7 Day Work Out Template

So the quest for my washboard abs begins today 8/23/08!! The basic template I'll be using is a four day weights work out to target all my basic body parts: Chest and Triceps - Back and Biceps - Shoulders and Forearms - Legs and Calves. I will rotate my weight room workouts with cardio days to burn that unwanted fat off. Cardio will initially entail 20 min on the stair climber followed immediately by 20 min on the stationary bike. On Cardio days I will also work my abs. An eight day rotation would look like this: weight room - Cardio - weight room - Cardio - weight room - Cardio - weight room - Cardio. Never will i have two weight room days in a row or two cardio days in a row the rotation just continues as the weeks come and go. Now to get a little more technical

Day one: Chest and Triceps
Day two: 20min Stair Climber 20min Stationary Bike Abs
Day three: Shoulders and Forearms
Day four: 20min Stationary Bike 20min Stair Climber Abs
Day five: Back and Biceps
Day six: 20min Stair Climber 20min Stationary Bike Abs
Day seven: Legs and Calves
Day eight: 20min Stationary Bike 20min Stair Climber Abs
Day nine: The rotation starts back at day one.

I will follow this routine for at least three months. Now to break down weight room routines. Warm ups will always be needed and how you do them is to pick a very light weight and go through the movements to move blood to the joints and muscles warming them up for the real work soon to come. Each exercise will consist of 5 sets of 12 reps, not including warm up sets. To pick what weight you should be lifting is dependent on your body, the weight should be heavy enough to pose resistance but not so heavy that you can't finish your sets. Rest between sets should be around 30 to 45 seconds and to make sure you don't cheat yourself watch a clock and time it. Ok, now for the routine break downs:

Chest - Bench press dumbbell presses/Incline dumbbell presses/Decline dumbbell presses
Triceps - Standing Machine straight bar push downs/Skull Crushers/Reverse grip Machine straight bar push downs/Machine rope push downs
Shoulders - Sitting Military dumbbell presses/Standing lateral raises/dumbbell shrugs/Machine reverse grip Flies
Forearms - Use a flat bench and a straight bar, place your forearms on the bench with the hands hanging over the edge do palms up and palms down
Back - Pull ups (use a weight assist machine if needed)Sitting machine front pulls/Front lat pull downs/Chainsaws/Light dead lifts
Biceps - standing alternating dumbbell curls/machine rope hammer curls/concentration curls
Legs - Leg extensions/leg curls/front squats(beginners should do leg press instead)lunge walk with dumbbells
Calves - Standing Calf raises/sitting calf raises
Abs - To start I will only be doing leg raises

Things to do to keep motivated that help me are: listening to music on my ipod while i work out, taking before pictures so I can look at what I want to change, picking an event to train for so I'm working toward a definite date (I've picked a track meet at CSUB in February 2009 to compete at, my wife will find a local race usually police memorial or a charity run to compete in). There are a lot of motivational tools and I'll add more as the weeks roll on. Still to come will be talk about nutrition, supplements, and before pictures YIKES!!!!

Today is the day I change my fitness focus.

Hello to all those reading this blog. A little introduction about who I am would be a great way to start so here goes. I'm an average guy with a wonderful wife and beautiful young daughter who will one day be an Olympian. So that's about it lol, my life in one line. Well the entire reason for this blog was to take a new approach to the way I work out, in order to get different yet desirable results. I've been lifting weights for 17 years and a majority of those years has been focused on raw strength with little to no regard for cardio. I ate what I wanted when I wanted and strove to gain weight to increase my strength potential. I'm 5 feet 10 inches tall and weigh currently 250 pounds. My best bench performance has been 485, squat 585 for one rep well below 90%, and a deadlift of 635. My lifts are no where near elite but they are better then the average gym rat. Along with those lifts I have had numerous injuries some serious some minor my most recent was a bulging disk that caused me problems for over a year. That injury put me out for 6 months before I could start lifting again. With those injuries I also developed a pretty amazing gut, I think it's sexy but the wife doesn't agree what can yah do? What I plan to do with this blog is post my workouts, my diet, my progress, my goals, and generally give those looking to get in better shape a template to follow. Wish me luck in my quest to get that washboard ab body!!!!!