Wednesday Strength Sessions

To continue with my strength training program, Wednesday will be a pushing movement day and will consist of the following exercises:

1. Upper body vertical push: Shoulder Press
2. Upper body horizontal push: Push-Ups
3. Additional upper body push: Dips
4. Lower body push: Squats
5. Lower body push: Step-Ups
6. Lower body push: Lunges
7. Arm Push: Triceps Extension

Again, I will use volume to measure progress from week to week.

Stick To It Tip #10

Well, you made it through the first couple of months of a new exercise/fitness program. Time to review some immediate and/or short-term goals as well as evaluate your progress toward your long-term goal. Regardless of whether you have reached the point your expected, give yourself a reward for moving in the right direction. Any change takes time and some changes evolve over time, not overnight. So get that tech toy you wanted or the spa treatment you have been dreaming about and start the process over again. Each time you will learn a little more to help in the next phase of your training and your mistakes will become fewer and your successes more frequent. Good Luck!

Putting Together a Strength Training Program

My strength training program will consist of a 3 day cycle. Mondays will be pulling movements, Wednesdays will be pushing movements, and Fridays will be combination movements. Although I have specified M-W-F, it can be any days of the week as long as I get 3 days in with 1 day off in between for recovery. I like exercises that imitate movements I would normally do, so I usually work with free weights or my own body weight but many of these can be done on machines. For Mondays, I am doing pulling movements (both upper and lower body) and I like to work different plans (vertical and horizontal). Since I work arms with both pushes and pulls I only add one arm exercise to the group for biceps. Here are the exercises I plan to do:

1. Upper body vertical pull: Pull-ups
2. Upper body horizontal pull: Bent Rows
3. Stabilizing upper body pull: Back Extensions
4. Lower body pull: Romanian Dead Lift
5. Lower body pull: Dead Lift
6. Stabilizing lower body pull: Bridge
7. Arm pull: Preacher Curls (I prefer these because of my shoulders)

Because I have different strengths for each of these areas (my lower body is much stronger), I do different sets and/or repetitions. Since I am building for strength and endurance initially and working out weight loss later, I am going to try and do up to 12 repetitions for 3 sets with the goal of making the last set hard to finish (not to failure). This may change from workout to workout but the objective is to make improvement each week. In later posts, I will discuss how to measure improvement from session to session but I use volume (sets x repetitions x weight) so we will use this to monitor progress in future posts.

Strength Training Goals for 2009

My baseline measures for strength put me at the top of my age group so my back up goal is easier to develop first--I will stay at the 95 percentile for my age group in strength. For a long-term goal I will pick some specific items as my overall condition is high. So, my long-term goal for strength training in 2009 will be the following: To do 3 sets of 10 pull-ups with no assistance; to squat 150% of my body weight (165 lbs). Since I have some shoulder issues, I need to modify my goal for push-ups and dips (if I can do 1 set of 10 marine-style push-ups/dips I will be satisfied). My short-term goal will be to improve my current number of pull-ups by 1 each month (I am doing 3 sets of 5 right now) with some recovery time built in and/or exercises to shore up weaknesses (grip strength, forearm strength); increase my squat weight by 5-10% each week, and to do rehab exercises for my shoulders. My immediate goal is to find rehab exercises for my shoulders and build those into my workout routine on off days. Since I tend to get bored with strength routines quickly, I will adopt an undulating type of workout rotating easy, moderate and difficult training sessions. This may sound difficult but it only means I switch type and number of exercises, number of sets and repetition in a systematic way. I will evaluate my strength training plan in 3 months and see if I am on target for reaching my goals.

YWeight?: My Goals for 2009

Snow Days

Dealing with snow days can be a hassle - you can't get to the gym and it's too dangerous to run outside. So, you do what you can do--I went out and shoveled snow, took a walk and did some yoga. Additionally, I watched what I ate more carefully (cabin fever can lead to some serious overeating). Tomorrow I will resume my normal activities and start developing my goals for my resistance training.