The Most Important Meal of the Day: EAT IT!

There’s a problem in this culture. For as much as we over-eat, so many of us do not eat breakfast. What’s the deal with that?! Meals are always something to look forward to in my day. Maybe because I have a slight obsession with food. Whatever. I’m here to tell you to EAT YOUR BREAKFAST! Just eat something: oatmeal, pancakes, yogurt, trail mix, bagels, fruit, something.

Why?

Well, boys and girls, let me talk a little about metabolism. You want a good, high metabolism. Why? Because the higher your metabolism, the faster your food is digested and nutrients absorbed. It means your body works faster and better. You see a lot of people with high metabolisms are usually thin, even though they seem to eat a normal (or more) amount. It’s either genetics or they know how and when to eat.

Structure of adenosine triphosphate, a central intermediate in energy metabolism (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you don’t eat breakfast, (just literally breaking your fast) your metabolism won’t wake up. For it to boot up and start trying to make you have less fat, you need to give it something to start on. Otherwise it’s going to be very slow. And when you do finally eat lunch (which is usually bigger than breakfast), your metabolism will be slowed down at that point and you won’t absorb nutrients or digest as quickly.

We like to go big on breakfast when we can. This is (not necessarily our typical) our ideal breakfast: whole-wheat Kodiak pancakes (or waffles), eggs, whole wheat toast with jam, Morningstar Sausage Links, and a big fruit salad. Sounds like a lot? You can bet our metabolism is going to be booted up from the start? And yes, I usually can’t finish everything so Chris gets to clean my plate.

Not in the mood for a big breakfast? When I don’t have a lot of time before work and Chris is still asleep, I’ll usually make oatmeal, or greek yogurt with fruit and nuts, or an egg on toast, etc. Those all have plenty of protein and carbs for me to last until lunch or snack time.

Whatever you do, just eat something. Even if it’s just an apple as you run out the door. I promise, it’s worth it and your body will thank you.

BONUS KITTY PIC

Oct162012

Give Your Body [SPECIFIC] Love

Weird title, right? For me, love has a lot to do with health, especially when it comes to one’s body. And it’s very important to love your body. And a way I do that is giving it great workouts. Why do I say specific love? Let me tell you.

A lot of people who aren’t really into fitness or go to the gym as a chore, typically do total-body workouts. Meaning that they will try to work each part of their body (from back to chest to legs, etc.) in one workout. And if you do that workout properly and hard enough, each and every muscle group will be sore.

So I have a question. What are you going to workout the next day if all body parts are sore?

Which is why I say SPECIFIC! You don’t have to be a meat head, a fitness buff, or even in shape to split workouts up properly. You’ll be amazed at how much more effective each workout will be. Usually spend 45 minutes on a total body? Imagine 45 minutes spent just on your legs. Now there’s some defined calves.

And specific doesn’t necessarily mean one muscle group each workout, it could mean two or even more. Usually, we split our workouts into two muscle groups each. For example, yesterday we did back and biceps. Another day we would do chest and triceps. Another day? Shoulders and forearms. Legs we usually keep by itself because there are several large muscles to work (calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes, etc.) And so on and so forth. I think you’re getting it. If you want, you can even split it into upper body and lower body workout days. But that will only work if you’re only working out 3 or so days of the week.

By the next day, you’re going to be sore in whatever you worked out. And by the second day after, you should be even more sore. But soreness to me equals happiness, because I know that muscle group is getting stronger. I’ll keep using us as an example. So we worked our back and biceps last night (great workout by the way), which are going to be sore today and tomorrow. Thus, tonight we will most likely work out chest and triceps, core, or something else.

There are so many pros to this way of working out and a very slim amount of cons. The specific muscle groups will get stronger by isolating them, they will develop more quickly, gain endurance, and toning. You will not have all body parts feeling sore and tired thus preventing a good workout.

You have the ability to isolate your workouts. Do it! I hope you can now understand how much better it is. AND it also makes it easier to plan out your workouts, thus making it easier for you to actually workout. I find it’s always easier to follow a workout plan (even if I’m feeling meh that day), because it’s written down what I’m going to do. Trust me, just try it.

Tell us which muscle group is your favorite to workout!

Oct112012

Save Money and Devour Nutrients: the Grown-Up Lunch Box

For a little while now I’ve wanted lunch boxes like this:

Or this

Anyways, putting my lunchbox fantasies aside, I wanted to let you know how easy it is to save money at the very same time you are devouring nutrients and getting good calories. Another healthy article? I know, I know, I’m sorry! But it’s really easy, again, like I was saying before. Then, I was talking about general meals and putting little effort into making them healthy (not hard). But now, I’m talking about bringing your lunch to work.

Are you one to usually buy lunch? Let’s stop that. No need to waste money, and especially to waste it on bad food. It’s so important to know what is in the food you are eating. Preparing your own meals is the perfect way to do that. Don’t have time in the morning to pack a lunch? Do it the night before. I promise it won’t get bad. Making this effort could really save your eating from junk food to health food. Again, go to the market and get the veggies and fruits on sale, meaning they are in season. There are so many things you can do that take 5-10 minutes. Let me show you some lunches I pack.

Here we have a guacamole, spinach, tomato, and morning star chicken sandwich. Healthy ingredients, protein, veggies, and grain right for you. Whole-Wheat bread. Easy. Took Chris about 5 minutes to make for me. I ate this with an orange and some yogurt-covered raisins.

This is my most frequent lunch meal. We have a huge thing of organic spinach in the fridge and we use it for almost every meal. I chop up whatever vegetables we have (this one has red pepper, cucumber, avocado, and tomato) and throw some morning star protein in as well. I use my cousin’s wonderful Balsamic Nectar and throw in a little oil too. Don’t feel full from salads? I always do from mine. Add protein to it or a healthy fat like avocado. Eat an orange or an apple with it.

Here’s another good example of a usual meal including other things that accompany my main dish (salad or sandwich or leftovers). I always add a fruit and usually some kind of carb (here is my Grandma’s featured trail mix!). That sandwich is spinach, hummus, morning star, and tomato. I have a big thing of water that I keep by me at all times to constantly drink up.

And here’s an example of other foods that accompany my salad or sandwich. I don’t know why that apple looks so freakishly large, bad camera angle maybe. I will usually have the apple and raisins with my main lunch meal, and then eat the Clif bar a few hours later. I can’t eat much at one time, but I get hungry quickly so I usually eat every three hours if possible.

So there you have it. Examples of easy, simple, quick-to-make lunches to bring with you every day, no matter where you work. You don’t even need to refrigerate it. Just try it one day. You’ll find it very rewarding, I promise, and you’ll want to do it every day. You’re making yourself a nutrient-packed meal that will make your coworkers feel bad about themselves.

Tell me what lunches you bring to work! Enjoy 🙂

Oct092012

Eating Healthy Really Isn’t Too Hard

America has an obesity rating of 34.4%.

I want to give you recipes and ideas that will make you realize, “Oh, eating healthy isn’t that hard!” and “wow, this tastes good!” I don’t want you to resort to fast food or processed junk (although In ‘n Out is always okay and so are Wendy’s Frosty’s). And it’s really not expensive! I would be considered poor right now and we have great home cooked meals almost every night. Here’s a few rules to live by:

1. Buy the produce on sale at the supermarket–it’s probably the ones in season. Seeing a multitude of apples and squash on sale? For really nice prices? Buy them. It’s almost like they’re yelling at us to eat what’s in season and get in with the cycle of the earth.

2. Stick to fruits and veggies. These are almost always going to be the most nutrition to value ratio every time and once again, in-season ones will not be pricey.

3. Get grains you cook yourself. Don’t get the pre-packaged stuff like ramen (though we may or may not have that in the house due to Chris’ obsession)–get the most fiber-filled rice you can at Costco for $20. What a deal.

Anyhow, above wasn’t my primary point for this post. I have an easy little-work recipe good for dinner or whenever you’d like. As most of you know we’re a weird breed of vegetarian/pescatarian so the only meat it contains is mushrooms. Which of course isn’t an actual meat. Let me spit the recipe at ya:

Ingredients

5 small white mushrooms
1 red pepper
4 potatoes
Whatever seasoning you’d like

Short list, right? Let’s move on to directions.

Directions

First and foremost, get the potatoes washed and cut into quarters. Then plop them in a pot full of water and set on high. We want these bad boys to boil!
Next, you’ll have some time. It takes around 15-20 min for the taters to boil
So we’ll move onto the veggies. Cut the mushrooms and red pepper into small slices. Grind some pepper and salt over them and whatever other seasoning you’d like.
When the potatoes are close to being boiled (say after 10 minutes), let’s cook the veggies. I sauteed them in white wine, soy sauce, and garlic (YUM). I also put some rosemary and garlic pepper in too.
Keep an eye on it and stir. Make sure to taste, they won’t take too long to cook, but you want all that moisture to soak in. Especially into the mushrooms
Drain those potatoes and put them back in the pot. Put half a teaspoon of butter in, a little soy sauce, and some garlic pepper in and mix around.
Serve and enjoy!

It was super juicy and flavorful–my favorite. Didn’t last long. And was a very cheap meal, didn’t even breach $7. Cheers!

Oct062012

Let the Haters Hate but Keep Working Out

So, we were in the BRC last night working out, even though it took over an hour to motivate ourselves to get dressed and go. A, we were tired from a week of hard work. B, it was really cold out. C, it was the first Friday night of the month, so people either were here from gym trade or paid $8 to boulder for the night. (It’s really busy Friday nights) Nevertheless, we found ourselves in the weight room first.

We did a great back and chest workout. It was probably our most extensive workout in five to six months. Many exercises, many sets, many reps, great form, great pumps, no injuries or serious pain, and a wide variety of muscles hit. We often did super-sets alternating from chest to back exercises, a technique that can stretch out your opposing muscle fibers in order to make greater gains while you lift for the opposite. While we were doing decline bench press, some little guy who came in the weight room with a girl he was trying to impress did one exercise but made one stupid comment. First, I’m not being mean saying little guy.

Regular chest press

He was an older man (30s or 40s) a shorter man (5’5′) and a lighter man (100 lbs) but he was wearing some SERIOUS climbing gear and most likely had some great strength to weight ratio. That happens with a lot of smaller guys, they can handle their body weight very well, which is something everyone should aim for as a goal. At the same time, I don’t think it’s a smart idea to limit your body’s growth by trying to stay small, because you could be sacrificing overall power, whether it be great strength, speed, or explosiveness. Picture this, he can do 100 pull-ups with his body weight but what would happen if he ran into a coyote up on the foothills? He’s dinner. But back to what actually happened (I have nothing against smaller people!)

Dinner!

Second, at some point while showing her how to do an upper-body elevated push up on gymnastic rings, (again, while we were doing decline bench) he said, very loudly and out of the blue, something along the lines of… “by doing this, we’re actually building/using practical pectoral/chest muscles.” Practical pectoral muscles… doing elevated ring push ups… Really? I am a very protective and defensive person, and I generally hate know-it-all people, even if they have a basis for their claims. More so, I hate those people that will smack talk everywhere and anytime except to someone’s face. (This guy’s aura made him seem like one of these people.) Was he trying to make himself look bigger in front of his lady-friend by putting us down? Tisk tisk. Let’s look at what would have happened if we discussed his comments face to face, because he obviously meant for us to hear it, little did he know that we know more about this stuff than he does.

There are two major muscle groups in the pecs, and although there are a countless number of exercises to work various areas in those groups, and hit every muscle fiber in the process, we were nearly working out the same muscles. His exercise, performed properly, targets the upper chest. (Inner, mid, or outer depends on the width of the rings.) Our exercise targets the lower chest, with the same width principle. By using an Olympic bar, we are not trying to build our stabilizer muscles in our shoulder joint, but by using dumbbells (or to a lesser extent rings) you can strengthen MORE stabilizers. That does not mean that we aren’t also strengthening SOME stabilizers, but throughout our workout we did plenty of work with dumbbells for them. We ALSO did some elevated push ups of our own before he got there, but he didn’t know that… no surprise.

Chest

Next, I’d love to figure out what he meant by practical chest muscles, since anatomically he failed already. He must have been talking about how we would use these muscle groups that he doesn’t fully understand in real life, right? So, tell me this because it’s never happened to me. Have you ever needed, in the “real world” outside of a gym, to use gymnastic rings in order to push yourself upwards using your pectoral muscles? I highly doubt it since gymnastic rings aren’t just hanging around everywhere in pubic. From our point of view, have you ever needed to push an object that fell on your chest off of you, whether it be a log, sibling, car, or anything else? Our scenarios might not be totally likely but they are certainly more plausible than that one for the rings, so who is actually working out more practical muscles?

So next time you find yourself in the gym ready to say something stupid, loud enough for everyone to hear, think about it for just a second and ask yourself if you could actually defend yourself. Also, if you’re on the receiving side of some snippy comment, like we were, don’t let it get you down. Never let any bully in the gym make you feel bad for something that you’re doing, unless you’re risking getting hurt and they’re trying to help. (Anyone trying to help wouldn’t bully you, or else they aren’t really trying to help.) Instead, let it motivate you to put up 155 on your last set of the decline for 12 reps after 6 months of not hitting any type of bench press.

Ignore them bullies

Let the haters hate, ignore them, and keep working out because you’re doing a phenomenal job and we love your effort!

Oct052012

Rest and Recovery Days (We Take A Lot)

Looking at this past week, we only went to the gym three out of five days. Sunday was shoulders and climbing, Monday was legs and climbing, and Wednesday was arms and climbing. (Climbing=Bouldering, until we get more gear) That means that Tuesday and Thursday were more or less rest or recovery days, but this isn’t completely the case. Everyone works out for a different reason. Some people want to feel better, some want to look better, and some actually enjoy it. Although the first two are true for myself, I would never work out as much as I do if I didn’t enjoy it.

Rock climbing on the wall of Voiron, Auvergne Rhône-Alpes championship (Isère, France). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Going to the gym is considered a leisurely activity in my daily planner because 95% of the time, a trip to the gym is on the same level as playing video games. The other reason that they weren’t rest days is based on how active one’s lifestyle is outside of designated workouts. On both of those days, I biked over ten miles to and from jobs throughout the day. It was on a cheap mountain bike, and there were lots of uphills and changes of direction and pace. Also, I was in the water for hours treading and teaching children how to swim. I was never moving too quickly, but overall I probably “swam” a thousand yards (I should calculate, or try to, some day.) Finally, everyday I walk a dog in the foothills, and those hikes/walks are usually around 3 miles long. According to my former Taekwondo master, hiking is the greatest form of exercise in the world… even greater than taekwondo. (He is an 8th degree black belt)

HIKE OR DIE

So never feel bad about taking a day off from the gym! Especially if you have an active and healthy lifestyle. Many people don’t realize just how active they are! Do you clean the house? Pick up your children and carry them around? Mow the lawn or garden? Walk the dog? Shovel snow or rake leaves? Walk up and down stairs all day? All these activities can be extremely taxing on the body and while you might not get the same effect of lifting weights in sets and reps, you can still get a heck of a workout from it.

Houseworks

Furthermore, rest is good as long as you don’t take too many days off it you’re trying to reach a certain goal. Some studies show that you won’t lose muscle gains for eight days, and cardio gains for three days. Now, I would not recommend taking more than two days off in a row because that should be enough recovery time for your muscle fibers, but don’t be too hard on yourself for taking some rest!

LET THOSE MUSCLES REST

Letting your body over-recover is much better than not letting it recover. You want those fibers to undergo fancy scientific processes like protein synthesis so that they come back bigger and stronger. Skip the process, and risk losing the growth that you worked so hard for. Working out, eating right, and sleeping right are the easy parts… your body is doing all the hard work, just get your mind in the right place. Never be too hard on yourself (I can’t take my own advice) and always try to enjoy what you’re doing. Working out every day, or nearly, for four years is really boring, unless you love the pain and struggle.

Keep up the good work!

Sep272012

A Walk to Remember

No, I am not talking about that overly-sentimental book/movie by Nicholas Sparks. I’m talking up uphill, climbing rocks, push to get to a Flatiron. Remember that time I talked about how you can use other exercises than using machines for a good leg workout? Forget that. Climb up to the freaking Flatirons. I may have done a leg workout the day before, but that hike accentuated my leg ache more than I can explain. I was hurting the next day, which is always a great thing (if it’s the good kind of pain).

We climbed up to the one on the right

I had made a date with a friend from the nursing home I work part-time at to go for a hike. She told us about Chautauqua Park (where we saw the Reel Rock Film Festival) and how it had tons of trails. We had never gone there to explore any hiking–we had just adventured there once to see those films. Well, let’s just say it wasn’t what we were expecting or what we were prepared for. I, sadly, forgot water for Chris and I (good job there, bud) and we had bellies full of food eaten at the dining hall at the park.

According to my pedometer, it was 4 miles up. It was a steady slow incline at first, and then at the actual flatiron base, it got rocky and steep. My friend was doing it pretty well (she brought water) and suggested we do this at sundown for an amazing scene. Well, we got pretty amazing views without a beautiful sunset to coat the sky. Since it was a Saturday, there were lots of other people, from a group of twenty college boys to couples to dog walkers. Everyone had great trail etiquette and was very friendly.

View to the East

It took about an hour to get up to the top of the flatiron, winding around it, up rocks, and steep hills. Though we were sucking in oxygen the whole time, having a serious case of dry mouth, and cursing our legs for being so sore, we had a great time.

View to the West

The views were absolutely incredible, and I can’t wait to see it during sunset and also when more leaves change.

Leaves slowly starting to change…

We were exhausted afterwards and pretty sore the next day, but it was definitely worth it and we will do it again very soon.

Made up to the top!

Oh and just to throw in here…Misty’s gotten quite adept at walking on small surfaces. Who doesn’t like a kitty picture at the end of a post?

Help, I’m adorable!

Sep242012

Imitating a Table: How to do the Perfect Plank

I hate nothing more than bad form when people plank. Okay, that previous sentence is ridiculous, I hate many things more, for example, olives (maybe). People do this in all sorts of exercises, rush to try to get the “best pump” or the “longest duration” and completely compromise their form. I don’t know how many times I will tell you this, but this will not be the last.

(taken from this blog)

Form is more important than any other part of the exercise or workout.

You screw up form, you screw up your body. It’s very simple. Yet big meatheads or beginners too will push past that to either try to get heavier weight or have no clue what they’re doing. So this will not be a long post. I just want you to perform a plank (one of the best core exercises, reaching the entire core from the upper thighs to the upper abs and everywhere in between.

1. Don’t wear socks. Just don’t do it, there’s no reason, even if your feet are smelly. Take them off or plunk on some shoes.

2. Put your forearms down flat on the floor, in a comfortable position, lining up with your shoulders

3. Ease your legs back, ‘standing’ on your toes

4. Lower your torso and upper legs, so you’re not making a ‘bridge’ with your body, but a nice flat terrain, hmm, somewhat like a plank a pirate would force you off.

5. Hold for as long as possible. Beginners, 30 seconds. Then move to 1 minute, then 2 minutes, then 3, etc. etc. You get the point.

Other tips:

Don’t stick your butt up
Don’t lower your hips
Don’t lower or raise your head
Keep tight

There are variations, too, like side-plank, watch-dogs, and twists. But remember GOOD FORM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING ELSE!

Sep222012

How to Get Thor-Like (or Wonder Woman-like) Legs without Machines

Sometimes in life, you don’t have all of the resources you would like. When it comes to fitness and gyms, you may not have all the equipment you would like (or think you may need). This is actually something we’ve stumbled upon as the Boulder Rock Gym doesn’t have many (or any) machines, not counting cables. It is very tough to do a leg workout without machines because it’s difficult to isolate and work each muscle of the leg. But where there’s a will, there’s a way, and honey, we’ve got it!

All you really need is 30 minutes to 1 hour. Not bad! As you might have read in our last post, we’re not in the shape we’re used to, so this was a relatively light workout for our standards, but nonetheless, a good leg workout (without machines). Let’s get started.

1. Start with a warm up. Since this is a workout “without machines,” ignore what we did (biked), and go for a run or use a real bike. Try for 15-20 minutes of moderate intensity cardio.

2. Strength time. Get some weights, a barbell, whatever you have. You can always be flexible and substitute for what you don’t have. It’d be great to pull out a jump rope too.

Start with squats. This can be with dumbbells, barbell, or just with your body. I wanna see 10-15 reps, 3 sets.

Chris performing proper exhalation. VERY IMPORTANT

3. We did a superset (meaning performing a squat and then, with no rest, another exercise), matching squats with jumping rope for however long the other did squats.

4. After that, we did (explosive) step-ups with weights. Get something you can step up onto, at least a foot high. You could use a bench, a chair, whatever. I used our couch the other day (oops). So basically, step onto the platform, weight in hand, and raise your other knee as you do so. Let’s go for 8-15 reps, 3 sets, reps depending on what amount of weights you use.

5. And, for a superset, we did box jumps. You can see the “box” in the left part of the picture above. Basically, do as many jumps over that as you can while the other person finishes their step ups.

6. By this point, we’re feeling pretty tired because most of our exercises have been high-intensity cardio. We move onto plie squats, which I covered here. Turn your feet out with wide horse stance, squat, turn left lunge, then turn right lunge. That’s one rep. Again, look at the other post for more details. Try to get 8-10 reps, 3 sets.

7. Finally, we end with deadlifts. This is basically a squat, but you start at the bottom position. Keep your back straight and form pristine. 8-12 reps, 3 sets.

And there you have it. Afterwards, we were pretty exhausted, but we did bouldering for 25 minutes anyways, making our forearms scream. You just need to push yourself to your potential, you can make something great out of any workout. And you didn’t need any machines for this great leg workout! Remember, this workout does not take long. Again, let us know if you have ANY questions, we would really love to help out.

Cheers!

Sep212012

How We Are Going to Get Back in Shape (and you can too)!

So after figuring out our job situation, for the most part, we finally decided that it was financially reasonable and responsible to sign up for a gym membership. Ideally, as a personal trainer and a swim instructor, it’s a common perk of the job to (depending on where you work) get a free membership. As I work at a small scuba diving and swimming school, there is no fitness facility other than the pool, unlike the YMCA that I worked at before moving. Alana has a free membership to the YMCA that she works at but as it is over fifteen miles from home, it’s not worth me getting a membership, so she has that. As I look for another job for some extra hours on the extended weekends, it would be great to find a place with a lap pool where I can start some swim workouts, but until then it’s going to have to wait.

Looking around Boulder of all places, and trying to maintain a budget, we passed up on what seemed the logical choice in 24 Hour Fitness and joined the Boulder Rock Club. 24 Hour Fitness is not the kind of gym that I like to work out at because I am against that chain-feeling in general. At this location, I really got that feeling and, unless I am travelling and need a week pass to a place with everything, I don’t feel any sense of attachment to a place like that where it seems members are more so a person that is counted as they walk through the door. Again, since we’re in Boulder, we wanted to start climbing, but we also wanted a location with a general gym feeling… a locker room, a fitness center, weights, machines, etc. At a reasonable monthly rate for all these services, we took a chance with the BRC. Obviously I sacrificed a pool for the time being seeing as I am still very much so in a second job hunt.

So, having signed up two days ago we made our first trip yesterday. Time to try to get back into shape. Now, to go a little bit more in depth, there were some other factors that made us decide on the BRC. This location was a bit of a premature impulse decision but, in theory, we have no regrets because one of the best ways for individuals like us who are out of shape, but were once in shape not too too long ago, is easing back into things. We were athletes and we have ton of injuries that have healed and some that haven’t healed.

Joining a climbing club, and this location particularly, motivates us to do more body weight exercises and start to re-develop what really matters: joint strength and the like. You can have the biggest strongest muscles with amazing muscular endurance, but that doesn’t matter if your joints, ligaments, tendons, bones, and everything else supporting and interacting with your muscle systems are not prepared to handle the routines that you put yourself through. I know from experience. So we took yesterday at a snail’s pace as an opportunity to ease back in and make sure nothing was acting up before we start to kick it into higher gears.

Here’s our workout, then we’ll talk some more.

At 8:40 a.m. with an empty stomach I applied some Tiger Balm Muscle Rub to my shoulders, upper back, lower back, and neck.

Then we went through about a 30 minute bouldering session at a relatively light pace, doing novice level routes, and earning massive forearm and hand pumps in the process.

Next we moved to the weight room, which is modest, and went through a short and VERY modest shoulder routine. (I have a superior lesion from anterior to posterior in my left labrum so this is always a cautious day, especially first day back.)

1. Standing Resistance Band Rear Deltoid Flies: 3 sets with a fitting band, 15-20 reps a set

2. Standing Lateral Dumbbell Flies: 3 sets with 15 lb weights, 10-12 reps per set

3. Seated Shoulder Press: 3 sets, ascending weight from 35-45 lbs, 8-12 reps

4. Olympic Bar Shrugs: 3 sets, ascending weight from 95-115 lbs, 16-18 reps

5. Roman Chair Dips: 3 sets, body weight, 6 reps

6. Back Extension Apparatus, 3 sets, body weight, 10 reps

Now obviously, this was more or less our workout. We had to keep it short because we had to get to work and because we wanted to ease back into a fitness routine, and this was very much so easing. We hit most of our major and minor muscle groups in our shoulders, namely neglecting our front delts, scaptions, and rotator cuffs, which I rarely miss. It was not a tough workout because our warm up was not complete so I did not want to risk anything. I always warm up my shoulders before an upper body workout, especially shoulders, in order to prevent injury.

Also, we always try to incorporate some core-specific exercise into every workout, even on isolation days. Here is was the back extensions, because my lower back is very weak right now. The Tiger Balm also acts as a sort of warm up although it’s not meant to be a replacement. Why didn’t we isolate back, chest, arms, or legs first? Because I need to make sure my shoulder can withstand a workout before moving to another body part. It is extremely difficult to properly workout any body part when something is not working properly. Your muscles work tandem with one another. If something is out of whack, your whole body will be screwed up. When I further ripped the tear in my labrum, my squat numbers plummeted because I was no longer able to balance the bar with one shoulder. So that is why we started with shoulders.

A complete weight training workout can be perf...

Weight training, brah

Now that it more or less passed the test we are prepared to hit the other body parts, and once they are all conditioned well enough we will begin complex circuit training routines. So my path I am hoping to follow, if all resources are in place, and always injury pending:

1. Mix isolated muscle group workouts with light bouldering and climbing

2. Increase weight and rep range within isolated muscle workouts

3. Increase duration of isolated muscle workouts

4. Begin to build cardio vascular capacity through cardio based workouts (run and bike)

5. Add cardio to muscle workouts through super sets

6. Begin full body circuit training

The ideal workout week: ( I never allow for enough rest)

Isolated muscle workouts every/every other day, i.e. chest and triceps/back and biceps/lower body/shoulders and forearms
Full body circuit training, i.e. Spartacus workout version 1, three times a week
Bouldering and climbing every day in the gym, with these workouts
Cardio-based workouts (bike and run) three times a week

So that might look like: (in no particular order for each day)

– Monday: Chest and triceps in the gym, circuit training session, bouldering

– Tuesday: Back and biceps in the gym, 20 mile stationary bike ride, top-rope

– Wednesday: Lower body in the gym, circuit training session, bouldering

– Thursday: Shoulder and forearms in the gym, 3 mile treadmill run (probably not), top-rope

– Friday: Core in the gym, basketball in the park

– Saturday: back to the start…

I am never good at following those and I kind of ran through that but more or less we will want to start incorporating everything, easing back into our routines while adapting to our new lifestyle and workout resources. In terms of sleep, I try to get seven a night, and I take my vitamins and minerals and try to eat healthy, lots of fish… and dairy. I try to load carbs in the morning and taper off throughout the day, having a protein filled meal at night. I won’t include the scientific explanation for that process unless it’s requested.

But seriously, feel free to ask any questions about our workout or nutritional plan, and PLEASE feel free to ask for some help finding a way for you to get back into shape. Give us your background, resources, and goals and we can make it work. I love helping people achieve fitness goals.

Email us at alana.ppowell@gmail.com