Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Training Session/Plan

I started out this journey three weeks ago planning to follow the Primal Blueprint "Five Essential Movements" workouts twice a week. These exercises are meant to use your body weight as resistance. No heavy lifting required. The five movements are:
  • pushups;
  • pullups;
  • squats;
  • overhead press; and
  • planks.
I quickly realized this wasn't enough for me. I want to be strong, build muscles, and have those muscles burn more fat for me on a daily basis. (10 pounds of fat burns an extra 3500 calories a week, which translates into one pound, did you know that?) I have tweaked my workout/training plan to suit my preferences a bit more. I'd love it if I could also incorporate a barbell and workout bench so I could do chest presses, really good weighted squats, and deadlifts, but oh well. I use what I have. I plan on getting kettlebells before long, so I will use the heaviest one I have for squats and deadlifts. I also plan on incorporating swings into my training once I have KBs.

In any case, here's what my workout looks like.
  • knee pushups (will progress to standard pushups in a week or two);
  • assisted pullups followed by negative/reverse chinups: 2 sets with a 3-4 minute break in between;
  • weighted goblet squats;
  • chair dips with legs out straight (I started with bent knees but quickly progressed to straight. Next I will do 1-legged ones and then I'll have to figure out a way to weight them without fancy equipment);
  • 15 jack knife presses (I do the standard ones now but will progress as strength increases);
  • 60 bicycle crunches (30 reps each side) - I increase this number by 10 each week; and
  • knee pushups
I do this two times a week - on Tuesdays and Fridays. I've been toying with the idea of adding a third day, and doing legs and back - so, more squats, weighted walking lunges, maybe deadlifts, and pullups/chinups. I will do this on Sundays. This throws a bit of a wrench into my plans to sprint once a week, so I might have to change my workouts to Tues/Thurs/Sat and sprint on Mondays. According to Martin Berkhan of Leangains fame, you shouldn't do cardio within 24 hours of a lifting session, because it prevents protein synthesis - which you need to build muscle. So, yeah. I might start that this week and see how it goes. 

    3 comments:

    1. Did you know the progression is knee, slight elevation (chair, bed, couch, I use my chin-up bar on the floor) and then full body? Surprising I know. I thought I could go knee toe more easily!

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    2. Progression for what? Pushups? I've never done that, but then, I used to be able to crank out 40 standard pushups in college and for a few years after that. The point is to start small. 3 standard pushups. Do three sets. Next week, do 4, or 5 - however many I can do. The point is not to do 15 of one and move to the next step. The point is to find out the heaviest you can lift in 3-5 reps, and do it. THAT'S how you build strength. ;)

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    3. I've added a second set of bicycle crunches now. Instead of doing 60 or 70 reps at a time, I'm doing two sets of 50 reps. I work my way through the entire workout then repeat it. I don't do two sets back to back of the same exercise.

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