Intro to Iron Pumping Challenge

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 08:51 PM

Just Like Chipotle

It’s no secret that I love Chipotle’s vegetarian bean burritos (or the burrito-less “bowl”), but they are expensive, and the portions are a little large.

My at-home version of the burrito bowl:

Black beans, brown rice, salsa, broccoli, mushrooms, corn, and cheddar cheese…. it was a great dinner!

I still love Chipotle, though.

“Dessert” was an orange:

And my afternoon snacks (pre-workout) included Pumpkin Yogurt and granola (I am going to turn into a canned pumpkin one day soon):

And some chocolate-covered nuts:

Today’s workout was a little bit of a disappointment. I started off great by stopping into the gym for the Intro to Iron Pumping Challenge.

Day 4: Shoulders, Chest and Triceps

Warm Up: 5 minutes of cardio
Overhead press: 3 x 12 with 10 lb dumbbells
Dips: 2 x 10 with body weight
Stability Ball Push Ups: 10 push ups
Planks:2 X 30 seconds
Lateral Raise: 3 x 12 with 5 lb dumbbells
Cable Tricep Extension: 3 x 12 with 30 lbs

And then I made plans with Ashley to meet for a bike ride. I was so excited to pick my bike up from the shop – I had called ahead and asked if the repairs were finished. But when I got to the shop, my bike wasn’t ready! Grr.

We’re going to meet up tomorrow instead.

Time to relax with Husband…. good night!

Posted by: Caitlin 39 comments

Posted in: Intro to Iron Pumping Challenge

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 01:19 PM

I’m a proud card-carrying member of LA Fitness (again).

This works out well because today is the first day of a 12-week weight lifting challenge!

Like a lot of women, I know how to get my cardio in, but I admit – I have no idea how to lift weights. So I’ve enlisted Gina’s (the Fitnessista) help because she’s a certified personal trainer and looks a-maz-ing. Gina looks like she stepped out of a fitness magazine!

If anyone is going to tell me how to lift weights, it’s Gina!

My plan consists of 3 days of weight lifting and is broken down into synergistic muscle groups (shoulders, chest and triceps, legs, back and biceps). According to Gina, synergistic muscles act together to perform the same movement (when you perform a "row", you’re mainly using your back but the biceps are assisting in the movement, making them synergist muscles). By splitting the muscle groups this way, it ensures that each group isn’t overworked and has adequate time to repair into lean muscle.

While at LA Fitness, I did a body fat assessment. I have 19% body fat. I’m interested to see if a cardio and weight-lifting plan lowers this measurement (a female “athlete’s” body fat should range from 14 – 20%). I’m going to use the measurements and pictures I posted yesterday as my “before” statistics.

Plan details:

I’ll be doing cardio 4 to 5 days a week. Since I injured my foot during the marathon, I’ll be sticking to swimming and biking for the first month or so of the plan.
This strength plan will be performed in conjunction with training for a Triathlon (or AquaBike, depending on the foot) and a Century (100 mile) Bike Race.
On the days I lift weights, I’ll do shorter, less intense cardio workouts.
I’m aiming for 3 sets of 10 –12 repetitions.
Gina told me to choose weights that are challenging, but that light enough that I can fully complete at least 10 reps at that weight for each set. I should be pushing myself to finish the last two reps of each set. If I can easily do 15 or more reps of that exercise with the current weight, it’s time to increase the weight!
To see the best results, I should continue to try to eat a clean, balanced diet. According to Gina, what we look like is 80% nutrition, 10% working out, and 10% genetics.
If you don’t know what some of these exercises are, do some Internet research or ask a personal trainer at your gym.
For more details about the plan, check out Fitnessista.

Here’s the plan:

Day 1: Shoulders, Chest and Triceps

Warm Up: 5 minutes of cardio
Overhead press
Dips
Stability Ball Push Ups
Planks
Lateral Raise
Cable Tricep Extension
Stability Ball Leg lifts

Day 2: Legs

Warm Up: 5 minutes of cardio
Lunge and Lift
Stability Ball Hamstring Curl
Leg Extension
Stability Ball Calf Raises
Step Ups
Straight leg pullover crunch

Day 3: Back and Biceps

Warm Up: 5 minutes of cardio
Seated Row
Lat pulldown
Stability Ball Ys and Ts (alternate between “Y” and “T” with light weights- 3 sets of 10 of each)
21s (can use dumbbells or barbells)
Stability Ball Back extension
Frog crunches
Hammer curls
Oblique V-up

I’m also adding abdominal work at the end of each session.

To be sure I know what I’m doing, I created a little notebook to carry around the gym with me:

And I’m writing down how many repetitions and sets I do of each exercise, as well as how much weight I use so I can remember the next week.

In case you can’t read my chicken scratch:

Overhead press: 3 sets of 12 with 10-pound dumbbells
Dips: 2 sets of 10
Stability Ball Push Ups: I swapped out girlie push-ups and did 2 sets of 12. My arms was burning too much to balance on the ball!
Planks: 2 30-second planks
Lateral Raise: 3 sets of 10 with 5-pound dumbbells
Cable Tricep Extension: 3 sets of 12 with 30 pounds
Stability Ball Leg lifts: Skipped because I need Gina to tell me what these are!
Bicycle Crunches: 90 crunches

I didn’t do any cardio with my weight lifting today because my foot hurts, and we were short on time. Today was a shoulders, chest, and triceps day, which worked out well because I didn’t have to put any weight on my foot.

This was SO HARD and CHALLENGING. My arms were quivering towards the end. I’m excited to have something new to focus on, especially with the bum leg holding me back from running.

I came home and made a yummy post-workout lunch, which included a grilled cheese stuffed with asparagus and kidney beans.