Friday, January 28, 2011

Post snow storm and stomach virus workout

I could have gone to the gym today but I'm recovering not only from the absurd amounts of snow here in the Garden State but also from a recently acquired stomach virus.  My body is sluggish.

A note about how I put my workouts together.  The general recommendation is that you work the following areas in a full-body strength training session: quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, back, shoulders, arms and abs.  That's a fairly simplistic way of thinking about it.  To go a few steps further and to make the workout more interesting and dynamic, I add multi-planar, ballistic (plyometric), twisting and isometric exercises. Now, not every workout includes all of these components.  For example, today did not seem like a day for jumping around so there are no ballistic movements in the program.

This workout requires an exercise ball and free weights.  I did it barefoot - a nice change for my feet!

15 deep squats
20 lunges (1st set, lunge forward; 2nd set, lunge back; 3rd set, lunge to the side
Repeat above for 3 sets total

10 pushup and row - do as many of these as you can then finish with enough plank rows to do 20 total followed by more pushups to do 15 total.
Repeat above for 3 sets.

On a Swiss Ball:
15 Dumbbell Shoulder Press
15 Dumbbell Reverse Flys
15 Dumbbell Lying Triceps Extension
15 Bridge press with weights on upper thigh
Repeat above for a total of 3 sets

Then
20 Russian Twist on the Swiss Ball followed by
20 Balanced seated twist on ball with dumbbell - this example is with a medicine ball.
Repeat above for 3 sets

End with 2 minutes of plank - break into 30 sec increments if needed.

The whole workout took me about 40 minutes.  I enjoyed listening to piano music performed by Helene Grimaud during the workout.  Good for the spirit!

Be well and drive safely.

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