Mecalder's New Journal

[mecalder]

My brother's asked me to go to the gym with them yesterday. Going to a gym is always such a thorn because I never know where things are, and the one I went to doesn't have the space to do the exercises I want to do, and is missing many things I like to use. I prefer the cold garage. But anyways, In this workout I did:

Dumbbell Shrugs 4 sets of 15 with 70 pounds. (70s were their heaviest. Another downfall)

Bench Press Machine Shrugs 4 sets of 8 with 399 pounds (the machine totaled 208 pounds. I had one of my brother's sit on the stack to make it more fun.)

Ab Machine 4 sets of 20 with 140 pounds (sit down with a pad on your chest, using abs to push the pad downwards.

Then I finished off with a 10 minute treadmill workout. 4 miles per hour, highest elevation.

Always hard to train with my brothers. They are little nuisances. But I couldn't tell them no when they asked me to train with them. I live in a different house than them, so I should do things when they ask. Plus, one of the two weighs 235.. that's 50 pounds more than I weighed when I was his age. He's gotta get working out. He's only 15. The other is 15 as well, but he's on the starting lineup on the basketball team, weighs 195.

[mecalder]

Well. It's been a while. Been sitting around and being lazy again. But it's hard for me knowing how I was in .. decent.. shape once, and then to look at what I am becoming. So with a friend that moved back to his homeland from Nova Scotia, we are going to begin again. Our short term goals are a little different, but our long term goals are quite similar. I want to drop some pounds, and build some muscle back up, and my friend wants to bulk up just a little, then do endurance and speed training to get more cut up. (And he's into martial arts, but has never trained into it.. wants to train this way for that reason.)

So, I posted my workout under the "workout" section. But I will repost here anyways. Including the workout I plan on switching to next month. With these two different monthy workout schedules, I plan on alternating them back and forth. Progressively making each of the workouts harder, by pushing our limits on each type.

Month 1 - Power/Strength

Day 1 - Upper Body
Bench Press - 3 x 6-8
Power Clean, or Push Press. Using more weight than we can handle on a normal overhead press, so we will cheat a little, just to get it up there, like in Strongman Competitions. - 3 x 5-8
Deadlifts - 3 x 6-8
Barbell Curls - 2 x 4-6, then a 4 plate removal dropset, going down my 5-10 each interval.

Day 2 - Legs
Deep Squats - 3 x 6-10
Leg Extensions - 3 x 6-8
Leg Curls - 3 x 6-8
Driveway Lunges. Don't know the distance, just know my uncle's driveway isn't short.. then there's always coming back. Going to use enough weight to really put some strain on the legs. I'll probably start with 95 pounds or so.

Day 3 - Cardio
In my condition, 3 kilometers is difficult for me. Plus I picked up smoking along the way, and going further will definitely drive me to quit. It will be like the third time trying.. on and off, on and off... But seeing Ernest progress, because he seems really determined will make me quit I think. Because I'm going to try to do a little bit more.. don't want him to be ahead of me when we start doing situps and all. hehe. But anyways. I think a good distance for our cardio will be a minimum of 5 kilometers. Which will also loosen our legs up after a hard day of training them. Then we will gradually build up how fast we do the 5k, and hopefully get jogging by the end of the month.

Month 2 - Endurance, and Fine Tuning

Day 1 - Upper Body
Flat Dumbbell Presses 3 x 10-12
Alternating Dumbbell Shoulder Presses 3 x 10-12
T-Bar Rows 3 x 8-10
Skull Crushers 3 x 10-12
Dumbbell Curls 3 x 10-12

Day 2 - Legs again
I think I will keep the workout similar, but with a rep change
Deep Squats 3 x 15-20
Leg Extensions 3 x 12-15
Leg Curls 3 x 12-15
Lunges 3 sets of going up and down the driveway 2 times.

Day 3 - Abs and Cardio
Along time ago, in a time of getting back into it again, after the first time of quitting smoking, I went on a pursuit like this and lost quite a bit of fat while building muscle. And I found that doing abs before cardio to be effective. So we will start out with:

Leg raises - 3 x 12-15
Crunches - 3 x 12-15
V-Ups - 3 x 12-15

Then to the cardio. By this time we are going to push ourselves to jog the majority of the distance. On the road, we will try to travel a minimum of 7 kilometers. It will be hard after only a month to jog that distance, but if we will have to walk for the first while it will be ok. A higher distance will push us harder, and help us run that distance by the end of that month. But thats for road jogging. We are also going to try to jog on different terrains a little bit, to keep us on our toes, and to train us a little differently.

Trail running, is still pretty steady, but there are areas that if we aren't careful, we can hurt our ankles. When we were kids, we did alot of rock climbing and trail running with ease. Could get around a bit quicker on the feet as a result of it. So we will be working on that.

Also, since it won't be as cold on the water in a month, I always found running in the sand to be difficult. I read that the reason is, on cement when you run the road gives some of your force you through at it back at you. Making it easier to continue running, and allowing you to run faster, for a longer period of time. In the sand, the majority of the force thrown into it is absorbed. So you have to summon up that much more strength to pull our feet out of the sand, and continue running. As a result to the extra effort, when you get back to running on the road, you have trained your legs to work harder when jogging. Making you able to run faster, and for longer. Take Rocky 3 for example. He ran on the beach to get faster.

So, we are planning on switching these two training programs back and forth, as stated above. We may add more sets in the future, add the weight of course, and increase cardio days per week, to maybe a short jog after workouts, and continue to increase the distance of our Cardio Day Jogs, and strive for a 5 minute average on the average kilometer. My cousin can do 8 kilometers in 30 minutes, so I don't think a 5 minute average is that high to look for as a long term goal.

I will update how we are doing with this after we complete some training days.