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 1 - Chest and Shoulders

Yesterday I worked out my legs and shoulders following my new workout program. I like the fact that the first muscle group exercise uses increasing weights and that there are 4 sets. This is a little more of an intermediate workout and hopefully it will push me to having a better body within 8 weeks.

It was also the first day of working in the gym after being out doing cardio for over 2 months. It initially felt great being back at the gym. For the first 30 minutes I felt pumped. I did my 5 minute warmup in the elliptical (light walking). I then did a little bit of stretching and then did 2 warmup sets at the bench press.

Afterwards, I went ahead and started my bench press sets. Per the workout, I am supposed to increase the weight after every set, but I was unable to do it after every set because it was just way to heavy after the 2nd set so I was hesitant. Which is ok because the sets weren't easy (that is the main idea, if you complete a set too easily, you need to increase weights).

I continued the workout as normal and once I finished my chest workout I moved on to my shoulder workout. By that time I felt a little burned and really just wanted to go home. It would have been very typical of me to do that but as it was my first day, I forced myself to stay. In the end I did all of the shoulder workout sets! yay!

In the end of the workout I wanted to do some cardio and abs (I added them myself) but I found it really hard to do HIIT training for 10 minutes. Instead, I did 6mph jogging for about 3.5 minutes and walked the rest. I think I am just not in that good of a cardio shape. I then did my ab workout which felt great.

Overall, I think it was a good first day :D.

Day 19 (post Insanity): Shoulders & Triceps

The shoulder and tricep workout routine is another simple routine. It only involves 3 exercises each for a total of 6 exercises of 4 sets each. Friday workouts go by pretty quickly and they are also very rewarding because you can feel the pump right away :D.

Here is a clip of how to do a military barbell shoulder press. At the moment I am doing 17.5 lbs on each side and hoping to get up to 25 lbs one day.


Overall, I had a very good Friday workout and I even added a small calve workout kind of to test some calve exercises for next week.

That's it for now. Whatever you are doing, keep pushing.

Days 4 & 5 (Post Insanity)

Day 3 was a rest / cardio day.

Day 4 and 5 were pretty good. I kept up with the same motivation and really pushed myself to lifting more and making sure I was not being too lazy.

I think the problem with weight lifting is that I don't have a buddy to spot me or to make sure I am pushing myself. Typically, for muscle gain, you want to make sure you struggle on your last 1 or 2 reps on each set. Without a buddy, I tend to go easy and just complete my 8 reps without going further. But this will not happen anymore - I will keep pushing.

Bring it!

I came across this youtube video for a pretty good recipe for a tasty protein sandwich from HardBodySuccess:

Day 5 (post Insanity): Shoulders and Triceps

According to Troy's 4-day Split workout this routine was meant for Saturday. However, I like to do cardio / outdoor activities on the weekend instead of spending my time at the gym so I swapped it with Friday.

By far, this is my 2nd favorite workout routine with chest/bicep being my favorite so far. It is not challenging as there are only 3 exercises per muscle groups - the standard. Even if you push yourself on every set, you won't feet overly exhausted. I certainly do hope that I am still building muscle and am not doing a workout that is too easy for me. I'll re-evaluate after working out for a month.

Overall, my body is pretty sore. My biceps are sore probably because I worked my back yesterday. My hamstrings and calves are also sore. My chests have pretty much recovered.

I am also drinking my protein shakes religiously - not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing. There haven't been any dramatic results either as I have only started my workout routine on Monday - 1 week down!

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/7-intermediate-4-day-split-workout.html

Saturday - Shoulders and Triceps
Shoulders
Exercise	Sets	Reps
Dumbbell Press	2	Warmup
Military Press	3	8
Front Raise	3	8
Bent Over Dumbbell Laterals	3	8
Triceps
Exercise	Sets	Reps
Cable Pushdowns ("V" Bar)	3	8
Close-Grip Bench Presses	3	8
Overhead Dumbbell Extensions	3	8