359: Body Weight Workout, and Cheering for Team Mates

Body Weight 60X60s	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Total Reps
Squat	28	36	27	91
Lunge Lt	24	25	24	73
Lunge Rt	17	20	18	55
Row, Gr Band	38	43	45	126
Push up, Mod	40	30	24	94
Crunch	33	35	31	99
Bench Dips	18	20	20	58

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I am stuck at a weight plateau. I've been at 263 for weeks now. It doesn't make much sense to me, since I'm running consistently, and eating pretty well, I think. Melissa from the Y suggested that I workout more often and mix up my program and diet to shock my system out of balance. I've decided to eat more, smaller meals, and spend more time on strength training, especially body-weight training at home.

Today, I tried a workout based on one of the beginner plans from The New Rules of Lifting. The author, Lou Schuler suggests that you really should master these moves with body weight before you get too serious about weight lifting with them. Makes sense. Not much point in bench pressing 75 pounds when you can't even do a push up yet. I've been doing most of these for some time, now, but I want to come up with a workout I can do at home with the equipment I have on hand: my body; a yoga mat, straps, and blocks; some resistance tubes; a big yellow inflatable ball; and a couple of those springy things that are supposed to give you a grip of steel and forearms like Popeye. I wanted to challenge myself, so rather than setting a number of reps to complete, I set 1 minute intervals on my watch and tried to see how many reps I could complete in that period of time. I moved down the circuit, completing one set of each exercise, with one minute to rest between sets. When I finished the last exercise, (Dips, in this case) I took a two minute rest, then went back up to the beginning again. The whole workout took 45 minutes and set a bench mark I can use to compete with myself. I'll try to better these totals next time.


I learned one surprising thing. My balance is much better when I lunge with my left leg than it is when I put my right leg forward. I have a feeling this has something to do with the way I'm using my upper body. It seems to improve when I clench my butt, but I can also get a lot more reps out with my left leg. I'll talk to the trainers at the Y on Wednesday and see what they think.


One thing that did not surprise me is that my upper body is weak. I still have to do those modified push ups with my knees down on the floor, and I wasn't able to do bench dips for the full 60 seconds at all. Some of this is because of my weakened shoulder, but I've never been very macho in my arms and chest. Building strength and endurance up top will help my running by helping me to maintain my form when I start to fatigue, so it's valuable to my training. Plus, big bulging arms will make me even more arousing to Mrs P. 

Pennsy, Pam, Clare, Ladonna, Shelia,
Lynne, Jake, and Melissa

I went to a 5K today. I didn't run, but I cheered on some good friends. Most of my group from LIVESTRONG at the YMCA ran in the race. I am recovering from yesterday's long run, so I didn't join them on the course, but I did cheer them on at the start and the finish. In between, Jake, Clare, and I walked a couple of laps around the dog park. One of my team mates is training to run the LIVESTRONG half-marathon in Austin next spring, so she ran and she finished before the rest of the group who were walking. She did great, and looked fantastic after a hard, HOT 3.1 miles. The rest of the team finished together, including Coach Melissa. They walked across the finish line proudly in their black and yellow "Survivor" tee-shirts. We all posed for this sweaty photo after the race. I am really coming to love these people. We are each on our own journey, but we share this victory: cancer tried to take us, and we wouldn't go. A lot of people lose that battle. We are the lucky ones. And we are determined to pass our message of hope and health on to as many people as will listen. We aren't just surviving. We're LIVING STRONG! And so can YOU!


Peace,
Pennsy

Pennsy and his ugly friend from Markey

The One for the Five project is going great! More than $650 raised as of this writing. You can help sponsor my first half-marathon, and support the work of the Markey Cancer Center by clicking this link, or by handing me a check made out to the Markey Cancer Center. You write the check. I'll run the miles!

The Pennsy Workout

This is the training program I'm working right now. I've fine tuned it a little based on what I learned in the first go-round. The goal here is general fitness, endurance, and muscle mass.

POWER LIFT/ASSIST ROUTINE

Each day focuses on one power lift. I start the lift of the day with an empty bar and slowly build up to the day's weight for working sets, usually with three or four reps at each weight. Then I do 5 sets of 5 reps at the heaviest weight I can lift. There are long breaks, two or three minutes between each of these sets.

The exercises that accompany the power lifts are meant to support muscle groups critical to the day's lift. So Clean & Press is followed by arm and shoulder work. Squats go with legs and lower back. Bench Press day is chest and lats. Deadlift day hits upper back, glutes and wrist grip.

These "assist" exercises are done at max weight with very short breaks, just long enough to catch my breath. 3 sets of 10 reps each.

CLEAN & PRESS
DB Curls & Arnold Press Combo
DB Lat Raise, Ben Lat Raise Supersets

SQUAT
Hip Abduction/Adduction Supersets
Straight Leg Deadlift
Front Squat

BENCH PRESS
DB Incline Press
DB Decline Press
Pullover
Close Grip Bench Press

DEADLIFT
DB Incline Bench Pull
Good Morning
Barbell Shrug
Low Pulley Cable Row
DB Wrist Curls

DAILY WARMUP (on lifting days)

These daily exercises are all bodyweight movements. I vary the sets and reps depending on what hurts, what feels great, and what I don't want to wear out. For example, I don't do the lunges on Squat day or if my ankles are hurting.

Assisted Dips
Lunge
Calf Raise
Pushups
Assisted Pullups
Crunch
Superman
Plank

RECOVERY DAYS

Ideally, I would like to do four days with two days rest. That rhythm gets broken up by soreness, schedules, and the calender. The reason for the long rest is to make room for a long running day. I also work in a sabbath day when I don't run or lift at all. Since my running program is a seven day cycle and my lifting is a four day one, variety is sort of built in.

CARDIO

This is pretty straight forward.

Monday - training run
Tuesday - cross train, bike or elliptical
Wednesday - training run
Thursday - Yoga, no running or weights
Friday - day off
Saturday - long run
Sunday - day off

The long run is designed to stretch my endurance. Everything else is about maintaining conditioning and fat burning.

STRETCHING

I work stretching in between reps so I have something to do besides pant and pose. I always stretch after a workout or run. I never stretch without warming up the muscles involved. I take a good, indulgent long time to stretch as gently and thoroughly as I can. Then I sauna, shower, and go home to eat protein and complex carbs. (meat and plants)

The whole deal takes about two hours. By spreading the work over several days, I'm getting more recovery time, increasing strength growth, and spending less time in the gym each night. Things are working well right now as I prepare for a 5K on August 9th. If nothing breaks, I'll be ready.

That's actually a good goal. I want to finish my next 5K without breaking anything. Unlike my first one where I knocked myself off the road for two months.

Maybe I'll take a skateboard along, just in case.

Peace,

Pennsy

Good advice from Brad at Promatx - Your body is telling you something. Listen to your body, and you won't go wrong.

More Power!

Paul Anderson was one bad dude. That's him over there, lifting enough iron to build a DeSoto. In the 'fifties, he was the strongest man in the world, and it made him a star.

I've become fascinated by the sport of powerlifting. I am no more likely to compete in that world than in the world of bodybuilding, but the idea of testing the physical limits intrigues me. I want to learn more about it.

I did some research and put together the following plan for my next two week period. It's a four day split

DAY ONE - Clean & Press (Mrs.P says it sounds like I'm doing laundry on this day)

Clean & Press, 5 sets of 5
Dumbell Curls & Press, 3 x 10
Lat Raise (Standing & Bent over), 3 x 10

DAY TWO - Squat

Squats, 5 x 5
Hip Abductors 3 x 10
Hip Adductors 3 x 10
Straight Leg Deadlift 3 x 10
Front Squat 3 x 10

DAY THREE - Bench

Bench 5 x 5
Decline Bench,, Dumbells 3 x 10
Incline Bench, Dumbells 3 x 10
Pullovers 3 x 10
Close Grip Press 3 x 10

DAY FOUR - Deadlift

Deadlift 5 x 5
Bent over Rows 3 x 10
Forearm Curls, Barbell 3 x 10
Good Mornings 3 x 10
Barbell Curls 3 x 10

The idea is to do these lifts as heavy as possible (once I've learned the new ones.) Each power lift is supported by the others - theoretically, they should increase my performance in the big lifts.

I have also put a warmup together based on bodyweight exercises. I'll talk more about that tomorrow, once I've tried it out.

Finally, I'm adding 30 min of cardio back into my daily routine. I've missed it, and it is time to get back up on those nasty machines at the other end of the room.

Peace,
Pennsy