Posts tagged exercising

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I have been on a regular schedule:

Monday, Wednesday and Friday I do “floor routine” (ab crunches, push-ups, squats, bridges and lunges) along with a walk/run of 2.25+ miles (including steep hill section).

Tuesday and Thursday are lifting at the weight location for one hour, “little rest” sessions.

I’m maintaining my weight (currently averaging ~242 lbs) without any fluctuation.  

I’m keeping a constant core burn; and all over body burn based on most recent exercise.

I’m continuing with my vitamin and supplement routine each day and trying as best as possible to shy away from fried foods.

I’m stopped using sugar in my cereal.

I’m now strictly on 1% milk.

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Okay, time for my walk on this Wednesday…

Catch you next time. 

I’m super sore today with a great work-out burn from yesterday.

We changed up the routine yesterday and worked biceps/triceps.  Here was our work-out:

• Reverse grip, medium grip bench presses: 3 sets, 10 reps
• Normal grip, hands together bench presses: 3 sets, 10 reps
• Preacher curls with bench press bar: 3 sets, 10 reps
• One arm seated, Hammer curls with dumbbell: 3 sets, 10 reps
• Standing two arm, Hammer curls with dumbbells: 3 sets, 10 reps
• 4 level, lowering position push-ups: 1 set each level of 20 reps
• Calf presses: 3 sets, 50 reps
• Seat leg lifts: 3 sets, 10 reps
• Weighted bar (front of chest) squats: 3 sets, 10 reps

This afternoon will again be abs and cardio.

Weekend off.

Until next time….

This week has been very good for my exercises.

Monday was abs and cardio.

Tuesday was weight lifting (alone).

Wednesday…abs/cardio.

Thursday another afternoon of lifting but with a new “same age” friend who heard about me starting all this and wanted to join in.  We got in a really good routine and I added a couple of new exercises (shrugs, leg curls) to my sets.  I’m sure my friend is super sore now.

Today, I have abs/cardio planned for this afternoon.

Will take weekend off (maybe one cardio walk).

I found a really great article on Men’s Health.com this weekend called “6 Habit to Chisel a Solid 6-Pack”.  

The cool thing about this article was that it’s not about which exercises to do to get your abs glowing…it’s about life-style changes that help along with exercises to accomplish this.

The one part that really stuck out for me was the part about waking up to water each day.  Here is the brief message:

Wake Up to Water

Imagine not drinking all day at work—no coffee, no water, no diet soda. At the end of an 8-hour shift, you’d be pretty parched. Which is precisely why you should start rehydrating immediately after a full night’s slumber. From now on, drink at least 16 ounces of chilled H₂O as soon as you rise in the morning. German scientists recently found that doing this boosts metabolism by 24 percent for 90 minutes afterward. (A smaller amount of water had no effect.) What’s more, a previous study determined that muscle cells grow faster when they’re well hydrated. A general rule of thumb: Guzzle at least a gallon of water over the course of a day.

I had been waking up and drinking water each morning to take my ‘start of the day’ vitamins with…but was only taking in 11oz of water first thing.

But now I’m following the rule of 24 oz of water first thing in the morning and then desperately trying to get in a full gallon of liquids through-out the remainder of the day.

To be continued…

Lifting got cancelled…again.  So I fell back on ol’ faithful:

(Note: 15 seconds rest period between each set)

1 set - 20 Military Push-ups (Target: Biceps, Pecs)

1 set - 60 seconds Plank (Target: Core, Abs)

1 set - 15 Pelvic thrusts (Target: Glutes, Core)

1 set - 30 “basic” sit-ups (Target: Abs)

1 set - 15 Pelvic thrusts (Target: Glutes, Core)

1 set - 30 “hands from crotch to knee” crunch (Target: Abs)

1 set - 15 Pelvic thrusts (Target: Glutes, Core)

1 set - 30 “hands behind head, elbows out to sides, knee lift to elbows” crunch (Target: Lowest Abs)

1 set - 15 Pelvic thrusts (Target: Glutes, Core)

1 set - 30 “feet above head and ankles crossed, arms on floor to sides, palms up” hands touching heels crunches (Target: Abs)

1 set - 15 Pelvic thrusts (Target: Glutes, Core)

1 set - 30 Body weight, wide stance squats (hands behind head) (Target: Glutes, Thighs, Core)

2.25+ mile brisk walk (includes large down-hill and up-hill stretches) in under 33 minutes.

30 minute break which included: 30oz Whey Protein chocolate milk, afternoon vitamin intake, water intake.  Then…

(Note: the following is done with 10 second rest between each set)

1 set - 60 seconds Plank (Target: Core, Abs)

1 set - 15 Pelvic thrusts (Target: Glutes, Core)

1 set - 30 “basic” sit-ups (Target: Abs)

1 set - 15 Pelvic thrusts (Target: Glutes, Core)

1 set - 30 “hands from crotch to knee” crunch (Target: Abs)

1 set - 15 Pelvic thrusts (Target: Glutes, Core)

1 set - 30 “hands behind head, elbows out to sides, knee lift to elbows” crunch (Target: Lowest Abs)

1 set - 15 Pelvic thrusts (Target: Glutes, Core)

1 set - 30 “feet above head and ankles crossed, arms on floor to sides, palms up” hands touching heels crunches (Target: Abs)

1 set - 15 Pelvic thrusts (Target: Glutes, Core)

1 set - 30 Body weight, wide stance squats (hands behind head) (Target: Glutes, Thighs, Core)

Good work-out including cardio without weights.

‘Til then….

The weight room I “normally” attend has been shut down for several months now due to reconstruction.  The alternative facility I moved to has not proven to be as readily available for me as I thought it was going to be.  With that, I’ve missed a great deal of lifting/exercise over the past couple of months.

I’ve overcome that by creating my own “weightless routine”, but I know I’m not getting the muscle growth gains that I had been achieving.

I also know that when I do get back to a normal lifting routine, that it’s going to be almost like starting from scratch again.  So when I found a new routine to apply, I got excited.

Yesterday, I ran across this site providing a 12 week program for beginners to use.  Though I’m not sure I’ll follow the program completely, I do want to use the Phase One program to get back into the mind-set, muscle memory and re-growth started.  For those of you out there that might not have started a program yet, you may want to use this as your starting guide as well.

Men’s Health magazine has put out the “Top 20 Training Guides”.  What they’re calling the 20 top exercises/routines to add to your workouts to get the most out of your body. Very interesting information.

You can view it here.

In case you’re interested, or if you use Google Reader, I wanted to share the link to the Men’s Health blog site:  http://blogs.menshealth.com/health-headlines/

As I begin this “blog”, I want to provide some extra notes at this point:

My weight at my starting point of this was 275 pounds.  My cholesterol levels were VERY bad.

My first routine was starting to walk.  I take three days per week (typically Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s) and walk 2.25+ miles down/up a steep hill.  This walk includes dirt road with heavy gravel/rocks for part of the journey and paved road for the other half.  (You can view a brief video of the walk here.)

After I began the walking, within two weeks I had dropped 10 pounds.  I was excited.

The next thing I’ve started working was my eating habits.  I have stopped most (but not all) of my eating of fried foods.  I’ve added a healthy portion of fruit to my diet (including a lot of new stuff I had not eaten before, such as cantaloupe).  I’ve also stopped eating such a huge portion at my evening dinner.  I’m trying to “healthy graze” between meals as well…this has really helped me.

By changing my eating habits, I was able to drop an additional 15 pounds over the following 2.5 - 3 weeks.

I’ve also started taking many vitamins.  A short list includes 3-Omega Fish Oil (for my cholesterol problems), Lutein (for my “over 40” eyes), Vitamin B, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, MSM, Amino Acids, Anti-Oxidants, etc.  Since I miss so much from eating healthy, I’m compensating with the vitamins.

I started a “at home” exercise routine (more about this later) as well as a not-so-regular scheduled weight lifting program (more on this later as well).

I’m currently down to 238 - 241 pounds (depending on weekend eating habits) in my weight and feel better than ever!

As I go forward, I’ll share photos, videos, thoughts, links to interesting articles and more with you.  I hope to hear your feedback as well.

Men’s Health magazine for all the information they’ve provided me during all this.  Not only the magazine that I purchase, but the web site that is always full of great information that has guided me in nutrition, exercises, and health news.