What Are 5 Things That You Have Learned Today?

What Have You Learned Today?

You learn something every day. You may think back on your day and say, “Today seemed pretty ordinary, I must not have learned anything.” This is wrong. If you think about it the right way you will realize that you picked up some tidbit of information that you may have not originally thought was new to you. These can be small, but they’re always there.

There is one reason that I think of things this way and I “blame” it on my mom. When I was in middle school, every day that I saw her after school she would ask me, “So, what did you learn today.” 95% of the time I told her that I hadn’t learned a single thing the whole day. This went on for a long time, with me continuing every day saying that I hadn’t learned anything. After a while I started noticing when I learned something new more often. I would write down at least a few things that I had learned during the day. Most times it was random facts; I have always loved knowing as many random facts as possible, but sometimes it would be simple nuances about somebody that I didn’t know before. Being a stubborn middle school kid, I kept it to myself and kept telling her that I didn’t learn anything. Oops. 

I’m not going to pretend that I do this every day, but I do it often enough. I don’t often write them down like I used to. I feel that I’m at the point that if I just think about the things that I learned in a day, it is good enough for me. I think that doing this has opened my eyes to being able to judge people’s character more easily and realize how often you actually learn something new. If you don’t realize that you are learning, it doesn’t stick in your memory as well. Try to look at the world through a different lens and think back to what you did today and pick out 5 things that you learned today.

5 Things That I Learned Today

1. Subway Has Free WiFi-

Image from Subway.com

               Today I was studying hard for my anatomy lab quiz today (muscles that move the elbow and wrist) and I needed a break from my environment and needed food. Instead of wasting time cooking I took a trip to Subway with my notes and computer in tow. Not knowing whether I could use the internet at Subway I was prepared to go to the Library after I ate. Instead as I was walking in I saw a sign saying “Free WiFi” so I got a sub and camped out for a few hours.

I think I did well on the quiz as well.

2. How to Properly Front Squat-

               During my workout today I decided to front squat. This is something that I haven’t done too often throughout my life and I wasn’t exactly sure how to do it. So I used my observation skills and mimicked someone to the best of my ability, but I felt way too much pressure in my wrists. When I got home I looked up how to front squat better so that next time I can do much better.

              

  Taking a few fingers off the bar when you front squat will relieve the pressure on your wrists.

I read a great article on proper form and how to front squat more at T-Nation Front Squat Tips

3. I know Spanish a LOT Better Now Than the Beginning of the Semester-

               We had an in-class essay today and it went incredibly well. The words just flowed onto my paper without too much effort. This is a pretty nice observation because I would really like to keep improving.

4. I Haven’t Reached a Plateau on my Dead-Lift Yet-

               I was worried that I was about to plateau in Deadlift after having a poor showing during last week’s deadlift day. I was sore for a few days and I probably over-did it a little. Taking the weekend off and feeding my body a little more than usual did great for my recovery and today I set my new Personal Best at 195Kg. I want to keep moving up and be around 215Kg in the next month or so.

5. I Haven’t Been Drinking Enough Water-

               I had been doing so well, for the longest period of time in my life, drinking enough water each and every single day. Just today I realized that the last 2 weeks I have been drinking about ¼ of what I had been drinking. I’m going to blame this on becoming content with drinking water as I felt I needed it, and that it’s harder to drink a lot of water when it’s cold outside. So, as of today, I’m drinking a ton of water again. Yay me!

               Think of one thing that you learned or realized today. If you have time please comment yours below. I would love to read all of your newly found knowledge. If you have a lot of time, list as many as you feel necessary. The more comments, the happier I will be. :)

Today’s Workout-

6x6 Slow on the way down Pull-ups

3x6 then 3x2 then 1x1 Deadlift

3x6 Front Squat

3x6 T-Bar Rows

4x8 Inverted Bodyweight Rows

4x6 Cable Rows

Lift Hard, Rest Hard, and then Rest

Lift Hard Even On Your Light Days

Some days you need to de-load a little and lift less than normal days to help your body repair a little. Today was only half like that. I brought my total number of lifts down, but lifted hard. With only having three lifts on my list today, I did something I don't normally do and had Deadlifting and Power Cleaning on the same day. It was hard and I guarantee I couldn't do as much weight on Power Clean as normal but I accepted that and went to town on it as best as I could.

        It's never too late to become what you might have been. -George Eliot

180 Kg Dead Lift

Today's Workout-

3x4 then 4x2 Deadlift  Increasing Weight Each Set 

3x4 Power Clean

4x6 Pendlay Rows

1 set Max Reps of Bench 135 lbs-  33 reps

            Just to see how many I could do and get the blood pumping a little. 

Tomorrow is a much needed rest day. Rest days are just as important to building muscle as the workouts themselves. Your body cannot build your muscle if you damage it before it has had time to repair. Take a day off every once in awhile, it is also important on keeping yourself from burning out. One day of rest is more than worth keeping you on a schedule. If you've been working hard, enjoy your days off.

To Squat or Not to Squat

To squat or not squat.

There really is no question, Squatting should be in your exercise regimen. The squat goes along with a few other exercises that you can not forget to have in your workout list. 

Lifts Not to Forget- 

-Squats
-Deadlifts
-Pull-ups
-Power Cleans
-Bench Press


This list is not in any sort of order of importance. These lifts all recruit multiple muscle groups which leads to more work in multiple areas for one workout. Maximizing your time in the weight room is very important. Everybody wants the "Get Ripped Quick" workout but there is no get ripped quick secret, but there are get ripped faster secrets. Utilizing compound lifts is a main component of being able to slim down quick. I seldom have a workout that doesn't have one of these five lifts in it and I try to have them relatively early in my workouts so that I can put my full effort into them. Nobody cares how much you can curl, but people ask how much you can squat/bench/power clean. These are the lifts that I compete with myself to be able to see an improvement with my own personal bests. Finding your own personal motivation is important and that is mine. Beating myself. Try to do something that you couldn't do the week before. I used to squat 445 lbs. After two knee surgeries, I am ecstatic to be able to get 5x275lbs. There was a long point where I couldn't squat without any weight. That is a humbling experience. I now simply try to improve, the body I want will follow.

Today's Workout-

Squats 4x6

Single Dumbbell Clean and Press 3x6

Calf Raises- 3x10

Barbell Shrugs- 4x10

Leg Press- 

           2x10 single leg 

           3x10 double leg

I wanted to put in Power Clean in today as well but decided against it because I am deadlifting tomorrow and there were no platforms available and I wasn't about to sit and wait for one. 

Have a great Friday everyone. Do work. Much Love. Follow me @fitness4student and don't forget to stay awesome. 

Start of The School Year- Deadlifting is Great for the Whole Body

Start of the School Year-

It has been a hectic start to the current school year. Scrambling to get things done, (find a job, apply for my degree program, pay bills, get back into the swing of things school-wise). It has been a great first month of school and my activity level is through the roof even though I am entirely too busy for my liking. 

I have been thinking of where this blog can move forward from this point. I don't want to just write about things simply to write. I'm not trying to simply drive as much traffic in the hopes of raising my compensation. I am trying to create a lifelong path for myself as well as entertain my audience and reach the as many people to help as I can. This has brought me to a few ideas that I hope to start implementing as soon as I can. 

One of these changes I would like to make is recruiting people to write articles and share their own workouts. I feel as though only having my single perspective of fitness misses out on a wide variety of opinions and niches of the fitness world that is impossible for one person to cover. I feel as though having (a) partner(s) would help dramatically. If you have any ambition to either write an article or two, or write articles a few times a week, I plead that you contact me. 

Lately, I have turned to doing Deadlift and Back days twice a week. This has lead me to feel as though I have a bigger back as well as a stronger lower back and core. I was reading an article on bodybuilding.com that was talking about Deadlifting and how good it was for stimulating your whole body. In the middle of reading the article, I stopped and thought to myself, "Why have I not been deadlifting?" I couldn't give myself a logical reason. Sure, I thought about how I have a bad knee. That's just an excuse. It wasn't a reason I couldn't be doing one of the best lifts for my body. I finished the article, looked in the mirror and realized that my lower back was pitiful and needed to catch up to the rest of my back. The next day I did a workout similar to the one I did today. You can find this article here at http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/randy51.htm Just a nice article that is an easy to read personal informative narrative. 

If you want to get your whole body working and get that great feeling of just picking up heavy weights off the floor while getting an incredible workout. Try this.

My deadlift/ Back Workout looks like this-

50 Pull-ups any grip/ any form  for time 

3x4 Warm up Deadlifts

3x4 Work Load- Increasing 10kg each set

3x2 Work Load- Still Increasing 10kg each Set.

3x6 Pendlay Rows*

3x6 Single Arm Cable Rows

3x5 Lat Pull Down

3x6 T-Bar Row

*Pendlay Rows are like bent over barbell rows but In between each rep make sure you let the weight rest on the ground. Pull up the weight to your chest with an explosion. Remember to keep your back in an athletic position.