martacus6’s BodyBlog

I had the intention of writing this quite a while ago when I planned to start a YMCA membership and got heavy into training again.  Well, excuses aside, it didn’t happen and now here I am trying to give it ago.  I was motivated to do so by watching my weight drop due to the stress of work and not getting in the calories I need to achieve my original goal.  Additionally, I had guess-timated some of my measurements before and re-did them based on the BB.com videos.  My original biceps measurement was done flexed, which primarily accounts for the decrease of 3.5 inches.  Likewise, my waist measurement was based on how I fit into size 30 pants.  Now that my pants fit looser than they did, I believe my waist started out closer to 30 than I had thought. 

Today was my first good workout in a while and I wanted to ease into it.  Nothing is concrete as of yet, for I still plan to hit the free weights eventually and get a true benchmark of where I am there.  In the meantime, I started with two sets of parallel pullups.  My first set of 15 was a good warm up, though I felt I could have done more.  My next two working sets were done by pulling up strongly on the left side to the top position, controlling the path straight over to the right side, and controlling the descent to the bottom start position, essentially performing a clockwise box.  I did this five times in the clockwise direction and immediately did five counter-clockwise.  I would like to continue this pattern for two weeks and then change my hand grip to the overhand position.  

For chest and tris I placed both hands on a 9 lb leather medicine ball and did 10 pushups.  Each rep was slow and controlled.  Afterward, I move one hand out wide on the floor and did another 10 pushups.  Lastly, I switched hands so the other was on the medicine ball and completed another 10.  I managed two full sets, though it was difficult to finish the last two reps on each side without a few seconds pause. 

Unfortunately, it is time for bed.  I had done more to write about in more detail, though I will summarize instead.  I concluded the workout with more medicine ball work for both upper and lower work, bench presses on the Bowflex (1 x 15 x 100, 1 x 12 x 160, 1 x 6 x 200, 1 x 8 x200), and  2 sets of planks for 1 minute, followed by 2 sets of crossed anke crunches for 20 reps.  This will undoubtedly change over time as my muscles prepare for more sets and heavier weights.  Thank you for your time. -M

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