Maintenance and Exercise

So I started this blog in October with the fancy idea of putting in my exercise and discovered after a few days that even I was bored with it! So I never came back.  Starting today, I’m going to use the space to journal my progress with maintenance, and life around it, maybe list the exercise as an aside.  We’ll see if I do better with that!

No exercise today.  I had a physical scheduled for 8:30 and couldn’t eat after 10:00 pm last night, so figured I would be dying by the time the doctor was finished if I exercised.  We have my stepson tonight, so no exercise tonight either.  Have to get back on the horse tomorrow…

I did find out today that I have a heart murmur.  Don’t know any details, have an Echo Cardiogram scheduled for two weeks from now, so we’ll see what is up then.

On 10/6 I did a little over an hour of work on the Weider, working on arms.  I totally lost track of time and this ended up being my only exercise for the day.  DH came home from work much earlier than I expected, so my bright idea to exercise in the afternoon while he was gone didn’t really pan out…

I realize in typing this that I’m probably doing way too many exercises in each muscle group, and I wonder if I need to combine areas in a given day instead of segmenting them the way I have… I’ll probably post that question on 3FC and see what I find out…

1) Hammer Curl: 40/12, 30/12, 20/12

2) Reverse Curl: 30/10, 20/10, 20/10

3) Standing Bicep Curl: 30/10, 20/10, 20/10

4) Tricep Pushdown: 50/12, 60/12, 60/12

5) Reverse Tricep Pushdown: 60/12, 60/12, 60/12

6) Bicep/Tricep Combo: R: 30/12, 30/12, L: 30/12, 30/12

7) Tricep Kickback: both sides: 60/12, 60/12

8 ) Seated Overhead Extension: 40/12, 50/12, 50/12

9) French Press: 50/12, 60/12, 60/12

10) Ab twist: both sidesL 60/12, 80/12, 80/12

11) Seated Crunch: 80/10, 80/10, 80/10

12) Seated Oblique Crunch: both sides: 80/10, 80/10, 80/10

To keep with my exercise reporting, here is a summary of my other exercise last week (9/29 - 10/5), since I put the Weider exercises in a different thread…

Monday 9/29: Elliptical trainer, 45 minutes - (I use a program that goes up in resistance by three minute intervals, dropping back down and reclimbing every three intervals after the warm up, so I change the incline every 9 minutes, doing the warm up at 10 degrees, the first climb at 20, second climb at 25, third climb at 30, cool down cycle slowly down to 10 changing every minute or two.  I tend to keep my heart rate between 155-185 most of the time, 170-185 for 22-24 minutes of the total, 155-170 for the rest, after the first six minutes of warm up.), Cardio Yoga with Tom Morley on Exercise TV - 20 mins, Ab & Back Video on Exercise TV - 10 mins, Shadow Kickboxing - 12 mins.  The Daily Plate says that burned 650 calories, but who believes that! I hope to get a newer HRM for Christmas that will track that.

9/30: Weider work, 37  minutes on arms, 30 minute slow elliptical cooldown.  DP projects 368 cals burned… again, who believes that…

10/1: Elliptical - 45 mins as above, 10 min ab & back video

101/2: Weider 50 minutes, legs, 10 min kickboxing - got my bag set up so could really pound on something.  Worked until I felt a little wobbly.  30 mins slow elliptical to stretch out and cool down.

10/3: Nada, day off from exercise

10/4: 53 minutes of Weider - chest, back & shoulders, 12 minutes of kickboxing.

10/5: 45 minute elliptical trainer same program as above, 20 min cardio yoga, 20 min kickboxing.  I made a fancy workout program on my iPod so I would use intervals on the kickboxing, instead I worked until I almost fell over the entire 20 minutes… I have to learn some limits…

Here is my first week of exercises on my Weider Ma Home Gym once I actually started tracking…

For those interested, this is the one I have…  I have the smaller of the two.  I don’t have the extra preacher’s curl attachment or rowing seat, that is on the bigger one.http://www.weiderfitness.com/wcsstore/Weider/miniSites/Max/exercises.html

(I’ve been using it for four weeks now, but before I’ve been pretty off the cuff with the exercises.)

My plan is to do three days per week, 40-50 minutes each time, targeting different groups each time.   So far, on track.  I don’t know how the resistance bars equate to weight, I know that Weider says 40 pounds of resistance is like lifting 40 pounds of weight, but I’ve seen reviews to the contrary.  So, not sure, so I’m looking at the number as a setting like H-M-L rather than an actual weight.  I’m going to list in here the weight I use on the sets at this point, that format might change.

9/30 was day 1 with tracking: arms, 42 minutes. This was my first day to use proper form on every exercise, so I lowered my resistance down to the point where I could complete the exercise.

1) Hammer Curl: 80/12, 60/12, 40/12

2) Standing Bicep Curl: 40/12, 30/12, 20/12

3) Reverse Curl: 40/12, 30/12, 20/12

4) Tricep Kickback: 50/12, 60/12, 60/10

5) Triceps Pushdown: 70/12, 70/12, 60/12

6) Reverse Tricep Pushdown: 70/12, 70/12, 60/12

10/2 Legs & Abs, 50 mins

1) Squat: 80/10, 80/10, 80/10

2) Standing Calf Raise: 80/10, 80/10, 80/10

3) Reverse Lunge: (really bad at this one, off balance some so I stopped after two sets) - 80/10, 80/10

4) Hip Extension: R: 80/12, 70/12, L: 70/12, 70/12

5) Hip Flexion: R: 70/12, 70/12, L: 70/12, 70/12

6) Ab Twist: R: 90/12, 100/12, L: 90/12, 100/12

7) Leg Abduction: R: 70/12, 70/12, L: 70/12, 70/12

8 ) Leg Extenstion: 100/12, 100/12, 100/12

9) Crunch: 100/10, 100/10

10) Oblique Crunch: R: 100/12, 110/12, 110/12, L: 100/12, 110/12, 110/12

10/4 Chest, Back Shoulders 50 minutes

1) Chest Fly: 50/12, 60/12, 60/12

2) Chest Press: 60/12, 50/12, 50/12

3) Decline Fly: 40/12, 40/12, 40/12 - this one almost killed me for some reason. My right bicep and shoulder really didn’t like it.

4) Incline Fly: 40/12, 40/12, 40/12 - liked this one much more.

5) Wide Grip Pulldown: 80/12, 90/12, 90/12

6) Reverse Grip Pulldown: 90/12, 100/12, 100/12

7) Straight Arm Pushdown: 50/12, 60/12, 60/12

8 ) High Reverse Fly: 60/12, 50/12, 50/12

9) Reverse Fly: 50/12, 50/12, 50/12

10) Outfly: R: 50/10, L: 50/10 - stopped this one because I was pulling my elbow too hard.

11) Close Grip Lateral Row: 50/12, 50/12, 50/12

I have to find a better way to track the exercises, so far I’ve logged them into my phone, but I need to be able to see what I did last week each week to compare…

Well, I actually posted one yesterday that was my first post in a blog ever… So, the title of this one is disingenuous, but I’m leaving the post here and just editing since the system did it for me as it was a new blog…

My thoughts on this blog are that I will use it for posting my weight/resistance training and other exercises so I can help myself keep track, and to share the craziness that is me lately with others who might be interested. I figure I’ll also ramble occassionally about the weight loss and exercise experience, my diet,  post some pics, that kind of thing.  We’ll see if I keep it up.

I know very little about weight and resistance training, so anyone who sees me doing something spectacularly stupid please comment and tell me!  I’ve asked a lot of questions on the 3FC site, and might post some of those answers here as well.  Basically, I’m targeting this blog for me, anyone else who wants to read is welcome, but please be kind!