Fitness, Education and Scuba Diving: July 2013

Background

The continuing quest to get as fit as I possibly can at the age of 41!
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Attempting to Regain my Fitness at 40!

The background story for this latest quest to raise my fitness level lies is the fact that I've turned 40.
Being a Physical Education Teacher and having been around sports and fitness most of my life I believe I have an excellent understanding of how to gain and regain fitness in a short time period.
That is what this page of my blog 'Fitness' will be about, a diary of my quest to get back my personal fitness after a hiatus from hard aerobic training of about 4 years!
In this return to regaining my fitness as quickly as possible I have set myself a number of rules which I will try to follow and nodoubt break along the way.

The first rule is, if you want quick results you need to get out on the road!
Easier said than done... So rather than smash my untrained joints up, I have started the roadwork slowly... doing a day in the gym, in-between the joint jarring roadwork!
The second rule is, don't get involved in long boring sessions!
The plan is to keep up the intensity and drop the hours...
Finally the third rule is, change the routen everyday(ish)!
I've discovered I'm much more motivated if I take 10 minutes and use my underpinning knowledge of what I require for that day and plan a whole new route and workout.
It should be noted that rule number three, the need to create new workouts on a daily bases... my weights routen does not change so much. In this case after being around weights for over thirty years, I believe I have the perfect short, sharp routen that works for me.
Please note, the days may not necessary run consecutively over time, where possible, I have included the date, but generally I try not to schedule days off and take them whenever it is not possible to get out on the road or into the gym.

Monday, 29 July 2013

DAY 62 (July 30th)

10 Rounds of push-ups, lunges, burpees, crunches, jumping jacks and sprawls.

# of reps per round:

1st - 10

2nd - 9

3rd - 8

4th - 7

5th - 6

6th - 5

7th - 4

8th - 3

9th - 2
10th - 10

Great hotel room workout before breakfast

Gym - Afternoon

Back & Biceps

Lat pulldowns 5x12
Close grip lat pulldowns 4x12

Machine bicep curls 4x12
DB curls 5x12
Cable curls (light) 4x12

Rowing machine 10mins

Friday, 26 July 2013

DAY 61 (July 26)

Gym

Shoulders, Chest & Triceps

Machine military press 5x12-2

Seated DB laterals 5x12

DB shrugs 5x12-10

Rear delt machine 4x12

Dips 4x15

Dips (weighted belt +10kg) 1x10

Tricep pushdowns 4x12

Heavy bag, hammer, press, French press 4x12

Rowing machine 15mins

DAY 60 (July 25)

Gym

Back & Biceps

Wide grip chins 5x10-7

Close grip chins 3x8-7

Wide grip chin 1x6 (weight belt +10kg)

DB curls 5x20-6

Continuous concentration curls 4x12-10

Rowing machine 1000m

Wednesday, 24 July 2013

DAY 59 (July 24)

Roadwork & Gym

6.7km run - Kettle-Bell workout - 3km run

Kettle-bell workout

12kg kettle-bell

Front swings x20

Right Snatches x10

Right KB Lunges (KB held above head (right hand) x10

Left Snatches x10

Left KB Lunges x10

High plank, press-up with row (right arm) x10

High plank, press-up with row (left arm) x10

Figure of 8 with Maui Thai elbow twist x20

Chest press into sit-up with KB held high (right arm) x10

Chest press into sit-up with KB held high (left arm) x10

Three Sets Total

DAY 58 (July 23)

Gym Day

Shoulders, Chest & Triceps

Machine military press 5x12-2

Seated DB laterals 5x12

DB shrugs 5x12

Machine rear delts 4x12

Dips 5x15

Tricep pushdowns 5x12

Heavy bag hammer, press, tricep press 4x12

Rowing machine 1000m

Monday, 22 July 2013

DAY 57 (July 22nd)

Gym

Back & Biceps

Wide grip chins 5x10-8

Close grip chins 5x8-7

DB curls 5x20-6

Continuous concentration curls 4x12-8

Heavy bag hammer curls 4x12

Rowing machine 30mins

DAY 56 (July 21st)

Roadwork

A quick 50min run along Bognor Sea front - to Middleton and back

DAY 55 (July 18th)

Roadwork / Gym

6km run - Whole body kettle-bell workout - 3km run

Front swings x20

Right Snatches x10

Right KB Lunges (KB held above head (right hand) x10

Left Snatches x10

Left KB Lunges x10

High plank, press-up with row (right arm) x10

High plank, press-up with row (left arm) x10

Figure of 8 with Maui Thai elbow twist x20

Chest press into sit-up with KB held high (right arm) x10

Chest press into sit-up with KB held high (left arm) x10

Three Sets Total

Wednesday, 17 July 2013

DAY 54 (July 16th)

Gym work

Back andBiceps

Wide grip chins 5x9-8

Close grip chins 4x6-7

DB curls 5x20-6

Continuous concentration curls 4x12-8

Elliptical cross trainer 30mins

Rowing machine 15mins

DAY 53 (July 15th)

Roadwork

Early morning run in Datchet through Eton to Windsor and back (50mins)

DAY 52 (July 14th)

Roadwork

Early morning run in Reading to Woodley and back (approx 9km)

Sunday, 14 July 2013

DAY 51 (July 12th)

Gym

Shoulders, Chest & Triceps

Machine military press 5x12-3

DB laterals 5x12

Machine rear delts 4x12

DB shrugs 5x10

Dips 5x15

Continuous push downs 4x12

Hammer grip curls, press triceps press 4x12

DAY 50 (July 11th)

Gym

Back &Biceps

Wide grip chins 5 x9-8

Close grip chins 4x6-8

DB curls 5x 20-6

Continuous concentration curls 4x12-10

Elliptical Trainer 45mins

DAY 49 (July 10th)

Roadwork

Ran - turned West on Bognor Seafront. Fell over, got lost, and ran a long distance on the beach. Was out roughly an hour and a half

Saturday, 13 July 2013

DAY 48 (July 9th)

Gym Day

Kettle-bell workout

12kg kettle-bell

Front swings x20

Right Snatches x10

Right KB Lunges (KB held above head (right hand) x10

Left Snatches x10

Left KB Lunges x10

High plank, press-up with row (right arm) x10

High plank, press-up with row (left arm) x10

Figure of 8 with Maui Thai elbow twist x20

Chest press into sit-up with KB held high (right arm) x10

Chest press into sit-up with KB held high (left arm) x10

Three Sets Total

DAY 47 (July 8th)

Roadwork

Bognor sea front, Felpham, up to Fitness First (low back, abs) from Fitness First to Butlins Seafront back home

DAY 46 (July 7th)

Gym Work

Shoulders, Chest & Triceps

Seated military press 5x12-4

DB seated laterals 4x12

Cable rear delts 4x12

DB rear delts 1set to failure

DB shrugs 4x10

Dips 5x15

DB French press (giant sets) 4x12/10

Elipitacal cross trainer 30mins

Rowing machine 15mins

Saturday, 6 July 2013

DAY 45 (July 6th)

Gym Day

Back & Biceps

Wide grip chins 5x8

Close grip chins 4x6

Pullovers 20kg disc 4x12

DB curls 5x20-6

Continuous concentration curls 4x12-8

Rowing machine 30mins

Thursday, 4 July 2013

DAY 44 (July 4th)

Roadwork

Sea front run into Middleton approx. 60mins

(New shoes wore a hole in my foot :( )

DAY 43 (July 3rd)

Gym Day

Back, Chest & Shoulders

Wide grip chins 5x8

Close grip chins 4x6

Dips 5x15

DB laterals 4x12

DB shrugs 4x10

Rowing machine 30mins

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Day 42 (July 2nd)

Cross Fit - Britannia Cross Fit, Portsmouth

Bears complex (PVC) x10

Push-ups x10

Double unders x30

18-15-12-9-6 rep rounds of

Front Squat (Olympic Bar + 20kg)

Ab-mat sit-up

DAY 41 (July 1st)

Roadwork

45min run along the Bognor sea front

On the home stretch incorporated - running in between the sea front chinning and dipping units

Chins 4x5-7

Dips 4x15

Monday, 1 July 2013

DAY 40 (June 28th)

Reebok CrossFit Daikanyama

Cross Fit Workout

Warm-up

Dynamic Stretches

3 Sets

Kettle Bell Floor Bench Press (raised hips)

Plank 45 seconds

3Sets

Kettle Bell Snatches (right) x5

Kettle Bell above head Lunges (right) x20

Kettle Bell Snatches (left) x5

Kettle Bell above head Lunges (left) x20

Row 200meters

DAY 39 (June 27)

Gym Day

Back & Bicep

Wide Grip Chins 5x8-7

Close Grip Chins 3x6

Lat Pulldowns 4x15

DB Bicep Curls 5x20-6

Concentration Curls (continuous) 4x12

Elliptical Cross Trainer 30mins