Tag: Motivation

If sweat was money, I’d be a millionaire

Over the past few weeks I have been hard at work adjusting and refining my workouts. I have also been extraordinarily busy at work putting in extra time on various tasks. It’s been awesome and exciting and super busy.

I modified my workouts to go into deeper strength training mode so my daily workouts look a little different now. Here is what my week entails:

Monday: Chest and Triceps
Tuesday: Back and Biceps
Wednesday: Abs and Legs
Thursday: Shoulder and Chest
Friday: Back and Biceps
Saturday: Shoulders and Triceps

The workouts have been good and I am feeling stronger. I have found that it is good to vary workouts and this particular variation is intensely focused on building strength. I will write blog posts about each workout to provide some insight.

Today’s workout was Chest and Triceps. It’s very interesting that according to my Garmin watch I burned 859 calories with 120 Intensity minutes. That is incredible as compared to the previous workouts where I was getting around 500 calories and 60 -70 intensity minutes. If I do strength training well, by all measures the intensity is increasing.

My warmup consisted up a 500 meter row and a series of chest stretches with bands.

I started with Bench press working from 135 pounds up to 265 pounds and back down. I feel as though I will be hitting 275 pounds very soon on my way to 300 pounds. As before, I take about 2 minutes in between sets.

I followed this up with Skull crushers using the 12-10-8-6-24 method I discussed previously. Very little break in between sets. At this point my heart rate was hitting 170 at times.

I then moved to incline bench press working from 95 to 135 pounds and back down. Pyramid style. Next was dumbbell kickbacks using the 12-10-8-6-24 method followed by 3 sets of dumbbell flys with 40 pounds on each dumbbell.

I then performed 3 sets of 10 dips on the dip station followed by 34 straight pushups using my pushup handles focusing on good form and getting deep into the pushup. Next I did 2 minutes of sit ups using the ab mat Navy seal style.

Overall the workout was about 1 hour and 5 minutes with high paced walking in between each set to keep my heart rate high. There is no stagnant rest during my workout as I try to keep the intensity up.

These workouts are a nice change of pace and I really feel like I am burning calories throughout the day with a great feeling that I accomplished something. I do get sore and have to watch for cramps so I drink pickle juice and eat bananas and apples throughout the day. I am slowly working myself into better nutritional habits. I do not believe in drastic change too fast as I haven’t found that to be sustainable for me. I try to focus on 1% better every day and not do too much at one time. This seems to work better for me with a focus on consistency, discipline, and mindset.

Have a good day everyone!

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.

I hear a Train

I love Johnny Cash. One of my favorite movies is “Walk the Line”. My son and I use to watch it a lot. I still watch it again from time to time. Johnny Cash has a great story. He had many obstacles to overcome and got some help along the way.

This morning I was listening to a remade version of the song “Folsom Prison Blues” by Cody Parks and the Dirty South. I really like the work of Cody and his team. What he does is mix metal, rock, and country and it turns out great. The name if the song by Cody is “Thunder Cash 69” and it mixes some Rob Zombie in there. It’s worth a listen.

Today is Tuesday and I am going to recap both Monday and Tuesday. I didn’t get a chance to write a post yesterday (translation – I forgot). The workout yesterday started with a 500M row to warm-up and did some chest stretches with bands. Next I did bench press pyramid style. I worked up from 135 pounds to 255 pounds and back down.

Next I did shoulder press with dumbbells working up from 25 each to 40 each. This was a 12-10-8-6-24 routine. I then used the same pattern for skull crushers working from 55 pounds to 85 pounds on the straight bar. I then did 4 sets of DB fly from the ground with 35 pound dumbbells. Next I did dumbbell kickbacks starting at 25 working to 40 pounds in a 12-10-8-6-24 routine.

I then did three rounds of 200M row followed by 20 push ups, 10 dips, and 50 cable crunch. Overall very good workout with 107 intensity minutes.

Today I did a run/walk workout for about 45 minutes followed by leg stretching, 2 rounds of 100 DB triceps press and 60 DB hammer curls. I finished with 2 minutes of sit ups and I was able to complete 70. Today was 100 intensity minutes so I am at 207 intensity minutes for the week by Tuesday morning which is great. Remember that Garmin sets my weekly goal to 150 by default but I modified it and now my weekly goal is 300 intensity minutes.

Short post today but will be adding more this week. Have a great day everyone!

Overcome

There is a song by Creed released in 2009 as part of the Full Circle album named “Overcome”. Some of the lyrics go like this:

I’m entitled to overcome
Completely stunned and numb
Knock me down, throw me to the floor
There’s no pain; I can’t feel no more
I’m entitled to overcome
Overcome

If you follow the band Creed or know of their story you understand that they have have had to overcome a lot of adversity over their career. We all face adversity and must find a way to overcome. This morning, I faced some serious adversity.

I did not sleep well. I woke up several times in the night. I am not sure why I was so restless. I have anxiety and I am a worrier so perhaps I was worrying about things subconsciously and it kept me awake. Unfortunately this happens quite a bit to me. At any rate, when 4:30 am came around I had a difficult time getting out of bed. I finally managed to do it, got dressed, fed the dogs and let them out. I then took my preworkout.

I was groggy, tired, and struggling. My self talk was very bad this morning trying to talk me out of exercise. My body is sore from the leg workout yesterday, I am tired, and negative self talk was really pushing. I know that if I can just get started I would be okay. So I got out to the gym and started walking around outside to get the blood flowing. I did that for 10 – 15 minutes.

Once I hit the road I was starting to overcome. Today I ran for one minute and walked at a fast pace for one minute. I did this for a little over 45 minutes. There were times during my workout that was better than others but I was able to overcome and get it done. I then did a series of leg stretches followed by 2 sets of 100 triceps press and 60 hammer curls with 15 pound dumbbells. I then did max situps in two minutes which was 67 today, slightly less than my previous few sessions of 70+ but I got it done. I am so glad I did because my mindset is much better now. I accomplished something very hard and instead of being in a bad mood because of lack of sleep I am now ready to conquer the day and kick butt.

It takes a lot of mental fortitude but I have learned that I can take charge of my mind and accomplish things. I am really believing that what I put into the universe is what I will accomplish. Well, now I will get on to the day. Have a great one everyone!

Blessed – Leg Day

There is a song I heard today named Blessed by Fearless Motivation. It starts off this way

It doesn’t matter where you are in life
If you don’t feel blessed you won’t be blessed
You’ve got to know your worth, before you can be worth anything

The song has a great overall message. I like listening to uplifting music in the morning and YouTube music built a very nice playlist based on this song.

Let’s talk about leg day. Previously you’ve seen that my leg days start out with all of these hip exercises with bands. I wanted to explain how that came to be. About 3 – 4 years ago my lower back was constantly hurting and didn’t seem to get better. I went to the doctor and they referred me to physical therapy.

In physical therapy they had me doing all of these hip exercises with bands. I asked the physical therapist “why am I working on my hips when back hurts?”. She explained that my back is just a symptom of a bigger problem. My hips were weak. Because my hips were weak I overcompensated by using my lower back in awkward ways. She was right. Over time as I strengthened my hips my lower back pain went away. Since I finished physical therapy I continue to do a series of hip exercises I learned at physical therapy during my leg workouts prior to lifting heavy.

Once I completed the hip and band exercises, I moved on to squats. Today I did 10 reps at 135 pounds, 6 reps at 185 pounds, 4 reps at 225 pounds, and 2 reps at 275 pounds. I actually did 2 sets of 2 reps at 275 pounds. I am still unhappy with how deep I am going but I try my best to get as deep as I can. I will keep doing this weight until I can get all of the way down. Once I completed the 2 sets at 275, I reduced back to 225 pounds and completed 4 reps. Then 185 pounds for 6 reps and finally 10 reps at 135 pounds. I use a weight belt once I hit 185 pounds and up to limit stress on my lower back.

After this I performed a 20 minute AMRAP of 400M run, 10 Romanian deadlifts at 135 pounds, 24 walking lunges, and 45 calf raises with 100 pounds. I was able to complete 3 rounds. Next I put on a 20 pounds weight vest and walked at a fast pace for a little over a mile.

Overall it was a good workout. I was pretty winded during the AMRAP and it was pretty humid outside. I had to keep pushing through. I will leave you with another part of the song blessed:

When failure tried to take my mind
I wouldn’t let failure take my life
I am not blessed because it all went right
I’ll never give up
I’m blessed because I’ve got fight

Stay positive, stay active, keep fighting, and always do your best. Have a blessed day!

Rise & Shine – Let’s Push

It’s Monday and that means it is push day. After a weekend of traveling and football, it is time to get back to it. I did get a lot of walking in which was great and it also felt good to let my body recover.

Today started with a good warmup with bands stretching out the chest. I also did a bit of walking to get my body warmed up. Then it was time to jump in and build strength. It was a pyramid day. Why? Because I felt like it. No real rhyme or reason, I just switch things up and try to keep my muscles guessing. Plus it is less boring that way.

I started with bench press. I did 10 reps at 135 pounds, 6 reps at 185 pounds, 3 reps at 225 pounds, 1 rep at 245 pounds, and 1 rep at 255 pounds. I worked my way back down doing 245 pounds for 1 rep, 225 for 4 reps, 185 for 6 reps, and 135 for 10 reps. It felt pretty good and the 255 at the tope felt better than last week. Perhaps I will be looking to move to 265 in a couple of weeks. Awesome!

I then moved to shoulder press. Today I used the straight bar instead of dumbbells. I started with 55 pounds for 10 reps, then 75 pounds for 8 reps, 95 pounds for 6 reps, and 115 pounds for 4 reps and back down to 95 pounds for 6 reps, 75 pounds, for 8 reps, and 55 pounds for 10 reps. My shoulders are weak, probably the weakest part of my anatomy. So for me to hit that weight was good. I will keep working at it to strengthen my shoulders.

Next was skull crushers with the straight bar. Again I did a pyramid. I started at 55 pounds for 10 reps, 75 pounds for 8 reps, 95 pounds for 6 reps and 115 pounds for 2 reps. 115 pounds was tough. I worked my way back down to 95 pounds for 6 reps, 75 pounds for 8 reps, and 24 reps at 45 pounds just because I felt like a high rep set was needed.

Now it is time for HiiT portion. This is a 20 minute AMRAP. Before I started I saw one of my neighbors kicking butt out there I think running sprints. He’s a big guy running at a good pace. I’m sure a lot better than I can do. Perhaps 20 years or so younger also. For Hiit, I started with a 400 meter run followed by 15 pushups with perfect push up, 10 dips on the dip station, and 40 cable crunches with a heavy band. I was able to do 4 rounds in 20 minutes. I was really feeling it on the last round.

Overall good workout which was about 1 hour and 20 minutes. I came in and made a power smoothie consisting of oatmeal, dried peanut butter, skim milk, fat free Greek yogurt and creatine. I also took a shot of Master Tonic and a shot of unfiltered olive oil.

Read a little Nick Saban today. “Success comes when discipline becomes the habit of execution. Goals are the starting point, but it’s the discipline and commitment to act on them consistently and relentlessly that separate winners from everyone else.”

Until next time, have a great day!

Embrace Pain

Do you really want to achieve your goals? Do I really want to achieve my goals? If so, we must embrace the pain. Pain is where growth happens. When we muster every last ounce of everything we have to push that last rep of a push up, it hurts, it sucks, but is so worth it.

Every time I run, it hurts. Especially the first 1/2 mile. It’s painful. My knees are on fire, my ankles hurt, my lungs are feeling it. When that pain hits, push through it. Take a lesson from David Goggin’s, when most people feel that pain, they quit. That is why they will not achieve their goals.

Pain is not just exercise. It’s painful to get out of your comfort zone at work. I have learned to embrace the uncomfortable. I am scared to death to talk in front of people, always have been. I have been worried about people judging me, being critical of me, not accepting me. I have learned to jump in and embrace this pain. I understand that people will be critical. It has pushed me to another level. I have been scared to write a blog. People might not read it or like it, I would say to myself. So what.

It is painful to do anything in life that is outside of your comfort one. But there is no growth in the comfort zone. Muscles build when you reach and go past the pain. Your mind gets smarter and stronger when you push past what you know into some things you are learning for the first time. It is painful to absorb and really try to understand something new. But getting through the pain is absolutely worth it. When you hit the gym, go after the pain. When you try and learn something new, go after the pain and push yourself to absorb everything. When it’s hard, think to yourself that it must be good. Go after that pain every day!

Motivation & Discipline

This is something that took me a long time to learn but wanted to share my thoughts. I always thought that motivation was the most important thing. I would say to myself “I have to get motivated to workout”. I would talk about internal motivation vs. external motivation. Some people need external motivation to workout whereas others are internally motivated.

I observe that many people will get motivated to workout. Perhaps it’s the new year and the person makes a resolution to workout. They are motivated by that. They will begin January 1st with a goal of getting in better shape or losing weight. I also observe that many of them will stop after a short time and revert back. Why is that? I guess the motivation wears off.

What I learned is that discipline is more important than motivation. Motivation is good for some time but discipline will carry you through. For me, I learned how to become disciplined and make exercise a part of my life. It has become part of my daily routine. I became disciplined by incorporating daily habits. It may start small, very small. Like doing a couple of pushups or going for a walk. It was a mindset shift. Something that I made a deliberate decision for.

One day I decided that exercise would just become part of what I do and who I am. Why is this important? Because motivation is good to give you a boost and get you going but when motivation subsides, discipline will carry you through.

Let me try and explain through an analogy. The NFL football is having a bad season and at some point during the season, they fire the head coach and hire an interim football coach. Almost always, the team does better with the interim coach then they did with the previous coach. Why? Because it was a change seen for the positive. The new coach comes in with a fire, intensity, and gets everyone motivated to do well. It’s the honeymoon phase if you will.

However, at some point the motivation wears off and the team reverts back to a normal routine. The normal routine is based on the discipline they all have to continue to excel. If there has been a lack of discipline, the team will revert back to this. When all motivation wears off and adversity hits, we fall back to our habits. If our habits are not satisfactory, will not be satisfactory. If our discipline and work we put in is outstanding, we will eventually become outstanding. The teams that ultimately have the best discipline, the best habits, will be the teams that succeed. Of course, great players help also. But usually the great players are great because of the discipline they have in their habits, their work ethic, their mindset to be great.

For exercise and fitness, I am not trying to win gold medals or win competitions. I am trying to be as healthy and strong as I can for as long as I can. I envision myself as that 90 year old man who is out there running and lifting and still being able to function well with my family. It’s not motivation that carries me, it’s my daily habits, discipline that I have built into my daily life that carries me. There are days when I am absolutely not motivated, days I do not want to get out of bed, days that I am just not feeling it. On those days especially, it is my discipline that carries me. Perhaps it wasn’t the best workout, perhaps I just went through the motions, perhaps I lifted light or ran slow or even walked slow. But I did it anyway. I accomplished it even in my worst. Even with that, I take solace in knowing I did better than laying around all days. I did something. Discipline did that, motivation did not.

I encourage everyone to consider building habits. Start small, stay consistent, but do something and build on it. There is a saying in football “get 1% better every day”. That is the mindset needed. Start at 0% and work at it. Walk 10 feet farther tomorrow than you did today. Start with no weights and build up to very light weights. Move your arms, shoulders, abs, legs, back, chest a little bit and build on it. Ultimately discipline is the key to success in anything we do.

Discipline is hard, it requires a person to dig deep and find what works for them. I have learned about myself and what it takes for me to accomplish these things. Each person must find what works for them. And this discipline carries through for me in all other aspects of my life. Whether it’s work, spending time with family, writing a blog post, or writing a book. Motivation will be a start but discipline will get you through. It takes time a relentless effort. It is so hard but it is so worth it. Have a great day!