Last week wasn't bad. But taking stairs 3-5 times a day every work day was taking a toll on my knees. So I had to stop it for now. I tried to go biking on Sunday after putting on my new tires, but my knees starting complaining. I think I did 1 mile before I decided to head back. Here's the update:
Sunday: Bike
Monday: Chest/back/abs
Tuesday: Run
Wednesday: None
Thursday: Shoulder/triceps/biceps
Friday: None
Saturday: Heavy weights, run
I managed to fit two great runs in. Instead of doing somewhat of an interval running program, which I've done for a while, I just decided to run straight at a lower speed. For both runs last week, I was able to run 25 minutes at 6-ish mph (warm up and cool down not included). Not bad. Hope to slowly increase duration and speed. Knees didn't bother me so much for the runs. I guess stopping the stairs was a good idea. When I start up again, it'll be every other day to minimize stress.
My weights program still seems to be holding up. Last heavy weights workout, I was able to work up to 5 reps of 180.0 lbs. It was at the machine, but whatever. I do notice my lats are not as strong as my chest, so need to focus more on that. I've been hating my endurance weights workout more and more. It's the high reps and the long workout. I know it's good for me, so I keep doing, but it's the least favorite weights workout of the week. It's a love-hate relationship, just like running.
After working out regularly since my shoulder injury, I do notice that my body can't take the stress it used to. It's part of getting older. So as much as it is important to fit workouts in, it's just as important if not more to fit in rest periods. My knees are a great example of overworking, even though I didn't think much about it for weeks. Stairs was just a part of my day, but taken two at a time, they're practically lunges. Now, I try to give at least 48 hours rest after any workout. Really have to listen to the body and watch for warning signs.
Last weigh-in:
169.0 lb
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Monday, August 24, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Another okay week
Last week was okay. I was able to fit in all my weight workouts again. Not too good with the running, but I'm breaking in new shoes. Only fit in a run after my heavy workout. Here's the breakdown:
Sunday: None
Monday: Chest/back/abs, calf raises
Tuesday: None
Wednesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps
Thursday: None
Friday: Pullups
Saturday: Heavy weights/chinups, run
I went into the gym for my heavy weights workout. I started by warming up with some dumbbell presses, then went at the chest press machine. I was alone and didn't feel like using the smith machine. With the chest press machine, I was able to work my way up to 8 reps of 170lb. Can't say that I would be able to bench press 170lb, but that felt pretty good to do it. Between sets, I was at that lats/row machine working on my back. Afterwards, I did some incline bench presses and finished off with some chinups. Someone was using the chinup/pullup station, so I did them at one of the Smith machines. Afterwards, I hopped on a treadmill for a quick 20-min jog in my new sneaks.
Okay week. Nothing to go out and celebrate about. It was nice to head into the gym for the weights, and I hope to do that again this week.
Last weigh-in:
170.5 lb
Sunday: None
Monday: Chest/back/abs, calf raises
Tuesday: None
Wednesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps
Thursday: None
Friday: Pullups
Saturday: Heavy weights/chinups, run
I went into the gym for my heavy weights workout. I started by warming up with some dumbbell presses, then went at the chest press machine. I was alone and didn't feel like using the smith machine. With the chest press machine, I was able to work my way up to 8 reps of 170lb. Can't say that I would be able to bench press 170lb, but that felt pretty good to do it. Between sets, I was at that lats/row machine working on my back. Afterwards, I did some incline bench presses and finished off with some chinups. Someone was using the chinup/pullup station, so I did them at one of the Smith machines. Afterwards, I hopped on a treadmill for a quick 20-min jog in my new sneaks.
Okay week. Nothing to go out and celebrate about. It was nice to head into the gym for the weights, and I hope to do that again this week.
Last weigh-in:
170.5 lb
Friday, August 14, 2009
My "endurance" chest and back workout
If you've been following my fitness updates here and previously on my personal blog, you would know I do two chest and back workouts a week. One is my regular workout, which I sometimes refer to as my "endurance" chest and back workout because of the high bodyweight reps. The other is my "heavy" workout with 6-10 rep sets. Today, I'd like to share my regular chest and back workout.
I usually start by warming up my joints. You know, arm circles, moving through the range of motion. I also warm up my neck by doing circles and twists. I've been warming up my neck ever since a neck injury doing a shoulder workout in college. Don't want that to happen again. I live on the third floor, so if I'm home, I try not to do anything loud like jumping jacks or running in place. When I'm all warmed up, I do the following four supersets. I follow each superset with an ab workout then repeat the set three times before moving to the next superset. Rest is only after the ab work for about 60 seconds.
Superset 1
Pushups
Australian pullups (you can do this with a barbell set low enough so you can grab from below; I use the Perfect Pullup)
1 set of ab work
Superset 2
Wide pushups
Wide Australian pullups
1 set of ab work
Superset 3
Dumbbell chest fly
Bent over rear lat raise
1 set of ab work
Superset 4
Dumbbell chest press
Bent over dumbbell rows
1 set of ab work
Finishers
Dumbbell deadlifts
Ab twists (7.5 lb dumbbell)
Calf raises
Ab leans (7.5 lb dumbbell)
Again, I aim for endurance with this workout, so I usually do high reps. My numbers now for my body weight exercises are 18 pushups, 18 Australian rows, 13 wide pushups, 13 wide Australian rows. For my dumbbell exercises, I'm at 13 reps with 30-lb dumbbells. I was on a 8-15 rep cycle where I would start a new weight at 8 reps and slowly increase to 15 reps before adding more weight. But I think I'm pretty good at 30-lbs for my endurance workout. I'll just keep adding one rep per week for as long as I can go. I have to take it easy anyway as I do three sets of this workout. My main focus anyway is to increase the weights for my heavy workout.
So that's pretty much it for my first chest and back workout. I'm always reviewing my workout and adding/changing parts of it, but this is the current version. I know some people do a bulk-up/cut-down cycle, but I don't like the idea that I'm either bulking or cutting at any one moment. I feel I should be preparing myself for whatever I might find myself doing. So I do a somewhat endurance workout then a heavy workout for strength. Besides, I find that this confuses my body a bit and it can't really adapt completely to one workout. I find that by the time I recover from my heavy workout, my body struggles with the last few reps in my endurance workout for the following week. I like how my body struggles. It means I'm challenging it.
Now, I'm not knocking the people who do the bulk/cut cycles. That's just not for me. I've written before that I want to develop a body that's ready for anything, not just being able to push 300 lbs off my chest or squat 500 lbs. I need to know that I can carry a child out of a building or run a decent mile or hike long distances out of a forest for help. I want a practical body.
There was a great article in Men's Health...or was it Men's Fitness...whatever. There's a guy that teaches this crazy fitness lifestyle. Barely a weight or gym to be seen. Instead, you might pick up a heavy rock and throw it at each other in a circle, sometimes unannounced. Or you would carry a log down a beach with your buddies. Or you would run this crazy course through the trees and climb them with no gear. One workout was to grab a buddy and fireman-carry them down the beach. Crazy stuff, but guess what, the instructor was insanely lean, strong, and fit. That's what I want to be.
I usually start by warming up my joints. You know, arm circles, moving through the range of motion. I also warm up my neck by doing circles and twists. I've been warming up my neck ever since a neck injury doing a shoulder workout in college. Don't want that to happen again. I live on the third floor, so if I'm home, I try not to do anything loud like jumping jacks or running in place. When I'm all warmed up, I do the following four supersets. I follow each superset with an ab workout then repeat the set three times before moving to the next superset. Rest is only after the ab work for about 60 seconds.
Superset 1
Pushups
Australian pullups (you can do this with a barbell set low enough so you can grab from below; I use the Perfect Pullup)
1 set of ab work
Superset 2
Wide pushups
Wide Australian pullups
1 set of ab work
Superset 3
Dumbbell chest fly
Bent over rear lat raise
1 set of ab work
Superset 4
Dumbbell chest press
Bent over dumbbell rows
1 set of ab work
Finishers
Dumbbell deadlifts
Ab twists (7.5 lb dumbbell)
Calf raises
Ab leans (7.5 lb dumbbell)
Again, I aim for endurance with this workout, so I usually do high reps. My numbers now for my body weight exercises are 18 pushups, 18 Australian rows, 13 wide pushups, 13 wide Australian rows. For my dumbbell exercises, I'm at 13 reps with 30-lb dumbbells. I was on a 8-15 rep cycle where I would start a new weight at 8 reps and slowly increase to 15 reps before adding more weight. But I think I'm pretty good at 30-lbs for my endurance workout. I'll just keep adding one rep per week for as long as I can go. I have to take it easy anyway as I do three sets of this workout. My main focus anyway is to increase the weights for my heavy workout.
So that's pretty much it for my first chest and back workout. I'm always reviewing my workout and adding/changing parts of it, but this is the current version. I know some people do a bulk-up/cut-down cycle, but I don't like the idea that I'm either bulking or cutting at any one moment. I feel I should be preparing myself for whatever I might find myself doing. So I do a somewhat endurance workout then a heavy workout for strength. Besides, I find that this confuses my body a bit and it can't really adapt completely to one workout. I find that by the time I recover from my heavy workout, my body struggles with the last few reps in my endurance workout for the following week. I like how my body struggles. It means I'm challenging it.
Now, I'm not knocking the people who do the bulk/cut cycles. That's just not for me. I've written before that I want to develop a body that's ready for anything, not just being able to push 300 lbs off my chest or squat 500 lbs. I need to know that I can carry a child out of a building or run a decent mile or hike long distances out of a forest for help. I want a practical body.
There was a great article in Men's Health...or was it Men's Fitness...whatever. There's a guy that teaches this crazy fitness lifestyle. Barely a weight or gym to be seen. Instead, you might pick up a heavy rock and throw it at each other in a circle, sometimes unannounced. Or you would carry a log down a beach with your buddies. Or you would run this crazy course through the trees and climb them with no gear. One workout was to grab a buddy and fireman-carry them down the beach. Crazy stuff, but guess what, the instructor was insanely lean, strong, and fit. That's what I want to be.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
A boring update
Well, I made my modest goal of running once last week. Nothing special last week. I managed to fit in all my weight workouts. Here's the breakdown:
Sunday: None
Monday: Chest/back/abs, calf raises
Tuesday: Run
Wednesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps
Thursday: None
Friday: Pullups
Saturday: Pushups, heavy weights, pushups/chinups
I guess you could say I've been lazy. Weights-wise, I'm doing pretty well. Slowly increasing reps in my pushups/pullups. Heavy workout, I'm at a good place. I'm at my dumbbells capacity with the weight plates I have, so I have to head into the gym if I want to add more weight. Shoulder hasn't been bothering me much, but I do get some elbow fatigue every now and then. I think I'm really confusing my body with the "endurance" chest workout early in the week coupled with the heavy workout near the end of the week.
I just got some new running shoes. A pair of Saucony Progrid Jazz 12's. Just need to break them in. They seem to fit pretty well and have more cushioning in the forefoot, which is good as I tend to strike with my midfoot to forefoot. I'm pretty excited about them, especially since I haven't had new running shoes in a while. I got some trail runners from Vasque half a year ago, but I'd like to keep those on the trail and for light hiking.
That's it for this update. I know...pretty uneventful.
Last weigh in:
170.0 lb
Sunday: None
Monday: Chest/back/abs, calf raises
Tuesday: Run
Wednesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps
Thursday: None
Friday: Pullups
Saturday: Pushups, heavy weights, pushups/chinups
I guess you could say I've been lazy. Weights-wise, I'm doing pretty well. Slowly increasing reps in my pushups/pullups. Heavy workout, I'm at a good place. I'm at my dumbbells capacity with the weight plates I have, so I have to head into the gym if I want to add more weight. Shoulder hasn't been bothering me much, but I do get some elbow fatigue every now and then. I think I'm really confusing my body with the "endurance" chest workout early in the week coupled with the heavy workout near the end of the week.
I just got some new running shoes. A pair of Saucony Progrid Jazz 12's. Just need to break them in. They seem to fit pretty well and have more cushioning in the forefoot, which is good as I tend to strike with my midfoot to forefoot. I'm pretty excited about them, especially since I haven't had new running shoes in a while. I got some trail runners from Vasque half a year ago, but I'd like to keep those on the trail and for light hiking.
That's it for this update. I know...pretty uneventful.
Last weigh in:
170.0 lb
Monday, August 3, 2009
Running? What running?
After starting the week off with an amazing 45 mile bike ride in the Cape, I've done zilch for cardio last week. Disgusting. I need to work on that. Here's the breakdown:
Sunday: Cape Cod Rail Trail (Dennis to Wellfleet and back - 45.0 miles)
Monday: Full body with light weights
Tuesday: None
Wednesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps
Thursday: None
Friday: None
Saturday: Pushups/pullups, heavy weights, pushups/chinups
The whole week was out of wack. I usually start the week with a high rep chest/back/ab session on Sundays, but the bike ride pushed that off. I wound up doing some light weight workout with very little rest instead on Monday. It was a great workout in that I was always moving. I fit in the rest of the weights workout, but I never put on my running shoes.
One thing I did manage to do was to get into REI and buy some parts for my bike. I bought some L-shape bar ends and bar tape. I didn't buy the tires right away, so I only have the bar ends installed at the moment. I picked up the tires on Saturday, and they are sitting in my car now. After some thinking, I decided on a semi-slick tire, the Continental Travel Contact. They come in pretty much a MTB tire size, 26" x 1.75". It was either that tire or the Michelin City Tire, but that meant new tubes since the Michelins were thinner. The cost would've wound up being the same. Plus, the Michelins were meant to be more road-oriented, while the Continentals have knobs on the tire edge which gives me flexibility in terms of road-surfaces I can ride on. I'm pretty excited about the tires as some reviewers have said these tires alone increased their average speed from 4 - 7 mph. That's quite an increase! I'll try to post a pic up of my bike after I get these tires on.
Weight-wise, I'm returning back to my training weight. It's amazing how fast your weight returns to normal when you cut out drinking and junk food. I'm sure I'll be back on track when I put my cardio back it. I also made the decision to start going to the gym for my heavy workout. It only makes sense since a pushup for me is roughly 72% of my body weight. Why do my heavy workouts with 55 lb dumbbells, when I should be working on reaching my goal to bench press my full body weight?
I'm still taking stairs at work going up. I even made it a point to use the restroom on the first floor so I have an excuse to take the stairs back to the office. And when I refer to taking the stairs, I mean taking them at least two steps at a time. It gives me a good burn while simulating hiking up a mountain, which by the way I am very behind in. Those 48 mountains still loom over me.
Well, that's it for this update. Let's aim to run at least once this week. Oy.
Last weigh-in:
171.0 lb
Sunday: Cape Cod Rail Trail (Dennis to Wellfleet and back - 45.0 miles)
Monday: Full body with light weights
Tuesday: None
Wednesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps
Thursday: None
Friday: None
Saturday: Pushups/pullups, heavy weights, pushups/chinups
The whole week was out of wack. I usually start the week with a high rep chest/back/ab session on Sundays, but the bike ride pushed that off. I wound up doing some light weight workout with very little rest instead on Monday. It was a great workout in that I was always moving. I fit in the rest of the weights workout, but I never put on my running shoes.
One thing I did manage to do was to get into REI and buy some parts for my bike. I bought some L-shape bar ends and bar tape. I didn't buy the tires right away, so I only have the bar ends installed at the moment. I picked up the tires on Saturday, and they are sitting in my car now. After some thinking, I decided on a semi-slick tire, the Continental Travel Contact. They come in pretty much a MTB tire size, 26" x 1.75". It was either that tire or the Michelin City Tire, but that meant new tubes since the Michelins were thinner. The cost would've wound up being the same. Plus, the Michelins were meant to be more road-oriented, while the Continentals have knobs on the tire edge which gives me flexibility in terms of road-surfaces I can ride on. I'm pretty excited about the tires as some reviewers have said these tires alone increased their average speed from 4 - 7 mph. That's quite an increase! I'll try to post a pic up of my bike after I get these tires on.
Weight-wise, I'm returning back to my training weight. It's amazing how fast your weight returns to normal when you cut out drinking and junk food. I'm sure I'll be back on track when I put my cardio back it. I also made the decision to start going to the gym for my heavy workout. It only makes sense since a pushup for me is roughly 72% of my body weight. Why do my heavy workouts with 55 lb dumbbells, when I should be working on reaching my goal to bench press my full body weight?
I'm still taking stairs at work going up. I even made it a point to use the restroom on the first floor so I have an excuse to take the stairs back to the office. And when I refer to taking the stairs, I mean taking them at least two steps at a time. It gives me a good burn while simulating hiking up a mountain, which by the way I am very behind in. Those 48 mountains still loom over me.
Well, that's it for this update. Let's aim to run at least once this week. Oy.
Last weigh-in:
171.0 lb
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