Finally.  Got.  Through.  An.  Uninterrupted.  Week.

It felt good, despite the fact that I had a major case of DOMS in my quads following the leg workout.   And it’s not like I made any earth-shattering progress this week, either.  It FELT like progress, however, given the general disorganization of the last 3 weeks.  Being back on track and working hard was sort of its own reward…soreness was just a detail.

Looking ahead to Week 6: there will be some modifications to the schedule.  Rather than a 5-day/week schedule with only 1 - 2 muscle groups per workout, it’s a rotating 3-days on/1 off schedule that goes:

• Back, Biceps, and Forearms
• Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps
• Legs, Calves, and Abs

Or perhaps a better title to this post would be “I whizzed it.”

To recap, Week 3 went well. 

But Week 4 didn’t…

We had a long weekend in Seattle planned, and had to take off on Thursday…so I spent nearly all day Tues./Wed. banging on the keyboard, trying to get stuff done before we took off.  But I chalked it up to “life,” and repeated Week 4 when we got back.

Then I hosed up Week 5…

We brought a houseguest back with us from Seattle (my daughter’s best friend from Ohio, Ashley), so I blew off a couple of days in favor of taking the girls around the area.  Sending Ashley home also took an entire day (we had to take her back to SeaTac - which is on the other side of the state). The days I was in the gym were good days, but the problem is: I wasn’t able to do all five days, much less all five days in sequence, as the program’s supposed to be done.

I guess I’ve learned something already: don’t plan to do intensive, 5-day-a-week programs unless I can be sure that there won’t be any major interruptions.

I’m repeating Week 5 again this coming week (grrrrr….).  The good news is that I’m not anticipating any further disruptions.

Check these out: getjumpingstilts.com/post.html (scroll down to check out the vid - lol)

I haven’t written about exercise gimmicks in a while, so I went looking around to see what I could find.  I stumbled over “Powerskips” - which were developed in Germany.  They’ve been around for a few years (long enough to garner a Wikipedia entry), but this is the first that I’ve heard of them. 

I gotta admit: these things would make cardio a hoot…assuming I didn’t put myself in the ER first. 

Another great post from “Zen Habits” - “How to Get in Lean Shape with Little or No Equipment.”

Although I use a gym, I’ve always used bodyweight exercises…they’re useful all by themselves, and indispensable when I’m away from home and/or too frantically busy to get to the gym.

A recent study (Arch Intern Med. 2008;168(14):1550-1559) revealed what at first glance appears like very sobering news; an hour of exercise per day is required to maintain a 10% weight loss. Obviously, this emphasizes that losing weight is very much a lifetime venture. Eating healthy, watching your calories and exercising is not something you are ever going to “forget about”, especially if you have a job that requires minimal physical effort or are relatively inactive during the day.

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Ok, I said I didn’t want to get political…but if he can really curl 70 pound (32 kg) dumbbells for 10 reps, I’m impressed. 

(h/t to Lawyers, Guns and Money)

Week 2 of the Max OT program was supposed to be a repeat of Week 1 - as far as the exercises and schedule were concerned.  I had to do some improvising, however, as my gym recently changed hands, and a ton of old equipment was replaced this week.  The place was in a shambles on Wed. and Thurs., so I took an unscheduled two days off mid-week until the chaos got sorted out.  As a consequence, both Saturday and Sunday were workout days, rather than days off.  So I’ll take Monday off to rest, and work Tues. - Sat. for week 3. I may stick to that schedule too…Mondays tend to be pretty busy days (thanks to all the folks starting the week with good intentions).

Off topic: but the new gym equipment is cool.  My gym is home to a serious, competitive powerlifting group, so a lot of the classic, “iron” equipment (which attracted me to this gym in the first place) stayed.  But all the cardio equipment, and a lot of the floor machines were replaced…and there are pieces that I will certainly use in the future.  So, nice.

Interruption notwithstanding, the week went pretty well, with progress made on most of my lifts.  The lone exception was my bench - it seemed like more of a struggle this week, and I had a harder time focusing.  I can’t put it down to any one thing - I think it was more of a combination of being a little fried from my previous back and shoulder workouts (which were on Friday and Saturday), plus a harder-than-usual bike ride to the gym against the wind in 95^oF (35^oC) weather.  It happens.

Looking forward to Week 3 - and some changes in the exercises and workouts.

The first week of the AST program was pretty basic…but nonetheless challenging.  The routine looked like this:

• Monday: Squats, Leg Press, Stiff-Legged Deadlifts, Standing Machine Calf Raises, Leg Press Calf Raises
• Tuesday: Straight Bar Curls, Alternating Dumbbell Curls, Cable Curls, Cable Pushdowns, Lying Tricep Extensions, Dumbbell Kickbacks, Barbell Wrist Curls, Dumbbell Wrist Curls, Weighted Leg Raises, Cable Rope Crunches, Weighted Crunches
• Wednesday: Barbell Military Press, Seated Dumbbell Press, Standing Side Lateral Raises, Barbell Shrugs, Upright Rows
• Thursday: Lat Pulldowns, Seated Cable Rows, Good Mornings, Weighted Hyperextensions
• Friday: Flat Barbell Bench Press, Incline Dumbbell Bench Press, Weighted Dips

This didn’t look too formidable to me up front, although it was pretty grueling in practice, thanks to going to failure between 4 - 6 reps on every set.  Like today was chest day…normally, I can knock out 3 sets of 8 dips, with an added 30 pounds on the belt.  But after going all out on the two bench press exercises, I could barely manage the prescribed two sets of dips wearing a 25 pound plate (5 reps each set). 

I haven’t trained like this in a long time.  Sure, I’ve had 5 x 5’s and 6 x 6’s in my programs for certain exercises/muscle groups, but it’s been aaaaaages since I’ve done an entire workout routine using that sort of rep range exclusively.  In addition, it’s also been a long time since I’ve done a full-fledged shoulder workout.  There isn’t anything wrong with my shoulders (knock on wood!), but a) I’ve done a lot of indirect shoulder work via other exercises, and b) my shoulders are already pretty well developed - as can be seen in the pic.  But we’ll see how it goes…I think it’s going to be good for me.

No more weights until Monday.  I’ll do some cardio tomorrow (intervals) and knock off completely on Sunday. 

Actually, I’m long overdue for a new one…I’ve been more-or-less marking time for the last 2-3 weeks.  Unfortunately, I’ve allowed myself to get too wrapped up in my work to write one up.  There’s no end in sight, either, so it occurred to me that I could use this as an opportunity to try out some of the “canned” workout programs in my possession…Lord knows I’ve got quite a collection on my hard drive and bookshelf.  That way, I don’t have to think too hard about what I’m doing, and can discuss each program as I go through it.

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I’m with Elissa on this one… I love lifting weight.

But cardio… uh, well… that’s a different story.

I do cardio because I have to. For the cardio-pulminary benefits it offers. And because if I’m really serious about trimming back some of the winter flab, it’s cardio that does it. Yep. Two to three weeks of cardio (3-4 25 minutes sessions at moderate intensity per week) and my pants start falling down. Every time. It works like clockwork.

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I’m off to the gym in a few minutes for a chest/back workout…which reminded me of this vid that my bud Will just posted on the “Bodybuilding Revealed” forum on Seated Cable Rows.  They’re one of my favorite back exercises.

When I do a body comp assessment, I use calipers and the 7-site calculator over at exrx.net.  It’s a handy little tool, and saves a lot of number crunching.  Did one on John this morning, as a part of the IsaTest test.

I have the calculator page bookmarked, but Internet Explorer was acting up this morning, so I switched to Firefox, and navigated to the page via the menus instead.  While scanning the “fitness testing” page for the right link, I noticed they also had a push up test for upper body muscular endurance.  So just for the hell of it, I challenged John to do the test with me.  When we looked at the instructions, however, it was clear that the ”rules” were stacked against him:

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Awwwww… do I have to?

Despite some recent publicized silliness that indicated that exercise offered no “metabolic advantage” to those who included it in their diet programs (see this post from Elissa for complete details), exercise is a critical element of any weight loss program.

It’s simple really… to lose weight, you must create a caloric deficit; take in fewer calories than you expend. There are two ways to best do this…

1. Reduce your caloric intake.
2. Increase your caloric expenditure (i.e., the number of calories you burn) by adopting an exercise program.

The best strategy is implementing a bit of both. Here’s why…

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After all the squawking I’ve done about various exercise gimmicks, you’d think that I’m against inexpensive home fitness equipment.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  The trick is to get something that will give you some bang for your buck. Like a door gym, for example.

I love doing chin-ups/pull-ups.  I can easily recall a time when I couldn’t do them at all.  Admittedly, I was in pretty good company: most people can’t do them (or do them without cheating) - and that includes some pretty big, strong-looking guys.  So working up to doing them really felt like an achievement.

I really owe it all to my door gym.  I bought it about 5 years ago, so I could practice at home.  I started with negatives and self-assisted chins with my feet resting on a chair, then worked up to doing full ROM (”range of motion”) chin-ups/pull-ups. My favorites are the semi-supinated chins (this is where the palms face each other).

I still do them at home for fun.  I’m chained to a computer all day, so it helps to get up periodically and do a quick set of 5 - 6 reps to shake the cobwebs out. The thing is a snap to put into place and take down. It’s lightweight but sturdy, and hasn’t done the slightest bit of damage to the wall or door frame.  It’s easily the best $39.95 I’ve ever spent.

A bud of mine who’s a competitive powerlifter turned me on to these.  I like them much better than front squats.  These are serious quad killers.

 Which reminds me - it’s Leg Day today!