Wobbly is good

I made it to the gym for Fat Loss II workout A1 today.  When I woke up, I told myself I'd do yoga if it had snowed so I wouldn't compact the snow and make it hard to shovel.  But, no snow!  I was relieved I didn't have an excuse.  Some of the exercises were a bit different, but not too bad.  When I got to the gym, there was another guy there who often uses the bar.  However, he was doing some DB circuit, so I didn't have to worry about what to do without the bar!  yippee!

By the end of the workout, I was pretty wobbly.  My front squats were just as annoying as my back squats.

Front squat: 3x12@50#

Wide-grip cable seated row: 1x12@54#, 1x12@58#, 1x12@62#

Supine hip extension with leg curl: 3x12

Barbell push press: 1x12@50#, 1x12@60#, 1x9@60#

Dynamic lunge: 3x12@20#db each hand

Upper-body Russian twist: 3x12 (not really sure about this one... seems overly easy.  Add weight?)

Finished with Break-In!

I just finished Break-In B4 from New Rules of Lifting.  I did 4 rounds and feel great.  I only increased my weights on some of the lifts, but I did improve my rest times and pace and I managed the intervals on all of the A workouts (that's actually a surprise).

I think I will move on to Fat Loss II.  It starts out with sets of 12 reps, which I like a lot better than 15.  Believe it or not, there is a huge difference when I am lifting heavy.

Warm-up: four sun salutations, a little stretching and bw squatting, deadlifts: 7x45#, 6x95#

Deadlift: 2x15@135# (good pace, minimal in-set rests, close to 1 minute break)

Step-up: 2x15@20# each hand (hard to increase weight directly following hard deadlifts)

DB 1-arm shoulder press: 1x(7@25#ea, 8@20#ea), 1x(5@25#ea,9@20#ea,2@15#ea) (pretty much muscle failure at end)

Close-grip lat pulldown: 2x15@87# (a little pause before last 5 reps, but overall less resting mid-set, HARD)

Incline reverse crunch: 2x15@30deg (some mini-breaks, especially toward end)

Lots of sweat, a decent amount of grunting, and a lot of satisfaction!
I managed an average heart rate of 144bpm this time with a max of 179bpm.  Nice.

That was close!

I almost talked myself out of working out today.  But, about 5am, I was telling myself how bad I was for not getting up and then I realized I still had enough time to fit in a small workout at home.  So, I got up and did a new plate circuit.  You can find the description here.  Since I didn't have much time, I only went once through.  Taht was enough.  We only have 10# plates, so that was what I used.  I'm not sure I would want to higher yet, anyway.  I'll have to switch to dumbbells if I go higher.

After the circuit, I foam rolled.  That is feeling good.  Sometimes the outsides of my legs (ITB) don't hurt much when I roll them.  Other times I'm almost in tears.  I wonder what the difference is??

Last round of Break-In

I pressed snooze a few too many times this morning, but I didn't think I dilly dallied too much.  Even so, I ended up getting to the gym way later than I thought I would.  I still managed a tough workout and the knowledge that I was running late kept me going.  Most of my rests were very close to the allotted 1minute.  After lifting, I was tempted to go home, but I decided the intervals weren't very long, so I'd do them anyway. 

The squats seemed to go better this time.  I took a fairly wide stance.  Pretty soon I'll be doing sumo squats!

Warm-up: some bodyweight squats, stretches, 8 oly bar squats

Barbell squat: 1x15@55#, 1x15@60#

Static lunge: 2x15@20#

2-pt DB row with elbow out: 2x15@30# each hand

Push-up: 1x15 on floor, 1x15 using push-up handles (arms out)

Swiss-ball crunch: 2x15@35# behind head

Metabolic overdrive (aka intervals): on upright stationary bike - warm up 2 min setting 2-45W, 3x(hard 1 min setting 10-160W, easy 2 min setting 3-75W), no cool down

Another metabolic circuit

I did a bodyweight metabolic circuit again today.  I improved on most of the exercises.  It's going to be hard to do that again!  It's a good workout for a little under 30 minutes.  I warmed up with 4 sun salutations and foam rolled afterward.  That's about it for today.

Almost in tears after this workout....

... tears of joy!
After a week off, it felt sooooo good to be back at the gym.  I missed the feeling of accomplishment after a hard lifting day.  On my way home, I was feeling so grateful for the gym and how it has everything I need and it's all close at hand... oh, and how it's not crowded at the times when I'm there.  (I was alone, today!)  I was feeling so good on the drive home, my eyes got a little moist thinking about how much better I felt.

It was a really hard workout today: Break-in B3.  Before I started, I weighed the two olympic bars.    They added a second one a couple months ago.  I though the new one might be a bit lighter, so I brought over the scale and weighed them.  The new one isn't chromed and looked a bit like aluminum, but obviously it wasn't.  To my surprise, the new bar was 5 pounds heavier!!  The original chromed one is 44#, the standard weight.  The new one was 49#.  So, I'm going to add 45# for the original and 50# for the new.  I don't want to deal with the one pound.

Total: 46 minutes
Warm-up: 4 sun salutations at home, deadlifts - 8x50#, 8x100#

Deadlift: 2x15@140# (2 minute rests, mini-sets of 5 with short breaks)

Step-up: 2x15@20#each hand


DB one arm shoulder press: 2x(5@25#, 10@20#) (last couple were really hard)

Close-grip lat pull-down: 2x15@87# (mini-sets of 5 with short breaks)

Incline reverse crunch: 2x15@30deg

Saturday at the gym!

I got to the gym this morning.  The nice thing is I don't have to get up quite as much on Saturday. The squats were still painfully (not literally) awkward.  I even started re-reading the squat section of Starting Strength.  I think I had my legs a bit farther apart this time, which helped a tad.

Afterward, I did the intervals, but just didn't go as hard as last time.  I probably should have pushed harder, but oh well!  I did notice that my overall average HR was still 142 as opposed to last time's 145, when I felt like I worked harder.

Break-In A3

Warm-up - 3BW squats, 8 BW static lunges each side, 7x45# squats

BB squats - 1x15@60#, 1x10@60#

Static DB lunge - 2x15@20# each hand

2-pt DB row with elbow out, one arm at a time - 2x15@30# (yikes!)

Push-up - 1x15, 1x13 (arms out, good depth)

Swiss ball crunch - 2x15@30#DB behind head

Metabolic overdrive - Warm up 3min@45W, 3xhard@150W, 3xeasy@75W, cool down 3min@50W

Cardio weightlifting

Today was Break-In B2 for me.  I just did the lifting and no intervals, because I was basically doing cardio intervals the whole time.  My average heart rate was 145bpm over 43 minutes.  The deadlifts hit it hard and it didn't let up from there.  Most of my rests didn't go much over the allotted 60 seconds.  Sometimes I had to through some brief rests in during the sets, though.

My heart rate graph today

(the markers are the ends of the sets)

I made myself do a little more warming up today.  Maybe I should write out a warm-up plan so I actually do more warming up.  I wasn't able to increase the weight much, but there were a couple small bright spots.  The step-up increase went well.  There were some funny looks on my face doing the 25# presses, though!

Warm-up - 5 squat to stands, 5 inchworms, deadlift 7@45# 6@95#


Deadlift - 1x10@135#, 1x15@90#

Step-up - 1x15@15# each hand, 1x15@20# each hand

DB 1-arm should press, alternating, palm in - 1x15@20#ea, 1x5@25#ea then 1x10@20#ea

Close-grip lat pulldown - 2x15@87# (biceps were burning after this one!!  Some grunting to be heard...)

Incline reverse crunch - 2x15@30deg

Going metabolic

I did Rachel Cosgrove's Bodyweight Metabolic Circuit again today.  Today was a lot more successful, but I still had some problems.

I noticed she has another metabolic circuit online.  I'll have to try that one.  She also has metabolic stuff in her book, but I haven't gotten that far with reading yet.  I did peek ahead and noticed I would have to pick out exercises, so I just repeated the one I attempted before.  It looks like between the two online articles, she covers most if not all of the metabolic exercises she has in the book.

I doubt the workout has a much of an "afterburn" effect as she claims, but it is a good way to fit in a hard workout into a busy day.

Static squat in and out jump - 30
Prone cross-toe - 20 (first few without arms)
Split jack - 37
One-leg burpee - 10 (5 each leg)
Mountain climber - 70 (35 ea)
Bodyweight jump squat - 25
Inch worm - 12 (travelling)
Spiderman climb - 26 (13 ea)
Over/under - ~20 (~10 - forgot to count)
5-dot drill - 18
Bicycle crunch - 60 (30 ea)
Explosive step-up - 26 (13 ea - 2 risers)
Skiers on Swiss ball - 16 (8ea)
Lateral step-out - 40 (20 ea - R-L-R-L-...)
Swiss ball alternating step-off - 24 (12 ea)
Jump lunge - 14 (7 ea - I was shot by then!)