Reflection: Week 1

 This week has been very fun and interesting. After a winter of not working out because of skiing, we were very clearly able to see our strengths and weaknesses compared to this fall and we found a baseline of where we are and also have our goals of where we want to be next week at this end of senior project. Aside from the physical aspect of our project, we have also learned a lot about nutrition and what goes into our body. Part of this has been demonstrated through making smoothies. We have spent a lot of time this past week building recipes that will both taste good and fuel us.  

We started out this week testing our maxes. While this seems like it would be simple, after a winter of not working out, the maximum amount of weight and reps was significantly lower. We tested our maxes for back squats, bench press, deadlifts, pull ups, push ups, and box jumps. All together, this process of testing took about a day and a half and then we got right into our workouts as we made sure we consistently hit every muscle group, as well as incorporating some agility and cardio into our workout plan as well. All together we have worked out Monday-Saturday using today as an off day. Although we didn't do much physical activity other than a short run and hike, we did spend 6 hours helping Craig with the Eastern Skiing Physical Testing which acts as a baseline of strengths in ski specific workouts which can later help athletes qualify to regional and national events. Most of our work today consisted of writing down and keeping track of their results on the exercises, as well as demoing exercises, and cheering the group on. 

In terms of the smoothies, this week started off with some technical difficulties that resulted in half blended smoothies, so we really only got 3 days of making smoothies this week, but we can up with a lot of good smoothie recipes that we will make next week. Having a functioning blender definitely made it easier to make smoothies with.  The three days we made smoothies was spent doing a lot of trial and error and experimenting which is what we plan on doing this week. 

Looking ahead to next week, we are excited to keep up the intense workouts while also making sure we keep up with the smoothies. We plan to keep having fun with the workouts, but also keeping the intensity up in order to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves. So far during project period, we spent 6 hours today, 3 hours yesterday, 3 hours Friday, 2 hours on Thursday, 4 hours on Wednesday, 3 hours on Tuesday and 3 hours on Monday. That puts me in at 24 hours for the week, setting me up nicely to finish senior by next week.