Some Upper Body Work

Both my racquetball partners are out this week so it's a good time to maintain the jump start on my workout regimen. My legs were sore from the workouts I did Friday and Saturday, plus the ride in this morning, so I decided to work my notoriously week upper body. It's been a long time since I've done any lifting so I had to guess where to start. The ideas was to do hierarchical sets so I had to feel my way to get started. So here's goes:

Seated Dumbbell Press
15 x 15lbs
8 x 20lbs
4 x 25lbs

Dumbbell Bench Press

15 x 20lbs
8 x 25lbs
2 x 30lbs

Dumbbell Curls
RH 15 x 20lbs
2 x 25lbs
LH 15 x 25lbs

Notes: Did OK on the presses although I couldn't quite finish off the bench press. The curls were a disaster...bit off WAY more than I could chew on those.

I had a bit of a tailwind on the ride home. I tried to take it easy on my legs but can't help myself sometimes--gotta hammer with the tailwind!!!

C2 Tabata, Thrusters, Decline Press

I had to "work" today (basically a paid 'net surfing session)but I got off early and decided to hit the gym.

Tabata Intervals on the Concept2 Rower
10 minute warm up
8x20sec w/10 sec recovery

Thrusters
3 sets with 45lb barbell
Reps: 18, 15, 12

Decline Press Hierarchical Set
70lbs X 15
120lbs X 8
140 X 4

Notes:

The C2 is a killer for doing intervals! This was the first time I had done any Tabata in some time. My results per interval in meters covered were 93, 94, 95, 80, 87, 83, 89, 87. I started strong but faded fast! I'm going to do this one once a week and see if I can't improve on those numbers.

The thrusters are limited by my upper body strength. My legs could handle more.

The presses were done on a Hammer Smith machine where each arm moves independently. The weight represents the plates added but doesn't account for the empty weight of the machine.

So a pretty good start, plus I got a jump on the New Year's resolution crowd that will back the gym next January!

Back In The Saddle Again!

Well, there has been a little change in attitude since my last post. That was the one where I sounded like I was going to basically give up trying to document my efforts to "get fit" because I had fallen into a routine that was rather redundant...and boring to write about. But I've taken stock of the damage done in this period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I've decided I need to get back to the more rounded program of exercise rather than depending on just my twice a week racquetball and my bicycle commuting. So hopefully this is going to start looking like it did when I first started when I was doing a variety of workouts. And it starts today!

Still Alive!!

In my very first post, I stated that I might do this a few days and then quit. I'm actually kind of surprised at the number of posts I managed to put up. But I've reached a point where I'm boring myself with thing. I've been doing the same things over and over and consequently, I haven't had anything to write about that I cared to spend some time on. I need some inspiration!

I've had a bit of a lapse since Thanksgiving and I'm no longer under 200 pounds. But I'm not going to worry about it until I get past Christmas and then I'll join the masses starting of with New Year's resolutions. We'll see...