Bear Bones

Greetings Bears!  Well, it never rains but it pours.  Please excuse my absence for the last few weeks as I fell victim to a horrible cold and cough.  I managed to make it to work everyday, but did precious little else except sleep.  My workouts suffered tremendously as a result, and by suffered I mean:  They didn't happen.  I had no energy...any extended amount of effort beyond walking sent me into fits of coughing.  And let's face it boys, you can look at my pics and clearly see that I am truly a delicate lotus blossom.

 

Seriously, though, I do recall from a previous entry that I promised to go into greater detail about my new workout routine.  So, today, I thought I would start with my "chest day".  I figured start with something fun because we all enjoy working our pecs.

 

Working full-time at the gym has allowed me to pick up some great advice and tips and techniques from gym members as well as the trainers.  I consider myself lucky to have these incredible people in my life and at my disposal.  An eminently qualified personal trainer was kind enough to sit down with me (at no charge for which I am truly grateful) and help me devise a new workout regimen.  With his help, I have crafted a workout routine that allows me to work my entire body in FOUR days with each workout clocking in at 90 minutes or less.

 

Chest day starts with 40 minutes on the treadmill.   I set the treadmill at pace just short of a jog and I set it at a pretty high angle, thus giving the effect of walking rapidly uphill for forty minutes.  In addition to the incredible cardio workout this gives me, it is also helping build and carve my legs and buttocks even more (always a welcome ASSet).  Following the treadmill, I perform 3 warm-up sets of 10 repetitions with JUST the bar on a flat bench.  After the warm-up set, I move to 2 sets of decline bench presses, then 2 sets of incline bench presses, and finally, two sets of flat bench presses.  I perform 10 reps for each set.  Under advisement, I have set the weight so that the 10th rep is a struggle.  I shall continue at these weights until the final rep is as easy as the first.  Once I reach that step, I am to increase the weight so that I can only complete SIX reps.  Once I can perform 10 equally strong reps at the new weight, I shall increase the weight again.  You clearly can see the pattern.

 

After my chest workout (after every body part, actually), I perform 4 sets of abdominal exercises.  But I have rambled enough for today, so I'll include the abdominal routine in another article.