Category: Fitness

I took the day off yesterday. My daughter and her family was here. I must say that my nutrition was lacking terribly yesterday. I am so disciplined when it comes to working out and even in my profession of data architecture, I have always struggled to be disciplined with my nutrition.

I have a sweet tooth. I was eating cookies and overeating food even though I was not hungry. Sometimes I eat just because the food sounds good and I want it. I have got to focus on being disciplined with this. I will keep working on it.

Whenever my daughter, son in law, and grand daughter come over, my son in law works out in my home gym. I am really proud of him because when I first met him years ago he wasn’t into fitness. He has mentioned to me that I have inspired him and he always admired our family because of the emphasis we put on fitness in our family.

Since then he has really taken to working out, mainly strength training. I have seen him get much stronger and more fit. He says that he feels much better. He has really grown to make fitness a routine and is very disciplined with it. He comes over and uses my garage gym every day he is here.

Yesterday he was telling me how much he likes my garage gym compared to the gym in his apartment complex. Also, he has been to other gyms and says he likes mine better. He is similar to me and really likes to work out on his own with his headphones in and no distractions. This inspired me to write about my garage gym to let you know what I have and why it is useful.

First, I don’t have the most expensive equipment. I have thought about upgrading certain aspects but do not really need to. The main thing I have is a half rack that I purchased from Dicks Sporting Goods many years ago. It absolutely is not the best or most heavy duty but it does get the job done. And if taken care of, will last a very long time.

I have a bar that I purchased from Dicks Sporting Goods also with about 400 pounds of weights with 4 45 pound weights, 2 35’s, 2 35’s, 2 10’s, 4, 5’s and 2 2.5 pound weights. This gets the job done. Since it is in the garage I wipe them down with 3 and 1 oil about once a month and that keeps them very nice with no rust accumulation. I also wipe my rack down with oil.

Underneath my rack and spread out a ways are sic horse stall mats that I purchased from Tractor Supply many years ago for about $35 each. This is very nice for laying on and protecting the garage floor. I also have a couple of yoga mats for extra cushion for floor work. I have a couple of Powerblock adjustable dumbbells that go to 50 pounds each which is plenty for me.

I have an assortment of bands for stretching and various exercises along with some other bands and a yoga ball for some of my hip and leg work. I have power pushup bars for pushups and a pullup and dip station. There is an ab mat I use for sit ups. The ab mat sis under my lower back for stability. I do also have weight belt for back stability when I do heavy squats.

I have a treadmill, a Rower, and a bike. I use the rower quite a lit for warmups, keeping hot in between sets, and extra work. I also have a 20pound weight vest that I will use for walking and when extra weight is needed for dips and other exercises. I do have a step but I also have some steps in my garage that I can use for steps up with weights.

As I write more about my workout routines I will explain how I use this equipment and you will see that I use every last bit of all of that equipment. Until next time, have a great day!

My legs are really sore today. Yesterday was leg day and I have been working on getting deeper in my squats. I have always struggled with flexibility and for a long time worked on getting my butt down to the bench. For the past month or so I have removed the bench and have been focusing on getting deeper. AAfter a series of hip work with bands, I do some warm ups without weights focusing on getting deep in the squat. 

A few weeks ago when I started this I did 95 lbs and max 135 lbs deep. Today I did a progression of 135, 185, 225. I did 3 sets at 225 of 3 reps each trying to go as deep as possible. I noticed that my hamstrings are very sore and I think this is a big reason. That is very good.

I ran today and it was a struggle with sore legs. I only did a little over 2 miles and then some stretching. Of course I ended with 100 dumbbell tricep presses with 15 lbs on each dumbbell, 60 hammer curls with 15 pounds each dumbbell, and 77 sit ups over 2 minutes. My goal is to get 100 sit ups in 2 minutes. I am getting there. 

Overall not too bad today but I need to keep going after it. This is for my mental health as much as physical health. I have to try and stay positive on the day, especially when interacting with other people. Focus and let’s go!