Just noticed I accidentally left this post as a draft.
28/05/13
Light 'scientific' workout warm up(jumping jacks pushups wall sit crunches step ups squats dips plank high knees lunge push up and rotation side plank)
(4X79.2)X6 squats
5X8 pullups
5X8 full bridge
Stretching cooldown
I had some problems keeping good form with the squats, although I managed to prevent myself from bearing weight on my toes. I was always able to start each set of pullups with 1-4 really high ones with the bar coming sometimes all the way to my xiphoid process but I could maintain it. The bridges felt really good. I felt strong and stable, I ended up doing an extra set of these as well as the chinups. I also did 5 reps of squats on my last set.
You may have noticed I started recording the weight in kilograms. Yay SI.
Thursday, 30 May 2013
Monday, 27 May 2013
Workouts and how I plan them
It isn't clear from my posts but I don't take breaks between sets, instead I run a circuit. Exercise one, followed by exercise two, followed by exercise three and repeated until I'm done. Anyways, here are some recent training sessions:
25/05/13
Light 'scientific' workout warm up(jumping jacks pushups wall sit crunches step ups squats dips plank high knees lunge push up and rotation side plank)
12X145X5 deadlifts
12X40X5 dumbbell flat bench press
12X5 hanging straight leg lift
Stretching cooldown
I probably could have gone with 45 for the bench press. I feel like I might have been rounding out my lower back for some of the deadlifts, I need to make sure I have prefect form so as to avoid injury. The main difficulty with the leg raises was that my forearms were getting tired and my grip weakening. All in all a good workout.
25/05/13
Light 'scientific' workout warm up(jumping jacks pushups wall sit crunches step ups squats dips plank high knees lunge push up and rotation side plank)
12X145X5 deadlifts
12X40X5 dumbbell flat bench press
12X5 hanging straight leg lift
Stretching cooldown
I probably could have gone with 45 for the bench press. I feel like I might have been rounding out my lower back for some of the deadlifts, I need to make sure I have prefect form so as to avoid injury. The main difficulty with the leg raises was that my forearms were getting tired and my grip weakening. All in all a good workout.
27/05/13
6.5 km run in 31 minutes.
Hotter than the last run but a cool wind kept me feeling good. My hamstrings were sore from the deadlifts and so was my lower back (but not as much), which lends credence to the theory that I was rounding out the lumbar portion of my spine.
Friday, 24 May 2013
My Framework
As promised I will now be talking about my philosophy in working out. First though I'm logging today's (24/05/13) workout.
Running 6.5 km 31 minutes. The run felt good, my quads were sore from Wednesday but it didn't seem to affect the run too much. A cool spell has hit the city so that made the run much more enjoyable than it otherwise would have been.
On to the promised section.
My General Fitness Philosophy
In psychology there is a concept known as the Era of Evolutionary Adaptedness EEA) which is the period between two million and sixty five thousand years ago. The theory being that we are still mostly those animals that were built through natural selection to survive in the wild. Modernity is but a drop in the bucket of our history, in essence we are still cavemen.
People would live in groups of about fifty as hunter gatherers. Our bodies and brains bear out our evolutionary legacy. When I think about being fit I try to think about it as being caveman fit. Can I outrun a predator if startled? Would I be able to doggedly wear down a large herbivore? How adept am I at evasive maneuvers (climbing trees and rocks)? How far can I make it across a choppy body of water? Most importantly, will I be able to handle myself when faced with an aggressive fellow homo sapiens?
Our muscles and nervous system are built to quickly adapt and become more efficient at repeated movements, performing many sets of barbell chest press will cause muscular hypertrophy and result in large chest muscles best suited for more chest presses. This paradigm informs my attitude on workout design.
To put it simply: I try not to do any particular exercise too many times in the same way.
I apply these same evolutionary principals to my diet. Bread is a no-no, this means no burgers (damn) but yes steaks (yay). Refined sugars are as always, evil. There are a few core ideals that stand out as being most important in guiding food choice. Is what I am about to easy recognizable as food as opposed to being the output of a machine? Is what I am about to eat mostly plants? These are by far the most significant questions to ask myself, the rest is just details. I will admit here that these questions are taken from Michael Pollan's ideas.
Running 6.5 km 31 minutes. The run felt good, my quads were sore from Wednesday but it didn't seem to affect the run too much. A cool spell has hit the city so that made the run much more enjoyable than it otherwise would have been.
On to the promised section.
My General Fitness Philosophy
In psychology there is a concept known as the Era of Evolutionary Adaptedness EEA) which is the period between two million and sixty five thousand years ago. The theory being that we are still mostly those animals that were built through natural selection to survive in the wild. Modernity is but a drop in the bucket of our history, in essence we are still cavemen.
People would live in groups of about fifty as hunter gatherers. Our bodies and brains bear out our evolutionary legacy. When I think about being fit I try to think about it as being caveman fit. Can I outrun a predator if startled? Would I be able to doggedly wear down a large herbivore? How adept am I at evasive maneuvers (climbing trees and rocks)? How far can I make it across a choppy body of water? Most importantly, will I be able to handle myself when faced with an aggressive fellow homo sapiens?
Our muscles and nervous system are built to quickly adapt and become more efficient at repeated movements, performing many sets of barbell chest press will cause muscular hypertrophy and result in large chest muscles best suited for more chest presses. This paradigm informs my attitude on workout design.
To put it simply: I try not to do any particular exercise too many times in the same way.
I apply these same evolutionary principals to my diet. Bread is a no-no, this means no burgers (damn) but yes steaks (yay). Refined sugars are as always, evil. There are a few core ideals that stand out as being most important in guiding food choice. Is what I am about to easy recognizable as food as opposed to being the output of a machine? Is what I am about to eat mostly plants? These are by far the most significant questions to ask myself, the rest is just details. I will admit here that these questions are taken from Michael Pollan's ideas.
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Second Post
My next post will include my general outlook on nutrition and fitness, meanwhile I will log yesterday's workout.
Light 'scientific' workout warm up(jumping jacks pushups wall sit crunches step ups squats dips plank high knees lunge push up and rotation side plank)
12X145X5 squat
nX5 pushups
mX5 dips
Stretching cool down
The warm up felt good. I ended up doing twenty pushups a set. The first set of dips was 12, but for the rest I had to switch to dips off a bench and I did twenty.
The 'scientific' workout is supposed to be done at a high intensity (8) with ten second breaks between each exercise but since I was using it as warm up my intensity was much lower (started at 3 and ended at 6) and I also didn't take any breaks. I still timed 30 seconds for each exercise.
Light 'scientific' workout warm up(jumping jacks pushups wall sit crunches step ups squats dips plank high knees lunge push up and rotation side plank)
12X145X5 squat
nX5 pushups
mX5 dips
Stretching cool down
The warm up felt good. I ended up doing twenty pushups a set. The first set of dips was 12, but for the rest I had to switch to dips off a bench and I did twenty.
The 'scientific' workout is supposed to be done at a high intensity (8) with ten second breaks between each exercise but since I was using it as warm up my intensity was much lower (started at 3 and ended at 6) and I also didn't take any breaks. I still timed 30 seconds for each exercise.
Saturday, 18 May 2013
First Post
165 cm. 64-69 kg. ~15% bf.
I feel like a short man in a tall man's world and need to compensate by being fit and healthy. It's time to buckle down and get serious about improving by tracking various personal measurements and daily (in?)activities.
Following is the annotated summary of my 17/05/13 workout.
Ten chinups and ten pullups with a short break. 5 minutes on the elliptical. Another round of chinups and pullups. Twenty by 135 trap bar deadlifts. I had to pause a couple of time a to wipe my hands. Twenty wide placement pushups with feet raised about thirty cm. Twenty bent over rows 45 each hand. Repeated three times. Five pullups and five chinups repeated twice.
The final sets of pulls and chins were significantly more difficult.
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