Burning calories and bandwidth

[thesinner]

Hello everyone. It's been a few months since I've been active on this forum. Last semester was a bit tedious, but I should have some more time this semester. I sort of want to keep a log to motivate myself to show up online, as well as to keep digging in the gym.

Currently, my fitness goals are as follows:
-Maintain my size. After bulking up to 215, I soon found that my body can't handle that much size. I'm back down to about 190, and I'd like to stay ± 5lbs of that point.

-Lean up a little bit. My abs are almost visible (pretty visible after I work them). I'd like to go the extra mile and make them visible.

-Continue towards becoming a better athlete. Attaining a nice body is one thing, but I'd much rather show off more than just abs or biceps.


Todays workout was in the weight room. A while back, I stopped caring about the weight or number of reps and started using fuzzy logic. For those who aren't familiar with fuzzy logic, the weight was kinda heavy and the number of reps were just enough to make me tired. All exercises are done as supersets, and I try not to let myself fully catch my breath. It worked really good and eventually got me to the self-imploding weight of 215. I stay with this same concept, but upped my cardio, which seems to help.

The exercises went as such.
Squats / Curls
Weighted Dips / Close-grip Lat-Pulldown
Seated Clean & Arnold Press * / Calf Raise
T-Bar Rows / Tricep Rope Pushdown
Side Lateral Raise / dragon flags
12 minutes on the elliptical machine.

*I'm going asterisk any exercises I do, which seem obscure. I totally wing my workouts nowadays, and occasionally make up exercises as an escape from the norm. It's probably self-explanatory, but ya sit down on a bench with a pair of dumbbells at your sides. Bring the weight up, as you would with a clean. Press the weight up. Bring it down, so that your elbows are about 90 degrees. Rotate your elbows in. Hold for a moment. Bring them back out, maintaining the 90 degree bend. And let the weight down to your sides. These suck. I enjoyed it.

 

[thesinner]

Yesterday was cardio, which seemed to pretty much consist of jumping rope punctuated with blurpees.

This morning's workout was weights.

Squats / db curls
Weighted Dips / Pulldowns
Arnold Press / Calf Raise
straight bar deadlifts / tricep rope pushdowns
Side Lateral Raise / cable curls with triceps rope
dragon flags / DB Shrugs
Finished with 12 minutes on the elliptical machine

 

[thesinner]

Wow, I'm way behind on this log.

Jan. 14th was cardio. A little bit of jump rope, running, and calisthetics.

Jan 15th was weights.
Squat / DB Curls
Incline Barbell Bench / Lat Pulldown (wide grip)
Arnold Press / Calf Raise
Box Jumps with a plate / one-arm pushups
Barbell Rows / Triceps rope pushdowns
Side Lateral raise / Dragon Flags
Elliptical Machine for 15 Minutes.

Good workout that day. It's been a while since I've even attempted single-arm pushups, and I think it showed. I think this will be a short term goal of mine, to get back to doing these with a bit more proficiency.

Jan. 16th was cardio. I was feeling something a little lighter on the joints, so I chose to do 30 minutes on the crossramp. It's a nice break from the havoc running, skipping rope, and squatting wreak on the knees. After getting fired up from the crossramp, I did mixed calisthetics for about 20 minutes before calling it a day.

Jan. 17th. Today I played indoor soccer for about 2 hours. Personally, I think playing sports works as a great means to get exercise, and a great way to fuel my need for a little healthy competition.

 

[Rodja]

I'd love to be able to do dragon flags at some point in my life.

 

[thesinner]

Jan. 18th

Happy MLK Jr. Day.

today was a weights day.

Squats / DB Curls
Weighted Dips / Lat Pulldown
Single-legged Deadlift* / Arnold Press
Walking Lunges
Triceps rope Pushdowns / Side Lateral Raise
Dragon Flags / Alternating hammer curls
Crossramp for 15 minutes after workout


* Single-legged deadlifts are one of those exercises I'd like to do, but never do them because feel like a nancy boy when I do them. They work more on stability muscles you never knew you had than typical muscles from straight or hex bar deads, and a pair of 25lbs dumbbells more than sufficed.

 

[thesinner]

I'd love to be able to do dragon flags at some point in my life.

the two toughest parts to overcome are:

-1- keeping the knees and hips straight

-2- getting over the fact that you'll probably look retarded while doing them, and everyone can probably (totally) see up your gym shorts.

I first started doing these in like 2006 with my knees bent 90 degrees. As I got better at it, I straightened my legs out to 45 degrees and so on, until I could do them with the knees locked.

 

[thesinner]

Good Morning everyone.

I had too much going on yesterday, and couldn't make it to the gym.

This morning's workout was weights.
Squats / DB Curls
Incline Barbell Press / Lat Pulldowns (close grip)
Split Squats / one-arm pushups
Arnold Press / Standing Calf Raise
Barbell Row / bloody-nose pushups*
Dragon Flags / Side Lateral Raise
Crossramp for 17 minutes

*Bloody-nose pushups look kinda weird. We used to do them all the time when I played hockey. Touch the tips of your index fingers and thumbs together, to form a triangle. Keep your legs straight and stick your ass up; the higher, the more difficult they can be. Go down and touch your nose to the ground, inside that triangle. At first, it feels like you're about to do a really, really girly interpretation of a pushup, but after a few reps, it gets pretty difficult.

I did a lot better with one-arm pushups this morning, so it would seem my short-term goal is going quite well. I think it may be because I was doing them following split squats, as opposed to plyometrics, so I probably had more gas in the tank, when performing.

 

[suncloud]

subbed glad to have you back on AM brotha.

 

[thesinner]

I hope to be here a bit more often, suncloud.

This graduate school thing is killing me, though.

 

[Rodja]

I hope to be here a bit more often, suncloud.

This graduate school thing is killing me, though.

I feel your pain there.

 

[Kristofer68SS]

Has a sick, but still here.

Get at it man!

 

[CopyCat]

Jan. 18th

Happy MLK Jr. Day.

today was a weights day.

Squats / DB Curls
Weighted Dips / Lat Pulldown
Single-legged Deadlift* / Arnold Press
Walking Lunges
Triceps rope Pushdowns / Side Lateral Raise
Dragon Flags / Alternating hammer curls
Crossramp for 15 minutes after workout


* Single-legged deadlifts are one of those exercises I'd like to do, but never do them because feel like a nancy boy when I do them. They work more on stability muscles you never knew you had than typical muscles from straight or hex bar deads, and a pair of 25lbs dumbbells more than sufficed.

I'm that same way with pistol squats..lol

 

[thesinner]

lol, finally got my workout in for today.

IDK, just some jumping of rope and calisthetics. One of my goals for the year is to be better at handling my own bodyweight. That and I think calisthetics are underrated and I haven't paid enough attention to them in years past.

I just kinda made stuff up. They might be 'real' exercises, with legit names, but it's merely coincidence.

The first one I did was sort of the bastard son of the pushup and jumping jack. I'd pushup really hard so that my hands and feet left the ground. Then I spread my arms and legs, like you would doing a jumping jack, and tucked them back in so that I land in the pushup position again. They were kinda hard. I like them, and probably look like a jackass when I do them.

The second one I did was essentially a side plank. I'd take my outside foot and outside hand and raise them as straight up in the air as possible. Kinda tough to maintain balance, and really did some destruction on the hip muscles.

 

[thesinner]

I'm that same way with pistol squats..lol

What are pistol squats, if you don't mind me asking.

I'm always down for learning new exercises to spice up my workouts.

 

[CopyCat]

What are pistol squats, if you don't mind me asking.

I'm always down for learning new exercises to spice up my workouts.

Here is a link to a vid for pistol squats...

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFitJournal_AdrianTrainingPistolsPre1.wmv

Also, did your jumping jack push ups look similar to these?

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_Burpees.wmv

If you are looking for different exercises to spice things up, might I suggest the following link, it's on the Crossfit website. Pick and choose what you like, there is some good stuff. Though I'm sure you'll be familiar with most of it.

http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.html

 

[thesinner]

Also, did your jumping jack push ups look similar to these?

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_Burpees.wmv

No. My body stays parallel to the floor at all times. It would be closer to military (clapping) pushups, except you're spreading your arms out instead of clapping together (and your feet follow suit).

I have a friend who's interested in working out with me on the weekends with calisthetics-based workouts. Hopefully I'll be able to get some videos of some of the calisthetic moves I've come up with over the course of working out.

 

[thesinner]

Today was a weights day.

Hex Bar Deadlifts / DB Curls
Lat Pulldown (wide grip) / Weighted Dips
DB Shoulder Press / Standing Calf Raise
Skull Crushers / one-legged jump squats*
Side Later Raise / Crunches machine
Crossramp for 15 minutes to finish the workout.

*I think the one-legged jump squat is a bit self-explanatory, but I'll go into some detail. I hold a pair of fairly light dumbbells. I think they offer more in stability than resistance. jump up, kick your heel to your ass, and land in a squat position. I don't think I'm quite at parallel when I land (as it's really friggin' tough to balance), but I'm definitely below 90 degrees of knee bend. Unlike one-legged deadlifts, these seem to attack every part of my leg, but with special emphasis on the hips and ass muscles.

 

[thesinner]

Here is a link to a vid for pistol squats...

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFitJournal_AdrianTrainingPistolsPre1.wmv

Ok. I'm used to hearing those as one-legged squats. They're definitely a good one.

 

[suncloud]

i hear you on the school. i switched majors and the first thing they said was "calc 4 and 2 years of organic chemistry".

 

[thesinner]

i hear you on the school. i switched majors and the first thing they said was "calc 4 and 2 years of organic chemistry".

To be honest, the classes really aren't so bad. It's having office hours, research hours, and grading papers. That's supposed to be a time commitment for a minumum of 20 hours per week, but it usually ends up being around 40.

 

[suncloud]

i hear you on that. thankfully i can ask my dad for math advice (PHD in statistics), so its not going to be as bad as i think it is.

 

[thesinner]

i hear you on that. thankfully i can ask my dad for math advice (PHD in statistics), so its not going to be as bad as i think it is.

Just be careful with that.

I chose chemical engineering as my undergrad, thinking I had my father to fall back on (also a BSChE). What I wound up with was a lot of "oh yeah, I remember doing that. That **** sucked."

 

[thesinner]

Weekend update

Yesterday we had soccer practice, so that was sort of my workout.

Today's workout was at the track. This is a little workout my cousin and I created over the holiday break. It's pretty tough, and I'm trying to make an effort to do it at least once per week, but haven't had the chance to do it since the day prior to starting this log. It's a pretty simple set-up. You do some sort of strength/agility drill, and then take a lap around the track (~1/4 mile). Rinse and repeat. I usually go for 7 to 9 different drills, which equals to about a 2 mile to 2.5 mile jog, coupled with a bunch of these little drills. Here's how it went today.

quarter mile run to warm up.

drills:
-blurpees
-do a blurpee, do a standing long jump, go for about 50m
-one-legged standing long jump - 2 sets of 6, each leg
-spiderman crawl: 10m forwards, 10m backwards
-10m box drilll (i.e. sprint 10m forwards, 10m side-step, 10m backpedal, 10m side-step) go for 5 times around
-switchbacks (Jump forward, Land facing to the left in pushup position, Push-up really hard and to the side so that you leave the ground and land further down the track, push yourself up again and tuck your feet to the side, so that you land in a squatted position facing forwards again. Stand up. Repeat facing to the right) for about 40m. These are really complex, but honestly not as difficult to perform as they sound.
-Spiderman crawls, 25m
-Walking lunges ladder, 10m forwards, 10m backwards, 20m forwards, 20m backwards, 30m forwards, 30m backwards

 

[CopyCat]

Sounds like a good time to me

 

[thesinner]

I had to settle for an after-lunch workout today.

Never again.

The gym was crowded, and with what appeared to be people who knew nothing about working out or gym etiquette. I can't remember all of what I did, I just made sure to get my 2-4 sets per muscle group and 15 minutes post-workout cardio by any means possible.

 

[thesinner]

Sounds like a good time to me

You know it.

The various drills can be kinda fun and really break the monotony of running around a track (and crank up the intensity a tad, too)

Under your SN, it says Corpsman. Were you in the marines?

 

[CopyCat]

You know it.

The various drills can be kinda fun and really break the monotony of running around a track (and crank up the intensity a tad, too)

Under your SN, it says Corpsman. Were you in the marines?

I'm a Navy Corpsman, but yeah, I have spent most of my time stationed with the Marines. I'm with a Marine Corps unit right now, in DC.

 

[thesinner]

Yesterday was soccer practice. We need to get a little more organized if our team wants to win any games this year. I'm gonna have to talk to some people, and hopefully change the teams attitude. I'm the only non-returning player, and they won the league championship last semester (and I think it's going to their heads).

Late workout today.

Squats / Cross-body Hammer Curls
Weighted Dips / Pulldowns (close grip)
Arnold Press / Standing Calf Raise
Side Lateral Raise / barbell rows
Skull Crushers / Dragon Flags
Crossramp for 15 minutes
2 sets of blurpees

 

[thesinner]

Hello everyone

yesterday was soccer practice. I wish we'd do more than just scrimmage during our practices, but we have to share the soccer field with pick-up gamers as well, so...

This morning's was weights. A few times, someone annexed the equipment I was using in the middle of my supersets. I don't wait for them to finish, just find something else to do. Variety is the spice of life, though, so it's really not that big of a deal.

Hex-bar Deadlifts / DB Curls
Incline DB Press / Lat Pulldown (neutral first set, wide grip second set)
Split Squats / Arnold Press
Skull Crushers / T-bar rows (close-grip)
Abs (machine first set, dragon flags second set) / Side Lateral Raise
Crossramp for 16 minutes after workout.

To any unlikely female reader in this thread, please don't wear fragrance to the gym. What some call fragrance, I call volatile organic chemicals, and when you work out, their volatility increases. This dilutes the amount of oxygen in the air with benzene-based compounds. It's toxic and it makes it harder to breathe, when you are breathing heavy. I had a few mishaps today, which involved being within a 20 foot radius of such female gym-goers this morning. It's totally unnecessary. I would have had more respect if they smelled like feet.

 

[suncloud]

mmm. feet....

 

[thesinner]

Cardio today. Just jumped rope and did some calisthetics.

 

[thesinner]

Outdoor cardio at the track today, like last week. It was like 4 degrees outside, and so none of my friends wanted to work out with me. Personally, these are my favorite conditions to work out in. I like the cold.

The different drills I did were as follows:

-spiderman crawl, 30m
-one-legged jump squats, 2 sets of 5 per leg
-switchbacks
-5m box drill
-sprint 20m, quick stop, do a blurpee, repeat - 4x
-standing long jumps, doing a blurpee after each landing
-5m box drill
-blurpees, doing military (clapping) pushups when down. I increased the number of military pushups by 1 every 2 to 3 reps. I got to about 6.
-Walking lunges for the finish! I set these up going 10m forwards, 10m backwards, and then run 10m. I made it all 100m, which I guess is a new personal best, although, it seems more of a mental feat than a feat of strength or physical endurance.

 

[thesinner]

Laaaate workout today.

slept in late this morning, and had to be at school from noon 'til nine.

Weights today. I was a little light on legs, those lunges from yesterday were killed me. Here were the supersets:

hex-bar deadlift / DB Curls
Weighted Dips / Weighted Pullups
Calf Raise / Arnold Press
Tricep rope pushdowns / T-bar Rows (close grip)
Side Lateral Raise / dragon flags
crossramp for 15 minutes

 

[thesinner]

Well, yesterday was another soccer practice.

This morning was weights.

Squats / DB Curls
Flat Bench Press / Lat Pulldown (wide grip)
Straight Bar Deadlift / Arnold Press
Tricep rope pushdowns / Standing Calf Raise
That nautilus-like abs machine thingy / Side Lateral Raise
16 minutes on the crossramp

This was the first time I've done flat bench in about 3 or 4 years! 245 for 14, still got it. I needed a chest exercise, and I wasn't in the mood for dips (and the incline benches were all taken, and I don't wait). I'm starting to see a pattern in exercise choices, which I'm not too thrilled about, but I think it's just boiling down to the probability of equipment being available. It's depressing, but I try to compensate the lack of spontaneity with screwing around with completely random repetition tempos. :rant: :rant: :rant:

 

[thesinner]

Yesterday: soccer. I took a shot in the face from point blank. Luckily the indoor soccer balls are a lot softer than regular outdoor balls.

Today was weights.

squats / db curls
lat pulldown / incline DB press
calf raise / arnold press
skull crushers / t-bar rows
side lateral raise / dragon flags
crossramp for 17 minutes

I think the crossramp routine is doing more for my legs than squatting these days. I like to do it at a somewhat high resistance setting of 12. From there, I gradually increase the resistance, while trying my best to maintain the same speed/pedalling frequency. After getting to like level 18, I drop back to 12. It tricks the body into going at a much faster pace for a brief period of time, due to the relative effort needed. Rinse and repeat.

 

[thesinner]

Today was an interesting day.

I participated in an exercise study for the exercise machine, the ab circle pro. I'm sure you've seen those goofy commercials with that lady who reminds me of Fran Drescher. Kinda cool. I got to get wired up with electrodes, and wear a face mask that measured oxygen consumption and stuff. I won't comment on the results of the study, but based on the others who've posted in this thread, I never really saw this product as being appealing to our particular demographic.

Anyhow, today's workout was cardio.

I started out with a little bodyweight exercise I call "Hybrids" (for lack of a more appropriate name). It's essentially a hybrid of a blurpee, a military pushup, and a kip pullup, done at a power rack. Go down in the pushup position, do a military (clapping) pushup, pop up to your feet, jump up and grab a hold of the pullup bar, stabilize yourself, do a kip pullup, use your momentum to hop off the bar and land on your feet. Start again. It does a bit more cardio than muscle work.

After than, I did 20 minutes of jump rope drills, did some soccer drills for 30, and ran a few suicides.

 

[CopyCat]

Post #32--- http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/SPCCrossFit_BurpeeMile.wmv

Post #36--- I do burpee to pull ups all the time, one of my favorites to do. As soon as I can get my muscle up nailed, I'll be busting out the following... http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/MuscleUpBurpees.wmv

 

[thesinner]

Post #32--- http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/SPCCrossFit_BurpeeMile.wmv

Pretty much like that, but with a little bit more hop - then again I'm going about 1/16th the distance he did, so there's no need to pace yourself.


Kent Read, Kent Write, Kent State! I've played hockey at the rink in the background a couple hundred times in my day.

Post #36--- I do burpee to pull ups all the time, one of my favorites to do. As soon as I can get my muscle up nailed, I'll be busting out the following... http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/MuscleUpBurpees.wmv

I wish I had access to rings. I've wanted to add the iron cross to my exercise arsenal since I was a teenager, but no place around has them.

 

[CopyCat]

Buy your own...

http://crossfitweekendwarriors.typepad.com/homegym.htm#rings

 

[thesinner]

track workout today went ok. I was a bit tired going into the workout.

The drills went as follows:
- Blurpees
-Lateral standing long jumps (Jump as far as you can sideways, and back)
-spiderman crawls
-blurpee to long jumps
-military pushup to side plank
-another set of lateral standing long jumps
-blurpee to stable bridge (not gonna lie, I stole the stable bridge exercise from the Wii Fit exercises)
-Switchbacks

 

[thesinner]

The snowstorms we've had this week kinda screwed up my workout schedule, but I did make it to the gym every day, except Monday.

Today was weights.

Straight Bar Deadlifts / DB Curls
Weighted Dips / Lat Pulldowns (close grip)
Split Squat / Arnold Press
Face Pulls / rope cable curls
Calf Raises / Dragon Flags
crossramp for 15 minutes

I'm thinking of changing up my routine a little bit. I'm hoping to have it where MWF I'll focus on major muscle groups (i.e. legs, chest, shoulders, arms, back) and TR I'll do half cardio and half focus on the stabilizers and minor muscle groups (i.e. hips, core, rotators, etc).

 

[CopyCat]

Yeah these snow storms kinda screwed things up for me as well. My gym wasn't open, so a whole lot of shoveling, a couple 1/2 mile run/jog/trail breaking through the snow had to suffice. Everything should be back on track this weekend.

 

[suncloud]

my old total body routine was something like:

squats
deads
bench
tri dips
clean and press
weighted pullups

dunno how much that helps, but it worked for me.

 

[CopyCat]

Whenever, I go to a m,w,f routine I usually follow Ripptoe's Starting Strength

 

[thesinner]

Buy your own...

http://crossfitweekendwarriors.typepad.com/homegym.htm#rings

Yeah, but I'm gonna still have to find somewhere / something to hang them from.

 

[thesinner]

Thanks for the suport and tips on the MWF workouts. What I was initially getting at was simply that I'm not getting through all of the exercises I want to do with my current setup, and end up having to nix on some of the more obscure exercises. Namely things like one-legged deadlifts, side lunges (excellent for building hip strength for contact sports), pullovers, and rotator cuff exercises. I'm just gonna start doing these on cardio days 1-2x per week, instead of worrying about working them on weight days.

Yesterday - I played soccer for about an hour, then hit the weight room for some of the aforementioned exercises, and finished up with 15 minutes of jumping rope.

Today was weights. The supersets went as follows:

Squats / DB Curls
Flat Bench / T-bar rows
Hex-bar Deadlift / Arnold Press
Calf Raise / Skull crushers
Cable side laterals / pull ups
Crunches
Crossramp for 15 minutes

I did a lot of "see how many reps I can get" today. It felt pretty good, and gave me a pretty sick pump. Afterward my workout, I stretched for the first time in a long time. I need to do that more, it felt great.

 

[thesinner]

Sundays workout was, of course, the weekly track workout. Unfortunately, the track was buried under 9" of snow. Having already put on my running tights, I said "**** it" and went for it. I soon learned that running in 9" of snow is quite a bit more difficult than running in 0" of snow. I only did 6 cycles. My legs were destroyed after that.

Monday I took off. I had an exam in one of my night courses, so I decided to sleep in so I'd still be mentally awake during the exam.

This mornings workout was weights, making up for yesterday.

squats / DB curls
weighted dips / lat pulldown
arnold press / standing calf raise
split squat / barbell row
side lateral raise / tricep rope pushdowns
abs on the nautilus machine / pushups
16 minutes on the crossramp

I always feel like a loser when I use the nautilus for abs (even moreso than when I do dragon flags - at least they look difficult along with looking stupid), but it does a number on my middle abs.

 

[thesinner]

I'm attempting to resurrect this log. I kind of got pulled away from keeping it when school ran out of money to fund my thesis project. Naturaly, online time was better spent in attempt to figure out where I was going to live, and what I was going to do for money. Everything has since gotten better, and so I'm able to get back on here. I've been meaning to get this log back up and going for a while now, so here goes.

Started todays workout with bicep curls superset with weighted dips.

Followed with squats. Couldn't make up my mind between conventional or front squats, so I did one set of each.

Hammer strength lat pulldowns

Next were arnold press superset with standing calf raise.

Close grip bench press. It's been a while since I've done these, but the benches are always open at this gym, so I might as well.

I did a set of dumbbell split squats, but I wasn't feelin' it. I followed up instead with a set of walking lunges.

T-bar rows superset with dumbbell side lateral raise

cable crunches superset with hip adductor work

I finished my time in the gym with 5 minutes on the crossramp. After I left, I went outside and ran a mile. It was a nice night out for running.

 

[thesinner]

Cardio today. Jumped rope for a while. Did some calves and core work. Finished with 15 minutes on the crossramp. That thing can kick your ass.



Also forgot to mention in my last post, I started using the new StimX on Monday. So far, it's been pretty good. I've been taking 1 capsule first thing in the morning. It starts up with a little kick, but levels off to just the smooth clean energy I've come to expect with the previous versions of StimX. I like it better than slimx, as it isn't giving me nasty crashes. I don't really plan on doing it for the whole cycle. I'm going to use it through this week, but then just use it every few days or as needed.

 

[thesinner]

Weights today.

Reverse curls superset with weighted dips to start things off.

Next were front squats.

Hammer strength lat pulldowns.

Hammer strength incline chest press.

Barbell upright rows

standing calf raises superset with triceps rope pushdowns

Deadlifts. I did the first set with 315 lbs. Second set, I went with 385 lbs. It's been over a year since I've so much as attempted that weight. After getting the weight up that first set, I didn't think I'd be able to get a second, so I tried to hold out the eccentric phase as long as I could.

Cable curls superset with hip adductor work.

Cable crunches superset with dumbbell side lateral raises.

Finished up with 10 minutes on the crossramp.