I am sitting here this evening, basking in the warm glow of all the replies I received in response to the giveaway. I am amazed by how many of you are following along, and am so honored that you’ve let me in on your journey. I have received some wonderful suggestions for future content, and one of them happens to relate to specific workouts.
I have thought about posting these details, but wasn’t sure you’d be all that interested. Many of you have seen the weekly sample workout, but afer hearing this request and looking through my workout journal, I realized that I do mix things up pretty often. These are changes I don’t really talk about, so this was a great suggestion. Today’s post will be the first of all my workouts this week. Maybe seeing everything I do for the next 5 days will help spice things up and give you some new ideas.
I know we all get bored with the same old routines. In fact, I reverted back to my old Body For Life workouts after my post about the book, recently, and got a little bored by the end of one week. So there you go! These days I’m more back into the mode of the original transformation workouts.
My leg workouts can sometimes be lackluster, but I’m working at trying to love them. I am much better than I used to be, and able to push myself on most days, but it’s still a struggle sometimes. I look to my buddy, Colin, at uberbeastmode to keep me motivated because he LOVES leg days!
I’m pretty psyched up for tomorrow’s session, so my goal is to achieve at least 2 personal records tomorrow. My definition of a personal record is to lift more than the last time I performed the exercise. That doesn’t always mean more weight, it can sometimes mean only one more rep. It just means more, and I’ll give you the details as we go.
I will also include the weights I use only for a reference and to show you just how little weight I lift for having pursued it consistently with gusto for almost 2 years. In fact, I’ll even add some notes to show you how far I’ve come since the outset of my transformation, back in May of 2011. Yes, I have recorded EVERY workout since the day I began.
LEGS #1 – 4 x 8 for all sets (I usually work legs twice a week, so this is the first workout)
*SQUATS (in the squat rack) 80lb, 80lb, 85lb, 85lb *PR w/ 2 sets of 85lb
May 2011 – 3 sets of 12 – 10lb, 12lb, 15lb
STIFF-LEGGED DEADLIFT (at the squat rack on lower pegs) 110lb, 110lb, 115lb, 115lb
May 2011 – 3 sets of 12 – 45lb, 50lb, 55lb
SPLIT SQUATS (using 1 dumbbell on the working side) 30lb, 30lb, 30lb, 32.5lb
May 2011 – 3 sets of 12 – 8lb, 8lb, 5lb
*LYING LEG CURL (machine) 75lb, 75lb, 77.5lb, 77.5lb *PR with 2 sets of 77.5lb
May 2011 – 3 sets of 12 – 40lb, 40lb, 45lb
*BALLET SQUAT (dumbbell) 70lb, 70lb, 70lb, 70lb *PR with last 2 sets 70lb
May 2011 – 3 sets of 12 – 15lb, 17.5lb, 20lb
HYPEREXTENSIONS (plate held to chest) 25lb, 25lb, 25lb, 25lb
May 2011 – No glute work at this time. Just trying to focus on my big compound moves like squats and deadlifts.
CALF PRESS (machine) 140lb, 160lb, 160lb, 160lb
May 2011 – 3 sets of 12 – 80lb, 90lb, 90lb
ABS (added these most workouts during the carb cycling sprawl) BW, BW, BW, BW (body weight)
May 2011 – I wasn’t doing abs then because when you’re really out of shape you must focus on building abs in the kitchen. No amount of crunches will reveal definition through a thick layer of abdominal upholstery like I had.
CONDITIONING – None on leg days – too worn out
So you can see that I’ve come a long way, but still not as far as you’d think based on the timeframe. Injuries, time off and a general lackadaisical attitude toward my lower body has kept me from progressing at the pace I’d like. I’m still evolving in this afterlife, however, and plan to forge ahead and eventually squat my body weight. I can’t even put a timeframe on that because my hip acts up from time to time. I’ll just keep trying to do more…and more.
What’s your favorite lower body lift?
Any personal records to report?