What started as a routine week has turned into an unexpected week. I'll explain in my weekly summary. This week nutritionally has been about 70/30 healthy and today Saturday was my first workout of the week doing lower body. I will be piggy backing tomorrow with another lifting session but for upper body and continue on to week 5.
Long day in New Orleans, but made my trek back to Chicago this evening. After spending some time with my family, I snuck out to the gym. Had a good workout with some new highs on biceps and shoulders. I know have been home for about an hour and just stuffed down my shrimp and bread, time to hit the sack. Not sure if I'll be able to hit cardio in the morning before work, as I need some rest.
Today was a long day and I stayed out later than necessary. Although I had every intention of running on the treadmill, I fell asleep after I had changed and laid down in my hotel room.
I'm in New Orleans for business and didn't have a chance to work out until late tonight. I had to change my workout yo a dumbbell based lowers leg workout to get through it here. I had been doing great with no alcohol, but did have a few glasses of wine at our business dinner. Disappointed I gave in, but at least it wasn't beer.
Cardio did not happen. My pinched nerve has been bothering me all night and day and hoped that by tonight it would feel better, but no luck.
Not a good week for me. Nutrition was horrible at least one meal during the second half of the week blew my calorie count. Need to get my head on straight...
We made our trek back home from the Dells today and stopped at The House On the Rock on the way back interesting place. After the family passed out, I managed to hit the gym and have a decent workout. All day I had a little sharp pain in my lower back like a pinched nerve and I think driving and having to tote around my 15 month old through the house in the rock didn't help. Hopefully, it won't get worse than it is, because this will aggravate more with running.
Another day without a true workout, but kept the moderate cardio going at the water park. Again my nutrition ruined by one meal... again the quesadillas. I'm not panicking here, this is a hurdle that I must face and get over and just get back on track. It's everyday life and I need to fix it for my body for life. I need to get back home and get a grip.
Well the food news is I found the fitness center and got a full run cardio session in. The bad news... they had no weights what so ever. My original plan was to just go through my lower workout exercises with my body weight , but that didn't happen. We got back to the room and basically crashed. Its a good thing I could keep up with my three year old going up the stairs and ramps to the slides over and over again . I never walked or ran them, but kept a good pace that I could feel it... but I wish I had the stamina of my son lol. I was definitely what I would consider additional moderate cardio burning some calories.
The bad part about my nutrition is that I have not done my 5-6 meals yesterday or today. One meal each day blew my day big time. They could have been healthy , but I was weak. Yesterday lunch was a late breakfast and I had steak and eggs, but couldn't resist the unhealthy carbs. Then that night, was lasagna and I had more that my share and didn't even cook my protein like I was supposed to. Then today I had ground turkey and rice, but splurged on the quesadillas that were not on my program. Needless to say this week, my second is not going well nutritionally. I med to get back on track.
Another late night workout, had a new high on dumbbell bench press and shoulder press. I hit the 90 lb set for bench and peaked at 50lb set on shoulders, so happy. I had a tweak in my right shoulder over the weekend and was worried about tonights workout. Everything went well except my superset on chest with dumbbell flys. I'll probably have to go lighter my next workout as to not hurt it to the point I can lift any other exercises.
We left today for a few days to the Dells for my sons birthday and we'll be hitting the indoor water park. Unfortunately, I couldn't sneak out of the room to do cardio because our baby wouldn't fall asleep. I will double up tomorrow with cardio in the morning and weights at night.
Still not in the morning, but I got my cardio in tonight. Once again, starting the 4th interval I was gassed from running, but just went immediately into the inclines to finish up. I'm shooting for complete running by start of this week.
Failed again on morning workout, it's hard to do a late night lifting and get up early. This is a must goal for me in this challenge and hope that through this Thanksgiving holiday weekend I can get on track.
Tonights cardio... boy did I feel it. Due to my foot acting up I had laid off of running, but went back to it tonight. I started conservative, but by the end of the second interval I was struggling! I lowered my expectations for the third interval and peaked with a 5.5 mph run, but when I went to start the fourth interval I began to gag and dry heave... just what I wanted to feel, knowing I did give it my all. Rather than make a fool of myself and make others sick, yes, there were others working out this late, I decided to flip to a 3.0 mph walk using inclines for the increasing intensities. I had to walk at no incline to get myself back together, then went to level 4, 8, 12, and then 15(max). Heart rate went up satisfactory and then I finished off with a level 4 incline. I then cooled off for an additional five minutes at a walk. My guess is I will be back at full speed in a few weeks. Never give up, just adjust your intensities!
Day 2 didn't start off too well either. My intention was to do cardio in the morning and my lifting at night to catch up, but my son was up on and off with a fever and I was up on and off with him. Needless to say, when my alarm went off at five in the morning, I don't even remember shutting it off.
The good news is that I was able get my lifting in late tonight, finished up a little before midnight. I started with lower body and abs. For the first 4 weeks I will be following the routine attached, unfortunately the leg press machine was taken by someone who did a gazillion sets and I chose a leg machine sled type instead. I chose these exercises because they are similar to what I began my journey with last year. Part of it is to give my body a break from some of the compound movements I've done and focus a little more on the cardio as I need to focus on burning fat! The other part is to compare strength from then and now. I am still amazed at myself at how my self esteem still lacks even after a year with good progress and I have to be creative in seeing things that keep me motivated. I need to remember that it's about progress not perfection!
The start of my challenge was a missed work out. Not a good start, but I will move forward. I started my challenge out of town in Buffalo and was prepared to work out in the morning in the hotel, however this past weekend my house was one big petri dish of colds and it began to take its toll on me. I wasn't sure if it would escape me, but it didn't. I couldn't sleep and had an early morning meeting. I skipped my work out and hoped that by the time arrived back home in the evening I could hit the gym, but I didn't. It's just an excuse, but I'll just continue on to day 2.
This week was going well until last night and this morning. For whatever reason my legs were tightening up especially my calves. This morning when the alarm went off they still didn't feel right. I decided to listen to my body and rest today. I will push workouts one day and do legs tomorrow.
Since I was one day behind my workouts I decided to do legs today. Good workout, squats are so much fun now and my ABS are so strong! Amazing what time and patience brings.
After yesterdays garage sale I was pooped. My mother in law was goigg to come help watch the kids and I was going to sneak out to get a workout in, but she was a no show. Sat night we had some friends come over and cheat day started early. I ended up not making it to the gym. Although our friends didn't stay too late, we were exhausted and went straight to bed. Will have to push workout to tomorrow.
Today was garage sale day, so we were up early and going. Last night was a late night prepping for the garage sale, so my goal of 530am was not going to work, however I was able to make it late morning around 1030ish. Good cardio day followed by about 5 hrs of yard work. So sure I burned off more calorie! I made sure to east every few hours to keep body in right state. Well time for bed, as day two of garage sales is tomorrow and need to get up for my early morning workout.
So the streak ends at two... didn't make my morning work out. We are remodeling are master bathroom and I had to paint, so our contractor could finish up the rest. Well, I didn't get done until after midnight and when my alarm went off this morning I just couldn't get up. The good news is that after finishing up the second coat tonight I went straight to the gym for cardio. Tomorrow is another day, let's see if I can break the streak this week!
Believe it or not I made it to the gym early again! Not as early as yesterday, but good enough to get my workout in. I was in the door at 605am. Of course I had a plan to change up my routine for weights, but at the last second decided of it isn't broke don't fix it! So last night before bed I created my routine in JEFit. What's funny is I went with machine exercises, but the first one leg extensions was broken.... it was a sign, so I went to barbell squats and it was awesome! Low in weight for first time, but good baseline. I will push myself on Sat.
What a wonderful way to star off my fifth week, I made it to the gym in the early morning! I was at the gym by 540 am on an empty stomach to complete my hiit and moderate bike ride. I felt so accomplished and hope to continue the trend for the next 2-4 weeks.
Completed my split workout today. Upper body completed and feeling pumped! I have 40 minutes of moderate cardio Sunday and then will change up my exercises for the next four weeks, still haven't decided what exactly I'm going to do, but might veer off the BFL lifting for the next 4 weeks. I'm thinking on lifting days, I may do circuit training along with increased low to moderate cardio and see how that works for me. At the very minimum I may do two weeks just to see how my body reacts. I really would like to focus on fat loss, but since I had to ease up on HIIT these last 4 weeks due to my healing calf, I want to get back up to hat high intensity.
Well feeling guilty and of course I should be, I decided to double up today and do a split workout. Morning is cardio and late afternoon will be weights. I'm glad to report that cardio is complete. It's now later in the aafternoon and will be leaving shortly for the gym for my upper body workout.
Caught up on some sleep, but was still exhausted. I kept busy all day and when it was time to put my 3 yr old to bed, I fell asleep myself, whoops!
Another long day and now workout again. By the time I got up, prepped for presentation, did obligatory lunch, dinner, it was straight to the airport. The downer is I would make it home at 3am due to delays and such. I slept 20 minutes on the flight, what a waste. Straight to bed.
Today has been a long day. I was short on sleep but had a 4 hr flight to LA, I did nap here and there, but not very comfortably. Unfortunately for me, travelling west always has its downfall. The day is normally extended much longer due to the time zone difference. I didn't get back to my room until after midnight my time having to do an obligatory dinner. Exhausted and having to be up early to prepare for a presentation made me decide that I should by pass the cardio. This part drives me nuts, because I feel like at times I now put work first. This can lead to derailment in my eyes, but must think positive.
Time was tight as the day continued on. So much to do and not sure when I would work out. I have a flight early tomorrow and still haven't packed, but needed to make time. Gym time was after 11 pm, finishing up a little after midnight, time to go pack and get to bed.
You're only as good as your weakest link. I've added 3 exercises totalling 9 sets of 15 reps of wrist exercises in hope of helping develop one of my issue areas. I hope this works out for me :) I'm doing them on my cardio day before lower body day and hope it doesn't put a hamper on my upper body workouts. Today was a good workout day, seemed a little drained, but again think it has to do with my lack of sleep. Looking forward to a good cardio tomorrow and not sure what cheat day brings, but we will see.
When I tore my calf I purchased some medical socks. They are compresseion socks that supposedlty help with blood circulation and recovery. I originally purchased them because I was travelling and on crutches and wanted a quick recovery. I purchased my dress socks at CVS, but wanted something that I could use with everyday socks. I did some research online and ended up picking these Zensah sleeves at my local Dick Ponds. I don't feel they give as much compression as my CVS socks, but I'm a true believer that they help. I wear them during the day and at night. The funniest thing is that I feel like I should have matching wrist and head bands for my Jazzercising lol...
Finished my cardio late tonight, but under slightly less intensity. Reading up on tight calves turns out I may have increased intensity to quickly. I backed off my speeds for tonight and stretched afterwards. Let's hope this helps!
Great upper body workout tonight. I feel energized and strong. I've noticed that my 6 rep sets where I would struggle I end up completing with mind over matter, feels great. I think what has helped is in the cases where I can complete my reps with the weight, I lower to next lower weight to finish my reps. This is referred to as drop sets. Over the last few days my calves have been feeling weird. Tight would be the beat way to explain it.. they have me slightly worried.
Just finished up my cardio workout, feeling a little drained. I'm lacking sleep and have yet to make a morning workout. After more yard work, I ended up falling asleep last night and missed my lower body workout.
Didn't get cardio in the morning as planned. I'm failing miserably in morning cardio, but I did get it in tonight. Prior to cardio I did three sets of three exercises with 15 repair each for my wrists and forearms. I feel that I've helped strengthen other weak muscles starting with low weights anand increasing over time, so I'm hoping this will help them develop and not be my weal point in my workouts.
Although today was my cheat day I did my first true HIIT since my town calf muscle on father's day followed by 20 min moderate cardio on the bike. I spent most of the day in my yard doing landscape work so good additional calorie burned. Thank God for that drizzle on and off, it helped keep me cool!
Good early evening upper body work out today after an action packed family day. Tomorrow is my cheat day and will get some cardio in.
Finished up a late lower body workout, decided to just do upper and lower body workouts on back to back days. Will get back on track for cardio tomorrow. Exhausted need sleep, good night.
No need to throw in the towel, was just a bump in the road. Made it back in late tonight for an upper body workout and feeling good.
Today was a complete failure. No workouts and strayed off of nutrition and had a few drinks at a work outing. Need to refocus what is important to me.
Unfortunately, all intentions of ruining in the morning went out the window when I hit snooze one too many times. Once I got home from work, ate dinner, and spent some time running around chasing my son who is learning to ride, I apparently was exhausted. It's a little humid around here, maybe that is why. After getting my son ready for bed and getting him tucked in, I laid down for a minute. Next thing I knew it was 137am. Whoops. No workout. My body is very confused between traveling, late night workouts, etc. I set my alarm for 5am today and was going to double up, but I hit snooze on the alarm and had to get up and get ready and go straight for work. I really need to focus on rest this challenge and be in bed at 930pm and get my workouts in early in the morning. This goal has been a challenge for me through this whole process. I will have to play catch up this week. I will do cardio tonight and then a split tomorrow of cardio in the morning and weights tomorrow night.
Made the trek to the gym pretty late and repeated my dumbbell leg workout from last week at my hotel. I'm going to stick with it for the first 4 weeks just to get my muscles back in rhythm. I tried the exercise for my hamstring superset that I couldn't do last week again and still was not able to do, so I found a machine that I could grab on to and did the motion in a negative motion and used my grip to help me down and up. Hopefully after a week or two I can complete without the extra help. One full week complete!
I almost talked myself out of working out tonight. At 830, I was ready to put my oldest son to bed and was going to take a nap and set my alarm to go do cardio at 11pm. Good thing my wife kept me engaged, before I knew it the time came and I never took a nap and got a second wind. Off to the gym I went and did my moderate intensity interval running followed up by the bike for 20 min. What is weird is that as I ran my legs felt good. I was able to push my third and fourth interval max speeds to 5.5 and 6 MPH. To me that is good for one week and recovering from a torn calf muscle. Tomorrow would normally be my off day, but I took that Wed. It's still my cheat day but will need to get a lower workout in. Until then see ya!
After a long few days, I just finished up my upper body workout that I didn't do yesterday. I feel well rested now, but boy are my legs still in pain from Tuesday's dumbbell workout. I just can't get over how 4 weeks off set my legs back that much!
It's been a long day. Unfortunately I've been up since 3am cst time due travelling from the east coast back home. Not working out my lower body because of my calf injury is today definitely noticed. I am so sore. And walking around so slow. Wish you all could see me waddling through the airport today. The worst was the ramps. I'm too tired to hit the gym late, so I will bump my exercises all one day. I'm going to bed now and will do my workout in the morning. Good night.
I travel a lot for work and never know what kind of equipment will be available unless I have been there before. Cardio seems to be the easiest to figure out as most hotels will have at least a treadmill, bike, elliptical, or some combination of the three. Be prepared to adapt your cardio to whatever you have available and don't be scares of that machine you have never used. These are the times I change my attempt at HIIT whether it be walking at an incline and altering the inclines or jogging / running with the inclines. I utilize an app on my phone JEFIT for keeping track of routines and it has a library of exercises with animation of how it should be completed.
Some hotels have a full range of dumbbells and benches or machines or both. Again be prepared to be creative. On this last trip my hotel had just dumbbells and benches and well, I had to come up with a leg work out. I can tell you that two days later I can barely walk lol, mostly because of my first leg workout since my injury. I did dumbbells squats supersetted with dumbbells lunges. I then moves to dumbbells dead lifts and was about to superset with the exercise on the video where you lift your leg on a bench and motion as sitting. Well, this didn't work for me as I was exhausted and almost falling. Quite the fun visual thinking back on it now. I then moved on to standing dumbbell calf raises and a superset of single dumbbell calf raises. ABS were last and I did your basic crunches on the floor with a superset of bench leg raises. What a workout! http://www.ehow.com/video_7381153_hamstring-workout-dumbbells.html
I've seen them many times on my vitamins, protein powders, etc. On some protein powders there is even their proprietary ingedient formula, but it breaks it out as to not divulge their secret formula. One place I noticed that has a nutritional label is on my EAS Myoplex. As it turns out there is a difference in labeling of actual fooda and supplements. For a quick read, you can find it here.
http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/Transparency/Basics/ucm194357.htm
http://www.whichsupps.com/nutrition/advice/the-true-meaning-about-what-a-proprietary-blend-is-in-supplements.html
Well today was going well here in NYC, but I continue my love/hate relationship with it here. Unfortunately for me after arriving the airport, my flight was canceled and no flights until tomorrow. I scrambled to find a hotel and well what was left is not one in my top 10 choices, but oh well. I had to get my cardio in. I did my moderate intensity treadmill and finished up with a 20 minute bike. Miss my family, can't wait to get home.
After an early morning flight and on about 4 hours of sleep, I still had enough energy to work out late at my hotel. Ok the body said no, bit my mind said YOU HAVE TOO! The equipment was limited, however I improvised with a all dumbbell routine with exception of my calf raises using just my body weight. I used light weights to make sure that my legs are ready, I mean it's been a month since my injury and last leg workout. The room was hot, seemed like no air circulation, so that water was going down easily. My superset for hamstrings was in exercise I found online, that I couldn't complete or was doing it wrong. In a nutshell you would put one foot on a bench and then sit back as if you were sitting in a chair. My legs were burning bad from the deadlifts, so that didn't help. I finished up with my abs and did lying crunches with a superset of leg lifts lying on a bench. Back in November I would never have been able to do either of these, but it shows how much my core has strengthened. It's almost 1am est time, so time for bed. Have to get up at 6am for my cardio. Hope my legs can handle it!
I completed my cardio late tonight. I did 20 minutes of a moderate HIIT due to my recovering calf tear. The good news is I can jog but I'm no where near my previous speeds, with time I guess. I also was able to complete a low intensity 20 minute ride. Not going to get much sleep since I have to be up in 4hrs for a flight. Hope no lagging issues arise with my calf, as legs are tomorrow's workout. Will have to go easy on it.
Saturday I was able to get a late night work out in. One of the few over the last month due to my calf injury. I had decided to take some time to rest a nagging wrist discomfort. Unfortunately, it has not gone away. Since I'm hoping to be good to get back in the gym tomorrow, I wanted to see what I could do for my wrist.
My wrist issues seem to have begun when I ripped my old lifting gloves. I replaced them with another Harbinger pair, but not the same as the ones I had. I think the wrist support was not as wide and over some time I aggravated my wrist. I took a trip to the local Sports Authority, but they didn't have the ones I hoped to find. I settled for a cheap pair of wrist wraps that also has a loop for the thumb, but not sure . I tried them on and definitely see that they will help, but I will only need one for my left wrist. They managed to fit under my gloves and did a good job through all my exercises. I ordered the Schiek pair I wanted online from eBay, and hope these will hold up more than the ones I bought at Sports Authority.
Tomorrow will be my first cardio since my calf tear. I'm a little nervous, but will do a lower intensity HIIT in hopes of no reinjury. m
I can not tell you how incredibly useless my legs are at this moment. I did legs on Thursday and changed up my routine to squats and deadlifts ... my butt, my hams, my quads, useless... I still have yet to make it to the gym today for my upper body workout as I am moving around so gingerly!
Scrambled eggs and turkey
45g protein
4g carbs
7g fat
I then added a serving of Quaker Oats :)
Although I am feeling slightly better, the pain is still there. After talking to a few friends they have convinced me that even if I feel better, just take the rest of the week off and if I can take an additional week off and just rest up and heal. I have kept to my nutrition of course and will stay on track. My wife was teasing me today if I had fallen off the wagon, something I keep saying I might, but of course I haven't. My body is trained to eat every 3-4 hrs so there is no escaping that and to be honest I haven't thought about eating less healthy food as I did prior to my challenges. Guess my taste buds are changing...
This obstacle is just another one thrown in to have to adjust to the "for life" part.
Being as I have had trouble getting up from a laying position or standing up straight I don't think running HIIT would be such a good idea tonight. It's not a muscle issue, but something with a pinched nerve and shoots an excruciating pain with certain movements. I'm going to treat today as a rest day and hope that tomorrow I can continue on with my training. If not I will be starting active rest to get this lower back issue gone. I'm having a hard time with this mentally, it's a real downer
| Challenge | Week | Date | Weight | Chest | Arms | Waist | Calves | Hips |
| 2 | START | 02/06/12 | 244 | 47 | 15.50 | 46.00 | 17.25 | 43.00 |
| 2 | 6 | 03/19/12 | 238 | 46 | 15.50 | 45.00 | 17.00 | 43.00 |
| Week | Shoulders | Neck | Thighs | Forearms | BF% Omron Monitor | Lean Mass | Fat |
| START | 51.00 | 17.50 | 24.50 | 12.13 | 27.30% | 177.388 | 66.612 |
| 6 | 50.50 | 17.50 | 25.00 | 12.25 | 26.30% | 175.406 | 62.594 |
Earlier this week the treadmills at the gym were packed. I finally saw one open up at the end near a window. I jump on the machine and get started. I love the fact that my speeds on hiit running have improved and how I really do get into a trance like state where I can completely zone out everything. It's not always easy to get there though. Almost every cardio session seems like I have problem motivating myself that I can push the limits. Usually half way through, those thoughts are gone though and I hit my goals. Last week I realized it was time to push the intensity up and I did. Back to the treadmill.... I was surprised as I ran my first interval just how easy it felt. What a difference, I must really be getting good at this... but when I went to 4.5mph for my jog I almost tripped at how slow the machine was. I didn't think much as I had already been thinking to push my intensity up. By the end of interval 2 at 7mph, I was like this is too easy, boy I'm doing good. Interval 3 I smelled a rat... so I pushed all the speeds .5mph and things felt okay. By the time I was done, my bpm was nowhere near where it was supposed to be. So I upped my extra 20 minutes of moderate cardio to 5.5mph. That was more like it. Friday I hit a different machine, one I normally use and as far as I can tell it just seems that he machine I used the other day is just not accurate on the speed. The good news is that I continue to progress through my running. For the most part hiit and additional moderate cardio put me at 40 minutes of straight running and the treadmill states about 3.66 miles each time. The weather is incredibly beautiful, but not normal, but thinking I may start doing my Sunday moderate cardio run outside to get use to it. I really would like that 5k under my belt ;)
