Day 1 of 1 "The Official Challenge"

20 minutes MAS recumbant bike and 5 minutes on the Elliptical

- Would like to use Elliptical from time to time but we only have one and it's usually taken. I'm finding it hard because I'm somewhat "used" to the bike although I'm still sweating profusely.

Hi Pbach!

Thanks for stopping by my gym log! We got a single stack Wieder system. I think the max resistance on the bench press is something like 185 lbs. which will probably be too light for DH in about a year, but it's a good machine to start with and it was a good bargain at $150.00. I didn't want to start out with a more expensive machine only to find out that we both hate working out in the basement by ourselves.
I was just peeking at the variety of exercises you do...wow! I think I need more variety, but since I'm just starting out I'll probably stick with the basics for now. Happy lifting!

UBWO and taught a one hour body sculpt class covering calves, shins, quads, hams, lower back, abs, chest, back (lots of back), biceps, and triceps.

I left my gym log at the gym again so I'll just list the exercises.

All are 6 sets of 12/10/8/6/12/12 reps.

CHEST
Chest Machine
Chest Flyes (12)

SHOULDERS
Military presses, palms face each other, rotate, palms face forward
Rear Delt Flyes (12)
Frontal Raises (12)
Side Laterals (12)

BACK
Lat Pullovers on the bench
Standing pulldowns on lat machine for lower traps
Shoulder Shrugs (12)
Rhomboid Flyes (12)

BICEPS
Standing Q Curls
Concentration Curls (12)

Triceps
DB skull crushers
Tricep pulldowns (12)

I've decided to do abs and lower back on cardio days not leg days. I like to work my legs one at a time for most exercises so to save on time without sacrificing any body parts, I decided to do it this way.

ABS
Kneeling Rope Crunches
12*40 lbs
10*50
8*60
6*80
12*70
Ball Crunches
20 slow
20 pulsed
20 slow
Ball Oblique Crunches
20 slow (ea side)
16 pulsed (ea side)
8 slow (alternating ea side)
Isolated crunches, heels on ball, lower back pressed to the floor
20 slow
Penguins
20 ea side
Suspended Knee-Ups
3 sets of 8 (still hard for me endurance-wise)
Suspended Straight Leg Ups (name???)
3 sets of 8
Back Extensions on the Ball
20
Balance opposite arm/leg on ball
2 ea side held for one song phrase ea side.

Followed by 20 minutes on treadmill. Club crowded with 2 bikes broke.
Warmed up 3.5 miles per hour for two minutes
Moved up to 4.0 mph the rest of the time intervaling between 7-12% grade.

Sweated a lot but wasn't as winded as I am on recumbant bike. Couldn't go any faster because my ankles aren't ready yet. Had aerobic shoes on instead of my walking shoes too. Overall a good workout. Might try the treadmill for a couple of weeks for a change.

Thursday's Workouts:

12:15p- Taught a 30 minute CKB lunch class

5:30p- LBWO

6:30p- Taught a 60 minute CKB/Sculpt Class

8:30- Pooped and ravenous!!!

LBWO

Like I mentioned yesterday, I've moved abs to cardio days so I can focus on my legs.

QUADS
Standing Lunges
12*12
10*15
8*20
6*25
12*20
SQUATS
12*42

HAMSTRINGS
Lying Hamstring Curls (one leg at a time)
12*30
10*35
8*40
6*40
12*35
Straight-Leg Deadlift
12*50

CALVES
Seated Calf Raise
12*50
10*50
8*70
6*80
12*92
One leg Standing Calf Raises
12*25
Angled Calf Raises
12*50

Friday's Workout
20 minutes MAS recumbant bike.
Didn't get to my ABS because there was a huge traffic jam on the way to the gym due to a wreck and didn't get to the gym in time. They close at 7p on Fridays. Mad but happy I wasn't the one in a wreck.

Saturday's Workouts

8a- UBWO (details below)
9a- took a Step 2 class (fun!)
10a- taught a one hour body sculpting class covering calves, shins, quads, inner thigh, hamstrings, lower back, abs (lots of abs!), back (lots of back!), chest, shoulders, biceps, and triceps. Listed here in no particular order.

UBWO-
CHEST
Chest Press on the machine- 12/10/8/6/12 reps
Chest Flyes- 12 reps

SHOULDERS
Military press (rotating) 12/10/8/6/12 reps
Rear Delt Flyes 12 reps
Frontal Raises 12 reps
Lateral Raises 12 reps

BACK
Lat Pulldowns 12/10/8/6/12 reps
Standing Lat Pulldowns 12 reps
Shrugs 12 reps
Rhomboid Flyes 12 reps

Triceps
DB Skull Crushers 12/10/8/6/12 reps
Tricep Pulldowns 12 reps

BICEPS
Standing Q curls- 12/10/8/6/12 reps
Concentration Curls 12 reps

ABS
Ab machine- 12/10/8/6/12 reps
- Also made my class do a lot more than usual since I didn't get them in last night.

Day 8 of 84

Cardio and Abs

20 minutes on recumbant bike (especially hard today but perservered)

ABS
Suspended Leg Raises
12 knees bent
12 straight leg
10 knees bent
8 straight leg
6 straight leg
Ball crunches
20 slow
20 slow obliques each side
20 pulsed, center
8 slow
16 oblique pulses each side
8 alternating oblique each side
20 slow, center
Heels up on ball, lower back pressed into floor
20 slow, pausing at the top, down slow- really concentrated on pulling up with ab muscles only.
Oblique crunches, knees to one side
20 slow, each side
Penguins
20 each side, to tempo
Back Extensions on ball
20 slow
Opposite arm/leg on ball
2 each side, held one music phrase each
Back Extensions on ball again
20 slow

Spent 5 minutes stretching abs, lower back, quads, hams, and calves.

5:30p- LBWO
6:30p- taught a one hour body sculpt class covering calves, shins, quads, hams, gluts, lower back, abs, biceps, triceps, and all heads of the shoulders

As usual, I'm a little peeved at the clubs I workout. The perils of being a non-paying user. The owner took the 42 lb. squat bar away and replaced it with a powercut bar that weighs a few ounces. She's afraid somebody will get hurt. One bike is broken during the busiest time of the year, and somebody busted the very cheap incline bench that we had. Plus the fact that the instructors get an email every few days reminding us that we have to relinquish the equipment to paying members. I understand her stance, I do. But what's the point of having the "benefit" of working out for free, when I have to hang around for several minutes for equipment, making my workout last a couple of hours?

It's really not that bad, it's not that busy but we have the constant pressure of keeping up with the latest studies. If all the equipment was in place and working, it would be fine. We're told to take each other's classes. The pressure to do everything just doesn't pan out. The classes are very crowded and if I show up, I have to give up my bench and do something that I didn't plan on. I'm seriously considering joining a club that's open in the mornings and have showers.

*RANT OFF*

LBWO

QUADS
Standing Lunges
15/20/25/25/20
Leg Extensions
70

Hamstrings
One Leg Curls
30/35/40/45
2 Leg Curls
70
Dead Lifts
50

Calves
50/60/70/92/102
One leg Raises
25 ea side
Angled Calf Raises
50

"Extras"
Glut Machine
25/30/35/40/35

Outer Thigh Machine
45/50/60/70/80

Inner Thigh Machine
45/50/60/70/80

20 minutes MAS on recumbant bike and tons of abs. I could barely finish all the abs it hurt so much. - the good hurt of course.

It's funny though, no matter how intense I do the abs or try to challenge myself with different exercises, I never feel it the next day. I am, however, very sore from LBWO 2 days ago. That hasn't happened in a couple of weeks.

pbach... I've been lurking, but not posting, but I wanted to comment on the abs workout... seems that when I work the abs, I too feel it while I am working on them, but am seldom sore the next day, even when I do them to exhaustion or failure.

Hi again, Linda! I know what you mean about abs. I have experienced soreness before in my abs but damn if I can remember what I did. I've been sore in my core probably less than 5 times in my life. I think I can feel my 6 pack if I press hard enough. Come to think of it, I think one of the times I was sore was after a Pilates class. I might pick up a DVD soon and try some more of those moves.

12:15p- taught a 30 minute Cardio Kickboxing Class
5:30p- UBWO
6:30p- taught a 60 minute CKB class

UBWO
Chest
Chest Press Machine
35/40/45/50/45
Chest Flyes
15 ea hand

Shoulders
Military Press (rotating palms middle, palms front)
10/12/15/20/15 (should've started at 12 and gone up to 25)
Rear Delt Flyes
12 ea hand
Frontal Raises
12 ea hand
Lateral Raises
12 ea hand

Back
Wide Grip Pulldown
60/70/80/90/80
Shoulder Shrugs
20 ea hand (usually do 25's but they were taken- Ugh!)
Rhomboid Flyes
12 ea hand

Triceps
DB skull crushers (I've recently seen these referred to as french presses)
8/10/12/15/12 (to failure)
Tricep Pulldown
30- I usually do 50 on these but I had to use the lat pulldown machine which is much harder because there is less cable than the crossover setup. The more cable there is on a machine, the more assistance you get.

Biceps
Standing Q Curls
8/10/12/15/12 ea hand
Concentration Curls
10

I use a Pilates type tape myself... I really like it! The first time I could feel my whole abs... my core as it is called... for a long time after... it didn't hurt, it just felt worked! It felt like a band around my middle... I'm a believer!

Friday
20 min MAS cardio on recumbant bike
+tons of abdominal exercises (working mostly transverse and oblique areas of the abdominal muscle)

Saturday 8a- LBWO
9a- taught a 75 minute step class

LBWO (getting lazy on reporting exacts, but know I'm doing them)

Quads
Standing Lunges (reps 12/10/8/6/12)
Leg Extensions (reps 12)

Hamstrings
Deadlifts
One-legged hamstring curls

Calves
Seated calf raises
Standing one legged calf raise
Standing angled calf raises

Gluts
Machine
Heel curls on ball

Hip Abductors
Outer thighMachine
Squat/hip abduction

Hip Adductors
Inner thigh machine
Inner thigh lunges

20 minutes MAS on treadmill. Didn't sweat as much or get my heart rate as high as I do on the bike because my ankles and shins can't go fast enough to get my heart rate up. I'm sure I will build some more endurance.

Lots of abs- suspended, on the ball, weighted kneeled pulldowns, basics, back extensions, obliques, etc.

I'm trying not to get discouraged. I KNOW I'm not supposed to look at the scale but it hasn't budged in 3-4 months. (Well, I did gain some water weight over Xmas, but that's gone now). I would just think that the losing the fat/ gaining muscle ratio would be so that the scale would move down at some point. I'm on week 9 of my unofficial challenge, week 3 of the official challenge. I really don't think my measurements have changed either.

This is me being hard on myself. I'm trying to maintain perspective but I've never hit a plateau and stuck it out before. In the past, I've given up after hitting a plateau but I don't want to do that this time. I'm not sure how long they can last. Also, I think I've hit my natural setpoint as it were. I will be patient ond perservere. Okay, enough whining, getting back to work.

Pam, I left you something about this in your Journal.

If you want to burn fat and build muscle you have to feed your body to that purpose. You wont see results if you don't. You need to increase your calories and your protein - Planning!!!

Nat