Weights with my dad!

I convinced my father to come to the gym with me last night. Though he doesn’t have a membership to my gym, they were nice and let him in for free to try it out.

I wanted to do a leg workout, but Dad said he hates doing legs, so I compromised and we did shoulders and back instead. I’ll have to get that leg workout in today!

It was nice having someone to work out with. He spotted me and I was able to increase my incline press from 15 pounds to 25 pounds. I really can lift more than I usually try I think. That, or my muscles have really grown in the past 2 weeks and now I’m just ready for heavier lifting. I was also able to do wide grip pull-downs at 75 pounds. I’m short, so I needed him to grab the bar and pull it down for me. Last week I hurt my back pulling it down on my own. I have noticed there are guys walking around with tags on from the gym, so I assume they are there to help and spot in the weight room. I’ve decided I’m going to use them from now on whenever I need some help!

Overall we had a really fun time together. He showed me how to fix the way I was doing my cable crossovers and then he showed me how to “properly” do crunches on the exercise ball. To my great surprise, it actually hurt my abs to do crunches, which is fantastic! I had fun going to the gym with my dad

Shodan

I have been doing karate for 5 years. I started in January 2003 at my university and have since trained at 3 other clubs. I am now back training with the club I started with 5 years ago. Although I have changed clubs because I was living in different places, I have always trained under the ISKF.

I love karate. It’s that simple. I started because I was in 3rd year university and I decided I needed a hobby. I wanted to do something that no matter what people would be there doing the activity. I contemplated bowling because I really like to bowl, but in the end I decided to try karate first. I didn’t know anything about the different types of karate because to someone who isn’t in karate the descriptions of the different styles are impossible to understand. I looked online and found that my university had a club so I decided I would try that one first since I lived close to campus and decided there would be more people my age at that club because it was a club on campus. My beginner class was 20 people, most of whom were in 3rd and 4th year university. It was really fun and I stuck with it. Now, 5 years later, I am gearing up to (hopefully) test for my second degree black belt in the Spring. I have been to numerous tournmanets and karate camps and I am now helping to teach the kid/parent class on Wenesday evenings. Karate is a big part of my life and often when I need motivation to get to the gym and do cardio and lift weights I think about how my karate will improve through those other fitness activities.

My weight routine

I have started Hugo Rivera’s body-reengineering weight routine. You can find it by following this link: http://bodybuilding.com/fun/hugo_newyear2.htm

I am on week 2 day 1. I started on a Wednesday, so my days are bit off, but I don’t think that’s going to really affect my progress. Each day is about an hour of weights: back and chest, shouders and arms and legs. These 3 days are rotated for the first few weeks, and then the workouts change again.

Last week, after day 1 (chest and back) I was quite sore. I enjoyed the workout overall, but I did find I was sore the next day. This however, did not stop me from going on to day 2 (arms and shoulders). After day 2 I could barely move my arms. Washing my hair proved quite difficult because I couldn’t get my arms to reach to the back of my head. Although I was really sore I felt good and the pain subsided after a few short days. Day 3 was a bit of a challenge. In the routine I am supposed to use the butt machine, but I found it hurt my stomach whily lying on it. Also, the gym I am going to didn’t have the standing leg curl, so I skipped it entirely. I found that I was sore after this workout, but not as sore as with my upper body workouts. I think I was a little hesitant to push myself too hard because I have experienced the aftermath of a difficult leg routine before. Today I am back on legs and I plan to giv’er more today so that tomorrow I am soreer. Though being sore isn’t exactly my goal, it does let me know I worked hard.

I have done the chest and back and arms and shoulders this week and I felt good. I couldn’t lift as much weight as last week however. I think this is because my muscles are still fatigued from the workout a week ago because they haven’t been worked in so long, and because I pushed myself so hard.

So far I am enjoying the weight routines, though I do find it difficult to get myself to the gym sometimes. I am still going regularly however, and hope to continue for a long while.

Plyo P90X

Cardio. I hate it. I love it.

I find that I have an odd relationship with cardio. I have difficulty with cardio because I think I tend to do too much sometimes. Although I know that weights are more important than cardio when it comes to loosing weight I often find myself questionning whether this is true. (I am not saying you dont’ need cardio. You do need cardio, but it’s the weight lifting that increases metobolism which continually burns calories). Though I know that weights are more important I find that I question this because for so long people told women not to lift weights because it would make them bulky. Still people think this is true! So to temper this I do cardio a lot, but not more than weights, now that I am doing weights 5 days a week.

I find I get bored of the cario machines quickly at the gym, so I make sure to vary my routine and constantly try something new. Yesterday I tried the plyometrics routine from p90x. I found that it was a good cardio workout. I got tired near the middle, but more than that, I found it hurt my legs to jump around so much. Although I know that jumping is important because it raises the heart rate, I find it painful on my legs if I jump too much (like 25 times every 30 seconds for an hour!) So this was an okay workout, but I really don’t know if I’ll do it again. I found that it was ok, but I could have gotten my heart rate up higher doing something like taebo, karate, or running sprints. It is a good video for snowy days and days I just don’t want to get on a gym machine.

Why Blog?

My husband is a bit of a blogger, so I thought I’d try it out. Unfortunately, the last blog I wrote wasn’t really about anything. So, I thought I’d write a blog about the fitness world, both to keep myself motivated to keep working out, and to encourage others who have delved into the world of working out.

I’ve been working out for a few years intermittently. I recently lived in the Caibbean and while getting ready for my wedding I worked out a lot. I did a full body weight routine 3 times a week, plus cardio about 5 days a week.

I moved back to Canada recently and realized I had put on some weight because after my wedding 4 months ago, I basically stopped working out. Now I am back on the track to fitness! I will start by blogging about my different workouts/routines in the next post.

Hello world!

This blog will be me tracking my progress on working out and karate, as well as my general thoughts and feelings on things from eating well to people at the gym. Please leave comments whenever you like!

-kaywexrob