Yesterday was a lower body workout day. It was a day that kind of took me off guard and now looking back I laugh at it. But I go to a great LA Fitness Gym where they have all the equipment you could imagine. I went through my 50 minute workout doing the typical exercises I do. I thought that I should do an extra 10 minutes on a leg machine that they have that works the inner thigh as well as your outer thigh. It was like I said the end of my workout and between sets I went to talk to someone and this meathead guy maybe 15 years younger and pretty buff, comes over, gets on the machine - raises the weight two more plates (pins) and cranks out 10 reps, looks at me and walks away.
I felt dissed so I go back to the machine and raise the weight another 2 plates and crank out another 10 reps. Ha you meathead - try that - and I'm probably 15 years older than you. It felt good and really boosted my pride. I try to stay away from free weight because that is a young guys game, So the machines work well for me and keep me injury free.
Well that was yesterday and today I'm just a bit sore, but its a goooooooodddddd sore. I like it. I guess I needed that push. Hopefully I will get to know him, I'm a regular at the gym and this was the first time I ran across this character. I try to make a point of getting to know the regulars as well as all the trainers. Its like my home away from home.
Everyone has some sort of stress in their life. It could come from work, social issues, family, financial, health and all different areas I may not have touched on. But we all have some stress in our lives, some more than others. Plus we all deal with stress in a different manner. Working out, either a cardio or weight lifting reduces stress a lot. My question is, when you work out knowing there is stress in your life, do you use it as a focal point in order to get rid of the stress or do you just focus on the workout itself so that you forget about the stress. I have done both depending on the situation. Sometimes I am mad and take my workout on this issue and I get a super intense workout. Other situations make me totally forget what I am stressed about and working out gives me a sense of calm. Let me know how you deal with this issue of stress and your workout.
This morning I was up at 5:30 to get to the gym by 6:00 AM to do my lower body workout. Let me tell you that it is a completely different crowd at the LA Fitness I go to that time of the day. It seems that most people there are in a bit of a rush to workout because they have to be at work by 8. You could see it in their workout, there was minimal socializing. People were working out, not having a funout or playout, but a true workout.
That's the neat thing about following the Body For Life Program. The upper and lower body workout should be done under 50 minutes. 3% of you total time during the week. You are getting a cardio workout while weight training. I was in at 6 and left by 6:50. Fifty minutes- done. I was focused, prepared and even though it was early I hit some 10s. Some sooner than when I wanted and sometimes I didn't hit a 10. When I was doing leg extensions I never hit my 10, even as I incresed weight. Conversely when I was doing leg curls I felt even at the lower weight with the 12 reps my legs were maxing out. All in all it was a greaqt workout. It set my metabolism for the day. It also freed up the balance of my day to focus on work, or other things that mattered.
There are 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week, that is a total of 10,080 minutes per week.You should workout no more than 50 minutes a day for 6 days with one day off. That is a total of 300 minutes or 3% of your total weekly time that you have. Working out really doesn't take too much time, so don't tell me you don't have the time to fit it in.
This morning I started my upper body workout as specified in Bill Phillips book. I was up early and started my workout at 6:00AM. As I mentioned yesterday, I have been going to LA Fitness to do my upper body workout doing split workouts. I would do PUSH parts one day and two days later I would do PULL exercises. I would get to the gym whenever it was conveniant, lunchtime or after work. NO MORE!
My workouts are first thing in the morning. With the program BP lists, I only have to do two chest exercises or two different exercises per body part. In my basement, I have a Smith machine, lat machine, pec deck , dumbells and barbells. So for chest, I did flat benches and then I finished it off with flys on the pec deck.
Now, I felt rushed a bit in that since this was the first time I have done a complete upper body workout at one time and I wasn't sure about how much weight to use per exercise. There were some exercises that I hit my 10s when I was supposed to, others I maxed out to early. But you know what, by logging everything, weight, reps, intensity -- when I do the same workout this Saturday, I will hit the numbers right, and there will be minimal guesswork. Funny thing is that when I was done, I finished in 47 minutes.
But what is so different this time, than 9 years ago, or even yesterday? Well, a lot of things: I am following a path that so many people have found very successful. It was very much different working the whole upper body. When I was done, I looked in the mirror and saw something different that I haven't seen in a long time. Typically, with a PUSH/PULL cycle only 1/2 of the upper body parts are pumped up. After today's workout, my whole upper body was pumped! My body looked so different than just having the chest and shoulders look good or the biceps and back looking good. Everything looked great. I hope you will agree when I post my week two photos.
9 years ago, I had a hard time working out first thing in the morning, it's called raising a family. I had good result then, but this time I will have great results. I really do miss those times and I have two fabulous children, but a certain responsibility comes with that territory. Now they are in college and I miss them, but now I get to focus more on me. Getting up for the 6:00AM workout was different, but when done I know it was well worth it. I felt it and I saw it.
Tomorrow I will head to LA Fitness to do my next upper body workout and it's my Pull Day workout. I will keep my workout to under an hour and try to get in at least 45 minutes. I plan on being at the gym by 10:30 in the morning. First on the list is attacking the back. For this, I will start off with a seated back/lat pulldown to the front of my chest. I'll start off with some light weight (125lbs) doing 12 reps. I'll add 25 pounds and do 10 reps after about almost a minute rest and keep on adding weight until on the 4th set I'm doing 6 reps. I'll then lighten up and squeeze out the reps until I'm done.
Next, I'll move on to seated rows on any of several machines they have, whichever is open I'm fine with. The next exercise I'll do is Pulldowns which really hit the lats hard. Same technique, same weight setup. I'll end it with a standing straight arm pulldown. This one really helps build up the core muscles or stabilizing muscles.
I move onto biceps. The first exercise I do is standing single dumbbell curls, increasing weight while reducing reps. I'll start off with 25's x 12 - 30's x 10 - 35's x 8 - 40's x 6 and now back to the 25's and squeeze off what I can. Now I will use a straight bar and do standing barbell curls. This is so different than using an easy curl bar. Same weight and rep principle. To finish off the muscle group I will do forearm flexes using a cable machine whereby I curl my wrists in both directions, forward and back. Get them burning.
My last pull of the day is neck/traps. For this I do shoulder shrugs with dumbbells. I grab the 50's x 12 - 55's x 10 - 60's x 8 - 65's x 6 then back to 50s and do what I can until fried. Done. Finished. Totally burned out. All under 1 hour, typically 50 minutes.
My Secret: wear headphones and listen to good motivating music and tune everyone out. I have a log book where I will spell out my workout. I will plan my workout and follow my plan. 123 -- done. Don't get distracted and focus on you goal and that is to be stingy with your workout time. Talk afterward, but when you are working out, stay focused, and treat it as though it's a job, not a hobby, and you will see better results.
I follow a pretty typical Body For Life Program. I spend 3 alternate days lifting weights and three alternate days doing cardio. Let's start off on Monday. With weight training, I limit my time to no more than 60 minutes. That's it -- no more. But it's a totally focused 60 minutes using a log book or planner, with every body part, exercise, weight, rep spelled out. I do this so I don't have to think about what weight amount or how many reps I want to do. It is pretty much spelled out for me. I plan it, I schedule it, and I am totally focused on my workout. I listen to my iPod and tune out most distractions.
Monday is my PUSH day. First Chest, then Shoulders, then Triceps. Done.
For chest I do straight bench, then I will do either incline or decline, and my last set is flys of various types depending on what machine is available. I always do 5 sets per exercise starting with light weights and increasing the weight until I could only do 6 reps on set 4, then on set 5, I go back to original weight and squeeze out what I can.
For shoulders, I start with a straight-seated press or do an Arnold Press; I follow up with front cable raises or dumbbell raises, and finish off with side or rear shoulder raises. Sets and reps like above.
I then move to triceps. I do standing tricep extensions. Next, I will do kickbacks with free weights, or single-arm reverse tricep extensions, or I use a rope and do standing tricep extensions. My favorite is where I kneel in front of a bench or lie down on the ground and use an overhead cable and do tricep pushdowns. This really isolates the triceps. Toward the end I'll add negatives with this and you will be in some major pain the next day.
Tomorrow I will talk about my pull days and then my lower body workout. But no matter what your workout is, write it down, look at it after your workout and plan your next workout. Write down how it worked for you, where you need to add weight, reduce weight, add more reps or less reps, but again and most importantly -- have a game plan.
My body looked so different than just having the chest and shoulders look good or the biceps and back looking good. Everything looked great. I hope you will agree when I post my week two photos.
