One Week Down, Five to Go

May 10

I finished the first week of my workout program without any bodily injury! (Wild cheers of unrestrained joy reverberate throughout this blog.  So as you read, make sure to imagine this.)

Though completely worn out after my workout, as per usual, I actually felt like I accomplished something today.  I was super sore and I felt like my last five squats should have been deeper, but I actually did something that matters, which is basically this: I did things today that I hadn't been able to do before.

I'm paraphrasing, of course, from something I have read by some fitness author that Justin would probably be able to name instantly.  But that's not the point.  The point is that I finished my workout with only the minor weight adjustments that I had to make from Wednesday, and I did it without tears, hyperventilation, or (sorry in advance for the faint of heart and weak of stomach) violently throwing up.

Two things of note:

1) I did the complex through the first time with bar weight, because I'm still very uncomfortable with some of the more complicated exercises that it involves.  But, after my first time through, I started feeling frisky, so I added twenty pounds, which brings the weight up to 65lbs.  The macho part of me feels embarrassed that that's all I can do.  But, when I really think about it, until a few months ago, the heaviest thing I ever had to lift was my laptop or a Qdoba burrito.  But today I ran through my complex like a boss.

2) I did my 60 squats following the plan to the letter.  That's 30 squats at 95 and 30 squats at 115.  Though I'm glad that no one was watching me do these, I'm proud of them.  Especially the first 25 squats at 115.  (To elaborate on what I said before, the last five were basically half the depth of the first five.)

So, I've had my ups and downs this week, but, all in all I'm proud of what I've done.  I'm also thankful that I have two days to recuperate. And eat.  I'm going to go broke trying to eat as much as I'm supposed to...

But Sunday is Mother's Day, so I'll probably be taking this weekend off from blogging as well.  So I'll talk to you all again on Monday.  As Justin's so fond of saying at the end of his entries, "Go forth and lift heavy things."

No equipment? No time? No problem.

A lot of us have trouble getting to the gym. If you're going after you get off work at 5, traffic might be so terrible it takes 20 minutes to drive there. Once you arrive, so does everybody else, and it might take an hour to fight through the lines to the bench to get in twenty minutes' worth of workout. Factor in the drive back, and that's more than an hour and a half out of your day to devote to something optional you might not even enjoy all that much.

Another option would be to buy your own home gym. No, wait, don't stop reading, I can explain, it's not that outlandish.

Your buy list to have the perfect home gym:

One (1) dumbbell you can comfortably press overhead.

...and that's it.

A thirty pound dumbbell might cost you as many bucks, and you can buy small handles and plates to be used separately to account for your increasing badassitude. With that, you can do literally hundreds of exercises, and there are ways to put them together that can make a one-dumbbell workout substantially more effective than a slog through the gym floor.

A "complex" is a series of exercises done without rest, using the same piece of equipment, in this case obviously a dumbbell. I'm using a 35lb 'bell that i made from handles I got at Wal-Mart and some old plates my dad used to have (total cost: $12). Here are the exercises:

Curl and press x 3
Snatch x 3
Single leg Romanian deadlift x 3
Single leg reverse lunge x 3
Kneeling press x 3
Kneeling chop x 5
Renegade row x 3

Three rounds of this on each side would take around 10 minutes, and work every muscle in the body while also giving you some pretty substantial cardiovascular benefits. You can adjust the reps to make it tougher (I would suggest keeping it below 8, any more and you're using too light a weight).

Here's a video of the above complex. Sorry for the blurriness in some parts, it was filmed in my bedroom in a very cramped space...which is sort of the point.