Sorry for not updating yesterday, people.
So, workout yesterday was good. I did interval training for 20 minutes and it felt great. Is it safe to do interval training every time I do cardio? Is that going to overtax me? Because it saves me time and is a lot more fun for me than just running non-stop for a half hour or more, so if I don't have to do "regular" cardio, all the better for me.
Chest and abs were also feeling good. I can actually do whole sets of the Bicycle Exercise without having to stop midway through, and I'm ready to up my weight for presses and whatnot - right now I'm doing 30lbs for presses, 30 for incline presses, and 17.5 for flies. I think I'm going to try moving up to 35 for both types of presses (though I may have to keep it at 30 for incline; we'll see).
I weighed myself yesterday. Unfortunately, all I have is a bad electric scale, so it was wildly inconsistent. Before the workout, I went on fully clothed; the first time, I got 185; then, when I tried again, I got 184; then 180; then 182. Then when I went on after the workout, I went on without clothes and consistently got 178.5. This would be awesome, but I don't believe it. At my last doctor's checkup, I weighed 186 (this was probably in October or November), and I would be extremely surprised if I somehow managed to lose weight in university. Either way, I've only been working out for 3 weeks, and there's no way that I've managed to lose like 7 pounds in such a short amount of time. Much as I'd like to say I have, it's just too unlikely. Still, looking at the readings from before the workout, I never got higher than 185, so I've lost AT LEAST one pound. Huzzah!
I'm doing an bridged workout today - should be a post up later tonight, so check back then!
-Daniel
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Day 23: Perfect 5th
Yo.
I started interval training today. I like it a lot! It's a lot more interesting than regular old cardio for me, and makes me just as sweaty. I only did it for 16 minutes today, alternating between 30 second sprints and 90 second jogs. I definitely need to up it to 20 minutes next time, but otherwise it was really really good. I really wish I had a treadmill though - as previously documented in past blog posts, if you go too fast on my elliptical and veer off-center even a little bit, one of the foot things WILL fall off it's rail, which is really unfortunate. Also, I just imagine interval training just works BETTER on a treadmill, because you can move more naturally. Either way, gotta stick with the elliptical for now, and it's still feeling good.
Weight work was great today. Having that little bit of time off must have energized me a bit; my form was better than ever and I attempted to move my weight up (though I've decided that it's not quite time to do that yet). Tricep kickbacks were feeling a little weird; the actual set would be good, but then when I was done, my arm would get this weird soreness for like 2 seconds. So I only did two sets instead of three. Regardless, overall good workout today. I'm starting to see some pretty solid results in my arms; I'm gonna need to lose some fat before I start seeing results anywhere else.
Also, I should really start weighing myself. I haven't weighed myself at all - not even when this first started. Hurm.
-Daniel
I started interval training today. I like it a lot! It's a lot more interesting than regular old cardio for me, and makes me just as sweaty. I only did it for 16 minutes today, alternating between 30 second sprints and 90 second jogs. I definitely need to up it to 20 minutes next time, but otherwise it was really really good. I really wish I had a treadmill though - as previously documented in past blog posts, if you go too fast on my elliptical and veer off-center even a little bit, one of the foot things WILL fall off it's rail, which is really unfortunate. Also, I just imagine interval training just works BETTER on a treadmill, because you can move more naturally. Either way, gotta stick with the elliptical for now, and it's still feeling good.
Weight work was great today. Having that little bit of time off must have energized me a bit; my form was better than ever and I attempted to move my weight up (though I've decided that it's not quite time to do that yet). Tricep kickbacks were feeling a little weird; the actual set would be good, but then when I was done, my arm would get this weird soreness for like 2 seconds. So I only did two sets instead of three. Regardless, overall good workout today. I'm starting to see some pretty solid results in my arms; I'm gonna need to lose some fat before I start seeing results anywhere else.
Also, I should really start weighing myself. I haven't weighed myself at all - not even when this first started. Hurm.
-Daniel
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Day 22: My Bad
Er....Well, this is awkward.
I didn't have time to update in Ottawa. Sorry yo. I didn't get much of a chance to work out, as though I was there for 3 days, 2 days were basically just driving all day so......
I did attempt to workout yesterday (which was my only full day in the city). I was just going to do my normal ab workout and some pushups, but my sister had this Pilates DVD (she does a lot of workout DVDs) and asked if I wanted to do it. I figured it would be a nice, full-body sort of workout so I agreed. Unfortunately (and this could be because my form was off), I found that the DVD didn't really do anything for me except for a couple spots. After it was over, I did a few sets of pushups and that was that. Overall, not a very good on-the-road workout, but it's nice to see that I can do a bunch of sets of pushups and be good - before I started this, I would struggle to even do 2 sets of 10 comfortably.
That's all for now. Real post tomorrow.
-Daniel
I didn't have time to update in Ottawa. Sorry yo. I didn't get much of a chance to work out, as though I was there for 3 days, 2 days were basically just driving all day so......
I did attempt to workout yesterday (which was my only full day in the city). I was just going to do my normal ab workout and some pushups, but my sister had this Pilates DVD (she does a lot of workout DVDs) and asked if I wanted to do it. I figured it would be a nice, full-body sort of workout so I agreed. Unfortunately (and this could be because my form was off), I found that the DVD didn't really do anything for me except for a couple spots. After it was over, I did a few sets of pushups and that was that. Overall, not a very good on-the-road workout, but it's nice to see that I can do a bunch of sets of pushups and be good - before I started this, I would struggle to even do 2 sets of 10 comfortably.
That's all for now. Real post tomorrow.
-Daniel
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Day 19: Weak
Shitty workout today. Cardio was the same situation as yesterday - almost at 2.5 but not quite. It was pretty bad actually; partly due to people calling me, and partly due to my own disillusionment with cardio and lack of motivation I took a bunch of short breaks. Don't get me wrong: they WERE short, but still. I feel like my cardio just hasn't really improved too much over the past little bit - I'm still struggling to push through the half hour somewhat. I feel like part of this is due to me running a bit more intensely over the past few days and challenging myself, but I just haven't felt any actual improvement. Worse, I'm just plain getting BORED. It's not like it's not challenging enough, because it is, but I just get bored running for a half hour straight, and after doing that for 6 days a week, it can get pretty taxing.
Which is why I think it's time to start some High Intensity Interval Training. For those who don't know, Interval Training is basically when you do a certain amount of time running at your hardest/fastest ("Work"), followed by an (usually longer) amount of time at a normal pace ("Rest") - you alternate this Work/Rest "set" a number of times (usually from 6-12, depending on your level of fitness). It's a shorter, more interesting cardio workout, and it's supposed to do wonders for your cardio skills and fat burning. You're not supposed to do it every day though, so I think I'm going to alternate doing it and regular cardio each workout day.
Through my research, it seems like a good ratio for a beginner is 3:1. This means that I'm going to do 30 seconds of Work, followed by 90 seconds of Rest. Some videos have shown the Rest phase being like everyday walking, while the Work phase is a light jog. This seems a little bit TOO easy, so to start I'm going to do a minimum of 6 sets alternating between 90 seconds of light jogging and 30 of sprinting. I'm also going to be warming up and cooling down before and after the cardio session. Obviously these numbers are subject to change once I actually start doing it.
Weightwork was....pretty bad too. I had a slight ache in my back on the right side (probably from lifting so much at work yesterday - need to remember good form!) which made my shoulder workouts pretty uncomfortable. It wasn't a big thing, just a weird annoyance. I tried upping my weight for TVOs (from 7.5 to 10) and lowering my reps (from 10 to 8), but it just didn't work; I either have to go back to 7.5 or lower my reps to 6 (which I think is what I need to do). Everything else was okay though - in particular, my back exercises were actually feeling good for once! I feel like I've got the form down a lot better. A friend of mine suggested a rather brilliant idea to me the other day: he said to go to the park and use the monkey bars as a pull-up bar. DOI! Why didn't I think of that? I didn't get a chance to do it today, but hopefully I will for my next back workout.
Okay, so, Ottawa tomorrow. I may do some short updates just stating what I did to keep myself from completely slacking off. Realistically, it'll probably just be crunches and push-ups. Well, actually, my ab workout can remain the same, which is nice. So, yeah, check back tomorrow (probably - if not, Monday) for an On The Road post.
-Daniel
Which is why I think it's time to start some High Intensity Interval Training. For those who don't know, Interval Training is basically when you do a certain amount of time running at your hardest/fastest ("Work"), followed by an (usually longer) amount of time at a normal pace ("Rest") - you alternate this Work/Rest "set" a number of times (usually from 6-12, depending on your level of fitness). It's a shorter, more interesting cardio workout, and it's supposed to do wonders for your cardio skills and fat burning. You're not supposed to do it every day though, so I think I'm going to alternate doing it and regular cardio each workout day.
Through my research, it seems like a good ratio for a beginner is 3:1. This means that I'm going to do 30 seconds of Work, followed by 90 seconds of Rest. Some videos have shown the Rest phase being like everyday walking, while the Work phase is a light jog. This seems a little bit TOO easy, so to start I'm going to do a minimum of 6 sets alternating between 90 seconds of light jogging and 30 of sprinting. I'm also going to be warming up and cooling down before and after the cardio session. Obviously these numbers are subject to change once I actually start doing it.
Weightwork was....pretty bad too. I had a slight ache in my back on the right side (probably from lifting so much at work yesterday - need to remember good form!) which made my shoulder workouts pretty uncomfortable. It wasn't a big thing, just a weird annoyance. I tried upping my weight for TVOs (from 7.5 to 10) and lowering my reps (from 10 to 8), but it just didn't work; I either have to go back to 7.5 or lower my reps to 6 (which I think is what I need to do). Everything else was okay though - in particular, my back exercises were actually feeling good for once! I feel like I've got the form down a lot better. A friend of mine suggested a rather brilliant idea to me the other day: he said to go to the park and use the monkey bars as a pull-up bar. DOI! Why didn't I think of that? I didn't get a chance to do it today, but hopefully I will for my next back workout.
Okay, so, Ottawa tomorrow. I may do some short updates just stating what I did to keep myself from completely slacking off. Realistically, it'll probably just be crunches and push-ups. Well, actually, my ab workout can remain the same, which is nice. So, yeah, check back tomorrow (probably - if not, Monday) for an On The Road post.
-Daniel
Friday, April 23, 2010
Day 18: Over 9000
I didn't have time to update yesterday because I didn't start working out until like 9 at night, and I had to go to bed early because I had work today.
So, yesterday was good - elliptical broke down again, but whatever, fixed it and went back on. I was definitely running faster than usual because I would hit my 0.8 miles per 10 minutes and still have about 30 seconds to spare each time. With two minutes left, I decided I would start pushing even more, to see if I could get up to 2.5 miles for the whole run. With fifty-five seconds left and having only just reached my usual 2.4, I fucking PUSHED IT. Like, Super Saiyan pushed it. I was grunting and swearing, and I was running between 90-95 RPM as opposed to my usual 80-85. Unfortunately, I didn't quite make it, but I could feel that if I had 10 - no, 5 - more seconds, I would have hit 2.5. Looks like I've got a new goal.
Weight work was meh. During my dumbbell flies, I started to get this weird ache in my left shoulder, and it just would not go away. My technique was fine as far as I could tell, and I always stretch really well, so I don't know what the problem was. THEN, during my leg lifts, my thighs/groin started to hurt everytime my legs went up - it was quite painful, and I couldn't do them. The pain isn't necessarily new to me; when I used to workout before, I would get the same sort of pain, but this time I haven't had a problem until now. Weird. Advice?
I've decided not to work out today, for a couple reasons. First is that today was my first full day of work, and aside from that it was a tough day, full of more heavy lifting than I was expecting. The other reason is because if I don't work out tomorrow, I'll be going four days without working out (due to my Ottawa travels) and I figure it's better to keep the workout break as short as possible.
On another note, my bike ride to and from work is starting to feel a little bit easier. It's still pretty killer, but I'm not completely dead by the end of it (though my legs have a nice muscle ache goin' on).
That's all for now.
-Daniel
So, yesterday was good - elliptical broke down again, but whatever, fixed it and went back on. I was definitely running faster than usual because I would hit my 0.8 miles per 10 minutes and still have about 30 seconds to spare each time. With two minutes left, I decided I would start pushing even more, to see if I could get up to 2.5 miles for the whole run. With fifty-five seconds left and having only just reached my usual 2.4, I fucking PUSHED IT. Like, Super Saiyan pushed it. I was grunting and swearing, and I was running between 90-95 RPM as opposed to my usual 80-85. Unfortunately, I didn't quite make it, but I could feel that if I had 10 - no, 5 - more seconds, I would have hit 2.5. Looks like I've got a new goal.
Weight work was meh. During my dumbbell flies, I started to get this weird ache in my left shoulder, and it just would not go away. My technique was fine as far as I could tell, and I always stretch really well, so I don't know what the problem was. THEN, during my leg lifts, my thighs/groin started to hurt everytime my legs went up - it was quite painful, and I couldn't do them. The pain isn't necessarily new to me; when I used to workout before, I would get the same sort of pain, but this time I haven't had a problem until now. Weird. Advice?
I've decided not to work out today, for a couple reasons. First is that today was my first full day of work, and aside from that it was a tough day, full of more heavy lifting than I was expecting. The other reason is because if I don't work out tomorrow, I'll be going four days without working out (due to my Ottawa travels) and I figure it's better to keep the workout break as short as possible.
On another note, my bike ride to and from work is starting to feel a little bit easier. It's still pretty killer, but I'm not completely dead by the end of it (though my legs have a nice muscle ache goin' on).
That's all for now.
-Daniel
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Day 17: Is It Safe?
I had a rather strange incident today whilst doing cardio. I popped in my Flaming Lips documentary, as I wanted to do a review of it but hadn't yet watched the special features, and started my cardio. Everything was good, I was running at my usual pace, and the Flaming Lips were entertaining me with their odd brand of sometimes spacey, sometimes kick-ass, sometimes psychedelic alternative rock. But then, when I had about 10 minutes left, my elliptical machine had a SHIT CONNIPTION. See, the way my elliptical works is that the two platforms to put your feet on are each on their own separate rail, and I guess I pushed it too hard or something, because the left platform actually FELL OFF the rail with an obscenely loud bang. I paused the machine, and kind of just stood there in shock and awe for a couple minutes, and then decided that I'd be damned if a piece of faulty equipment was going to stop my workout, so I put it back on the rail and resumed.
Besides that odd occurrence, everything else about the workout was fine. I upped the weight for my Bicep Superset thingy just a little bit, from 12.5 to 15, and it gave me a really nice workout. Everything's feelin' awesome, though I still need to work on the kickback form a little bit. Otherwise, s'all good.
Unfortunately, I'll be going to Ottawa from Sunday to Tuesday visit my Grandfather while my sister is in from school. This means that I'll be missing an entire three-day cycle! D'OH!!!!! I'll be doing whatever body weight stuff I can do, which isn't too much. Obviously I'll get back to the workout on Tuesday, instead of taking what would have been a break day. It blows though!
On another note, there was a hilarious episode of the Daily Show on today. Go here to check out the fantastic segment.
-Daniel
Besides that odd occurrence, everything else about the workout was fine. I upped the weight for my Bicep Superset thingy just a little bit, from 12.5 to 15, and it gave me a really nice workout. Everything's feelin' awesome, though I still need to work on the kickback form a little bit. Otherwise, s'all good.
Unfortunately, I'll be going to Ottawa from Sunday to Tuesday visit my Grandfather while my sister is in from school. This means that I'll be missing an entire three-day cycle! D'OH!!!!! I'll be doing whatever body weight stuff I can do, which isn't too much. Obviously I'll get back to the workout on Tuesday, instead of taking what would have been a break day. It blows though!
On another note, there was a hilarious episode of the Daily Show on today. Go here to check out the fantastic segment.
-Daniel
Monday, April 19, 2010
Day 15: Up the Cuts
Alright, second post for today.
Cardio was good today - I wasn't feeling overly fatigued like I was yesterday. I think I may have just started out too hard yesterday and it messed me up for the duration of the run. I'm still rockin' 2.4 miles, but I feel like I'm getting more consistent and faster, as I had 30 seconds to go when I hit the 2.4 mark. 2.5 should happen sometime soon. Tenacious D concert was a good motivator.
Question about cardio: I'm not thinking about moving up quite yet, but when I do, should I be increasing the resistance on my elliptical, or running for longer? Keep in mind that I'm not really trying to make my legs stronger, just my cardio.
Workout today was good. Upped my Shrugs to 10 reps of 45lbs, and next workout I'm going to increase my TVOs to 8 reps of 10lbs. I also upped my back exercise weight a bit, and may need to increase it more next time as well.
Also, I noticed today that I've developed some pretty nice cuts on my arms (muscle definition, I mean, not, ya know, the bloody kind). Granted, I was under some pretty forgiving lighting, but still! Nice to be seeing some results! I'm hoping to see more soon! EXCLAMATIONS!!!!!
-Daniel
Cardio was good today - I wasn't feeling overly fatigued like I was yesterday. I think I may have just started out too hard yesterday and it messed me up for the duration of the run. I'm still rockin' 2.4 miles, but I feel like I'm getting more consistent and faster, as I had 30 seconds to go when I hit the 2.4 mark. 2.5 should happen sometime soon. Tenacious D concert was a good motivator.
Question about cardio: I'm not thinking about moving up quite yet, but when I do, should I be increasing the resistance on my elliptical, or running for longer? Keep in mind that I'm not really trying to make my legs stronger, just my cardio.
Workout today was good. Upped my Shrugs to 10 reps of 45lbs, and next workout I'm going to increase my TVOs to 8 reps of 10lbs. I also upped my back exercise weight a bit, and may need to increase it more next time as well.
Also, I noticed today that I've developed some pretty nice cuts on my arms (muscle definition, I mean, not, ya know, the bloody kind). Granted, I was under some pretty forgiving lighting, but still! Nice to be seeing some results! I'm hoping to see more soon! EXCLAMATIONS!!!!!
-Daniel
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