Exercise
I alternate daily with a "front and back" work out with legs and cardio mixed in somewhat randomly (I don't have leg exercise equipment besides deadlift with a barbell and lightweight squats). I try to mix things up often to keep my body guessing and to keep from getting into a boring routine. I'm also a little limited in what exercises I can do because of my lack of a "complete" home, but I've had good results with what I've had available to me, and I expand my equipment whenever I have the ability to.
If you see something here that you think I could change that would get me ever better results by all means speak up!
Example of Day 1
Warm Up/Stretch/Cardio
I stretch out by doing the same full-body stretches they teach you to do in elementary school. Touch your toes, stretch your back and arms, all that stuff. I then jump rope starting a slow pace and increasing speed up to a 100 count. I sometimes keep my heart-rate up through the work out by breaking sets with more 100 count jump rope sets.
For cardio I have a few options, those being jumping rope, running (which I hate), and riding a health rider while watching or listening to something. I personally hate doing cardio but it's been extremely beneficial, so I keep doing it.
I begin my warm up by doing 20 pushups (on my knuckles) while flexing my chest muscles and gently rotating my shoulders at the top of each count. I then put 135lbs on the bench and rep that slowly and evenly for 5-6 reps and two sets. I warm up my arms by doing slow arm curls with a light barbell.
Bench Press
Because I don't have a spotter I usually do drop sets until near-failure. A drop set begins at a high weight and is reduced by 5-10lbs each set. For the last week or so I've been starting at 205lbs and working down over 4-5 sets with 5 reps per set. I haven't been able to do a "real" max test (because of aforementioned lack of spotter) but I've been able to 215lbs on my own so far.
Arm Curls
Pretty straight forward of course. I do 4 or 5 sets of barbell and dumbell arm curls and occassionally do drop sets to failure.
Tricep Isolation
Normal tricep exercies with a barbell (laying on my back and raising the bar or standing and extending over my head).
Crunches
5 sets of 25 reps
Example of Day 2
Warm Up/Stretch/Cardio
Pretty much the same, though depending on the previous days work out I sometime skip the pushups and do something else (running in place, lunges, so on). I then warm up with a light weight for dead lifts and raises before moving into the actual work out.
Dead Lifts
Probably my weakest and most frustrating part of my work out. I'm barely lifting my weight, any tips to improve?
Shoulder Raises/Military Press
I'm pleased with my progress here and it's kind of difficult to NOT have good form while doing these exercises.
Dumbell Shoulder Lifts
The usual raising my arms in certain directions and poses to work different parts of my shoulders. I've been doing them with a 15lb dumbell (because that's all I have to work with) but need to buy more weight to move up and start building them.
Bent-Over-Rows
Straight wrecking my traps n stuff yo.
Reverse Crunches/Leg lifts
Again, 5x25
Going to be adding regular pull-ups to the routine today. Are pull ups an exercise to do daily or break up for best results?
Diet
Mostly I do portion monitoring for whatever is on the table so that Kimie doesn't have to cook seperately for me. At first it was somewhat disappointing to eat less and not "go for seconds", but now it's second nature. I've for all intents and purposes totally eliminated soda from my diet except for the occasional Coke while out to lunch with co-workers and whatnot, other than that I drink water almost exclusively.
Breakfast
For breakfast I usually have simple and fruits and vegetables or a Whey Protein shake mixed with skim milk. Occasionally I'll have some cereal or whatever the rest of the family is having in regulated portions.
Lunch
Fish, Chicken, turkey, and occasionally beef. Most often I build a heavy on the veggies and light on the "other stuff" salad using leftovers from the fridge. Recently we found these aweomse Trout (fish) servings from the freezer that are low in fat and taste great, I need to buy more.
Dinner
I usually work out in between the time I get home from work and when dinner starts, so I usually have my post-workout shake and vitamins and then whatever is on the table is reasonable quantities.
More coming as I think of it, what do you think? What can I make improvements on?
I alternate daily with a "front and back" work out with legs and cardio mixed in somewhat randomly (I don't have leg exercise equipment besides deadlift with a barbell and lightweight squats). I try to mix things up often to keep my body guessing and to keep from getting into a boring routine. I'm also a little limited in what exercises I can do because of my lack of a "complete" home, but I've had good results with what I've had available to me, and I expand my equipment whenever I have the ability to.
If you see something here that you think I could change that would get me ever better results by all means speak up!
Example of Day 1
Warm Up/Stretch/Cardio
I stretch out by doing the same full-body stretches they teach you to do in elementary school. Touch your toes, stretch your back and arms, all that stuff. I then jump rope starting a slow pace and increasing speed up to a 100 count. I sometimes keep my heart-rate up through the work out by breaking sets with more 100 count jump rope sets.
For cardio I have a few options, those being jumping rope, running (which I hate), and riding a health rider while watching or listening to something. I personally hate doing cardio but it's been extremely beneficial, so I keep doing it.
I begin my warm up by doing 20 pushups (on my knuckles) while flexing my chest muscles and gently rotating my shoulders at the top of each count. I then put 135lbs on the bench and rep that slowly and evenly for 5-6 reps and two sets. I warm up my arms by doing slow arm curls with a light barbell.
Bench Press
Because I don't have a spotter I usually do drop sets until near-failure. A drop set begins at a high weight and is reduced by 5-10lbs each set. For the last week or so I've been starting at 205lbs and working down over 4-5 sets with 5 reps per set. I haven't been able to do a "real" max test (because of aforementioned lack of spotter) but I've been able to 215lbs on my own so far.
Arm Curls
Pretty straight forward of course. I do 4 or 5 sets of barbell and dumbell arm curls and occassionally do drop sets to failure.
Tricep Isolation
Normal tricep exercies with a barbell (laying on my back and raising the bar or standing and extending over my head).
Crunches
5 sets of 25 reps
Example of Day 2
Warm Up/Stretch/Cardio
Pretty much the same, though depending on the previous days work out I sometime skip the pushups and do something else (running in place, lunges, so on). I then warm up with a light weight for dead lifts and raises before moving into the actual work out.
Dead Lifts
Probably my weakest and most frustrating part of my work out. I'm barely lifting my weight, any tips to improve?
Shoulder Raises/Military Press
I'm pleased with my progress here and it's kind of difficult to NOT have good form while doing these exercises.
Dumbell Shoulder Lifts
The usual raising my arms in certain directions and poses to work different parts of my shoulders. I've been doing them with a 15lb dumbell (because that's all I have to work with) but need to buy more weight to move up and start building them.
Bent-Over-Rows
Straight wrecking my traps n stuff yo.
Reverse Crunches/Leg lifts
Again, 5x25
Going to be adding regular pull-ups to the routine today. Are pull ups an exercise to do daily or break up for best results?
Diet
Mostly I do portion monitoring for whatever is on the table so that Kimie doesn't have to cook seperately for me. At first it was somewhat disappointing to eat less and not "go for seconds", but now it's second nature. I've for all intents and purposes totally eliminated soda from my diet except for the occasional Coke while out to lunch with co-workers and whatnot, other than that I drink water almost exclusively.
Breakfast
For breakfast I usually have simple and fruits and vegetables or a Whey Protein shake mixed with skim milk. Occasionally I'll have some cereal or whatever the rest of the family is having in regulated portions.
Lunch
Fish, Chicken, turkey, and occasionally beef. Most often I build a heavy on the veggies and light on the "other stuff" salad using leftovers from the fridge. Recently we found these aweomse Trout (fish) servings from the freezer that are low in fat and taste great, I need to buy more.
Dinner
I usually work out in between the time I get home from work and when dinner starts, so I usually have my post-workout shake and vitamins and then whatever is on the table is reasonable quantities.
More coming as I think of it, what do you think? What can I make improvements on?
moment.