My current training program January 13, 2010

Because I promised and I try to keep my promises, here is what my current training program looks like. Unfortunately, I’m really technologically deficient and have not figured out how to find and post videos so I can’t show you examples of the particular exercises. However, I am trying to learn so if there is anything I mention that you would like me to find a video example of, please let me know and I will do my best to comply.

My training split is broken up into 4 days: 2 upper body days and two lower body days. I designed the plan to be mostly in a circuit fashion.  The foundation of my exercise selection is first to build strength using the major lifts to hit the major muscle groups first. Generally I will include one or two of the following exercise in my first two circuits. The other exercises in my circuits are chosen because they are important for maintaining the integrity of my joints, core work, stretching and supplemental arm and shoulder work.

Bench-chest

chin up/pull up-back

Rows: back

squat: legs

deadlifts: legs, back

Lunge variations: legs

overhead press: shoulders

Here it is:

Day 1:

a1: barbell bench

a2: single arm bent row

a3: wall slides

B1: wide grip lat pull

b2: push ups

b3: jump rope: 30-60 seconds working up to 60 seconds

C1: single arm push press (shoulders)

C2: Palloff Press: anti rotational exercise

c3: face pulls: shoulders, external rotation very light weight.

Day 2:

a1: front squats

a2: lateral raises

a3: hip stretch

b1: walking lunges

b2: hammer curls: biceps

b3: med ball stomps: grab a med ball lift above head and throw it down to the ground as hard as you can.

c1: full contact barbell twists: I really need to find a video for this, just no way to describe it

c2: close grip pushups: triceps

c3: 20 kettlebell swings

Day 3:

a1:Pullups

a2:Incline dumb bell bench

a3: overhead squat: using a very light body bar this is more to work joint mobility

b1: cable seated row: close grip

b2: jump rope 30 seconds

b3: band front raises

c1:standing cable fly: chest

c2: straight arm press down: back

c3: kneeling scarecrow: shoulder

Day 4:

a1: deadlift

a2: behind the head band pulls

b1: bulgarian split squat

b2: scapular push ups

c1: pull throughs

c2: cable rope press downs: triceps

c3: cable rope bi-curls

D1: stability ball rollouts.

My reps range is in the 8-10 depending on the exercise.  I either try to go up in weight or do more reps from the last workout especially for the big exercises like squats.  Rest for 1 minute between sets, however I will take rest from 30-60 sec. between some exercises as needed. For example after squats, deadlifts and lunges.  If you are working at high enough intensity you will need the rest before moving on to another exercise.

You will notice I do have some ab/core  and arm work built in to my circuits but I don’t devote a lot of my training to these areas as they will be worked doing the bigger stuff.

I also added in some metabolic work to jack up my heart rate: kettelbell swings and jump rope

For warm up, generally do some foam rolling and a little mobility work to get everything moving.  I don’t do any static stretching either before or after although it wouldn’t hurt to try and get some in.

For cardio (I hate that term because, weight lifting is cardio)  work, I have been hopping on the treadmill for about 30 minutes after lifting. On upper body days, I do a 2:1 walking running intervals.  I’ve been working on getting faster during the 1 minute runs, but I’m not sprinting.  On lower body days, running just isn’t possible so I”m doing a 2:1 walking/fast walking on an incline interval.

I plan on having a 5th day of just cardio hopefully start swimming on sunday but if not, 40 minutes of treadmill on sat.

Pretty much all work is done using free weights and the cable station. Exeptions are the lat pull down and the assisted pullup/chin up. although I can do about 4 non-assisted chin ups, I want to be doing sets of 8-10 so have decided to utilize the assisted pullup/chin up machine. My goal is to transition back to doing unassisted chin ups once my bodyfat decreases.

So far so good.  I really like this program and intend to keep it for 4 weeks then change it up.

If anyone has any questions or comments, you know the drill.

Also, if you have any topics you would like me to blog on, please let me know.

Be well train hard.

It’s Friday: First week down feeling great January 8, 2010

It’s Friday and the end of my first week on this program.

So how did I do?  Well, I’m doing well.  I feel really good. It always amazes me how much better I feel when I eat properly, I have more energy, I sleep better and my mood is better.

As promised here are my weight and bf stats for the week:

Mon: 111lbs  24% bf

Tues: 109.8lbs 23.7%bf

Wed: 110.3lb 23.9%bf

Thurs: 110.2lbs 22.6%bf

Fri: 111.2lbs 22%bf.

Now according the abovet my weight is holding steady but I’ve dropped 2% body fat. To be honest I don’t know that I’ve dropped that much, the changes could just be mostly due to fluid, BUT I do feel like there has been movement and my body is responding and I am encouraged by this weeks numbers.

Now what have I been eating you want to know.  That is a very good question but I’m not going to bore you with everything I’ve eaten this week.  I will say this, I have eaten 1 starchy carb a day in the morning.  This is my favorite breakfast and I really look forward to it: 1 slice Ezekiel Bread, with 1TBS of Teddy’s all natural peanut butter and 1TBS of Polaner all fruit.

OK, to be honest according to the strict guidelines of Precision Nutrition: you are only supposed to eat starchy carbs within the 1-2hours window AFTER a workout session, however as I stated before IF I find this is hampering my progress I will change my breakfast.  So for the most part I am eating one starchy carb a day EXCEPT on training days I may have a second portion of starchy carbs ONLy after my workout if I feel I need it.  I did do that on Tuesday and Thursday.  So basically this week it looks like every other day I felt physically that I needed the extra.

On this program you are allowed to “cheat” 10% of the time, which for me is 3x’s a week. It’s preferable to plan you cheats in advance as the more prepared you are the easier it is to stick to the program.  I plan on having a cheat meal on Sat. evening as this is traditionally the one night a week where both Dale and I are home together and we like to order out.  I also plan on having a cheat probably mid-week either Wed or Thursday.  So that is 2 planned cheats and the third will be a wild card to allow for unplanned events.

here is what I ate on Wed: a non training day and Thursday a training day.

Wed:

6am: 1 slice Ezekiel bread with PB&J

9am: 1 egg omelette with 2 slices Canadian bacon, green pepper, onion and 1/2 oz cheese

12pm shrimp with asparagus and a little pesto

3pm: green apple with 1TBS of PB

Dinner: Classy Chicken: recipe from Gourmet Nutrition cookbook: chicken, veggies

1/2 cup wild blueberries.

Thursday: training day

6am: Ezekiel bread with PB&J

8am: Protein drink: 1 scoop protein powder and water

11:30am Lunch post workout:

Classy chicken leftovers, 1/2 slice whole grain bread from Cosi and baby carrots.

Worked from 1-5 not able to really eat but managed to sneak in a snack of 2 slices of Canadian bacon and babby carrots.

Dinner: sauteed shrimp with green peppers and onions AND had my mid-week cheat Cooked up some noodles to go with it.

I think I did really well this week. Believe it or not I have not been craving sweets.  I was surprised that yesterday I was feeling like I really needed the extra carbs.  Also, if I’m being completely honest, I’m supposed to have veggies with every single meal but as you can see I have not.  I’m trying to work around that by nibbling on veggies in between, ideally I should be eating 5 cups of veggies a day.

As it’s 8:30am and I need to get ready to go train and then work at the gym from 1-9 I won’t be posting my  workouts today.  I will save that for next week.

Until then please share how you’ve done.

Michelle

All the nitty gritty details fit for print: Body Recomposition project January 4, 2010

Happy New Year everyone

Well we are 4 days in and so far so good.  I took pics which will be posted below, but first I want to provide some stats as well as answer some questions.  I actually started on Sat but I’m giving my starting weight and BF as of today.

Height: technically 4′ 11″ and 3/4 but let’s call it an even 5′ as if I stand with perfect posture I can eek out an extra 1/4 inch.

Starting weight:  111 lbs

Starting Body fat 24%

Both body weight and BF were from my Tanita scale.  I will also be posting BF calculated by the caliper method, which is more accurate than biometric impedance.  One of the trainers at my gym volunteered to do this for me on a monthly basis.  I want to use both methods as I am curious at to the difference in results between the two methods.

Although conventional wisdom states that you should only weigh yourself once a week when trying to diet down, however since I’m not trying to lose a great amount of weight, I will be weighing myself almost daily to track trends and make adjustments.

Age: 45 : I was debating on posting my age because I am currently looking for a new job and if any prospective employer does a search and finds this post they will see my age,  But you know what I don’t give a blanketty blank blank (shouldn’t use profanity for the a fore mentioned reason)  If you don’t want to hire me because of my age you are an idiot and I don’t want to work for you anyway.  BUT I digress, I want to include my age because I don’t buy in to that old-fashion notion that just because we get older that we can’t get stronger and have a healthier and better looking body than we did in our youth.  Also, that age is NOT an excuse for getting fat and dumpy.

This would be a good time I think to post the pics: Taken Jan 1, 2010

Goal: To be between 16-18% body fat by April 1.

I do not have a goal for weight as I really don’t care about my weight. WHAT you say who doesn’t care about weight.  Well the thing is I’m comfortable with my actual weight which is perfectly normal for my height and this isn’t a weight loss project it’s a body recomposition project which means I am attempting to lose fat while maintaining or even gaining some muscle.  Therefore the less weight I lose while dropping body fat the better.

Why do I say between 16-18% rather than a flat number.  Good question because I don’t know how my body is going to respond and at what point I will like how my body looks.  I may find that I’m totally happy with how I look at 18% and not want to go down any further or I may say I like it but let’s see what 16% looks like.

Nutrition Plan:  As I posted before I will be using Precision Nutrition.  I’ll admit I have not been perfect as I have made one minor concession and that is to my breakfast. Technically on this plan if you are trying to lose fat/weight you only eat starchy carbs after a workout.  I love my Ezekiel bread with pb and j for breakfast, so I will continue to eat that BUT it will be my only starchy carb source for the day Unless I workout, I may have one more serving of starchy carb.  I realize this may hamper my progress a little but we’ll see how much. If I do think that it makes that much of a difference after 2 weeks I will get rid of it.

Now let’s see if I can figure out how to include a link to the precision nutrition website. Ok well I can’t figure it out so it’s time to schedule an appointment with my friend AMY who is an awesome web developer and get a lesson.

Training: I have decided to do a 4 day upper/lower body split. Concentrating on building muscle/strength but with some circuits and metabolic and prehab work thrown in.  This will make sense when I actually post my workout routine.  for cardio which I hate, I will do between 20-30 minutes of various intensity intervals depending on how my body feels, the modality ie: treadmill, elliptical etc to be determined as I feel.  One or 2 days of slower steady state cardio for about 40 minutes.

So that’s all the nice details for now.  Tomorrow I will post my training sessions from today and tomorrow and in the meantime if anyone has any questions, comments about what I’m doing, or if you want to share your physique transformation journey with me, please I’d love to hear from you.

Michelle