Short Weight Workouts

Well I kinda suck.  I can't believe it's been three months since I posted.

Below are three short weight workouts.  They are just weights, no cardio.  I have designed the workouts into a standard three day split.  If you wanted to shorten the workouts even more you could split them up and work one body part per day.  Try  to hit each body part every week.  I have listed three excellent abdominal exercises at the bottom and you can choose one to throw into each of the below workouts.  I have also included photos of the best exercise for a each body part. Those exercises recruit the most muscle fibers.


Chest and Back

Incline dumbbell chest press 4X8-10
Flat bench dumbbell flys 4X15
Hanging row *best back exercise you can do* 4X10-15

Pulldowns 4X8-10



Biceps and Triceps

EZ bar curls 3X12-15
Incline bicep curls *best bicep exercise you can do* 4X8-10

Tricep rope pulldown 4X10-12
Single side overhead tricep extension *best tricep exercise you can do* 3X8-10/s

Legs and shoulders


Step ups 3X10s
Wide squats *drop to a 90 degree angle or lower* 5X15
Machine shoulder press or dumbbell shoulder press slow count (up 2, down 2) 3X10
Lateral raise with a 30% lean *best shoulder exercise you can do* 5X10

Abdominal exercises


BOSU sit ups 5X10 - this is one of the best ab exercises you can do but it can bother your back which is why I have split it up into sets of only 10 repetitions.  Perform exactly as pictured below, do not come up any further then perpendicular to the floor.  Back should be centered over the BOSU's bullseye.

Sit ups with legs over bench 3X20

Jackknife 4X15

Workout Of The Week June 24th, 2013

 

 

W.O.W.

This weeks workout is simple and you need very little equipment.

You will need a couple sets of dumbbells and a stability ball, although you can do it without a ball too.

Warm up with walking lunges, air squats and jumping jacks for about five minutes.

With dumbbells perform 20 of each of the following exercises (plank row will be ten on each side but alternate right and left):

Curl and press

DB squat thrust

Alt plank row

Squat Arnold press

Skier

Tricep kickback

On ball:

Chest press

Pullover

Stretch abs

Repeat two more times through. If you page back through my posts you can find photos for all these exercises.  Have fun!

Workout Of The Week

I haven't posted a workout in a long time and I have had a couple requests so here we go:

You will need a treadmill, or you can run outside, and a couple sets of dumbbells.


Warm up

Squat with Arnold shoulder press - bring elbows down to your knees with dumbbells facing you.  As you stand up rotate the dumbbells away from you.  Repeat for 4 sets of 15

The above should be done standing (of course, because you have to squat first).  Elbows to your knees when you squat and as you come up perform the above shoulder press with rotation.

Run for 5 mins at an uncomfortable pace - also know as race pace or threshold.  It should feel like an 8
on a scale of 1-10.  Not full out but close.  This is the hardest intensity to find so it may take a few times to figure out your pace.  As long as it feels hard, but not completely breathless, your where you need to be.  If your running outside you can easily mark off a distance that will take around 5 minutes to run.


Skier - hold the dumbbells by your side swing them up towards your shoulders and hop as you do that.  Then swing the arms back.  Essentially you are doing a bicep curl the a tricep extension but you are swinging up and back.  Think of a cross country skier using their poles.  Repeat for 4 sets of 15

Part A of Skier

 Part B of Skier

Repeat 5 minute run.


Hip hinge with upright row - stand on one leg and perform a single leg deadlift.  As you come up bring your knee up and perform an upright row.  Try not to set the foot down as you lean forward and then lift the knee.  Repeat for 4 sets of 10 reps on each side.

Part A of hip hinge upright row

 Part B

Repeat 5 minute run.


Push ups - 4 sets of 15-20

Repeat 5 minute run.


Full sit ups with a twist at the top - at the top of the sit up take the elbow across to the opposite knee.  4 sets of 20 total (10 twists to each side alternating).

 

Easy jog for 5-10 minutes.

Stretch

So much better now...

 After switching back to low carb I am where I want to be in this next round of competition prep.  I will be honest, if I feel I am not ready to compete in five weeks then I won't.  The Emerald Cup is the biggest competition in the northwest and I want to represent on stage.  If I don't look better then last time then I won't do it.

Here's my current typical day of eating:

8:00am
1 cup of cantaloupe
1 scoop of whey protein

11:00am
1 can of tuna mixed with 2 tablespoons of light mayo
1 red bell pepper

1:30pm
Oh Yeah protein drink (I love these!)

5:30pm
6 ounces of pork or chicken
1 cup stir fried veggies (mostly cabbage)

8:30pm
6 ounces steak
Mixed salad greens with oil and vinegar dressing

1,540/207/30
This is a lower calorie day for me.  I range between 1,500-1,800 on a regular basis.  The protein is high, I know.  I just work better that way.  You may work better with more carbs.  I have been occasionally eating a little brown rice and I stir fry my veggies in oil.  When I crave a little something extra I eat an Adkins bar.  They are calculated by net carbs (total carbs - fiber - sugar alcohols, all which don't impact blood sugar) although it worries me because I never count impact carbs, I count ALL the carbs.

Still lifting heavy.  Some programs want you to change to lighter weights and higher reps for the last four weeks but I don't think I'll do that.  I need the shoulder mass, which isn't very much now and counts for a lot when competing.

Back To Low Carb

So the higher carb diet was not working.  I switched back to low carb and lost 3 lbs.  It's not really about weight loss, it's about fat loss, but weight loss is a good indicator that you are going in the right direction.  The higher carb diet was definitely not a high carb diet.  It was around 70-100 grams of carbs a day but my body just does not work well with even that amount.  I need to diet on 50 grams or less.  Competition prep is tough, especially the first time out.  I made a lot of mistakes my first round of competition prep 20 years ago.  You have to be willing to experiment to see what works.

The traditional weight lifting program is working really well.  Strength has increased every other week so I am staying strong (not losing any muscle mass).  That was one of my mistakes last time toward the end of competition prep.  I didn't eat enough and I doubled my cardio which was not smart.  As I mentioned a few posts back I was afraid that I was not going to be able to lose the weight like I did 20 years ago....because I am now 20 years older and statistically it is harder to lose weight the older you are.  I was wrong.  As long as you stay properly hydrated, get enough rest between workouts and eat enough protein you won't sacrifice hard earned muscle in order to lose weight.  Again, it's about fat loss, not weight loss.  I needed to really track how much weight I was lifting every workout and do the traditional three or four exercises per body part during one workout.  When I shed a couple more pounds then I can make an assessment but I think my shoulders already look better then they did last competition.



Here's a look at the diet I was doing a couple of weeks ago:

1/3 cup oatmeal
1 scoop whey protein

3 ounces chicken breast
1 cup cantaloupe

3 ounces chicken breast
1/2 cup brown rice

3 ounces steak
2 cups lettuce with 2 tablespoon oil and vinegar dressing
1/2 red bell pepper

3 ounces steak
1/2 cup sweet potatoes

3 ounces chicken breast
2 cups sauteed kale

3 ounces steak
2 cups lettuce with 2 tablespoons oil and vinegar dressing
1/2 red bell pepper

Basically eating every two hours, which is very hard to do.


What I am eating now:

1/3 cup oatmeal
1 scoop whey protein

6 ounces steak

5-6 ounces chicken
2 cups lettuce with 2 tablespoons oil and vinegar dressing
1/2 red bell pepper

1 small can albacore tuna
2 tablespoons light mayo
1/2 red bell pepper

6 ounces steak
2 cups chard


I shoot for 175-200 grams of protein a day, 50 or less of carbs and I don't count fat grams.  Again, you have to find out what works for you.  You may be just fine with a higher carb diet but over the years I have found that the majority of women have a hard time losing weight unless they cut the amount of carbs that they eat.

De-carb/Re-carb

Momentary lapse came on Tuesday.  For about four hours I was wondering what the hell I had been thinking.  That there was absolutely no way I was going to be ready for this show.  Why did I think I could be ready in only eight weeks when it normally take twelve?!  It did pass by Wednesday morning.  I never seriously considered giving up (and I didn't veer from my training and diet) but I definitely was questioning the whole thing.  So everyone has those moments.  I know people that are trying to lose can feel defeated.  It happens to everyone.  It is normal to question yourself but the worst thing you can do is give up.  No one ever won anything by giving up.

I've been de-carbing for the last two days.  Today I did two workouts.  The one this morning was pretty intense.  My friend Jodi and I went to the soccer field and ran sprints in various distances.  I needed her to be there because I don't think I could have done it on my own since I am so depleted.  That took about 45 minutes and then I went to the gym and focused on high reps in order to deplete glycogen even more (prepping the muscles to fill when they get those carbs back).  I performed 4 sets of 20 incline flyes with only 10 lb weights, making sure to get a burn.  Then I went to the Hammerstrength incline press machine and put a 10 lb plate on each side for 3 sets of 15.  Then I did a similar sequence for back with wide and close rows.  My second workout of the day I rode the bike for 30 minutes followed by a shoulder press tabata with 10lb weights, which was way harder then it should have been but the point was to deplete so there you go.

Food today (not much):

6 egg whites, 3 cups power greens, 1 roma tomato

6 ounces lean pork loin

Oh Yeah protein shake

1 chicken breast

1 scoop whey protein powder



I had cut out oatmeal for a couple of days but that totally screwed up my digestion, if you know what I mean, so I added it back a couple of days ago and that fixed the problem.  Today is the serious de-carb (see food diary above) so oatmeal is out again but I am making sure to load on the power greens to get more fiber.

Tomorrow is the carb up run through.  I am going to do a short workout in the morning because I am trying to peak at around 5:00pm Sunday evening which means I will focus on the carbs starting around that time on Saturday.  I bought some sweet potatoes yesterday so I am going to see how those work.

I'll let you know how it all goes! 
  .

Count Down To Competition!

 Physique and/or Figure Prep

Week one, day one.  Competition date is November 3rd and prep begins today.  Starting weight is 144.3lbs.  Not sure about my competition weight but I'm guessing around 130lb.  I'll know better in four weeks.

The photo on the left was taken at a 1995 competition, I think it was the Emerald Cup.  I know, the second one is horrible, but it is super hard to take a picture of yourself with an iPhone and I didn't have anyone around to take it for me.  And I really, really wanted to take a photo from today, the first day of prep.

It's been 16 years since my last competition and it's all coming back to me now:). First thing I need to do is make sure there is no wheat, sugar or alcohol in my diet.  The wheat part is pretty easy for me although I am not vigilant about it when I am not competing.  Also I don't really eat any sugar and definitely not on a regular basis.  Alcohol is a little harder.  I don't drink much but do enjoy a glass of wine (or two) a few times a week.

The second thing I need to do is eat 5-6 small meals a day.  This is hard for me and I will need to set a reminder on my phone.  I am used to packing my food for the day but I can forget to eat between clients, especially when I train three or four in a row.  When that happens I must have protein shakes ready to go.  I could use bars too but in about five weeks those will have to be eliminated as well because in most bars there are too many carbs in one shot and the ones that don't have many carbs taste horrible.  Competition prep isn't really about the taste of food, however if you can't choke it down there is usually another option.  I also must keep my calories up, around 2,500 so essentially five, 500 calorie meals per day.  I'll cut those calories to about 2,000 when I get closer to the competition.  And I'm sure everybody knows my diet will be high in protein, low in carbs and medium in fat. 

And the final thing is to make sure I lift heavy.  I want to keep my muscles hard and full.  If you don't use muscle you will lose it and that is especially true when you diet.  If you don't use the muscle your body will give up a little fat and a little muscle.  You'll lose weight but you won't be leaner, just smaller.

The categories for competing have changed since 1996.  The choices now are bodybuilding, physique or figure.  I am not sure where I fall between figure and physique.  I am definitely not muscular enough to compete in bodybuilding.  I wasn't even muscular enough in 1996 but I had no choice.  I didn't win very many shows back then for that reason.  I have looked at figure and physique competitors and I still can't figure out which category I would fall in.  I would prefer physique because it is closer to what I know.  I am going to go to the Ironman competition on October 6th and make an assessment of the competitors at that time then I'll go from there.  If you search on the internet both figure and physique competitors muscularity and leanness are all over the map.  I'll figure that out closer to competition time.

I will post diet and workout information at the very least weekly.  And I will keep posting workouts.  A lot of you have sent me requests for different types of workouts so I will keep writing different routines based on body weight, travel, limited time, strictally weights, etc.  If you do have requests, please let me know.  And, if you have any questions about contest prep or your thinking about competing let me know.  I would love to help you if I can.  Back when I competed it was really hard to find information but now we have many sources.  So many in face that it's hard to weed through them all.  I can try to help you figure out what will work for you.

Workout Of The Week October 13th, 2011

W.O.W. 10/13/2011

You will need dumbbells and a place to run for this workout.

Warm up for five minutes.


Perform two rounds of the following:
Single leg squat hop Right X20
Burpee X20
Single leg squat hop Left X20
Push up and row X20 (10 a side)
Run a fast 400 meter
Rest





Perform two rounds of the following exercises:
Frog hop X20
Jack squat thrust X20
Frog hop X20
Squat and shoulder press X20
Run sprints 30 secs on/30 secs off - 5X




Perform two rounds of the following exercises
Split jump X20
Tuck squat thrust X20
Split jump X20
Overhead lunge X20/s
Run 800 meters





Finish with 4 sets of 20 sit ups.

Super Sets

If your workout has stalled there is one simple change that can mix it up without even changing the exercises. Train one muscle group while your resting another. This type of training keeps your heart rate up and makes your workout super efficient.

Here's an example of a good, basic, total body lifting routine based on super sets:

Warm up first (always) with light calisthenics and/or cycling, rowing or elliptical.

Perform 3 sets of each combination of exercises. Take a very short break between sets.

Incline bicep curls X8 reps
Single arm tricep overhead extension X8/side

Dumbbell shoulder press X8
Walking lunges X20 steps

Pulldowns (or pull ups) X8
Bench press X8

Reverse curls on bench X20
Hyper extension X10

Top Four Body Weight Drills

There are four exercises that you can do anytime, anywhere so keep them handy for when you are on the road or stuck in your house for any reason. Here are the drills with variations to keep it interesting.



Push Ups

#1. Decline push ups - put your feet on a chair or table to perform the movement.
#2. Renegade push ups - perform a push up and as you come up out of the push up extend the opposite arm and leg. There are a couple variations on this drill. The most popular one is push up and row (pull one elbow to the ceiling at the top of the push up) but it isn't nearly as effective without weights and the drills I have listed are specifically designed to be challenging without using any equipment.
#3. Tricep push ups - keep elbows close to your body throughout the exercise.
#4. Plyometric push ups - as you come up push off explosively so that your hands (and/or feet) leave the floor.

Squats

Here are just a few squat variations. There are many, many more.
#1. Change the tempo of the squat by pulsing at the bottom for 10-20 reps before you come all the way up.
#2. Take your feet really wide with toes turned out, place your hands on your head and sink down at least to a 90 degree angle at your knee.
#3. Drop into a squat with your hands on your head and walk around the room for 10-20 steps.
#4. Bring your feet together and touch the floor with both hands on either side of your feet. Explode up into a jump while reaching for the ceiling.




Squat Thrusts/Burpees

#1. Just to clarify - a squat thrust is nothing fancy, just down/back/in/up. A burpee has a push up thrown in.
#2. Add a jack with the legs once your in plank and a jack as you hop up.
#3. After you kick your legs back lay all the way down on the floor so legs, belly and chest are all touching then push yourself up and hop in and up.
#4. After you kick your feet back bring your knees into your chest and kick back again before you hop in and up.




Sit Ups

#1. Traditional gym-class sit ups - hands behind the head, knees bent and curl all the way up to touch your elbows to your knees.
#2. Straighten your knee with arms straight over head. Curl up and touch your toes.
#3. Start with legs straight and hands behind your head. Curl up all the way, bringing one knee into your chest, touch it with your opposite elbow (you should twist across).
#4. Put your hands behind your head and tuck elbows and knee together so they touch. Extend legs out parallel to the floor. Bring them up some if your lower back bothers you.

Mix up sets and reps for the above exercises to create even more variation.

W.O.W. March 1st, 2011

Workout Of the Day

Warm up on the treadmill for 5 minutes then increase your speed and run hard for 3 minutes. Drop your speed and increase the incline to 10% and run for 2 minutes.

Hold one dumbbell up in your RIGHT hand, so it's overhead with a straight arm. Lunge forward and back with the RIGHT leg. Repeat 10X on each side for 4 sets.

Run fast for 3 minutes, decrease your speed and increase your incline to 8% and run for 2 minutes.

On the cable machine. Adjust a single-grip pulley about waist height. Step back and lunge forward with your LEFT foot and hold the lunge. Make sure the lunge is deep and static so don't move. Grab the handle with the RIGHT hand and pull it back in a row to your waist. The weight should be heavy enough that you feel off-balance. Repeat 12X on each side for 4 sets. The illustration on the left shows a one arm cable row and the height that I want but her feet are not in the position I want. If she puts her left foot forward and right leg and bends both knees she will be in a static lunge position.

Run fast for 3 minutes, slow down, increase incline to 6% and run for 2 minutes.


Perform decline push ups (feet on a bench or a couple of stacked plates, depends on how easily you do push ups). 4 sets of 20 reps.

Jog easily on the treadmill for 5 minutes.

And yes, stretch. Again I know it is highly unlikely that you will stretch on your own but please, stretch at least your low back, hamstrings and chest (see illustrations below).

Hamstring Stretch

Chest Stretch on the left, low back stretches on the right.

W.O.W. November 13th, 2010

Here's your Workout Of the Week:

Set two pairs of dumbbells aside, one medium and one heavy. You will also need access to a weight bench.

Jog on the treadmill for 5 minutes. Increase the incline to 6% and increase your speed by .3-.5. Run for 3 minutes.

Hop off the treadmill and pick up the heavy dumbbells. Perform step ups on the weight bench. 3 sets of 10 per side.

Return to the treadmill. Run on the flat for 2 minutes. Increase the incline to 8% and increase your speed. Run for 3 minutes.

Pick up the medium weights and perform a reverse lunge with bicep curls for 10 reps total (or 5 a side) follow immediately with 10 squat thrusts with dumbbells. Repeat 2 more times without a break between sets.

Return to the treadmill. Run on the flat for 2 minutes. Increase the incline to 10% and increase your speed. Run for 3 minutes.

Pick up the medium dumbbells and perform squats with shoulder press for 3 sets of 10.

Return to the treadmill. Run on the flat for 2 minutes. Increase your speed and the incline to 6% running for 2 minutes, increase incline to 8%, maintaining speed, for 2 minutes and finally increase incline to 10% and run for 2 minutes. Bring treadmill down to flat and run for 3 minutes.

Pick up one heavy dumbbell and perform push up and row for 10 reps (5 a side) and then perform 20 mountain climbers (count every other one). Repeat two more times.

Perform 3 sets of 20 full sit ups - these are standard, gym class sit ups elbows all the way up to your knees on every repetition.

Stretch

Gain Weight to Lose a Size

There is a great article in the June issue of Health magazine.

The headline states: Lose a dress size by gaining 3-4 pounds!

Do you know how hard it is to convince women that the weight they initially gain by strength training is a good thing. When my clients complain that they haven't lost much weight after working out hard for a few weeks and watching their diet I ask '...but how do your clothes fit?' They almost always say 'Looser'. Okay, then what difference does it make how much your weigh?! You don't walk around all day with your weight attached to your forehead but you do walk around in your better-fighting clothes and leaner physique.

The weight that you have gained is muscle, not fat, and that's why you lose inches. Everybody knows that muscle weighs more then fat but do you really know it. You have got to embrace it in order to truly understand the concept. Muscle is denser so it takes up less space thereby creating the loss of inches. You will also burn more calories on a minute to minute basis because muscle is active tissue. It doesn't just sit there, doing nothing, like fat.

So lift weights or do some sort of challenging resistance training at least twice a week. Oh, and ignore the scale. Don't forget, you can drop a dress size by gaining 3-4 pounds.

More Evidence on the Benefits of Interval Training

Interval training rocks. If you haven't been totally convinced yet read the following information as written in a Men's Health publication.

No matter what exercise you choose, there's only so much fat you can burn during, say, a 30-minute workout. And research shows that the better trained you become, the more your body's 'exercise efficiency' improves, meaning the same amount of activity burns fewer calories as time goes by. For instance, University of California, Berkeley, scientists have determined that to avoid age-related weight gain, avid runners need to boost their weekly mileage by 1.7 miles a year.

Sure, aerobic exercise burns calories. However, if you're already dieting studies show that distance running does little to further enhance fat loss. Most likely, this is because aerobic exercise doesn't boost your metabolism after your workout. But that doesn't mean cardio can't help: high intensity intervals-such as short sprints of 30 seconds or more, interspersed with a slow jog-are great for accelerating fat loss. Why? Because they're similar to weight training. After all, a 200-meter sprint challenges your lower-body muscles hard for 30 seconds or more, just like a set of 8 reps of squats. So by doing a few intervals on the days you don't lift weights, you can spike your metabolism even higher.

In other words, if fat loss is your goal, do intervals. If your just doing steady-state aerobic activity re-read the information study above. If your a runner you would have to run an extra 1.7 miles A WEEK, every single year just to stave off age related weight gain. So there's no fat loss involved. Think about how many more minutes you'd have to add to your elliptical workout every week. The elliptical is really a waste of your time to begin with, but pretty soon you would have to be on that thing for hours.

When I design workouts for clients, and the workouts of the week I post here, they include both weight training and cardio interval training mixed together in the same workout. If's efficient and very effective.

You have to get uncomfortable in order to move forward in your fat loss goals.

Know it. Embrace it. Now go out and do it.

W.O.W. May 10th, 2010

The following work out is designed to accommodate people without equipment.

Perform 30 body-weight squats lowering thighs parallel to the floor and making sure to push your butt back.
Perform 30 body-weight lunges, alternating legs - back knee should touch the ground on every repetition.
Perform 30 switch lunge jumps hopping as high as you can to switch legs front to back.
Perform 30 crouch squat hops - feet are wider then shoulders, crouch down and touch both hands to the floor between feet then hop up as high as you can reaching hands toward the ceiling.
Hold a plank for 2 minutes.

Run 5 sets of 60 second on/15 second off sprints - run as hard as you can for 60 seconds and recover for 20 seconds. Don't forget, you don't have to use a treadmill for your sprints. You could do this entire workout at a track.

Repeat sequence a total of 3 times.

Good luck.