Friday, March 9, 2012

Hi!

Same story, different day ~ hate blogging from this ancient computer!! But I do have some catching up to do so hopefully I'll grow some patience during the weekend and blog.

For now, here is my contribution for the day. I've decided that I prefer working either my upper body or lower body for each workout instead of 1-2 body parts per day. If I miss a workout, working 1 body part a day just causes me to be thrown off my schedule. If only I was as committed as the hubs.

So - here are the workouts I'll be trying out starting tomorrow. Would you like to join me? Besides my commentary, all of this comes from a workout by Jamie Eason(surprise, surprise) in magazine Fitness Rx February 2012 edition.

Upper Body~>
Seated DB(dumbbell) press - 3x10 (3 sets of 10 reps each)
Skull crusher, superset w/ narrow grip bench press - 3x10+10
DB lateral raise - 3x10
Cable chest flyes - 3x10
Rear delt cable flyes - 3x10 (I'll probably use dumbbell's for this one)
Wide grip lat pulldown - 3x10
Reverse grip pulldown - 3x10
Alternating DB curls - 3x10
Bicycle crunches - 3x25
Basic crunh - 3x25 (I'll probably do a crunch on a ball-feels better on the back)

Lower Body~>
Leg extensions - 3x10
Single-leg BB(barbell) squat on bench - 3x10
Walking BB lunges - 3x10
Leg press w/ narrow stance - 3x10
Stiff-legged deadlift - 3x10
Sumo BB squat - 3x10
Seated leg curl - 3x10 (our gym only has the laying leg curl machine so I'll be using it)
Standing calf raise - 3x10 (will be doing 45 degree calf raise instead)
Seated calf raise - 3x10

Full Body Circuit~> (perform each exercise consecutively then repeat)
Wide squat stance w/ DB shoulder press - 15 (15 reps)
DB lateral raises w/ alternating lunch - 15
Stiff-legged deadlift w/ BB row - 15
Glute bridge on floor w/ DB chest press - 15
Bench dips w/ bench crunches/tucks - 15
21's w/ BB (curl bar half way up, then curl from middle to top, then curl the entire range of motion for 7 reps)
Decline push-ups w/ stability ball ab tuck - 10 (not sure I'll be able to manage all the push-ups after completing everything above)
1-minute jump rope

Our gym has many pre-set bar bell's starting at 20 lbs but you can likely substitute dumb bells in some exercises. The circuit kind of conerns me but I have to think about a lot @ once and certainly want to make sure the form is correct. Most of the exercises are fairly self-explanatory but you can find video demo's of many of these at bodybuilding.com. As a side note, I'll be using as heavy of weights as I can handle. Hopefully Mike will be there to spot me. ;)

I'll probably incorporate two days(maybe three if I'm feeling ambitious...which is unlikely) of cardio. The recommendation out there these days is to always do your cardio AFTER your strength training so you have as much energy as possible for the strength. I typically leave the gym w/ a protein shake. It's important to consume protein(in whatever form you choose) within 30 minutes of the end of your workout. I use a shake because it's simple and I don't have to think about it. :)

The "schedule" goes like this:
Day 1-Upper; Day 2-Lower; Day 3-Rest; Day 4-Upper; Day 5-Lower; Day 6-Circuit; Day 7-Rest

Ultimately that means I have to get to the gym 5 days a week which hasn't been typical for me lately but we'll see what happens.

Anyone want to join me in a new challenge?