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.

Some days you realize it just isn't your day

Some days you realize that it just isn't your day. What matters is what you do to push through it. Some workouts will be, being blunt, terrible. What makes or breaks your workout is how you adapt. You should have an idea or a set plan of how you are going to spend the time during your workout. If you notice something about your plan isn't quite feeling right, change it on the fly.  Sometimes its just lowering your weight on a set and other times it is completely rearranging which lifts you will perform. People lift to make their body adapt. You can't let your mind be stagnant, adapt your thinking along the way.

Today I had a terrible workout today. I was groggy, tired, and not being at all productive beforehand and I tried to get that out of my head before I started. I just couldn't shake it. I couldn't do as many reps at weights that I've done many times. It just wasn't my day. I lowered my weights and kept going. I finished that and reassessed my whole workout plan. I changed it on the fly. I cut out four lifts and added in two others. I feel as though I maximized what I got out of my workout today for what my body was telling me I was able to put into it. Being "in tune" with what your body is telling you is one way to dramatically reduce injury and increase productivity.

Today's Workout-

Barbell Bench Press-
8x225
6x235
4x245<---failed.. blahh
6x225
4x225

Barbell Incline Press
2x4
2x6

Dumbbell Bench Press
3x6

Dips
15 Fast
3x10 Painfully slow

I leave you with a quote. Don't forget to follow me on twitter @fitness4life and please subscribe and comment.

We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.
-Author Unknown

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. 

Patience is a Virtue- Goals

When you don't achieve your goals right away, don't get discouraged. Transformations take time. When you are making goals it is important that you pick realistic timelines for completion. Your goals need to have a specific timeline as well. If you create a goal and say, "I'm going to achieve (blah blah) sometime in the next 3 months" you lose all credibility for that goal. You'r making it easy for yourself to put it off until the last month. Instead, say, "On this date (blah blah)  I will achieve (blah blah)." Set a realistic goal at a point that is challenging yourself a little but not too hard to accomplish. If you set a three month goal, and you don't achieve what you want after 3 weeks, you cannot get discouraged and just quit. You need to have determination and stay patient, results will follow. This advice can be used in any type of goals. Use it for your goals today.



Today's Workout-

3x5 Close Grip Bench
3x5 Squat
2x12 Skull Crushers
2x5 Dead Lift
2x8 One Arm Tricep Extension
2x8 Two Arm Tricep Extension
2x12 Tricep Pushdown

Abs-
2x20 Plate Twists
2x30 second Front- Side- Side Planks

Squats and Triceps

      Great combo right? Today's workout had me feeling nauseous most of the time. I kind of screwed up when I took my pre-workout compared to the last food intake I had, and that could have played a role in my nauseousness. Or it could have just been that it was the first time that I squatted to leg fatigue rather than knee fatigue in the last 8 months. It felt great, even though I felt like I was going to pass out after. I can't stress how good that makes me feel though. Every time I squat to that extreme I get a rush of energy running through me for the rest of the day. I get that workout high from squatting and that's why I like it.

Remember that compound exercises (exercises that use more than one muscle and joint) burn more calories and get better results with less reps. Another thing to keep in mind is that when you use your lower body in a lift you burn a lot more calories than upper body lifts. This is because your legs are (or should be) bigger than your upper body. Working your legs hard is better for fat loss than only working your upper body. If you want to get a better body faster, go do some squats. Do it.

You don't need to go to a gym to do squats. Do body weight squats, Grab something heavy around the house and hold that and squat. There are tons of ways to get around going to the gym. Utilize these ways.


Today's workout-

3x8 Close Grip Bench
2x10 Parallel Squats
2x10 Sumo Squat Jumps
2x10 Skull Crushers
2x8 Straight Leg Deadlift
2x10 Step-ups
2xFail Dips
2x10 Overhead Tricep Extensions
2x10 Tricep Pushdown

Abs
2x24 Plate Twist
2x24 Plate Oblique Dips
2x30 Three-way Planks

Pole Sculpt Review and Today's Workout

Pole Sculpt Review

Yesterday I went to try out the "Pole Sculpt" Class at the same place that I do ZUMBA. Going into it, I was nervous that I was going to have to spin around and such, like a stripper. I wasn't really excited for that idea and was happy when she explained that we wouldn't be spinning around like a stripper and would be climbing and holding our body weight up in different ways to work different muscles. When we were starting the instructor told us that we could use some sticky wax to help keep our grip, at first I thought that I would be fine. I was wrong. We had just finished ZUMBA and I was really sweating it up. I put the grip on and it helped quite a bit. It was still hard getting the hang of the grip techniques to prevent slipping and I was having a lot of trouble. The instructor said that eventually I would get much better and the gripping the pole would be easier. Looking past the grip aspect, the class was HARD. I could really feel the burn in my shoulders and arms as we were going along. My goal is to be able to do the flag (arms extended above your head with legs straight out horizontally) eventually so I will be going to these classes as much as possible. It was a good time and I would suggest it to anyone who wants to work hard at something.


The last few days I have been doing workouts twice a day and I've been feeling great. On Monday I went to the playground with a friend who is joining the army and we made up a workout on the spot and it turned out to be a really good workout. You don't need to go to a gym to get a workout. Just crossing the monkey bars can be a really good workout. You can do push-ups and pull-ups and dips and all sorts of exercises on playground equipment that you would normally do in gym. If you want to succeed, you have to be willing to do things that are out of your norm. Don't make excuses, you can go workout.


Today's Workout-


2 rotations of Max
          -Wide grip pullups, Narrow pullups, neutral grip pullups
3x10 Lat Pull Down
3x10 Lat Hammerstrength Row
3x8  Bent-over Rows
2x20 Back Extensions
2x 30 second Supermans

I'm about to go for a nice jog, I plan on running more and more to work my knee so that I can eventually run as much as I want without being sore. That's my goal right now.

Daily Workout-Power Clean Day and Zumba Review

Power Clean Day-

       ZUMBA Review

    Last night I attended my first ZUMBA class and, to say the least, it was interesting. It had me sweating pretty quickly. It reminded me that I can't even pretend to dance, yet it was fun trying. My legs were burning after only a little bit. Now that I think about it, I probably got a better workout out of it because jumping movements are really hard for me still most of the time. The answer to the question "Were you the only guy?" is yes, I was. It was a little awkward but it felt like a good enough workout that it's worth going to. I feel as though it will help me with my rehab to get back to being able to hop, jump, and cut. My knee was very sore from all the hopping movements that are all over in the class. I feel that if I go a few more times I will be able to actually do all the movements rather than just getting a little overwhelmed in my inability to dance. I would definitely go again. Even if I feel awkward shaking my hips around. 

  Today I had my last therapy and worked really hard there and then went and had a great workout with some varsity football players. I forgot how much I like to Power Clean. There isn't many exercises that make me feel the same way as when I Power Clean. My legs get tired and my arms get droopy, but it makes me feel great afterwards. It was a great day for working out and my body feels fantastic. Check out everything I did between my two workouts below. 

  As I'm still working on how to get the page with exercise descriptions up and running. The link below is a link to show how to properly do a Power Clean.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PowerClean.html

Today's Workouts-

     

    Therapy-

       Do everything for as long as possible

       

       Bosu Ball Squats

       Bosu Ball Squat Medicine Ball catches

       Bosu Ball Side and Front Lunges

       Box Toe Taps

       Box Jumps

   Workout-

   

     2x8 Power Clean

     4x5 Straight Bar Curls

     Abs

          2x20 Plate twists, 2x20 Plate dips, 2x 30 Second Front, Side, Side Plank.

     Hang Clean Progession (Shrugs, Upright Rows, Hang Clean)

     2x Fail Gorilla Curls/ Hammer Curls

     3x10 Straight Leg Dead Lifts

       

Bench DAYYYYYYYYY! and Legs

Bench Day, and some Legs.

     Today was bench day, my favorite day of the week. Everything went alright.. I failed on my last rep but besides that everything went well. I didn't get quite as much weight as I wanted to get but it felt like it was an alright for the amount that I've benched in the last few weeks. My knee felt great doing the workouts I did today. When it gets sore, it doesn't stay sore for as long as it had in the past. I think I'm coming to the homestretch on my recovery. I ran a little bit after lifting and my knee still feels fine. In a little while I am going to be attending my first real ZUMBA class of my life. I'm a little worried, I think it'll be fun. I'm not really sure how great of a workout it will be, but I think that I am always willing to try anything. My mom just signed my sister and I up for unlimited fitness classes for the next 2 months. Classes include Yoga, Zumba, Core, Pilates and Pole Sculpt classes. I intend to try all of them so be watching for updates on how they go. Have any of you tried any of these types of classes and have a review of how they are? Comment below. :) P.s. Thanks Mom :)

    I am still working out how to get the page with descriptions of each workout up. I've hit a few roadblocks that I have to maneuver around. For now, if you don't know what a lift is check out.http://www.exrx.net/Exercise.html or google the exercise name with "description" after it and pick the exrx link. Very helpful website with tons of information.




Today's Workout-

3x 10  Platform Step ups
Abs
   -V Situps
   -Leg in and outs
3x 10/8/6 Bench Press
3x8 Front Squat
3x10 Hammer Strength Dead Lift
2x 20 Incline and Decline Pushups


I'm off to go Zumba. (Can Zumba be a verb?) I will have an update on my opinions of it tomorrow. Wish me luck. Lots and lots and lots of luck.

Daily Workout- Hang Clean Day

Hang Clean Day-

    As always I am more than happy to take criticism on what I write about and how I go about doing things on this blog. Today my sister suggested that most readers wouldn't know what some of the lifts that I write about are and how to properly perform them. She suggested that I create a separate page on this blog to list a description of all the lifts I put in posts. In the next few days I will be hopefully (barring design difficulties) implementing this. I believe that this step will make my page and my writing more appealing to the casual onlooker. I am open to any ideas I receive so please, if you have a suggestion, comment or tweet at me to let me know at @fitness4student.

     Today's workout has me more sore than I have been in a long time. The combination of my knee problems and simply not doing a lot of hang clean recently is going to take its toll on me tomorrow morning. Good thing I'm planning on attending yoga in the morning to have my active rest day activity. Reminder if you haven't read my blog from last fall about yoga here is a link. http://collegestudentfitness.blogspot.com/2012/10/yoga-classes-my-experiences-and-health.html

     It is important even on a lifting rest day to get some sort of exercise in and yoga is a perfect option for that. So go out tomorrow, be active, have fun. I know that's my plan for tomorrow. Don't be sedentary, be active and be on the lookout for the new page with descriptions of all the lifts. Until then, I believe I am using common enough names to google and be successful finding what you need


Today's Lifts-

      3x10 Hang Clean to Front Squat
      3x12 Pectoral Fly  with Max Set of Push-ups following each
      2x5 Single Arm Dumbbell Clean and Press- Each Arm
      2x Shoulder Series
             5-10lb Weights   Arm lifts- Palm down in front, Palm up  in front,
              Palm down to the sides and Iron Cross ( Hold weights out in a "T" at shoulder level)
      3x5 Hang Clean Progression( Shrugs, Upright Row, Hang Clean)
   
      Abs- 2x24 Each
             Sitting Leg In and Outs
             V- Leg touches


Have a great rest of your day.

Daily Workout- Triceps and Legs- In Gym

Tricep and Leg Workout- In Gym
     
          Today was a very nice workout and had me pouring sweat for most of it. As with yesterday's workout credit goes to my high school strength coach. It was a nice variety of different lifts to compliment each other. The order of lifts for the week plays on each other nicely so it never seems like you are going to over exert a muscle. It has been a great week for workouts and I'm very excited to be back blogging about my hard work. It gives me an extra reason to be active and do what I already love doing. I have received a great deal of support from people and that reinforces the idea that this is a good thing. I thank you all for reading and hope that you get some sort of motivation out of it. I hope that everyone can find the time in their schedule to make working out a habit.


        "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." ~ Aristotle


      Today's Workout-

           3x8 Close Grip Bench Press
           3x8 Squat
           3x8 Skull Crushers
           2x20 Plate Twists
           2x20 Plate Oblique Dips Each Arm
           2x 30sec Push-up Plank/ Side Planks
           2x Failure Dips
           3x12 Tricep Pushdown
           3x8 Straight Leg Dead Lift


      Go out and be active and get a workout in. If you haven't been working out, there is no time like today to start. Follow me at @Fitness4student for motivational quotes throughout the day.

Daily Workout- Back

Back Workout-

   Today I was lucky enough to lift in my high school weight room that I am still in love with. I've never been in a weight room that made me feel as at home. It has the right amount of free weights as well as an abundance of Hammer Strength machines. You just don't get the same kind of lift out of pulley machines as you do out of a hammer strength machine. I also missed the atmosphere that is created in that weight room. I am going in a few minutes to do some cardio so working out is on top of my mind right now. I'm just trying to get into the zone right now. I cannot take credit for this workout, my high school strength coach created it and it reminded me of how much I liked (and hated at the same time) going to lift at his workouts. These type of intense workouts are important for building your body to be ready to compete in an athletic sport. The lowered rest time that is expected in between each set really helps for your muscle endurance. 

    My Workout Today-

            Warmup- Agility ladders

 (as fast as you can, for me and my knee that turns out to be pretty slow.)

          -3x6 Pull-ups (Wide grip, Narrow grip, Neutral grip)(3 sets each)

          -3x8 Bent over rows

          -3x8 Hammer Strength Lat Pull down

          -3x20 Calf Raises

          -3x8 Hammer Strength Row

          -2x20 Back Extensions

          -2x30 second superman holds

          -4x20 (sit-ups, crunches, scissor kicks in a row)

I can tell you that I was beat because the pace that we went at for this workout makes it tough. One after the other, short breaks. It really got the sweat going. 

My cardio later will most likely be minute intervals on the ARC machine. Please comment, follow, share my blog with all of your friends. It would be much appreciated. Check back tomorrow for my daily workout. 

5 Easy Weight Loss Tips to Help You Today

5 Easy Weight Loss Tips to Help You Today

          Sometimes all you have to do to start towards your weight loss goals is stumbling across a well put together list of easy things you can do to lose weight. Recognizing this, I decided to put together a list of tips that I personally find very helpful.


      1. Eat Less: Often times changing your entire diet is difficult. You have to move slow and not make too drastic of changes. Instead of changing your entire diet, to start your way to weight loss just eat a little bit less. A wrestling coach I had in high school one told me and a friend, when we were contemplating eating barely nothing to make weight, that it wasn't a smart idea and we had to do it a better way, he said, "Think about how much you eat normally. Every meal only eat half as much as you normally eat. You can survive on half of what you eat now, and this is much better than just not eating." If you listen to your body, you don't ever need to be extremely full. Instead of the 4 pieces of pizza you eat and feel really full after, eat 2. The pounds will start melting off.

    2. Drink Water: There are many reasons why drinking water can help you lose weight.
                -To burn calories efficiently, you body must have enough water.
                -If you feel hungry at a non-mealtime, you can drink a glass of water to curb the hunger.
                -Drinking water with a meal can make you feel more satisfied with less food.
                -Dehydration harms your ability to exercise. To have a better workout, drink more water.
                   
    3. Eat More Protein: You should be eating protein with every meal. It will help your muscles repair themselves nicely as well has fight off hunger pangs better. Try for a 40%/40%/20%  split of
Complex Carbs/Proteins/Fats. Try to stick to the leaner proteins, turkey over ham, fish over steak.


    4. Do High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): Interval training is the new wave of fat-loss Cardio. The best way to burn fat isn't to jog for an hour in your fat loss zone, the best way to lose fat is to burn more calories. In a 16 minute HIIT you can burn more calories than an hour at steady pace. Along with more calories burned during the exercise, HIIT ramps up your basal calorie output for hours after you are done working out. You need to remember that the majority of your daily calories burned are outside of the gym. If you can raise the amount burned outside of the gym by spending less time IN the gym, I think that's maximizing your efforts.

   5. Weight Train: Girls, I'm going to say this once right now but I will say it a thousand more times. LIFTING HEAVY WEIGHTS WILL NOT MAKE YOU LOOK LIKE A BODY BUILDER. If you want to "Tone" your muscles and tighten up areas that you aren't happy with, LIFT WEIGHTS. Weight training is essential for building a lean body. If you only do cardio to lose weight, the majority of your weight lost will be in muscle mass. You can't look lean and toned if you don't have any muscle. You can only look skinny. Being overly skinny is not the current trend and I think that it should stay that way. No one wants a twig. Having more muscle, increases your basal caloric output, or how much calories you burn just sitting around. To maintain your muscles, your body has to burn more calories and in turn will help you lose fat easily.

Go ahead and hit that like button, share this on facebook and twitter. Comment below and I will field any questions that come up.

 I will be going to workout soon here. My workout post will come shortly after that. Be well.

Therapy and Leg Day- Opportunity

Therapy Day-

     Today I had therapy for my leg. I was finished with therapy for awhile but I was at a point where I was allowed to go further into exercises such as jumping and I had no idea where to start. Going back to therapy has given me a better baseline to know what I am actually capable of doing. It has helped a lot and I am very happy with the decision to go back. Having someone telling you what to do and wanting to push yourself to the limit in their guidance is a very good way to reach your full potential. This brings me to an important tip.

Choose a Workout Partner Who Motivates You

     If your current workout partner isn't motivating you to
                 1. Go to the Gym  2. Work Hard 3. Stay Focused.
    you need to pick a new partner. There are people out there that better suit your goals. Pick someone who doesn't let you skip a workout you had planned. Pick someone who doesn't just want to talk to you the whole time instead of doing work. Pick someone who is better than you to ask for a little help. If you lift with someone who can lift a lot more than you, strive to be them. Different people offer different incentives of being their workout partner. Weigh the options and pick the best one for you.

      Therapy today consisted of-
       
       10 minutes on the Elliptical
       Walking lunge with medicine ball twists
       Resistance Band Back Pedaling
       Resistance Band Karaoke Drills
       Resistance Band Side Shuffles
       Leg Press Until Fatigued
       Balance Exercises
       Step ups- Right leg Left leg up then Right leg Left leg down
                  As fast as you can for about a minute.
       10 minute cool-down on the stationary bike



    Today I locked in the privilege to work with my high school football team in the weight room and I am more than ecstatic about it. Just being in the weight room that I love the most made me jump into a group and start lifting with them. While I was in there I got a text from a teammate that said "Raider Pride til You Die" and I would have to agree. I miss being in competitive sports and this is an opportunity to stay in touch with the program that gave me so much as well as help out the next generation.

Revival- Comeback

Revival-Rehab

  

             I am back. I've been away from this for far too long and I've been waiting for the right time to get back at it. For the last 6 months I have been rehabbing an ACL reconstruction and meniscus trimming. I had been living injured for the 2 months before I had the surgery, hoping that I wouldn't have to have my second ACL reconstruction of my life and it would just heal by itself. It didn't heal.. So I am still on the long recovery back (congrats Adrian Peterson for being a much better healer than I am). Knowing the things I learned from my first blown-out knee helped me dramatically to stay in better shape and in a better frame of mind. My first injury is what started the slow spiral to my 40 pound weight gain. I was determined to not let my body take that kind of abuse again. 

          6 months later, my right quad is still about half the size of my healthy left quad. This is the driving force in my workout plans currently. I have to be very careful still with my cardio. I just received the okay to start jumping a few weeks ago. While I am allowed to jump, I am not allowed to cut athletically yet and won't be cleared to play any athletic sport for a couple of months. This is a byproduct of a second ACL reconstruction as well as a byproduct of having a cadaver graft for the ACL which takes a little bit longer to heal. 

        My workout plans now are based on Upper-body switching off with Lower-body each day taking rest days on Wednesday if I feel sore and resting the majority of Saturdays and Sundays. I am currently doing all of the upper-body muscle groups every day that I work upper-body and the same for lower-body. I am working in modifications each day so I never do the exact same workout two days in the same week.

        The majority of my training has been molded into sets of 6-12 depending on the day with 2-3 sets of each workout. A lot of my lower body workouts I have been doing single leg variations of exercises so that my body is unable to try and cheat and let my healthy leg take the most of the weight. I also try to work a little bit extra in my right leg to try to catch up as much as I can. 

        Today was an upper-body day, and I am in a different gym for the summer and I'm starting to get into a good routine in this gym. Going to this gym means there is less free weights and more machines. I try my best to do as many lifts on the dumbbells as I can. Before the last month I had not used dumbbells as much as I wanted to. The only thing I am really missing for free-weights is being able to bench. There is something about having a good bench-press Monday that just makes life seem to have a little extra color in it. I just have to work my muscles in a different way and, to be honest, this isn't too much of a bad thing. It gives me a chance to confuse my muscles. 

         My workout today-

                        6 Minute warm-up on the stationary bike

                        

                        3x8 Dumbbell Shoulder Press

                        3x8 Pull-ups (use assisted pull-up if a guy was on it forever and you had to do it last instead of second in your workout..tsk tsk)

                        2x20 Dips (close to failure)

                        3x8 Bicep Curls

                        3x8 Lat Pull-Down

                        3x10 Tricep Pushdown

                        8 minutes on the Arc trainer 1 minute intense intervals 

         Sometimes all you need is a little prod of inspiration to get you out there working to improve your health. This blog had been such an inspiration to me knowing that people were reading what I did in the for my workout each day. This made me excited to create new workouts to try and test out.It gave me the prod that I needed to work that little bit harder. If reading my blog can give that inspiration to a single person, I would be overjoyed. I may have a new body part in my knee, but I'm still the same person who wants to be the biggest help that I can be. I am more than willing to respond to questions in the comment section. I would actually be overjoyed to know that I could be of some help. So please, do NOT hesitate to comment. 

                       

Day 8- Body Weight Exercises

Today was the hard day of this week. It involved entirely too many push-ups for my liking. Yet, I feel as though my numbers in pull-ups and push-ups are going to increase dramatically by the end of this month. Workouts that I had done that were way too hard, seem easier now and that makes me want to keep pushing myself.  I'm really enjoying the feeling of exhaustion that I have been getting from every workout in this plan. I intend on keeping it going, and increasing the difficulty of the workouts dramatically still.

Day 8-

           -Super sets- 4x    8 Pull-ups  then 10 Push-ups
                            - 2x    4 Pull-ups  then 20 Push-ups
                            - 4x     8 Inverted Body Rows then 10 or 20 push-ups. Alternate.

            -Cardio/ More Push-up like activities-
                            -10 Push-ups   then 10 alternating push-up plank knee to outside of elbow
                            -Jog 1/2 lap  Run 1/2
                            -repeat 5x  with push-up planks in between.
                            -Cool-down and stretch

Day 7- Body weight exercises

After a good weekend of rest, it felt nice to get back on the grind. I had less of a strict workout today but it was still great. I had yoga today and it was an excellent workout. For cardio today I had a basketball game. Playing basketball (talented or not) is a great workout. Just following the game up and down the floor is a great interval workout.

Today I only had two strength workouts. Push-ups and abs.

5x 20 Push-ups
5x 5 Pike to roll-outs

Alternated. Felt great. Tomorrow is going to be a tough day. Come back for tomorrow's plan. Stay motivated. Stay grinding.

Body Weight Exercise- Day 4- Abs and Pull-ups

I feel as though I accomplished my goals for yesterday. My workout last night made me regret picking to live on the fourth floor. Stairs have been painful and tiring last night as well as today. But it is a reminder that I am going to get better and feel better as this month goes on. Not to be cliche or anything but, No pain No gain. 

Today's plan is mostly just to rest up and loosen up and get some ab work and cardio in. We'll only be doing a few sets of Pull-ups and only because it's important to keep the volume of Pull-ups up in the first part of this challenge so that we can end up moving to higher and higher amounts. I feel that a full days rest from them is enough to be able to get a nice benefit from a few sets today. 

As this month is fully underway as of now, I have been trying to eat healthier and less than I had been the weeks leading up to it. Choosing a turkey burger rather than pizza. Wraps instead of subs. Water instead of Juice. Getting to a healthier point in your life is all about making choices. If you can get yourself to make a healthier option, do it. You will probably benefit from it. I have been processing a few ideas for diet plans and such that I feel I would benefit from immensely. I just have to talk my mind into being able to follow it for the period of time necessary. 

Two options that I am considering starting soon are: Vegetarian or Low-Carb. 

I'll be the first to admit that I love a good burger or a steak or some pasta and potatoes... oh french fries. I also know that both of these diets could help me lose a significant amount of fat that I'd love to lose still. If I end up doing the vegetarian option, I will still be using my protein post-workout, and I'll probably still drink milk and eat eggs. I'm not going to go vegan, that's just nuts. I couldn't do that to myself. I'm contemplating both of these options and I do not know if I'll try either or maybe I'll try both. Who knows. Just weighing the options. If any of you have any suggestions, comments, questions. Just post in the comment section. I'm looking for opinions if you have any. 

Thursday- Day 4- 

Warm-up: 5 minute Exercise bike. 

4x8 Pull-ups. 

5x5 Exercise ball Pike-to- Rollout

4x20 Crunches

4x45 second Push-up planks

4x20 V-Sit ups

4x10 each side   Push-up Plank  knee to opposite elbows. 

30 Minutes Bike or Elliptical for Cardio work. 

Work hard because hard work pays off. 

Body Weight Exercises- Day 3

Yesterday was a really rough workout but I made it through it. I am very hopeful that this month is going to be really beneficial to me after experiencing how hard this month is going to be yesterday. This morning I ache in spots that I haven't ached in since high school. It feels great, since I have been bulking hard the last four months, I haven't felt a really good sore morning in awhile. I missed the feeling and I'm very excited to keep going.

Today's workout will be focusing mostly leg workouts. My goal is to have my legs feel like jelly tomorrow.


Day 3- Leg day.
        -Warm-up Jog 5 minutes
        -Body squats   4x 30
        -Walking Lunges- 5x 20 steps
        -Exercise Ball Hamstring Pull in- 5x15
       
        -Running/Wall sits-   4x  Run a lap(7 lap mile track), Wall sit (45 seconds).

        -Stretch and Cooldown

Reflection on Body Weight Exercises- Day 2

After completing my first body weight exercise, I have decided I needed to reflect on the experience. I am completely surprised on how extremely hard this days work out was. I was flirting with the real possibility that I was not going to be able to finish it. I feel as though a month of workouts at this intensity level will really be able to give me the real possibility of hitting every single one of my goals for this experiment. Over the course of the workout I found myself having to hold myself back for a few extra seconds rest here and there because otherwise I was going to fail on the exercise.


Super sets consisting of:
             -5x 6 Pull-ups and 10 Push-ups
                      - Alternate wide grip/ normal grip on pull-ups, Alternate Narrow/Normal Push-ups
              -5x 15 Dips and 5 push-ups
                   These were by far the hardest. Close to failure at the end of each set.

             -5x 10 Inverted Body weight row and 10 push-ups
 Normal sets of:
             -5x 8 Hanging Leg Lifts
             -5x 20 Decline Sit-ups
             -1x Max Pull-ups-----3
             -1x Max Push-ups-----32

With a max of 17 Pull-ups rested.. I feel as though I should have been able to get more than three. I guess this just gives me a place to start. If you are going to try and follow this, make sure that you focus on form as much as possible so that you don't end up hurting yourself trying to go past a point that you should not cross.  Please subscribe to me, and come back daily for new content. I'll post my workout for tomorrow for everyone hopefully in the morning some point. :)

Body Weight Exercises Day 1

Body Weight Exercises-

As I said, I've been getting a lot of talk generated about how I should guide options more geared towards the female contingency, this is one of the reasons that I am going to use my body as a tool and as an experiment to further my knowledge of how different workout styles can benefit you. I have been on a workout plan that almost entirely involves heavy weights and lower repetition. I am at a point that I feel I am getting burnt out by this. My shoulder has been aching chronically, so much so that I have been electing to skip sets while bench pressing. (Benching is my favorite workout.) I also feel as though I have burned myself out a little bit mentally. It has become harder and harder to entice myself into these hard heavy weight workouts. I have been bulking hard muscle-wise for far too long I feel.  I also  feel as though I need to throw something else at my body and mind to overcome this type of burnout. 

This being said, for the next 30 Days I will be going on an all body weight workout schedule.  I am going to try and develop a workout that helps me tone and strengthen my body in a way that I have not done before. This is an attempt to be a well rounded person, Physically and Mentally. I feel as though this type of workout will provide me a wealth of knowledge on different types of workouts. To do this challenge I will have to go around and do the research necessary to produce an effective workout plan. I hope that you can join me in this 30 day challenge/experiment that I'm going to be putting myself through as well as follow my process and my feelings during this journey. I will be taking stats at frequent intervals so I can then possibly come up with a graph of successes/failures. 

At the beginning of this endeavor I feel as though the higher repetition nature of my challenge is going to improve me by raising the level of muscle endurance I have. The amount of muscle endurance I have in my own opinion is quite atrocious. I also believe that the amount of fat-burn associated with this workout plan will help chisel my body down closer to my goal appearance. 

Day #1- Testing 

Today I will be testing certain areas that I believe will be gauges on how I am improving over the course of this challenge.

I will be testing in a few different areas- 

Pushups- 56 

Pullups- 17

Lunges- 51

Body weight squats- 56

Weight- 200.0 Pounds 

If you would like to join along, make sure that when you are doing these tests, you do not sacrifice form trying to get higher results. These tests will be maxes/ burnouts. I understand that you use some of the same muscles in other tests and that you may not score as high in the others as a result. Just make sure every time you test you go in the same order so you can still see the improvement. Enjoy, because I know that I am very excited to try something new. I will also be doing Cardio workouts along the way approximately 3 days a week. As always feel free to comment and ask questions whenever you feel like you need clarification.

Come back tomorrow to see my workout for the day. :)