In keeping with my attempt to improve my cardio (and still shed that Christmas poundage), I hit the treadmill again today (have done it or elliptical every day except yesterday).

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.