Plus, it is summer and I want to enjoy my refreshing beers and ice cream cones, guilt free. So I am switching my tactic for the summer and I am going to focus on balanced eating, without calorie counting, and I am going to go whole-hog on my workouts and getting in shape. I thought today I would discuss working out while working full time!
First of all, I would like to bow down to all the full-time working parents who find time to work out. I literally have no responsibility outside of my 8-4 job so I have no idea how people with kids do it. Seriously. Have a pat on the back.
Anyway, I get up every morning at 6:35 and I am out the door for work at 7:15 and I get home at 5:00pm. I love working out in the mornings, but the idea of getting up at 5:30 is rough so I do all my weekday workouts in the evening. This will probably need to change as I start my half-marathon training in June as it will be hot as Hades in the evenings. But for now I am generally doing weight training 3 days a week and a short run midweek and a long run on the weekend. I will probably stick with this until I start training and then drop one or two of the weight days to focus more on runs.
Here is a typical workout week for me:
Monday- Weights
Tuesday- Rest
Wednesday- Weights
Thursday- short run (5-8km)
Friday- Weights
Saturday- Rest
Sunday- Long run (8km+)
It often gets all mixed up with various plans and some days I combine a run and weights in one day or two weight training routines in one day, but usually I hit all 5 workouts in a week! I rarely have a day where I don't work out without a legitimate reason like all-evening plans or a sore muscle. Which is crazy, because I used to be a very lazy, anti-gym kind of person. Just goes to show how a person can change if they put in the effort! Now I crave working out if I haven't gone in awhile!
I started weight training in mid March and I have actually stuck to my 3 workouts a week every week since then!! I really like it because I feel I am getting so much stronger and following my Jefit app is a breeze.
For the record- here is my progress on my "Monday" workout from March 16th (day 1) to this past week (each exercise is 3 sets of 10 reps each)!
The workout takes roughly 35-40 minutes as I try and go slow and take a 60 second break between exercises- but man oh man am I tired after some of them and I am getting so much stronger! I haven't even touched the 5lbs weights in weeks!! In the last couple weeks I also added in a few ab exercises too so right now I am fairly evenly targeting abs, back, biceps, chest, shoulder, triceps, and upper legs (according to the pie chart on my app, anyway).
I don't think my weight training exercises burn a lot of calories in and of themselves, but a muscular body naturally burns more calories while doing nothing and looking toned never hurts one's confidence either! Plus it is really easy to fit this kind of workout into a really busy day so it is a plus for me there too as I always seem to be on the go during the week.
So there is your motivation for today! You DO have time to workout and you can even follow a workout plan like the one above at home, if you invest in a set of weights!!
Some suggestions:
ReplyDelete1) Do the larger muscle group targeting exercises first (i.e. deadlifts, then benches, then single arm exercises). By exhausting smaller muscles first (by doing single arm exercises), this compromises muscle strength and performance when you're doing "bigger lifts" at the end of the exercise.
2) Skip the dumbbell tricep kickbacks, as this exercise has very little benefit compared to the uneven and awkward load it puts on your shoulder, which has to internally rotate to compensate for the position it is in. A better suggestion would be to do dips off a bench while supporting your body weight with your legs (at first, you can then graduate to doing hanging dips when you get stronger. You can also make your triceps stronger by doing neutral grip bench presses, where your palms face each other as you bench.
3) As you get stronger, vary up the routine (as it can get dull). A really good idea is to incorporate full body exercises that engage your upper and lower sections in a dynamic movement. A particularly good one would be a mountain climber, where you suspend yourself in a push up position and hold it while you drive your knees to your chest (this also will help your core, which you're not really targeting during this workout). You can also try dumbbell thrusters, where you hold dumbbells in a military press position, squat, then drive the dumbbells up as you stand up. Slowly lower them back to your shoulders for one rep.
4) As mentioned above, do more for your core. You can also do planks, which are excellent for training the muscles to stabilize you. Don't bother with situps as those are outdated exercises that don't give you what you need, and flex your spine in harmful ways.
Hey Mo! I should get you to look my app? I am just following the workouts it gives me. I havent figured out how to rearrange the workouts, but maybe you could help me build some new workouts?
DeleteAlso, for core work I am doing a left lift with a twist (on that standing contraption?) and planks
If you do follow Mo's advice and rearrange things/build a new workout, I'd be interested in a post on that! I can't remember what app you said you're using, but I have some hand weights on the back porch collecting dust (and pollen), so I'd like to hear more about what is working for you :)
ReplyDeleteIm using JeFit. Though I realized after this post that my workout is actually backwards from this.
DeleteIm using JeFit. Though I realized after this post that my workout is actually backwards from this.
Delete