Lifting: Week 1, Day 1

"I wanna be startin' somethin'"-- Michael Jackson

Everything old is new again in regards to lifting. There I was in the summer heat contemplating finding a new lift plan, when it dawned on me: why not try to best your previous programs numbers?

At the start of the new year, I did Lee Hayward's 12 Week Program and saw some terrific results. Coupled with the diet plan that I've posted previously, I felt unstoppable. I can't recommend Lee's site enough. Check it out.

So, yeah, after completing the 12 week plan, I sort of went out on my own with targeted lifts for my arms, chests, and legs. That worked to break the cycle a bit, but now that I've decided to give Lee's 12 week program another go, I can see where some minor modifications might allow for more specific results here and there.

For example, in today's lift, I'm using lighter weights for my squats than I've used in the past, but I'm also taking the squat much lower and much deeper. I want to really focus on getting the strength into my hips to help further my yoga practice. Don't let my vanity fool you, I want functional muscles, not just pretty ones.

Make a lift book if you don't have one yet, and jot this down on a page:

Week 1, Day 1

Full Squats
- 5 sets of 5 reps (train heavy, but don't train to failure. my weight may not [and probably will not] be your weight.)
Week 1: 200lbs: 5 sets of 5 reps
Week 2:
Week 3:

Dead Lifts
- 5 sets of 5 reps (train heavy, but don't train to failure)
Week 1: 180: 5/5
Week 2:
Week 3:

Standing calf raise:
- 5 sets of 10 reps
Week 1: 320: 5/5
Week 2:
Week 3:

Leg raises:
- 5 sets of 10 reps
Week 1: na: 5/5
Week 2:
Week 3:

Incline sit ups:
- 3 sets of 10-20 reps
Week 1: na: 3/20
Week 2:
Week 3:

Summer Ready: Today's Lift!

Go grab your notebooks!  

I told you we'd get back to these lifts, and so tada here we are. 

For all of the sets I completed, I added 5lbs. For a the overhead triceps, I added a lot of weight, having a sneaking suspision that I wasn't lifting heavy enough earlier this week. And you know what? I was totes right.

For the sets that I didn't finish last time, I just tried again. This go round, I completed them! Hurray! 

Lift A1:

Decline Barbell Bench: [5 sets of 5] # of reps completed	120 [4] 4	120 [5]
Seated Barbell Shoulder Press  [5/8]	90 [5]	100 [5]
Preacher Barbell Curls  [5/10]	50 [4] 9	50 [5]
Overhead Tricep Extension (rope)  [5/10]	70 [5]	100 [5]
Cable Upright Row  [3/15]	100 [3]	110 [3]
Hyper Extensions  [5/15]	25 [5]	30 [5]

Summer Ready: Lift!

Hey! Sorry for not getting this up yesterday! This was yesterday's lift.

Label it 1B. We'll be returning to this lift!

Flat Dumbbell Bench  [4 sets of 10]	55 (each arm) [4]
Dumbbell Front Lateral Raises  [4/10]	25 [4]
Bicep Barbell Curls  [4/12]	40 [3] 9
Tricep Pushdowns  (v-bar attachment) [4/12]	140 [4]
Close Grip Pulldowns  [4/15]	110 [2] 14, 11
Incline Sit-Ups [3/20]	3
Obliques [3/20]	25 [3]

Summer Ready: Today's Lift!

We did lots of sets with not too many reps yesterday. Today, we're going to do less sets with more reps. Be careful today when doing the exercises! Hack Squats are less dangerous on a machine. Always where a lift belt when doing squats and dead-lifts! Also: You can superset the first three exercises (in red) and the last four exercises if the gym isn't too packed. If the gym is crawling with people, you can super set in groups of two (in the order that they appear in the chart below). 

So, break out your lift book, and jot these down! Remember that the numbers in the second column are *my* numbers. I'm not a complete beast in the gym, but I'm not a wet noodle, either. Play with the weights, warming up with lower weights (or even just the bar) and then adding more weights. You should be able to get to the last set set without failure, or at least close to it. 

Label this chart as 1L. We'll be returning to it!

Hack Squat [4 sets of 15]	270 [4]
Seated Cable Row [4/15]	130 [4]
Crunches (on stability ball) [4/25]	[4]
Stiff Leg Dead Lift [4/15]	110 [4]
Shoulder Shrugs (dumbbell) [4/8]	85 (each) [4]
Leg Raises [4/20]	[4]
Decline Push Up [4/15]	[4]

Just a few quick things: Try not to spend more than an hour in the gym. If you're spending 2 hours there, its just plain too much. Also: try to make sure you get about 25 grams of protein in you within an hour of your lift (ideally, 15 minutes). If you're supplementing with protein, great! Your body can only handle about 50 grams of protein in a sitting, so,  don't over do it. Its far better to eat 5 times at 25-50grams at a go than it is to eat 75 grams twice! Regardless of what you're using for protein, make sure you get a serving of simple carbies to go along with it! It'll help the muscle heal and rebuild much more effectively

I'm getting about 50 grams of protein from my seafood, another 50 from my two protein shakes, and about 12 from my beans/legumes/dairy. Its a little less than I'd typically eat for muscle growth, but for now I'm looking to get leaner muscle, not bulk, so its okay.

Summer Ready: Lifting

Swami Sivananda gave us five principals of yoga. We've taken a hard look at our diet, a key principal, but that's not enough. We also need proper exercise. The run routes I've posted are great, and of course we have our asanas. Sure, relying exclusively on one's body weight is fantastic, and yoga is awesome for that, but I don't think body weight is necessarily the quickest way to get into shape (though, I do think it is the best). 

Oh, sure, the fitness industry can be a racket, but here's a little secret: I really enjoy the gym. I have a hard time getting motivated, but once I'm in there, very little leaves me feeling as good as a really quality lift. And by lift, I mean free weights. Don't be intimidated! Building the stabilizer muscles around the major muscle group we're using allows us to take these pretty muscles and put them to work in real life situations (and of course on the mat).

Its important when we lift to focus on good form. You all know that, but sometimes our competitive nature takes over and asks us, nay, DEMANDS us to lift heavier weights. We are non-competitive with our lifting: this means being being non-competitive with others as well as non-competitive with ourselves. While its true that we have to tear down the muscle and rebuild it in its stronger form, there is nothing to gain from the illusion of "success" at the gym. As Patanjali has taught us in his Yoga Sutras, false impressions, or illusions, lead to suffering. You're doing yourself no favors to practice lousy form in the interest of heavier weights. Its an illusion of success.

"Overcome destructive instincts
by cultivating the opposites.
Destructive instincts are harmful thoughts
whether done, caused, or approved,
whether motivated by greed, anger, or delusion,
whether mild, moderate, or intense;
they result in endless suffering and ignorance.
Therefore cultivate the opposites."

So, where does that leave us? Go get another cheap notebook. You can get it from the same place you bought your nutrition chart. 

Today, we're going to be doing mostly heavier sets with low repetition. But not too heavy. You should be able to get through the fourth set without failing. This is all adapted from Lee Hayward's 12 Week Workout Plan, which I highly recommend if you've got 12 weeks. We've got 17 days. We'll be lifting three days on, one day off, three days on, one day off, etc. We'll be doing this lift today (label it nicely so we can come back to it on Saturday):

Lift A1:

Decline Barbell Bench: [5 sets of 5] # of reps completed	120 [4] 4
Seated Barbell Shoulder Press  [5/8]	90 [5]
Preacher Barbell Curls  [5/10]	50 [4] 9
Overhead Tricep Extension (rope)  [5/10]	70 [5]
Cable Upright Row  [3/15]	100 [3]
Hyper Extensions  [5/15]	25 [5]

The first number in the second column is the weight attempted. The second number is the number of sets done to completion. The third number(s) are the number of reps completed in the uncompleted set(s). You'll note the third column: we'll be returning to this routine. Above are my numbers. Your numbers may very. The links will take you to shapefit, 

Summer Ready: Lifting!

I mentioned in the last Summer Ready post that I'd been following the Lee Hayward 12 Week Workout Plan and that's very true. I've sort of needed a plan of attack to get my body right. I'm pretty down with all things fitness-- I "get" nutrition, both in the idea of understanding it as well as eating right. I try to keep a balanced diet as best I can, combining my proteins and my carbies (both simple and complex) and eating them when they will be most effective (post workout, after a night of binge drinking, etc).  

Lee's plan has you continually lift heavy, adding weights nearly weekly. How's that? By lifting heavy, but not to failure. It has also allowed me to lift virtually injury free. That's pretty awesome, because in general, my form sucks. Oh, I focus on it, but often I look like a retarded mallard when dead lifting, and I have to stare at the mirror to make sure my ass is getting low enough when I squat.

I followed the 12-Week plan to the letter (getting a little screwy in the last two or so weeks because of the National Marathon), and saw my arms increase in size as well as my legs decrease. Also, my ass got a little nicer. Hell yeah. 

I'll be keeping track of my lifts here, give 'em a try yourself. Here was yesterday's:

Exercise	Weight	#Completed
Squat [5 sets of 5]	270	5
Standing Calf Raise [5/10]	180	5
Chin Ups [4 until fail]	---	4,5, 5,5

I "super set" the squats, calf raises and chin ups back to back. The calf raises were done with the same weight as the squats, so that made it easier to go a little faster. I worked up a nice sweat, and my calves really responded to the weight. Don't cheat yourself out of maximum height with the calf raises, and do hold them at the top of your lift for a second. You'll notice a difference quickly. 

My chin-ups aren't quite to where I'd like them to be, but I'm still working on them. My lower back is getting stronger, and now that Ganesh lives on my shoulder and lats, I suppose I should work to give him more canvas by getting stronger. 

Exercise	Weight	#Completed
Dead Lifts [5/5]	180	5
Leg Lifts [5/30]	---	5

I wore a lifting belt for the first time today when doing my dead lifts. Dead lifts always scare me a little, but Aric who has the body of, like, the Hulk (only not green and stuff) and swears by them. So, I swear by them. I'd been doing stiff-leg deads for the past few weeks, so it was nice to get back to the full dead lift.  I again super-setted-- this time the deads and the leg raises.  Its important to to keep the thighs a little above parallel when doing the deads, unlike the squats, which go below parallel.  

Summer Ready

Its quite easy to start bitching about gaining weight. I'm a marathon runner, yoga teacher, and pretty damn active guy. I also really, really dig food. One of my greatest passions is eating. This leads to me getting fatty fat fat.

I used to be much, much bigger than I am now, and have managed to keep between 80 and 110lbs off for (gasp) a decade come this October.  

Early last September, I decided to take what I dubbed "The Tara Challenge," named for my dear friend Tara McRedie. In as few words as possible, it meant that every meal that I ate solo I had to prepare myself. I especially wanted to focus on minimizing anything that came from a box. Your's truly was finally learning to cook! As it turns out, I don't just like eating, I really like the craft of preparing a meal, too. Since early September, I've only cheated once (in the guise of a bagel omelet from Cosi).  

Then came January. I've been lushtastic for as long as I've been svelte, but after realizing that the sauce was keeping me from my potential as a yoga practitioner, I decide to severely limit my hooch. No drinks after work, no casual happy hour, no "de-stressing" via alcohol. Period.  It was like a Tara Reid Challenge, a sort of self imposed rehab.

Drinking was to be minimized to very special occasions. Wild nights out and single glasses of wine had the same effect, generally speaking, on my life. Useless calories, stupid hangovers, inflexibility, and a lack of clarity in general all came from the same bottle. So, I decided to limit my drinks to 10 Wild Cards. One drink or ten, a wild card is in play for 36 hours. 

I've stuck to it, and still have 2 Wild Cards left, right on schedule  Hooray!

I've also been lifting between four days a week since January 2nd. I've been following the Lee Hayward 12 Week Plan, which I've now modified. As of Saturday, I've changed my diet as well. 

More on each topic as the week goes on.