In the spirit of keeping things moving ahead, I thought I'd share my first day of training after creating this blog. I've been experimenting lately with the topic of intermittent fasting - for those who aren't familiar with it, the premise of intermittent fasting is to in essence starve yourself for one or two days a week; its a technique used by some bodybuilders, and slated by others. Feel free to look it up in your own time, I mean as well as weight loss benefits, its been shown to generally improve someones health and immune system. After researching it, I opted not to starve myself for a day, but to restrict my calories to 600 per fasting day due to the intensity of the training that I do. The first week that I tried this, as well as cleaning up my eating and exercising regularly, I lost 5.5 pounds, and managed to lose further weight the next week, so to me - this actually seems to have worked! I also felt more energetic and generally healthier.
So today has been a fasting day for me, they're getting less and less difficult for me the more that I do of them. I usually wouldn't train whilst fasting but various reasons have meant that training has fallen on an IF day. Thankfully it didn't affect my ability to work out as I got my exercise out of the way earlier in the day. A godsend for me whilst partaking in IF has been the discovery of several 300kcal meal recipes, most of these tend to be filling, tasty and overall a winning formula whilst restricting your calorie intake. I'll do my best to post links for these in the near future. With regard to what I've eaten/drank today; here's the very minute list -
Home made fruit salad - 250g - 100 calories
Black Coffee
300kcal Beef Stew
Baked Potato - 134 kcal
Water - 5 pints
So as you can see from the list, I've fallen just short of the 600 mark, but anything between 500 and 600 calories is perfectly fine for me, and I tend to drink a hell of a lot more water when fasting, it helps to simulate the feeling of being full. I also took one Warrior blaze capsule upon waking, they definitely help when it comes to finding that extra energy whilst working out. Now, on to the workout. I live around 7 kilometers, give or take a few hundred meters from my gym, so instead of wasting money catching a bus, I find it easier to cycle there. This way I burn a fair amount of calories, get a decent warm up/cool down, and overall keep my fitness up. I managed to complete the 7 K's today in just over 18 minutes, and managed to keep an average speed of just over 23kph - which to me is a fair effort on a mountain bike.
I also had the opportunity to start a new workout today, again given to me by the same gym instructor that I mentioned in the introduction post. For those of you who have twitter, his account is @Greg87King . He is quite easily the best PT that I have come across, he knows his shit and he's always coming up with decent exercises of his own. The workout that he planned out for me today isn't by any means a long workout, but damn its the most challenging that I've yet to face. It consisted of a core circuit of 3 exercises, 12 reps on each, 2 sets of each. After the core circuit it then branched out into two separate circuits, both containing four exercises each, again with 12 reps, and again with 2 sets, with the option to add other sets after progress has been made by myself on the workout. Overall, it targeted the whole body, with emphasis on core and stability. The exercises and my best descriptions of them are as follows (Feel free to research the exercises yourselves as my descriptions might not mean anything to some.
Core Circuit -
Swiss Ball Nudges (Kneeling, placing forearms on swiss ball, then being careful to engage core, keeping back straight, rolling ball forwards onto elbows)
Swiss ball crunches with cables - (Using cable machines to add extra resistance to crunches on a swiss ball, holding the cables behind your head and raising core upwards.
Side planks with side raises - Whilst in a side plank position, using resistance bands to perform side raises with free arm.
Circuit 1 -
TRX Inverted Row (Attach TRX straps to wall fitting, facing the wall, place heels against it, lean back, and row towards wall.
Medicine ball press up - (Using two medicine balls and a bosu ball. Turn Bosu ball upside down and place both feet on it, place one hand on each medicine ball, and perform a press up movement. Can also be done without Bosu ball)
Kettlebell Swings - (Speaks for itself really, be careful to note correct posture and movement for this however)
Dumbbell front squat into shoulder press - (Again speaks for itself)
Circuit 2 -
TRX Press - (Facing away from wall, place heels against it. Lean forward, and perform a press up motion)
Kettlebell Deadlift - (Speaks for itself, research technique)
Floor Row - (In press up position, wide stance, one dumbbell in each hand. Engage core, row dumbbells up into body one at a time, alternating with each repetition).
Single leg squat - (Find something to help balance, but not take your weight. Remove one foot from floor, proceed with squat movement.
So as you can see with what I've written out there, the workout is not long, but it does focus on stability as well as strength. Now I realise that this may not fit people's goals, but I usually try to fit a heavy day into my weeks training dedicated to weight lifting and strength drills. I will also share that workout in a post on Friday. With all the exercises that I've listed above, I'd advise beginners or people not familiar with the exercises to either research the correct posture and movement associated with them, or even ask one of the instructors in your gym, I'm sure they'll be more than happy to help. With most exercises its important to have the right posture and movement or else you're just gonna snap your shit up. Hope everything I've shared with you today is useful in some way or another.
Keep testing the limits.
Alex.
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