Back to basics
Ok so I have been skipping the gym a lot lately. However, I have been working out at home. And guess what? Its awesome! Either before I go to bed or right when I get up, I do a workout. I have been doing this everyday since my last post. Through this, I have come to a conclusion. People have no business lifting weights if they cannot do some simple bodyweight exercises. Push-ups, planks, squats, lunges, and pull ups should all be reasonably easy before anyone starts moving around extra weight. Here is my reasoning.
Push-ups can be easily modified to accomodate various levels of fitness. This is about as basic of a move as you can do, and its easily comparable to a bench press. You should be able to do at least 20 push-ups without straining too much before you start messing with bench press.
Planks are hard. Well, at least they are hard for me since I have no abdominal strength. I can only hold a plank for about 45 seconds right now. However, I can easily do 35 crunches or more. The plank makes much more sense to me than endless crunches. Its also easy to modify to make it harder. Although, I am a fan of the ab-roller too, but I am in no condition for that at the moment. In any case, I feel that planks are a much better use of your energy than crunches and such.
Squats are great. I love me a squat. However, I don’t feel it was a great idea for me to start doing squats when I rejoined the gym. To be effective, you need to have a good range of motion and maintain good form. If you cannot do that with just your body weight over say 30 reps, you probably shouldn’t be hoisting iron quite yet. I was in that boat. I can do about 45 now before getting fatigued. Once I hit 100, I am going to add in some lunges and may jumprope. I have noticed my form is better (verified by the bro) and I am getting a lot more flexible. Bending at the knees does not seem as terrible of a propostion anymore. In anycase, one should be comfortable with a decently high rep count of bodyweight squats before moving onto the weighted squats.
Lunges are not something I am doing yet. I am working up to it. My knees suck and I think I will have to ease into lunges so they are not sore all the time. Maybe soon. I do people at the gym all the time though doing lunges with weight. Same rules for the squat apply here. Make sure you are comfortable with the movement before adding weight.
Finally, there are pull-ups/chin-ups. This is the most difficult thing for me to do right now. I cannot perform even one pull-up unless its on an assisted pull up machine. They are tough. I am doing negatives right now to work my way up to it. I may pop in the gym friday and use the assisted machine as well. I do like it though. Even just doing negatives, I can feel my back working really hard. I know that eventually I will be able to do it if I am persistant enough. Its just a matter of time. To me, this is one of the best and safest back and shoulder exercises you can do. I was doing shoulder flies with my trainer last week, followed by shoulder presses. I was in pain once were we done for the day. Pull-ups, on the other hand, give me no such issues. I think its because the movement is more natural. Well more natural than flies. The shoulder press was actually ok, I just think combining the two was asking for trouble. In anycase, for upper back and shoulder, this gets my vote before moving on to doing weight exercises. I think 10 reps would be a good number to strive for.
I have to say though, I am really digging the bodyweight exercises. I get completely done with my workout for the day in about 12 minutes or so. Of course that time will increase as I add more reps and more exercises. For now though, this short routine agrees with my body very well. I don’t feel dead when I am done, and I am seeing good progress.
Yesterday’s workout:
Squats: 45 reps
Push-ups: 8
Easy Push-ups: 8
Negative Pull-ups: 10
Plank: 45secs x 1
I am going to start doing a weekly weigh in post as well. I will post pics too if I have them.