Today's Workout: Bench Press (dumbbells): 75x5x5 Wide-grip Pull-ups: BWx5x5 Standing OHP (barbell): 85x5x5 Pistol Squats: BWx5x5 I got back to my regular schedule today by doing a compound-exercise workout. I'm really pleased with my progress, especially with my ability to do proper pistol squats. My form is a little shaky--mainly due to balance--but I was able to go fully down on one leg (hamstring touching calf) and back up without letting my other leg touch the ground. On the last few it was hard as hell getting back up, and I admit to letting out a decently loud grunt as I dug out of the squat. I'm certainly not as cut as I want in terms of body fat, but I'm definitely feeling the strongest I've been since I started working out in 2012. My weakest area now is definitely my core, so I'm going to keep focusing on that by doing planks, side planks, leg raises, and other similar exercises. I like to think I look pretty strong, too, because I'm getting asked to spot people quit a bit more lately.
Today's Workout: Incline Bench (dumbbells): 65x5x5 Seated OHP (dumbbells): 55x5x5 Deadlifts: 155x5x5 Inside-grip Pull-ups: BWx5x5 100 crunches Stretching for lower back/legs I had a good workout today, despite being really tired. My 2nd job (teaching Mon/Wed evenings) started last night so I didn't get as much sleep as I have been. I was off teaching for nearly 2 months, so it'll take a bit of time to readjust to having 13 - 14 hour work days and getting home later on Mon/Wed. Sadly I just realized that I'm out of coffee, so I'm going to have to make it the rest of the day without my usual afternoon cup.
I teach English as a second language at a local community college. My degrees are in applied linguistics, so it's technically my field of expertise (plus I really enjoy it). I'd like to move into it full-time at some point, but until then I do it part-time just to keep it on my resume and keep building up experience/connections. Today's Workout: No workout today. Super busy with work today, and the little time I was going to use to slip over to the apartment complex gym at lunch ended up being used to clean beet juice off of my car's back seat. Here's hoping the smell is only temporary. On the plus side, I restocked my coffee and wine supplies.
Today's Workout: Flat Bench: 180x5x5 Grok Squats: BWx5x10 Standing OHP (barbell): 90x5x5 Planks: 5 at 35sec each Reverse rows: BWx5x7 Stretching for lower back/legs Another great workout, and I continue to feel stronger and stronger every day. Although I think that has more to do with the fact that I eat pretty cleanly 80% of the time nowadays, so I don't get that bloated, sluggish feeling very often. I upped my flat bench by 5 pounds, from 175 to 180, so I'll stay at that level for a week or two before upping to 185. Similarly, I upped my standing OHP from 85 to 90, and did 5 sets of 5 without any real problems. I'll probably wait a week or two and then up it to 95. I supersetted my bench with grok squats, and my OHP with planks for the sake of time, since I was working in a relatively short lunch break. I definitely felt the exhaustion of not having any real down time between sets.
Reducing down time between sets lowers the level at which your effort provides actual work. (I think I got that right.) Nice job.
I swear I posted a workout update yesterday, but the forum must have eaten it. Oh well. Today's Workout: 30 minutes of fairly intense (18 - 20mph) riding on the stationary bike. We just got several more inches of snow here in the D.C/Baltimore region, so it's going to be another month or so of the stationary bike. I don't have the winter gear necessary to take my bike out in the snow/cold, and since I only ride on trails I'd need a fat bike anyway to make it through the unplowed snow.
Today's Workout: Flat Bench Press (dumbbells): 70x5x5 Standing OHP (barbell): 90x5x5 Pistol Squats (body weight) Wide-grip Pull-ups 100 crunches I had to bang out a quick workout today, since I was super busy at work. Drove 15 minute to the gym, did the above-mentioned quick 30 minute workout by supersetting some stuff, and then drove 15 minutes home in time for a meeting. I need to move up to 75 pound dumbbells for flat bench, because I didn't struggle at all to do 5x5 at 70 pounds. Similarly, I need to up standing OHP to 95 pounds on the barbell because I was also able to crank out 5x5 without any problems. Tomorrow I'll be busy again, so I'll probably walk over to my complex's gym and do 20 minutes or so of isolation work and then 20 - 30 minutes on the stationary bike. Go away, snow!
Today's Workout: Wide-grip Pull-ups Cable Flyes Cable Woodchoppers Cable shoulder rotations 35 minutes on the stationary bike As is obvious by the cable exercises, I only had time to go over to my complex's gym today. Still, I got a decent workout in and hit my core, back, shoulders, and chest well enough that I think I'll be a bit sore tomorrow. Instead of doing leg work I decided to do some moderate-high cycling on the stationary bike. I'll probably do some arm and leg exercises tomorrow. I've more or less had my diet in check and I'm feeling great overall. It's incredible how much of a difference it makes what you put into your body, and the old adage of "you are what you eat" definitely rings true. Plus, pooping is a much more pleasant experience when you're not eating absurd amounts of processed carbs.
Today's Workout: Flat Bench Press (barbell): 185x5x5 Seated OHP (dumbbells): 55x5x5 Pistol Squats: BWx1x8 Reverse Flyes: 30x5x8 15 minutes of intense riding on the stationary bike For some reason I slept horribly last night. After laying down and falling asleep at midnight, I woke up at 3:00am and I was up until 6:00am. I woke up just before 9:00am for work, so I got about 6 hours to total sleep, but it was broken up and very restless. I have no clue why, because normally I sleep really well. Anyway, I struggled a bit in the gym but still hit my target for weight and reps. Now to grab some more coffee so I can make it through the rest of the day! I heard cinnamon tastes good in black coffee (and is healthy) so I'm going to give that a try here in a bit.
Today's Workout: Cable Woodchoppers Triceps Pulldowns Cable Curls 35 minutes of moderate intensity on the stationary bike Today was an isolation/cardio day. I went over to my complex's gym and did some work on the cable machine for core/arms and then got some cardio in on the bike. I registered for my first century of the year: 6 Pillars Century, which starts/ends in Cambridge, MD on May 2. It's a nice area, so hopefully the weather will be good enough to enjoy the ride. Now I just wish the snow would melt so I could get my bike out and start doing some real training rides!
Today's Workout: 45 minutes of moderate-high intensity on the stationary bike (18 - 20mph steady) I worked out last Thursday and Friday, but I was so busy I didn't have a chance to post it here. I wrote up half of a post on Friday afternoon detailing my workouts, but the shit hit the fan with work and I forgot to finish it and lost the post when I shut down my pc in a rush at the end of the day. Two people (out of 6 total) in my department recently quit, which means that much extra work for those of us remaining. I know for a fact that two more are sending out resumes. I have a job interview with a new company on Friday morning, so fingers crossed they'll be able to meet my salary demands and I can get out of here. I'd feel a little bad about leaving the department with only 1 - 3 people (depending if the other 2 manage to leave), but the company's decisions these last few months have led to the mass exodus. It's their own fault. I went a little overboard diet-wise on the weekend. It was my dad's birthday so we went to Texas Roadhouse, where I ate a full rack of ribs, fries, mashed potatoes, and about 4 or 5 biscuits with cinnamon butter. On Sunday I had some Reese's Puffs and Doritos. All-in-all, though, given that I so rarely eat that kind of carb-heavy food nowadays, I don't think it made much of a difference. I feel bloated today, but I don't really feel "fatter", if that makes any sense, despite the huge number of calories. I'm going to try and find time to get to the big gym for a proper barbell workout tomorrow. We'll see how things shake out, though. Worst case scenario I'll slip over to my complex gym and do some cable machine stuff.
Today's Workout: Hero's Journey Day 1 (see below) I was planning on hitting the gym for a full barbell workout today, but my old boss called me up and wanted to go out to lunch (which is usually my gym time). Since there is so much turmoil at work, I thought it would be good to get some networking in, so I went to lunch and had sushi. Anyway, as I was bored on a conference call I was looking around for some bodyweight home workouts I could do since I won't have time to get in a proper one. I came across a pretty cool workout program called Hero's Journey at this site. The way it works is each day has a 15 - 20 minute home bodyweight workout, and over 60 days you go through a hero's journey story, starting from setting out on your adventure on day 1 to defeating the final boss on day 60. Each day has some kind of themed workout, and your choices on some days affect your workouts later on. For example, on day 2 you meet a stranger in trouble, and if you decide to help you do one group of exercises and if you decide not to help you do a different group of exercises. On a later day, this choice of helping or not decides if you'll do extra exercises. I'm not going to replace any of my current workouts with it, since what I'm doing is working really well. Instead, I'm going to try to do it each day as a supplement. I think it will be useful because it involves lots of moves that I don't normally do, since I mostly stick with dumbbells/barbells, such as kicks, punches, mountain climbers, jumps, and pushup and squat variations. I took a progress photo today, as well. While I'm not too concerned about tracking stats and whatnot, since I'm starting this 60 day program, it seemed like a good time to take a quick progress picture.
Today's Workout: Flat Bench Press (barbell): 185x5x5 Seated OHP (dumbbells): 55x5x5 Wide-grip Pull-ups: 4 sets to failure 4 planks at 40 seconds each Hero's Journey Day 2 I managed to find time to get to the full gym today, so I did a solid, compound workout and hit my chest, back, shoulders, and core. After doing 100 body weight squats yesterday for Hero's Journey Day 1, I didn't do any dedicated leg work today. However, Day 2 consisted of knee raises and more squatting, so I got at least some leg work in nonetheless. I'll probably try to do some cardio tomorrow on the stationary bike with a bit of isolation work. It's going to be snowing all morning/afternoon supposedly, so I'll just walk over to my complex's little gym for it.
I looked at this last night, and I couldn't figure out how the site worked... damn you kids and your Interwebz!
