Workout Journal

I have a post in mind for today and since it has nothing to do with exercise and I figured I would update you on my workout.

The WOD was a CrossFit total- set a row machine to 3 2 minute rounds of rowing with 3 2 minute breaks in between. During the first break perform 95lb thrusters, during the second break do 95lb snatches, and during the third break do 95lb cleans. Add total calories burned on the rower and total reps performed.

The two minutes of rowing and the explosive motion of the three lifts killed me. Here is my break down and total:

29 cals, 14 thrusters, 31 cals, 9 snatches, 25 cals, 15 cleans. Total- 123

After the WOD I completed a few sets of shoulder press, side raises, calf raises and weighted ab crunch. It was a good day and I felt beat!

Fast Friday

Hey Everyone,

Since today was my active recovery day, that meant some form of cardio. It was 45 degrees outside, not too bad, but with the wind here at the beach- no go!

I chose to do a HIIT routine I found online. I have done this one before, so I modified it a little for some extra ummph. Here is the base routine:

 

The modification was really simple- started at the first 9.0 mph interval I added 0.5 mph to each round and worked up to 10.5 mph and then dropped back down. So the final sprint section went like this- 9.0, 9.5, 10.0, 10.5, 10.0, 9.5, 9.0 and then 5.5 mph for the cool down.

Tomorrow is my 1RM day, so I will be posted those. I will also post my workout for that day. I am going to do a little workout to gain some confidence and experience with snatches and on Wednesday I am going to try to do Thursday’s WOD- 13.1. This time I want to do the men’s weights.

 

Weigh in Stats and Monday Workout

So as promised here are my stats from the past two weeks:

Weight- down 0.4 to 175

Body Fat %- down 1% to 9%

Chest- down 0.5″ to 39″, this is expected. As my body fat dropped I lost 1.75 pounds of fat, while gaining 1.35 pounds of muscle the fat had to come from somewhere and so there are a few stats that have dropped while muscle strength has grown in those areas. For example my bench press has increased despite a smaller chest measurement.

Arms- down 0.3″ to 14.8″

Hips- down 0.5 to 37.5″

Waist- no change, 32″

Thighs- down 0.5 to 22″

Calves- Steady at 15″

Forearms- Steady at 12″

Shoulders- Steady at 48″

Neck- Steady at 16″

Good numbers. I will be interested to see how these change as my workout plan focuses on strength versus weight loss.

 

Now for today’s workout. Being Monday it was a cardio day. I had two options- run a 5k, or do a HIIT routine at home. I just wasn’t motivated to run in the cold, and I wasn’t excited about heading to the gym. So HIIT at home, it was!

Using my new toy, iPad, I downloaded an app and gave it a try. The app everyone needs is SWORKIT. The app creates workouts for strength training, cardio, yoga and more. Simply tell it what you want to focus on for the day, I obviously chose cardio, and tell it how long you want to work. My 30 minute workout was incredible!

5 minutes into my routine I was out of breathe. At 8 minutes I was sweating. By 12 minutes I had taken off my shirt and was using it to wipe sweat from my face. I thoroughly enjoyed the routine.

Like I said, EVERYONE needs to get this app.

Weigh-in and New routine

Hey guys,

Today was a weigh-in day, and unlike most weigh in days I was unable to take pictures and measurements. Good news- I got my weight and body fat recorded. I also caught a little bit of the ODU v Temple Baseball game, and completed a 8 page research paper. If all goes well I will post the paper on here for you all to read.

Anyway, back to weigh-ins. After two weeks of hard lifting and being slightly lazy with my eating habits, I currently weigh 175. This is a drop of 0.4 pounds over the two week period, and 14 pounds since I began the plan. I also measured my body fat to 9%, and this is a 1% drop in 2 weeks and 6% drop in the 12 weeks of doing my program.

Tomorrow I will definitely get some of my other measurements taken, and I will see about getting my photos updated.

 

But wait, whats this about a new routine? That’s right, it is time to change up my routine. After Friday I will reached the end of my 12 week plan. The purpose of this plan was to get me going and drop as much weight as I could before going on a strength plan. While there were some gains in my strength, overall I focused on lots of exercises and weight loss. Now lets get strong!

The next phase of my routine is simple. Gain strength, and grow your muscles. There are two parts to this routine, one is the weight lifting side of things and the other is the diet.

The diet for my upcoming plan is simple- eat more. I do not plan on changing the types of food I am eating, I will just increase my calorie intake to facilitate recovery and prevent weight loss. With this routine I will be adding about 5% to my 1RM in a 6 weeks. This means needed to grow muscle. In order to grow muscle and not gain weight I must calculate my calories carefully. I will need to burn fat at the same rate I can build muscle. About 0.3 pound a week.

The second part of my routine is a focus on heavy lifting using three compound movements. This style of lifting was made famous by the Russian’s, and when done right will pack on tons of muscle mass in short bursts. In short I will spend 3 days a week lifting at 80% of my 1RM for bench press, back squats, and weighted chin-ups. The other three days will consist of Yoga, HIIT cardio work, Crossfit experimenting, and exercising to help counter the work being done (ie- barbell rows to work my back and compliment the bench press). Because of the heavy load I will be doing, any of the four days that I will be supplementing with, can become a Yoga day, a HIIT day, Crossfit or Complimenting exercises. Since they are not set days, I can gauge my fatigue level and pick the type of workout best for my recovery. Some weeks this could mean doing nothing but Yoga for those days and allowing my body to rest and stretch.

Now that you have a quick look ahead I hope you will come back in the next few days and read up on the in depth plan. I will post the exact method for tracking my calories during this time period, and I will post a full workout plan for anyone to follow. Throughout the 6 weeks I will even post a daily account of what was done.

Remember:

Catch up

So it has been a little while since I have had a post. I don’t want to overload you with a huge post so I will try to just hit things quickly and get back to speed.

Over the last week I had a huge week at school and focused mainly on that. On top of everything I had two friends come and stay with us for the weekend. It was my son’s birthday on Wednesday and from then on we had friends hanging out with us and family coming in for the big party. Finally at the end of everything I enter this week and had two tests, a paper and a presentation to do. Finished with everything I am finally taking a chance to breathe and relax.

In the midst of all the things we had going on, I was able to stay on track with my workout schedule, and so far I have at least maintained my weight. There  are still a few days before my weigh in, but even with all the cake, bbq sandwiches and a few libations, I haven’t gained any weight.

Over the course of the last week I have had a chance to experiment a little bit. Last Friday I didn’t do my power yoga because of our visitors. However I did go to the gym and do a short HIIT workout.

For the first 15 minutes I simply turned on a timer and completed as many rounds as possible of 10- 1.5 pood kettlebell swings, 10 box jumps, and 10 dips. After complete a round of all three exercises I immediately jumped into the next round. With a few well placed breaks I was able to complete 8 rounds in 15 minutes. I then completed 4 minutes of 10 pound sledge hammer slams on a tire. I did this in 20 second periods with 10 seconds of rest. Following the same setup I completed a 4 minute period of tabata situps on a hyperextension bench.

Something else I have begun to experiment with is a myofascial roller routine and yoga before bed. I spend 9 minutes using a foam roller on my entire body. I start on my legs and work my way up. After using the roller I spend 12 minutes doing a series of yoga poses to stretch my legs and hips, and finish with a series for relaxing the back and preparing for sleep.

In the next two days I will post both these routines and pictures to make it much easier to follow.

Glad to be back!