Cardio Day

Today was my next cadrio day, I wanted to try another bicycle that I had not tried before. Instead of the pedals right under you, they are more in front of you.

Actually this is the machine I used:

I wanted to be there for 45min, so I decided I would read a Network + Book while I cycled LOL. I set the machine to hill cycle, I think that’s what it was called, it cycles through different settings of hills. It gives you 1 minute of down hill and 1 minute of up hill, I set it to level 8 and so it increases the size of the hill every time until it reaches the top then starts to slow down and up again.

After I was done It said I traveled 20.08Km burnt 353 Calories, my highest heart rate was 160, I put the book down every once in a while to get a heart rate reading.

While cycling I spent most of the time at 100RPM or higher.

Tomorrow I will be doing legs & back, this one I will be changing quite a bit, I want to actually workout my legs which are pretty skinny LOL, so I will be using some machines to heavy lift, and I will toy around with the back exercises and I will be sure to have some pull ups in there, I am hoping to accomplish being sore, as I had not really lifted heavy for the legs. We shall see what happens tomorrow.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Shoulders & Arms

I did not change to much today on this workout, I did change a couple of things, I will say I did not have enough time to research anything today, I was pretty busy.

What I did different was that I used a machine to pull down for triceps and to pull up for upright rows, the laying down triceps I kept the same though. Also some of the curls that require both arms moving at the same time I used a curved bar with 50lbs on it. Trying to keep this short as I am running late, I will also say that since I was not following the DVD and I did my best to increase the weights as much as I could so I could only do 8 to 10 reps, at the same time I did not have to wait for the DVD to go on to the next exercise so I just went on and only took one break in the middle, it was a bit more intense almost none stop with one break, I felt the pump really really good.

My chest and abs are still sore from Monday’s workout and now my entire upper body is sore LOL, that is awesome. When I did the Ab Ripper X today, I decided to make it harder using the 4k medicine ball I used on Monday. So anything that I had my arms raised I held the ball up in the air, the extra weight makes a huge difference and my abs really burnt and of course I used the medicine ball with mason twist again, I could not make it past 45 reps today, I was so sore I fell over, but I did not finish it there, I had to use the double crunch machine with 120lbs 2 x 10 reps, oh yeah, it was an awesome workout.

Tomorrow I have some more cardio:

Thanks for your time:

Mike

Cardio Day

First off again I totally forgot about my stats and I remembered after I ate LOL, no point taking weight and measurements after eating and feeling full LOL.

Today was a cardio day and at the moment I am trying to just use the machines at work in order to give my muscles a chance to do something different and feel sore. I will say that I woke up this morning with my abs, chest and back all sore, also for some reason my biceps are a bit sore, and they are all still pretty sore. My abs hurt if I cough, sneeze or laugh LOL *OUCH!*, but hey it’s a good thing to have a sore feeling, something is happening and that is what I wanted.

Today I decided to run on the treadmill. Last time I did 35min and I had a peak speed of 11k/h, I decided that if I lowered that speed a bit, I would be able to last longer, so I ran at 10k and did it for 45min, and yes the last 5min are cool down. In that time as per the machine, I ran 6.38km and burnt 438.2 calories. I had to use the one that has issues reading the heart rate because the good one was taken. This time I did not get any readings of my heart rate so I can’t say how high or low it was. I will say that I really do need a heart rate monitor to find out on my own what I am really burning. But I will also say I did not expect to last 45min and run 6.38k, that was totally awesome for sure.

Tomorrow, following the classic P90X I have shoulders and arms, I will see what I can change, I mean this is all using dumbbells, but I may want to use the larger bar for my biceps, there is also a bench there it holds your arms like in Full Supination Concentration Curl, except that I am sitting down instead of standing and I can use both arms at the same time. We will see how it goes, if I have time during work I will look and see what I can modify as I want to life heavy and properly too.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Chest & Back Totally GYM Modified, First Attempt

First off it has been a very busy weekend, no time for much as such I did not have time to research some things I wanted to research before today and at the same time I did not have time to take my stats, such as weight and measurements, I know it does not take to much time, but I also forgot as I have been mentally occupied. Hopefully I will have some stats for tomorrow.

Well today I decided while I was at work and had a couple of minutes of free time to figure out what I was going to do in order to modify chest & back to mostly use GYM equipment, this was my first experimentation and it seemed to go pretty good, but as I go I will tweak it to see how I can maximize the exercises.

I did the warm up mostly by memory, I know I had to warm up and stretch my shoulders, back and chest mostly, so I did a combination of the warm ups I have done before. I also decided to leave some of the exercises as is for warm up purposes and because I wanted the best of both worlds, meaning I also did push ups and did pull ups.

So here are the changes I made:

1. Standard Push Ups:
• These I left the same, I used helix dumbbells in order to maximize the range of motion and made sure to do them slow and steady to get a nice pump. Also figured it would be great to leave alone as push ups tend to also stretch the muscles, which is good to promote growth.
2. Wide Front Pull Up:
• These I also left the same as I wanted yet again to make sure I kept doing pull ups.
3. Military Push Ups:
• Here is where the change begins, I use a bench press for this one. I weighed the bar and it weighed 41lbs. Also in one of my researches I learned that when doing push ups you make your chest push about 60% of your body weight. I weigh 157 and 60% of that is 94.2lbs. I added two plates of 25lbs to make the bar 91lbs as a first attempt and to be safe. I was able to bench press it 10 times and still felt I could go for more, therefore the second time around I added two more plates of 5lbs, this made the bar 101lbs and this made a difference, I was able to do 6reps.
• This is the bench I used:It is quite nice as it has safety hooks, if you can’t lift it all the way, no need to worry you can still place the bar half way or at a low level and can do this with out someone spotting you. I did this alone today, I was a bit worried that I may need someone to spot me, but at the same time the large handle like sections would catch the bar if I failed to even lift it a little.
4. Reverse Grip Chin Ups:
• For this I used the Lat Pull Down. I set it to 150lbs, but it seemed a bit to heavy, I did 3 reps like that so I brought it down to 120lbs and was able to do 10 reps, still playing around with this one.
• This is the machine I used for replacement of both pull ups and Heavy Pants (which I will talk about later). 
5. Wide Fly Push Ups:
• For this I did Dumbbell Flies, I used 27lb dumbbells @ 10 reps each.
• The second time around I decided to try Pec/Rear Delt Fly combo machine:It worked out pretty good, I used 65lbs as this would simulate 32.5lbs dumbbells. I may increase the weight next time.
6. Closed Grip Over Hand Pull Ups:
• Again I used the Lat Pull Down machine for this, still set at 120lbs.
7. Decline Push Ups:
• For this I did decline dumbbell presses, I used 27lb dumbbells for this, why so low, well when your arms are wide open it makes a huge different in weight.
8. Heavy Pants:
• Here as mentioned before I used the Low Row. I set it to 90lbs as this would simulates dumbbells of 45lbs.
9. Diamond Push Ups:
• These I left as is.
10. Lawnmowers:
• These I also left the same.
11. Dive Bomber Push Ups
• Again left the same.
12. Back Flies:
• I started the first round as normal and then I used the same machine as above, that I used for wide fly. It actually seemed pretty cool to use as back fly and I seem to have felt it a bit more.

I will say it was pretty cool, it was nice to use free weights for sure, also the act of balancing the bar is usually a very good thing for the muscles, however as mentioned before this is not the end result for me, I am in an experimental phase, and I will continue to tweak this or modify it as I see fit, I may remove something and add something else. What I am looking for is to keep the muscle confusion and keep trying to work the same muscle groups as in the P90X. Having said that, I never really hit the GYM before so seriously before for me to know more about the GYM equipment, therefore I still require to do more research, but I am sure I will find something that will suit me for a Chest & Back routine.

Once I did this, I also did Ab Ripper X by memory, not hard to do after doing it 3 times a week for 6 months LOL. It felt awesome, I had not done it in a week, I hit it hard and made 1 modification. What was it? Mason Twist, I always wondered what it would be like to use some sort of weight when doing mason twist, I had a 4K (8.8lbs) Medicine Ball next to me and I picked it up and used it to touch the floor on each side, man oh man if your doing P90X you need to try this, it makes a huge difference and it felt so good.

Tomorrow I have cardio, I may just use the treadmill and run, but on cardio days I may do different things plus I will be bringing some P90X cardios like Plyo back as this is a definite asset to have.

Thank you for your time and don’t forget to keep coming back to see how I continue to work on modifying P90X for the GYM:

Mike

And more cardio

Today continued my adventure in to the cardio machines, just burning some calories and making sure I at least keep my body going and not let it cool down to much. So what did I play with today? I played with the elliptical machine, but before I get in to it, I actually got the name and model numbers of the treadmill and the elliptical machine, the brand is Precor.

Here is the treadmill I was using yesterday:

It is a Precor 956i:

And this is what the controls look like:

It’s a pretty nice machine.

Now here is what I was playing with today. Precor 576i

And here are the controls:

 

Very interesting machine, I had never used one of these before. It felt a little odd at first, and depending how you step certain muscles will hurt because they are not use to moving in certain directions. I also found that the bottom of my foot was hurting as it was never use to being in the position it was, but then again it probably had to do with me and how I was working the machine. The other thing I found is that I did not burn as many calories, but then again it is what the machine was calculating. I spent 40min on the machine, burnt 327 calories.

The only thing I will say is that the machine does not have heart rate detectors on the handles that move, so in order to get your hear rate reading you need to let go of the moving handles and grab the none moving ones in the middle, once you let go the handles that are moving, the machine seems to get lighter on your legs, and as such you tend to speed up a bit. Not a big deal.

Tomorrow is Friday, so I may or may not go to the GYM as I use to take Fridays off, however Starting next week Friday will be part of my workout schedule.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Some more cardio

Well today I new I was not going to last more than 30min on the cardio I decided to do today, because I had done something similar before and what was that? Running.

So I used the treadmill today. I can’t remember the brand of it, it is pro something. Really nice peace of machinery, however it had some issues.

The issue it had was that it was not reading my heart rate correctly, I was running without putting my hands on the bar, but I put them on the bar every once in a while to check my heart rate, at times it would not read, some times it would be to low, telling me it was 58 or 98 and at one point it said it was 240. 240? what am I a humming bird? LOL, so yeah it had some issues there, but everything else seemed ok.

I did the regular warm up again, then I started a slow pace of 6km/hr then increased to 8km and by 3min I went up to 10km, it was a nice pace and 10min after I decided to go to 11km, it put a nice kick in to it without to much struggle. I will say it is a heck of a lot easier than really running on the street as there were no hills or anything. At least I did not set that up because it is the first time I use the treadmill and last time I ran I had problems with my knees, therefore I did not want to push it. But I knew I was running before at 11.3km because if you guys remember, when I ran the second time and old man followed me on his bike in order to provide me with the speed I was doing. So I knew 11 would be a good pace and try to keep it longer, as the last time I ran, I did it for a little over 16min. Well I did keep it for longer I actually managed to stay on the treadmill for 30min, I was not dying, but I did not want to push to hard either, I did feel my body was slowly telling me I should slow down and so I did, the last 5 min I spent it slowing down a little at a time, every min I would bring the machine down a couple of notches until I was walking.

I will say it felt really awesome, the machine ended up telling me that I burnt 317.6 Calories and I covered 4.8km, not bad. Now I have not been on a treadmill for like 11 years or so, and at that time I never used it that much or for that long. When I got off it felt odd, like my vision wanted everything to move forward and faster since my brain knew it was running but at the same time not going anywhere, very odd feeling for sure.

The other thing I will say is, I could have done better if I would have not been so bored LOL. I did feel a bit bored as I was not moving, I was looking out of a window and watching cars go by and what not but not the same thing. I think I need my media player with me and play a movie, that way I occupy my mind at the same time and I don’t pay to much attention to the timer, which is like watching paint dry.

Well tomorrow I will continue my little cardio adventure, playing around with the different cardio machines. Next week we should be able to start using weights, Oh yeah! :o)

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Just Some Quick Cardio

I hope you all had a really good weekend, we had an awesome weekend. Here in Canada, we celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, so I ate a lot LOL at least most of it was Turkey, which is lean. However I had not worked out at all for the entire weekend. That’s right, I took it off, wow, it felt weird not to do anything. Well today a friend asked me to help him move a fridge and a counter, so my thought was that will be some workout, I guess I better get some cardio in today.

I did not have lots of time to use the GYM about 45min, so I decided to try the bike today and see how that went. They have a Lifefitness brand, called LifeCycle. Looks something like this:

This is not the exact one, I did not check the model number but it is very similar and it was pretty cool, I used it for 35min. I did not know how to work the settings but I managed to get set to Hill and it cycled through different hill simulations I managed to increase it to Level 8. It kept track of my heart rate, distance, RPMs and Calories. However I never imputed my age so the calculation may have been a bit off. For the heart rate if I would have put my age it would have sounded an alarm, as it stated that for over 30 but under 40yo the max heart rate is 152, I went all the way to 162, which is for 20 years old LOL. It told me that in the 35min I lost 275 Calories, but it’s hard to say, I kept the machine at around 100RPMs with high heart rate so I might have lost more. Oh and I forgot to mention that I started with Tony’s warm up, with raising the knees then jogging in place, jumping jacks, the usual, just to get the heart rate up first before I went on to the bike.

Now the only complaint I have on the bike is that the seat hurt LOL yeah my butt was in pain within the first 5min, imagine 35min LOL I told another person who was working out that the seat hurts and he says, yeah I think it’s part of the workout, and I said “What, to provide you with calluses on your butt?” LOL but the cardio was pretty good no complaint there.

After I went to help my friend out, we moved a fridge down to the basement with stairs that turned, and then went and picked up a counter for his kitchen. So I did some lifting today. I have moved fridges before, but for some reason I found the fridge lighter, I was expecting it to be heavier and I had no problems with my back. If I would have done this 6 months ago, I would have been coming home to take some pain killers for my back. Thank you P90X and Yoga :o)

Well the rest of this week I will continue to play with most of the cardio machines and hopefully I can do more time and I hope I have time to program the machine to get more proper info.

Thank you for your time:

Mike