Monday, October 17, 2011

The work that has kept me busy today is not something that lends itself well to blogging - so instead I will talk about weight training, sometimes called strength training or even personal training.  I refer to my own routine in this post.
As previously mentioned, I prefer to do a full body workout (meaning all muscle groups in one session) twice a week.  Research that I have read from the American College of Sports Medicine supports this method as one of several that is effective for increasing muscle strength and size.  Also supported by the ACSM, is my penchant for fewer reps and higher weights.  Lastly, one should rest between muscle training days and recent studies suggest that 48 hours between workouts (of the same muscles) is ideal.
The information that I have just referred to can be read in this edition of the ACSMs Certified News from 2010.
I had been doing the same routine on both days - Monday and Thursday (which are also the days that I swim).  Recently I began doing the same routine 4 times in a row.  I was using too many creative thinking cells and I think 4x in a row is not too many at all.  That means I am switching the routine every two weeks and my muscles will not become immune to the workout (you have GOT to switch it up).  I have also been increasing the load on my biceps and am pretty pleased with that.
Today was the third time I did this routine:
Bicep pyramid hammer curls (weights go up, reps go down - 10 lbs 12x, 12 lbs 10x, 15 lbs 8x and back down)
Squats with a lunge (you can see this move and me here)
Triceps push down traditional and bent over extension 
(both with a rope attachment)
Squats with the Smith Machine (2 sets)
Seated chest flies with a cable machine
Abdominal crunches (with a machine)
Lateral pull down and low row (for the back)
[but I was sitting on the floor and using a different type of cable machine for the low row]
Another set of the squat lunges
Shoulder rows and overhead presses (with 8 lb dumbbells)
That's all - plus the swimming and riding my bicycle to school :) 

It was very cool to be able to use the ExRX website to give you an idea of what my exercises looked like.  I think it is the best place to go for information, education and visual descriptions.  But do be careful not to click on any of the ads that come on the free website.

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