I have a new dynamic warm-up care of Women’s Fitness; check it out
I do 10 reps (5 with alternating moves) and they hit all the movements I need prior to my resistance training.
Jumping Jacks
Slo-Mo Mountain Climber
Crossover Jumping Jacks
Arm Crossover
Tight Core Rotation
Yogi Plex
Bent Row with L Raise
Side Lunge to Crossover Lunge Combo
Superdog
Most individuals have lost and gained weight multiple times. So, it makes sense that you would be tentative about trying to lose weight yet another time; it could mean another failure. Unfortunately, this worry of regaining weight can actually contribute to the problem as ruminating about about past failures and the associated negative feelings can actually cause you to subconsciously sabotage your progress. You can work some positive karma by looking at things that don’t work as strategies that don’t work well for you and move on to something else that does. Once you identify the strategies that work you can expand on those and continue your progress. Fail quickly and move on to weight loss success!
Since I decided not to use Stage 5, I took the following workout from Men’s Health. It includes a Power move, 2 Core moves, and 3 Strength supersets. I will be doing this workout for about 3 weeks:
Power Move: Jump Squats 3 sets of 8
Core Moves: Alternating 2 point plank 15/Alternating diagonal modified plank 15
Strength Moves:
Lunges 3 x 8/Chins 3 x 8
Dumbbell Romanian Dead Lift 3 x 8/Dumbbell Push Press 3 x 8
Push up 2 x AMAP/Inverted Row 2 x AMAP (as many as possible)
My biggest surprise was the core movements—extremely difficult for me; the other exercises I have been doing similar versions so they were much easier.
HIIT will be 1 minute/2 minute for this week
Since I will be on a job assignment for 4-5 days at 12 hour days, I will probably only be able to get in the minimal workouts this week.
Incorporating a different workout for the next stage--acid reflux becoming worse--increasing intervals
I thought I could go through with doing the Stage 5 workout but I don’t find it appealing enough. As mentioned in a previous post, it consists of 4x4 (reps/sets) of the exercises from Stage 3. I don’t think those particular exercises are going to be helpful to me with extremely heavy weights. I don’t like taking 2 minutes per set recovery time as it makes the workout unbearably long. So, I have decided to switch gears and do a Men’s Health workout 2x week (Transform Your Body) and add a Marine circuit for the 3rd day. My warm-up will be exercises from Women’s Health (similar to the Men’s Health Big Book of Exercise warm-up) and continue to do some level of high intensity interval training. Last week my pyramids went well and I believe I can start 60/120 (6-8 rounds) using under 8 minutes miles for the sprints. Based on what I have been reading, if I am only doing 15-20 minutes, my sprints should really be much faster but I am not there yet. The other cardio days I will start with 30 minutes and do some version of intervals at lower levels and eventually work up to 45 minutes. I will re-evaluate my fat %, I am hoping to be at or below my last measurement of 20%. I will do this workout for three weeks and then review Stage 6 and whether I want to use that as the next round.
My GERD symptoms continue and I am working on eliminating some other types of food for the next month (prior to my annual physical) to see if I can improve. If not, I may discuss other options with my doctor. The symptoms are mild but I do not want any deterioration of the esophagus or stomach lining. I am not sure if this is really acid or (as other research indicates) and immune response situation. I have another chronic immune response issue and this concerns me. Despite this, I feel pretty good and my workouts are effective.
