It is probably obvious by now that, I am attempting a virtual 180 on my life so far, and a big part of this is physical, I got to the stage that I couldn’t do much really, even laying down in bed hurt my lower legs and I couldn’t keep up with my children when out and about, so I threw myself into going back to the gym, and now 7 and a half stone lighter and 11 months down the line I feel like I am more fine tuning my diet and exercise routine than trying to crack a rock with a toffee hammer like I was for the first 9 months or so,
As a result and as a demonstration of a way of making time rather than trying to find the time, I thought I would share what my workout program is starting to look like, I will start to expand on this shortly and go much further into the knowledge I have gained but for now, this is pretty much how it is starting to look.
Gym – Resistance training
Essentially as I am never sure if I can go on a regular scheduled basis, I decided instead to just break it down to body parts per session and make sure that they all followed each other, so I do the following,
- Back and Biceps – Staple exercises are Deadlifts, Lat Pulldowns, Straight bar Curls and Preacher Curls, as well as two more exercises on each muscle group depending on how I feel.
- Chest and Triceps – Staple exercises are Bench Press, Flat Dumbell Flies, Incline Dumbell Press, Tricep Pressdowns and behind the head Dumbell Extensions, again another two more on each muscle group.
- Legs – Staple exercises are Front Squat, Leg Press, Leg Extension and Curl, Stiff Leg Deadlifts and Calf raises, I will try and incorporate lunges and Sissy Squats as my knees allow.
- Shoulders – Staples are Dumbell Press Overhead, Side lateral, Rear Laterals, Front raises either with Cables or Dumbells.
On Gym days I will do my cardio first thing in the morning (4:30am when I manage to get up 5:00am when not) and that has become a 5k walk as I was originally spending 70 minutes on a treadmill on incline 7 at the end of my workout but this was taking up too much time from my Kids and bedtimes, so I moved it too the morning when they are sound asleep, it is worth noting that I did start running in the morning but that seemed to halt the downward trend of the scales for some reason so I stopped.
Non Gym Days
On days when I am not going to be at they gym I will do a full Yoga flow in the mornings, I still go out for a swift walk but I like to concentrate on Yoga because the benefits so far have been exponential, my posture, strength, flexibility and I would even go so far as my mental state as well as my ability to cope with stressful sometimes inflammatory situations at work and family life, I really cannot stress enough how much I have come to value Yoga and am always looking to increase my practice of it and advance as much as I can.
Everyday
Additionally on every day I always do a 20 minute flexibility routine, one thing that has always plagued me is flexibility and so when I put all my ill informed misconceptions about Yoga to one side and started to practice it I started to become more flexible and found that this alone made everyday life more comfortable.
And I always do a mini plank workout, a simple standard Plank followed by each side and a back Plank held for one minute and repeated 3 times in each position, I actually credit this for getting rid of the largest part of my back problems due to being sat at a desk all day.
In the future
Moving from here I am going to start incorporating intermittent fasting as well as tying down a more regular Yoga routine of my own design to provide something to really concentrate on practising to find progression, I am also going to put a day of more power lifting / strength training into my gym routine, that will include Farmers Walk, Deadlifts, and Tyre Flipping that type of thing, to try and pull my physique in tighter.
