I just had a great upper body workout, walked home glowing with all the warm fuzzy feelings that produced, ate a great meal with my beautiful girlfriend, and took a nice shower. This was the eleventh day of my current 30 Day Workout challenge, and I feel like a million dollars :)
I actually didn't sleep at all last night. I stayed up all night playing Rome: Total War, a pretty sweet (but dangerously addictive!) strategy game. Then I napped from about 2pm to 7pm. Then I got up and hit the gym. Obviously this isn't the best lifestyle! Certainly not for getting fit! Adequate rest is absolutely essential. Do what I say, not what I do ;) (The real moral is, one of the great things about a self-imposed 30-day challenge is you're free to go about it however you want, even do dumb things now and then)
Here are the specific workout details over the past few days:
Monday:
An upper body day, meaning the core exercise was bench press.
Benchpress, 110 lbs, 10 reps, 5 sets.
Pull ups, 1 successful, failed a 2nd.
Dumbbell benchpress: 40 lbs per hand. First set, did 13 reps. Second set, did 11 and failed a 12th.
Crunches (holding plates): 30 lbs, 38 reps, 3 sets.
Tuesday:
I jumped on the treadmill and ran 5.33 miles. Started at 3.5mph and gradually accelerated to a peak speed of 6.8 at the end. I ran 51 minutes, plus 6 minutes of cooldown.
Wednesday:
A lower body day, focusing on squats as the main event.
Squats, 115 lbs 10 reps 1 set, followed by 120 lbs 10 reps 4 sets.
Leg press, 70 lbs 15 reps 2 sets, followed by 85 lbs 15 reps 2 sets.
Crunches (holding plates): 35 lbs, 30 reps, 3 sets.
Side legs: 25 per leg.
Awkward Crunches
Today was the first day I went up to 35 lbs for crunches. For my first set, I used a single 35-lbs plate, seemingly the most obvious choice. Problem is, this heavier plate has a significantly larger diameter than the 25-lbs and 5-lbs plates I was combining before to make 30 (the OSU gyms don't have 30-lbs plates). It ended up being rather awkward, I couldn't do crunches very well and the plate was almost touching my thighs even when I had my back on the floor. Easy enough to solve, I switched to a 25-lbs + 10-lbs combination and it worked great. I did feel a little sheepish though, wonder whether any of the people on the bike machines saw my struggle. ;)
Lifting Weights on Little Sleep
Today, I was worried I wouldn't lift very well, since I only had five hours of napping. On the contrary, I was able to progress naturally from my previous squats day. "Progress naturally" basically means, add 5 lbs to everything and repeat (I'm thinking of writing a whole article later focusing on the subject of progressive training in general).
This doesn't mean I'm superhuman or immune to exhaustion. What it really means is that I could be lifting a lot more weight if I was pushing myself. That's ok, though, to me the amount of weight isn't all that important. I'm doing it for the benefits, like increased focus and energy, rushes of joy, and increased understanding of my body. If I were really approaching this from a hardcore competitive perspective, the method would be entirely different. I'd have to focus more on fewer-rep sets with massively higher weight. With that sort of system, there's no way I could lift every day for 30 days without overtraining to death. So I'd have to take days off, which vastly complicates the logistics and planning, and means the benefits I really care about would be smaller on the days off. Better to just take it easy, have fun, and do it every day.
Treadmill Blisters
I'm experiencing "blisters" on my inner thighs, a result of doing long runs after going for months without any significant running. Blisters isn't even the right word, the skin is just a little red from friction. I've gotten these before, during my previous 30 Day Workout challenge. They're not really painful-- a little painful during the run itself, but tolerable. After a run, the skin heals very fast, so by the next day the effect is almost gone. Then the next run, two days later, it comes back, but less strong. By the thirtieth day, I anticipate my legs will have gotten used to running for an hour+, and this side effect will be completely gone.
NEXT: Days 12-15
I actually didn't sleep at all last night. I stayed up all night playing Rome: Total War, a pretty sweet (but dangerously addictive!) strategy game. Then I napped from about 2pm to 7pm. Then I got up and hit the gym. Obviously this isn't the best lifestyle! Certainly not for getting fit! Adequate rest is absolutely essential. Do what I say, not what I do ;) (The real moral is, one of the great things about a self-imposed 30-day challenge is you're free to go about it however you want, even do dumb things now and then)
Here are the specific workout details over the past few days:
Monday:
An upper body day, meaning the core exercise was bench press.
Benchpress, 110 lbs, 10 reps, 5 sets.
Pull ups, 1 successful, failed a 2nd.
Dumbbell benchpress: 40 lbs per hand. First set, did 13 reps. Second set, did 11 and failed a 12th.
Crunches (holding plates): 30 lbs, 38 reps, 3 sets.
Tuesday:
I jumped on the treadmill and ran 5.33 miles. Started at 3.5mph and gradually accelerated to a peak speed of 6.8 at the end. I ran 51 minutes, plus 6 minutes of cooldown.
Wednesday:
A lower body day, focusing on squats as the main event.
Squats, 115 lbs 10 reps 1 set, followed by 120 lbs 10 reps 4 sets.
Leg press, 70 lbs 15 reps 2 sets, followed by 85 lbs 15 reps 2 sets.
Crunches (holding plates): 35 lbs, 30 reps, 3 sets.
Side legs: 25 per leg.
Awkward Crunches
Today was the first day I went up to 35 lbs for crunches. For my first set, I used a single 35-lbs plate, seemingly the most obvious choice. Problem is, this heavier plate has a significantly larger diameter than the 25-lbs and 5-lbs plates I was combining before to make 30 (the OSU gyms don't have 30-lbs plates). It ended up being rather awkward, I couldn't do crunches very well and the plate was almost touching my thighs even when I had my back on the floor. Easy enough to solve, I switched to a 25-lbs + 10-lbs combination and it worked great. I did feel a little sheepish though, wonder whether any of the people on the bike machines saw my struggle. ;)Lifting Weights on Little Sleep
Today, I was worried I wouldn't lift very well, since I only had five hours of napping. On the contrary, I was able to progress naturally from my previous squats day. "Progress naturally" basically means, add 5 lbs to everything and repeat (I'm thinking of writing a whole article later focusing on the subject of progressive training in general).
This doesn't mean I'm superhuman or immune to exhaustion. What it really means is that I could be lifting a lot more weight if I was pushing myself. That's ok, though, to me the amount of weight isn't all that important. I'm doing it for the benefits, like increased focus and energy, rushes of joy, and increased understanding of my body. If I were really approaching this from a hardcore competitive perspective, the method would be entirely different. I'd have to focus more on fewer-rep sets with massively higher weight. With that sort of system, there's no way I could lift every day for 30 days without overtraining to death. So I'd have to take days off, which vastly complicates the logistics and planning, and means the benefits I really care about would be smaller on the days off. Better to just take it easy, have fun, and do it every day.
Treadmill Blisters
I'm experiencing "blisters" on my inner thighs, a result of doing long runs after going for months without any significant running. Blisters isn't even the right word, the skin is just a little red from friction. I've gotten these before, during my previous 30 Day Workout challenge. They're not really painful-- a little painful during the run itself, but tolerable. After a run, the skin heals very fast, so by the next day the effect is almost gone. Then the next run, two days later, it comes back, but less strong. By the thirtieth day, I anticipate my legs will have gotten used to running for an hour+, and this side effect will be completely gone.
NEXT: Days 12-15
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3 comments:
Hello, I like your post a lot. And I have a question - how differ the picures from each other between different triplets of days. To me they look same :-) Wish all the best results in your project!
Katy
You're doing almost no training for your back and rear deltoids, but two different benching exercises.
Most people who sit at a desk a lot already have an internally rotated humerus. If you do a lot of benching without training your upper back and rear delts, you could possibly suffer a shoulder injury (one of the most common injuries for people who work out, mainly because of having a routine like yours).
Instead of trying to do full pullups at this stage, do negatives with a chair. Bring yourself up with your legs on the chair, but then lower yourself down with your own arm and back strength. Do as many negatives as possible in each set.
Or use a lat pulldown machine instead of pullups altogether.
Katy: Thanks for pointing that out, I accidentally uploaded the picture from day 7 instead of day 10. Fixed!
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