09.12.07
Yesterday’s workout kicked my butt. I can’t believe the progress I’m suddenly seeing. Odd how a year’s worth of training adds up and all of a sudden you realize what you’ve been working for. I’ve been dropping the pounds by the day it seems, and I’m lost to as why. Well not lost, I have cleaned up my diet, brought up the calories by a bit, and increased my cardio slightly. I think I can probably link the changes to the full-body workouts I’ve been performing about 3x per week. I superset tons of different exercises with sprints in between. What I like? It’s helping me shed body fat. What I don’t? It’s a little bit unorganized. I need to find a way to organize my plyo/full-body oriented workouts and still work each muscle group to exhaustion.
I’m starting to believe less and less in "overtraining." As long as you give your body nourishment and rest, can you honestly "overtrain???" I guess I’m perhaps a little masochistic (kidding), but I do love the feeling of pain during my workouts. It lets me know I’m working my body hard. If it hurts, I want to train harder. As hard as I can until my body is completely depleted. Why? I’m no longer doing this to impress anyone. I’m doing this to challenge myself and test my so-called "limits."
Anyway, I need to find better resources for plyo workouts. I want something that keeps my heart rate up the entire time. I’m not a big fan of skipping around within a 2 ft radius hopscotch pattern. I’m thinking clapping pushups (which I suck at), broad and bilateral jumps, mountain climbers, jumping over a bench (side to side), and squat jumps. I also need more combo workouts (i.e. squat w/ shoulder press, or lunge with oblique twist, etc).
Any ideas?
September 12, 2007 at 7:04 am
hmmm…..coming up with something may take a bit but I’ll do some digging and get back to ya. What’s worked/not worked for you in the past? any favorites?
September 12, 2007 at 7:40 am
Slow, low rep, heavy work outs don’t work for me. Fast paced, high intensity, heavy lifting (w/ as many reps as possible) has always worked best. Thank you
September 12, 2007 at 8:00 am
Congrats on your accomplishments. It seems you have a winning formula. Couple of thougts on your comments: there is indeed such a thing as overtraining, especially on large muscle groups and especially if you are doing a lot of reps to failure. These groups need to have down time. Thats when the growth happens. Plus, you need to give your joints and tendons a break sometime. May not be that big of an issue at your age, but as you age, you loose elasticity in the tendons. And overtraining can accelerate that decline.
As for other methods to boost intensity…try jumping rope between your lifting sets. 30 to 60 secs will have your heart rate in the 80-90% range. And it does wonders for coordination. Just ask any boxer. Keep exceeding your goals!
September 12, 2007 at 8:06 am
It’s great to see that you have everything clicking for you! Congrats, and keep up the awesome job!
September 12, 2007 at 9:26 am
Thanks for the resonses guys. As far as my more recent workouts, they are more based in movement and speed vs weight I guess I should say. Though I am working my muscles very hard, I would neccessarily compare it to when you lift heavy for a bis and tris day, or lifting heavy for a back day. I’ve only been doing the full body workout twice a week, but plyos nearly 5 days a week. On the other days, I’ll work single (smaller) groups. Jumping rope is a great suggestion, wish I was into boxing. Seems like an awesome sport.
December 5, 2007 at 9:35 am
"Pain is weakness leaving the body." -Tom Sobal
For me, there’s never been anything like the old football classic "Burpies."
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sclark35.htm
It’s Exercise #6 on that list, complete with an instructional mpeg.
Enjoy the burn!
-AJ-
February 14, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I think it’s great that you’re testing your limits, Sara. Extreme is great, as long as you don’t cross that line…Hmmm, maybe I shouldn’t be reading these BACKwards?