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.
And a fruit salad:
Who’s game to join the Intro to Iron Pumping Challenge?
great challenge! My current goal is to do Jillian Michaels no more trouble zones dvd twice a week. I love how it focuses on strength and endurance together. since I’m doing that, I can’t relaly the iron pumping challenge, but I’ll be cheering you on!