights to the rotation v sit drill. This has definitely increased the intensity by a lot in the right way as well.
Overall, I’m actually happy with all the changes that I have made to today’s workout. For the next upper body day, I will likely keep the same exercises and probably just increase the intensity by adding reps or sets to many of the activities.
Diet and Sleep
The same trap is hitting me!
For diet and sleep, it has been the same today as the other days. I ended up eating only two meals, the first consisting of two breakfast sandwiches and the other of dumplings, during the day and woke up at 9 AM.
And it seems like tomorrow will be a similar story because I am writing this blog post at 9:39 PM. 
There must be something done about this.
That’s why I have planned to do something about this habit in a more effective and accountable manner. In the previous days, all I would do is say that this is a problem. Today is going to be different. I now have an actionable plan that I will put in action starting tomorrow.
The biggest issue making this a problem for me is that I’m writing my blog post late in the evening. When I start at 9-10 PM, I usually have no energy left, and I take about 2 hours to get the post out. That often puts me at around 11 to 12 when I sleep without accounting for preparing for bed.
Easy fix, right? Just write my blog post earlier.
Here’s the second problem, I want to include things like how I feel and what I ate for dinner. If I end up writing it earlier in the day, I miss that out completely. And if I have my part-time job on a specific day, I will end up writing my post at night anyways.
So what can I do?
Well, I plan to write most of it during the day and then finish it during the night so that it will hopefully take less time and I can sleep earlier. And by sleeping more before, I can probably accomplish many of my other tasks earlier as well and create a cycle where I can sleep early.
I will try to implement it tomorrow so that on the day after tomorrow, I will be waking up a lot earlier than 9 AM and sleeping a lot earlier than 12 AM.
Thoughts and Feelings
As you can probably tell, I’m liking today’s exercise way more than the first GGAB Fitness Training 
Regime day.
While the first upper body day was a good workout, it was just lacking in many aspects. There was lots of focus on the core and not enough focus on anything else. And although the core may be more important than the other upper body muscles, I’d like to keep my workouts more balanced.
Plus, arms are still a vital aspect in badminton as playing long rallies, and individual power shots depend on the arm’s strength and endurance as well.
I can also tell that after the first-week training and recovery, both my brother and I have gotten much stronger. The 10 sets of footwork weren’t the same as my first day of another badminton training camp where my legs completely cramped up.
We feel like we could do a lot more sets or reps for footwork. 10 sets have really just become our norm.
The slow increases in the other existing exercises were done very well in terms of pacing. The planks were just enough to push ourselves but not destroy ourselves. Same with adding the weights to the rotation v sit exercises.
I’m going to give myself a quick pat on the back for that (pat, pat).
If my brother and I continue training like this, we could undoubtedly reach the top levels in our province and even nationally. But it’s all about consistency, and we still haven’t played any badminton yet, so we have yet to see our actual progress.
Speaking of progress though… here’s the next section!
Progress
While the numbers and pictures may not show it, I feel like we have taken tremendous leaps over the last week and hope the next few weeks will be the same.
Person 1:
Weight: 137 lbs
Person 2:
Weight: 115 lbs
Looking at today compared to last week, there are actually some noticeable differences. I have lost quite a bit of fat, and my body is starting to take a more fit form. My brother has also undergone similar changes. However, instead of losing fat, he has put on some more muscle and is looking fuller than before.
Let’s see what kinds of changes we will be undergoing after this week!
Conclusion
That’s it! I will see everyone tomorrow for lower body day!
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them down below. As always, good luck in your games and have a great day!
