I did want to take some time (and more than 140 characters) to update my progress thus far. I’m back to ‘Vegas Shape’ as I’m calling it – the shape I was in last June went I went to Vegas with the boys. I have been going to the gym 6 days a week now, actually incorporating a Saturday workout for the first time in forever for the last 4-5 weeks. I am very happy with how the gym is going. My arms, chest and shoulders are starting to get more defined (and bigger hopefully), and most importantly – I can start to see those “abdominal muscles” I’ve heard so much about.

Current weight: 223.5 1/2 lbs – My lowest in at least 10 years. My goal is 215 by mid-April.

Diet

• I have stuck to a diet targeting visceral fat for 3 weeks now, and have cut out sugar completely (except for cheat days).
• I have been eating protein right after my workouts
• Water – I have been consuming about 4-5 L of water a day, but not on the weekends

Improvements/Goals

• I want to see if I can get my heart rate to “target” (192 bpm). No matter what I do, I can’t seem to get about 160.
• I want to improve cardio for rugby. This will involve my weekly dry-land training with the team on Mondays, but also including a spin class once a week, and an interval run once a week.
• I want to increase my bench press. My goal is 275lbs for 10 reps for 3 sets
• I want to increase my squats. I currently push between 225lbs and 275lbs for free weight squats. I would like to get this up 315lbs (three 45lb plates).
• I want to consume more water on the weekends.
• Stretching and strengthening my hips – due to sitting all day in front of a computer, my hips become very tight from time to time, and I have a lot of lower back problems that come and go throughout the year. I have really been focusing on squat stretches, squats in general, hip adductors, and also a lot of stretches for this area.

As soon as I charge the batteries in my camera, I will take some progress pictures. I’m very happy with how far I’ve come, but have a lot further to go.

That’s it for now – I’m off to the lake for a poker tourney with the boys, some Prime Rib a la Brandon Boone, and some delicious chicken wings. Cheat meal? I think I deserve one.

Shendy.

On to the workout:

Back

• Wide grip pullups – 10 reps, 5 reps, 3 reps
• Seated row – 3 sets of 65lbs per arm x 10 reps per set
• One arm seated row – 3 sets 50lbs per arm x 10 reps per set
• Bent over rows – 3 sets (135lbs,155lbs,135lbs) at 4-6 reps per set

I read about a squat stretch from an article I found the other day. It involves sitting at the bottom of your squat (no weight) for 30 seconds, gradually spreading your knees farther apart. This reportedly helps to stretch our your hips (which are a real problem for me). I did 4 of these squat holds for about 15-20 seconds each. I could really feel my form on it, and I hope making these a frequent appearance in my workouts will help improve the weight and form of my squats.

Biceps

• Bicep Curls – 45lbs X 8, 50lbs x 4, 45lbs x 6, 35lbs x 10
• Hammer Curls – 45lbs x 6, 35lbs x 8,35lbs x 8
• "21s" with 25 lbs.

"21s" are great for a bicep burner at the end of your workout. They’re simply 3 sets of seven with the first set focusing on the lower half of the curl, the 2nd set focusing on the top half of the curl, and the last being a full curl from the bottom up. Your arms will BURN after trying these, if not – you’re not using enough weight.

Shendy.

Without further ado, today’s workout was:

• 5, 2 minute intervals @ 9mph split with a 1 minute walk at 3.7mph
• 4 sets of “jerks” – 10 reps each @ 95lbs, 115lbs, 135lbs, 115lbs
• 3 sets of barbell shoulder thrusters – 10 reps each @ 135lbs, 115lbs, 115lbs
• 3 sets of lateral dumbbell shoulder raises – 8 reps each @ 35lbs, 30lbs, 30lbs
• 3 sets of side dumbbell shoulder raises – 8 reps each @ 15lbs per rep
• 3 sets of front dumbbell shoulder raises – 8 reps each @ 15 lbs per rep

T’was a gooder.

Shendy.

If I haven’t said it yet – I am really a fan of interval training. I find there’s nothing else that will get you sweating as quickly – I’m soaked within 5 minutes. I used to do a pyramid approach that worked like this:

Going up the pyramid

• 15 second sprint followed by 1 minute jog
• 30 seconds sprint followed by 1 minute jog
• 45 seconds sprint followed by 1 minute jog
• 1 minute sprint followed by 1 minute jog
• 1 1/2 minute sprint followed by 1 minute jog

Once you’ve hit the 1 1/2 minute sprint, you head back down (reverse order). This gives you about 15-20 minutes depending on how long your warm up and cool down are.

I recently read an article in an old Men’s Health magazine in which some famous sports trainer recommended 1 minute on, 1 minute off. That is – 1 minute light jog (he actually said rest", and then 2 minutes at your target heart rate 220 minus your age). While I have a hard time gauging if my heart rate is 192 (do the math), I do sweat like a pig. I also get a cramp on the left side of my body (which tells me I’m working hard). I run past the cramp and am fine.

Anyway – long story short, cardio kicked off my workout for about 20 minutes (5 2 minute sprints in there). On to the rest of the workout:

• Bench Press – 10 reps @ 135lbs
• 10 Wide Push Ups
• Bench Press – 4 reps @ 225lbs
• 10 Wide Push Ups
• Bench Press – 4 reps @ 175lbs

It was at this point that I hit FAILURE. I guess the 150 Push Ups yesterday took their toll. I actually couldn’t get the bar back on the rack! I had to flip it on to my quads (ouch), and then power cleaned (CrossFit comes to the rescue again) it up to my shoulders so I could turn around and re-rack it.

The rest of the workout went well – and I stayed away anything that involved a bar. But failure came pretty quick as you’ll probably see:

• Incline Dumbbell Press (8 reps @ 60lbs, 8 reps @ 55lbs, 8 reps @ 50lbs)
• 3 Sets Cable Flies (10 reps @ 40lbs
• 3 sets Decline Press (Machine) – (8 reps @ 40lbs per side, 2 sets of 8 reps @ 30lbs per side).

The way my schedule worked out last week, I’m actually on 7 days in a row at the gym. I’ll be hitting it for the next 3 days as well and taking a much needed rest on Sunday for a big cheat watching Super Bowl.

Go Hard!

Shendy.

“Barbara”:

Five rounds, each for time of:

• 20 Pull-ups
• 30 Push-ups
• 40 Sit-ups
• 50 Squats (body weight)

For those following at home – that’s 100 pull-ups, 150 pushups, 200 sit-ups, and 250 squats. A lot of people look at the CrossFit workouts and shy away or are amazed by what’s required for these workouts. My routine would not be the same without CrossFit, so I thought I’d put together a few tips to help you tackle these workouts, and hopefully incorporate some of the elements into your routine.

Don’t get overwhelmed

The biggest mistake you can make with a workout like this is to approach it with a can’t-do attitude. Your never going to get anywhere if you second-guess yourself. You. Can. Get. It. Done.

Break it into chunks (divide & conquer)

In Computer Science, we learn about problem solving through divide and conquer. Which is the basic process of dividing a big problem into several easier to solve problems. This is how I approach these workouts and find it works well. Can’t do 20 pull-ups in a row? How about 4 sets of 5? When it comes to the end of these things, I’m sometimes doing 20 sets of 1… I also find that your stamina really gets put to the test in these as sometimes you have to break them apart. Otherwise the next set around you’ll find you can’t even do 5.

Do what you can (weight, reps, etc)

If you can’t do the reps – go to failure. This means doing as many reps as you can do, until you physically can’t complete 1 more rep.

If you can’t do the weight – drop it. Do as many as you can with the weight prescribed (assuming you’re comfortable enough to know you’re not going to cause injury), then drop the weight. For exercises that require body weight (like the ones in “Barbara”) try doing a substitute as follows:

• Pullups
  • Do assisted pullups with as little weight as possible (the weight acts as a counter balance).
  • Do lat pull downs
• Pushups
  • Do bench press with a lighter weight
• Situps
  • Lower your reps as mentioned above.
• Squats
  • Try leg press with a lower weight

Sometimes it’s about quantity, not quality

A lot of people are amazed when I tell them I can do 100 pull-ups. To be honest, I never thought I would be able to do 100 pull-ups across the span of my life, let alone in one workout. I get my pull-ups done 5-10 at a time (which is an improvement over the 1-2 I could do last year). One of the best techniques for a lot of pull ups is Kipping. You use a shoulder rotation and your momentum to pull you over the bar. The other thing I find that helps is raising your knees as you pull up to give you momentum.

Keep your eyes on the prize

The biggest obstacle in these workouts is your mind. If you can overcome it, you can get through it. Think of how good you’re going to feel about yourself when you get this done, think about your next cheat day, whatever your motivation is – keep reminding yourself why you’re doing this.

Hope that helps – I look forward to seeing comments on any of the workouts I post here, but especially the CrossFit ones as they tend to be a cut above the rest.

Shendy.

• 13 minutes interval cardio (1 minute slow, 2 minutes fast) elliptical
• 4 sets seated shoulder press (10 @ 45lbs, 8 @ 135lbs, 4 @ 185lbs, 8 @ 135lbs)
• 3 sets side shoulder raises (10 @ 25 lbs, 2 sets of 10 @ 30 lbs)
• 3 sets front shoulder raises (10 @ 30lbs, 2 sets of 10 @ 40lbs)
• 3 sets lateral shoulder raises (10 reps @ 30lbs per set)
• Dumbbell shrugs (3 sets of 10 reps @ 70lbs per arm)
• Dumbbell shrugs (forward rolls – 3 sets of 10 reps at 40lbs)
• Dumbbell shrugs (backward rolls – 3 sets of 10 reps at 40lbs)

Winner – great sweat!

Shendy.

• 1 mile run @ ~8.1mph (average)
• 1 set front squats – 8 reps @ 135lbs (free weight)
• 3 sets back squats – 8 reps per set @ 135lbs, 225lbs, 275lbs, 225lbs (smith machine)
• 3 sets hack squats (essentially lunges) – 8 reps per leg @ 135lbs
• 3 sets quad extensions – 12 reps @ 130lbs
• 3 sets hamstring curls – 10 reps @ ??? I forget the weight)
• 3 sets dumbbell dead lifts – 2 30lb dumbbells
• 3 sets of seated calve raises – 25, 15, 15 reps @ 70lbs
• 3 sets of outer hip adductors – 8 reps per set @ 130lbs
• 3 sets of inner hip adductors – 8 reps per set @ 130lbs

My legs were definitely shaking after the workout. I’m hoping they’ll be stiff tomorrow as a sign of hard work.

I hate quad extensions – they burn like hell.

Shendy.

The moves I busted out today:

• 15 minutes of interval cardio (treadmill). 1 minute @ 4mph, 2 minutes @ 9mph.
• 3 sets, 45lb dumbbell dead lifts to bicep curls (both arms at once)
• 3 sets 40lb dumbbell bicep curls (one arm at a time)
• 3 sets of 25 free-weight squats
• 3 sets 40lb dumbbell hammer curls
• 4 sets of standing overhead tricep press (60lb,70lb,75lb,70lb)
• 3 sets of reverse tricep push downs (20lb,12.5lb,12.5lb)

And then I realized I had lost my keys and had to cut my workout short. I found them – which was good because I had no other way to get into my car.

The cardio was awesome – I got a great sweat on. Intervals are key to improving cardio and losing fat. Now that I’m going 6 days a week I am trying to focus more on individual muscle groups (as opposed to doing full body). I will still be incorporating a lot of the cross fit exercises are part of my workout – they keep my heart rate up, improve lung capacity, and overall power.

Shendy.

• 2 sets bench press (10 reps @ 135lb, 6 reps @225lbs)
• 3 sets flat dumbbell bench press (10 reps at 75lbs, 85lbs, 85lbs)
• 2 sets of 10 – wide grip push ups
• 3 sets flat dumbbell flies (8 reps at 40lbs)
• 3 sets incline dumbbell bench press (8 reps @75lbs, 8 reps @ 60lbs, 8 reps @ 60lbs)
• 3 sets, machine decline press (8 reps @ 40lbs, 5 reps @ 50lbs, 8 reps @40 lbs)
• Side twists with medicine ball – 3 sets of 20
• Cross situps – 2 sets of 25
• Top down wood chops – Level 15 (whatever that is), 3 sets x 2 sides x 12 reps per side

Diet and work is paying off. I went to a concert last night, and didn’t even have a beer! Weighing in at 225lbs – 5lbs more to go to reach my goal of 220lbs!

Shendy.

Shendy.