Month: October 2024

Fantastic Friday! PULL

Today is pull Friday. Every week incorporates push movements and pull movements as well as legs and cardio. The focus today are on exercises that require pulling motion.

I started with a 500M row to warm-up my body. Rowing does a good job with warmup because the entire body is engaged. After that I did some walking to get energized and get in the rate state of mind. I often have to deliberately work on my mind to get in the proper mindset for have a good workout. I visualize my workout. I also have a board where I write the movements for the day so I can progress and glance up and see what is next.

I started with a deadlift working from 120 – 280 pounds with my trap bar (I refer to it as a hex bar also). This is a pyramid style. Next is hex bar shoulder shrugs for 4 sets of 12 at 170 pounds. Next I moved to hex bar rows with 140 pounds for 4 sets.

After that, I do a superset between good mornings and farmers carry. A superset is when I do the exercises back-to-back with no break. I did a total of 4 rounds. Good mornings is for the lower back and I used 185 pounds. I use the hex bar for farmers carry and I used 140 pounds this morning. For farmers carry I had a path I use in my driveway and it comes to about 70 steps. This one gets my heart rate up pretty good.

Next I did 12-10-8-6-24 reps dumbbell curl working from 50 pounds up to 80 pounds. After that I did upright row for shoulders with the dumbbells using 60 pounds. This is followed by 21’s which is where I do a half curl and hold with my left arm and curl 7 times with my right arm and switch to where I hold my right arm half way and curl 7 times with my left. I repeat this 3 times for a total of 21 reps on each arm. My biceps burn pretty good for this one.

Next I did pullups. I did a band assist today so I can get more reps. Sometimes I’ll go without band assist and sometimes I will use band assist. I can only do 3 – 5 pull ups without band assist and it has taken a long time to get there. Eventually I will get to 10 or more but will take some time and hard work. After that, I finish with 60 hammer curls with dumbbells. In between exercises and sets I do a combination of rowing and/or walking to keep my heart rate up throughout. There is no sitting to recover. Everything I do is active recovery.

Overall, it was a good workout that took an hour and thirteen minutes total. Have a good weekend everyone.

Sprint Thursday

Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday are my cardio days. Recently I have been reading about the benefits of sprinting vs. jogging longer distances. Honestly, my neighbor inspired me as well as I see him doing sprinting workouts in the morning. I haven’t really done these types of workouts before so I thought I would give it a try.

I warmed up with a 1/2 mile jog to get the blood flowing and get my muscles warmed up. Sprinting with cold muscles is not good with a risk of injury so a good warmup is needed. Next I started to perform sprints for about 30 – 45 seconds and about a minute or little more of rest. I repeated this for a total of 25 minutes. I think around 20 minutes is probably adequate but this time counted my warmup.

I will say that I really feel it. I’ve read that you activate your fast twitch muscles and sprinting is much better than jogging for building muscle and burning fat. In face, I’ve read that you will burn fat longer throughout the day with a sprinting workout because of the high level of recovery needed.

After my sprint workout I performed some leg stretches with bands. Then I did 2 rounds of 100 triceps presses and 60 hammer curls with 15 pound dumbbells. I then did two minutes of sit ups with an ab mat.

Overall I think I really liked this workout. I feel I can accomplish more in a shorter amount of time. It is a high intensity workout and I got pretty winded at times. I plan to do sprinting workouts primarily on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday each week and may incorporate a fast pace walk after sprinting in the future. I will see how it goes and if it helps my running ability over time. Stay Tunded!

Leg Day

Today (Wednesday) is leg day. I performed my full hip routine with bands first. You can search for my previous blog posts describing this if you would like to learn more.

I next performed squats working up to 225 pounds followed by Romanian Deadlifts for hamstrings. Next I did 4 rounds of hamstring curls. I then did a superset of 24 walking lunges and 45 calf raises for 3 rounds.

Once that was done, about 57 minutes, I walked 1.10 miles with a 20 pound weight vest at a fast pace. Good overall workout, nothing special to report.

Tuesday – Cardio – Row

Instead of a run today I decided to row. I have a Concept 2 rower and receive an email with a workout so on days I row I usually follow the workout they send me. Today it was a tabata routine on the rower. Interesting workout.

If you are not familiar with Tabata, it is a Japanese developed workout claiming to provide maximum gains in short amount of time. It is a High Intensity Interval Training method. I will do this periodically with strength training. Here is a link if you would like to understand it a little better: https://www.sportportactive.com/blogs/blog/the-origin-of-tabata-a-revolutionary-training-method

Today was 8 sets of 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off. During the 20 seconds I must go as hard as possible. On a rower it’s not about speed it’s about power as you will learn if you study rowing techniques. After a complete 8 sets there is a 4 minute break which I rowed at a slow pace. I repeated this for a total of 3 full rounds. Total workout time was 20 minutes but I was feeling it. Good workout.

Monday Push

Monday was a push day and I did my normal routine. I started with a 500 meter row to warm up. I worked bench press up to 255 pounds again. I think it will be a while before I am ready to go to 265 although I am probably getting close. Patience is a virtue and I have to remind myself that it is not a race.

I moved on to shoulder press with dumbbells in a 12-10-8-6-24 routine. This is a routine I learned a long time ago in a book called Body for Life. It basically works off of levels. Level 1 is the easiest and level 10 is barely being able to do a rep. The idea is to find your individual levels. It starts for 12 reps at level 5, 10 reps at level 6, 8 reps at level 7, 6 reps at level 5, and 12 reps at level 6 followed by 12 reps again at level 5. The idea is that by the time you are done you should be feeling pretty depleted. I started at 50 pounds level 5, 60 pounds level 6, 70 pounds level 7, and 80 pounds level 8 followed by 24 consecutive reps at 50 pounds. Very little rest in between sets, no more than 30 seconds. If you are not use to it you may need to rest longer in between sets until you build muscle endurance. If I can still go a few more reps I should do that. It’s a good way to see where you are and adjust accordingly.

Next I did skull crushers with a 12-10-8-6-24 routine using the bar and my bench. I then did 4 sets of incline bench press. Incline is weaker for me so I did 135 pounds. Next I performed Dumbbell kickbacks with a 12-10-8-6-24 routine. After that I did a superset routine of 20 pushups, 10 dips on dip station, and 40 cable crunches. I completed 3 rounds of this.

In between every set I walk on my driveway when there are rest periods and in between every exercise I performed a 200 meter row pushing pretty good.

Overall not a bad workout, no HiiT routines this week.