|
|
|
December 31st, 2005
 | 07:36 pm - Fitness ...
I made no particular resolutions about it, but one of my goals for the year was to get fitter, to help with fencing competitions (and life in general).
We've been quite irregular in getting to the gym. At the beginning of the year, either  rwrylsin or myself seemed to be down with a cold of some sort much of the time, and then we both got knocked out by chest infections (the repeated colds were probably just a symptom of that, or so we think). We lost March and most of April to that. Then, from August on, the year got busy - WorldCon, Berlin, and a bunch of fencing competitions. I usually try to avoid going to the gym for at least 4-5 days before a comp., because I usually end up with sore muscles somewhere, and want to be in the peak of whatever condition I have for the comp. Still, we have managed to go there about once a week for the last month or so, and a few times in the last week while we're on holiday. Next year we should be able to go more often and continue improving in strength and fitness.
Meanwhile, mostly for my own future reference, here's my current workout :
Start with 35 minutes cardio, aiming to keep HR above 150 (one of my Christmas presents was a heart rate monitor, so this will be easier to keep track of). Should probably increase to 40 minutes next year, and probably mix it up rather than do it all on the exercise bike.
All the weight exercises are done in three sets, repeating to fatigue. The numbers of reps below are my current reps achieved :
Bench press - 15kg (plus the bar, which is 20kg). 15 reps.
Lat pulley - 20kg, 15 reps.
Squat - 30kg (plus 20kg bar), 16 reps.
Shoulder press, 18kg (9kg each arm), 15 reps.
Abduction, 160lb (errr, 72kg), 20 reps (will move up to 170lb next time).
Bicep curls, 16kg (8kg each arm), 13 reps.
Adduction, 190lb (86kg), 20 reps (moving up to 200lb next time).
Alas, I have no idea what my maximum amounts would be. Should try it sometime, just out of curiosity.
I have this vague goal that I'd like to be able to move my own body weight in squats and bench press one day, although I suspect that's a long way off at the current rate of progress. (Too many years spent on computers or nose-in-book, apparently :-) )
Current Mood:  calm
|
Don't know if you know this or not.
You'll get a lot better results on all the weight training if you remember to squeeze into the lift (tense the muscle you're working at the end of the lift) and hold for half a second. It does really nice things for tone and prevents you from bouncing the weight and wasting the effort.
It's also good to do different kinds of bicep curls, I do reclined, preacher, hammerheads, straight bar, EZ bar and isometric straight curls (standing up, one arm half way through the curl and hold while you do reps on the other arm) split up over a few sessions and I have never had such good results. It works the sides of the muscle as well as the centre line.
You haven't mentioned triceps in the list above, it's generally a good idea to build them up along with biceps to stabilise your arms. |
|
