Week 4 Summary

Last week was my week 4 gym workout. It was totally great. I am writing this a little late as I already started my week 5 workout today :(.

As usual, I've had no cardio thus far because of my poor ankle. It is much better but after doing a little jumping I still felt some pain.

Back to week 4. It was like workout out on steroids. I basically tried to catch up with my week 3 workout and I did. I probably worked out 4 times last week instead of the normal 3. It feels great though to finish 4 weeks on a good note.

Hopefully, I can keep it up. Today I weighed myself at the gym and I was at 166lbs.

Week 3 - Summary

Week 3 of working out was pretty bad. Here's why:

1) I had no real cardio due to my ankle injury. At the most I have been doing light biking on the stationary bikes at the gym for maybe 5 minutes (it's even more boring than jogging).

2) After my Wednesday - Leg and Back workout I felt horrible and had to quit halfway. The good news is that I got a decent leg workout. The bad - I didn't get to work out my back.

Therefore, week 3 was a fiasco. I got 1.5 full workouts and no cardio. Week 4 is going great so far but I am really playing catchup.

On the bright side, I think I gained some weight. Hopefully, it is more muscle than fat but I seem to be weighing 165lbs or more at the gym (measured before and after my workouts). That means I gained 2 lbs and maybe by the end of my 8 week program I would have gained 8 lbs of muscle.

Week 3 - Chest & Shoulders

I must say I was in the zone today!!

Warmup
My warm-ups usually consist of a 5 minute jog but my ankle is still hurt. So what I did was a short 5 minute bike warm-up. It didn't get my hear-rate has high has my jogging but it was good enough I would say.


Chest
I started my chest workout as usual with my bench press including my 2 warm-up sets. I did 4 sets and I actually did my 10 reps pretty easily with 45lbs on each side so I did increase my weight by 5 lbs on each side on my 2nd and 3rd set. I tried increasing on my 4th set but after 2 reps I had to bring it down again. this was my first weight increase... after 2 weeks - not bad! I continued with my other 3 sets for which I think I also increased my weights!!

Shoulders
I had a pretty good shoulder workout too. Overall, I also increased my weights on all sets.

Overall, I had a great workout. I was definitely in the zone and felt a great pump at the end of the workou.

Week 2 - Arms

Today I worked out my arms instead of my legs and back due to my ankle injury. Hopefully, I'll be able to workout my legs on Friday.

The arms workout was decent. It started off with the dips, then the extensions and close bench press. I think that this workout is actually pretty easy on the tricep even though we normally do only 2  exercises whenever it is combined with a chest workout. Anyways, the bicep workout is probably my favorite. Towards the end of the the 3rd exercise, my veins on my forearms were popping which felt really good.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cardio day but I might be skipping as I can't run yet.

Week 2 - Chest and Shoulders, HIIT

Week 2 of 8 started on Monday with my chest and shoulders workout.

My weights didn't change from last week but I was having a sore shoulder after my first set of bench presses. I did do my bench press warm-ups but I didn't really get a full body warm-up as I usually do (5 minute jog) because I have an injured ankle.

The rest of the chest and shoulders workout went well. I am still pumped about working out and hope to see results really soon as it helps with motivation.

Yesterday was also my cardio day but I actually just did light cardio because of my ankle. Let's see how it goes today. Today is supposed to be legs and back, but I might switch it out with Friday until my ankle gets better.

Week 1 - HIIT

Even though I did my HIIT training last week, I forgot to write about it.

So this time around I only did 5 intervals of HIIT instead of 6 like last time. Why? Because it was a Friday and that is when I get lazy. I know, it is no excuse but I am a weak human :D.

Overall I did burn about 250-300 calories which is not bad at all for a 30 minute workout. The best thing is also I am not exhausted like I normally would be from doing a 1 hour run at a slow pace. Also, my legs are as tired, my muscles aren't as tight and I don't have to worry about being bored after running 30 minutes.

My HIIT Workout
5 minutes warmup

9.5 mph for 1 minute followed by 3.5 mph for 3 minutes
repeat 4 more times

5 minute cooldown

Week 1 - Arms

I completed my tricep/bicep workout yesterday. It technically should have been done today but I got an early start to the workouts this week.

To be honest, this is the first time where my workout is purely focused on the smaller muscle groups such as the biceps and triceps. Normally, other workouts would recommend working larger muscles first and then workout the smaller muscles. Also, working out larger muscles will indirectly work the smaller muscles. However, I can't complain as I am really feeling the soreness this morning. Maybe it will help my arms get much bigger :D.

I kind of like working arms on my last day of the week too because you finish on a good note since it is a lot of peoples favorite workout.

I am almost done with week 1 of my 8 week program - just have to do a HIIT session today and I am all set.