As I may have alluded in previous posts, I enjoy coupling my strength training with cardio as a warmup. For the most of my workouts (leg day is an exception), I would run before lifting because it is a great warm up… However, this is solely in ideal situations.

As winter approaches, the mornings, especially within the optimal 7-7:45am range, have been dark because the nights are getting longer and the days are getting shorter. Running in the dark is scary. No further explanation needed. Personally, this change has been awful. I am so tired after lifting and I have no motivation to run, let alone run inside on the treadmills. I prefer not to run inside before lifting because I get REALLY sweaty and having to lift for another hour afterwards would be torture for everyone around me.

To remedy this, I have been swimming a lot more. I jump into the pool at 6am and although tough, its very enjoyable afterwards. It’s a great way to warm up your whole body and you can’t even tell you are sweating! Also, I am more energized for my lift because the water is slightly cold so it does the job of getting me to wake up. Finding this alternative led me down the research path to see what’s more beneficial: cardio before or after lifting?

Cardio before lifting

This combination entails doing something that will get your heart pumping (like running, biking, swimming, etc.) followed by an anaerobic lifting routine. The American Council of Exercise detailed a variety of situations where cardio first is ideal. If the goal is endurance or training the upper body, leave the lifting for later. This can also happen if you don’t have any particular strength goal in mind. Basically, cardio will fatigue your body quite a bit, so you want to make sure that whatever follows this high intensity workout is something that will be a little “lighter” on the body. An interesting, but obvious, finding that I came across was that running has worse implications on lifting than cycling. Yes, running will break down more muscle, making lifts harder.

Cardio after lifting

If the overall goals are to lose weight, improve strength, or train lower body groups, they are most effectively met when lifting is first followed by cardio. Trying to reach any of the goals above takes a lot of energy and strength out of an individuals. For example, my leg day takes around 1.5 hours and it couples many heavy-weight sets with lighter drop sets that have more repetition. My goal is to improve strength and I find that my leg days are best when I DO NOT run prior to the lift. If I do run, I find myself cutting out exercises and shortening sets because of fatigue. Maybe it is in part my fault because I run longer distances (5-7 miles), but that is the distance where I feel the best. Regardless, the general notion is cardio second if you plan on exerting  A LOT of strength anaerobically. Not to mention, my runs are better after lifting as well, consisting of more miles at a faster pace:

Run then lift                                                                            Lift then run

Pretty much, whether cardio is first or second depends on the goal and the person. Some people may need to cardio as a warm up before a heavy leg day. Others (like myself) may find it as a setback due to tiredness and pain. As the seasons continue to change and my routine changes as well, I intend to test out other forms of cardio or perhaps more spaced out intervals of training to ensure maximum strength improvement.

This week was an exciting one. Not only was I informed that we are at WEEK 9 of the first semester (shocker, eh?), but I was able to max out on many compounds lifts. Let me clarify what a compound lift entails.

In any set of exercises, I find that the best way to carry out a set is to have one main compound lift and various isolation movements that are either paired in a superset or not. The compound lift is the main character, the star of the show. It is one movement that combines more than one muscle group. For example, squats implement the four quadricep muscles in the leg, the glutes, abductors, adductors, and potentially lower back (lumbar) muscles. An overhead press (a movement simply pushing the barbell over your shoulders and head) relies on the shoulders, upper chest, and triceps. Bent over rows use muscles in the back, the latissimus dorsi, and biceps. Compounds exercises are best when they are done first in a set because they fire up so more muscles, making the sequential isolation exercises more efficient.

Isolation exercises are usually done on machines and are meant to reinforce the movement of a particular muscle. For example, I usually do leg extensions (quad focused) right after I do squats (compound). However, these are best discussed another time.

I’ll break down my compounds based on my workout split. Monday (push day) focused on chest and shoulders, Tuesday (pull day) focused on back and biceps, and Wednesday (leg day) focused on quads, glutes, and hamstrings. For easy reference, here is a list of all of the compound lifts associated with the targeted muscle groups for each day and my previous PR (personal record):

Push

• Bench Press (60lbs)
• Overhead Press (40lbs)
• Dips (10lbs)

Pull

• Upward Row (95lbs)
• Lateral Pulldown (70lbs)
• Pull Ups (3)

Legs

• Squats (95lbs)
• Romanian Deadlift (60lbs)
• Hip Thrust (80lbs)

I knew going into each day that I had to fuel properly. This meant a lot of food (especially carbs) and sleep. Getting more food was the easiest of this task. I mean, I have a whole paper bag full of rice cakes ranging from the unsalted to chocolate flavored ones. Also, I love fruit so it was bananas and honey crisp apples 24/7. Trying to settle for more than seven hours of sleep was a bit harder to attain. Since the start of high school, I have struggled with my sleep. I wake up hours before my alarm and cannot go back to bed. I am forced to wake up and get started with my day at 3AM rather than 6AM. On average, I get four hours of sleep and at this point, my body is somehow used to it. That aside, it was time to break some personal records. I progressed through my workouts normally. When I wanted to push the weight a little, I added a fifth set to my usual four. In the end, I ended up getting way more PRs than I expected (blue):

Push

• Bench Press (60lbs)
• Overhead Press (65lbs) 
• Dips (25lbs)

Pull

• Upward Row (115lbs)
• Lateral Pulldown (100lbs)
• Pull Ups (5)

Legs

• Squats (135lbs)
• Romanian Deadlift (60lbs)
• Hip Thrust (100lbs)

It was difficult to PR on RDLs for leg day because usually those days are hard and by the time I reached RDLs (near the end of my set), my legs were very tired and I couldn’t move more weight.

This whole process made me realize how much value can come out of simple activities that you do in your daily life. The only change I made to my lifting was adding an extra circle to a metal bar, producing unmatched satisfaction and pride in myself for the rest of the day. I think I finally understand what people mean when they say “celebrate the small, personal wins” and I think I finally did. Also, my calluses prove it! WARNING: SLIGHTLY GROSS IMAGE OF A PALM BELOW!!!

This week, once again, I tried something new, sort of… I was forced to give up my dry land cardio for the White Building pool. With the weather getting cold, running seven miles in 40 degrees is not the most pleasant…

I did competitive swimming all throughout middle school. However, when I hit the junior/senior level at the YMCA, there was an added component of dry-land practice and lifting at 5AM. Every day.  Since then, the only “swimming” I have done entails the beach and the pool over the summer.

Luckily, my friend, who also happens to be one of the best swimmers in the state urged me to go swim with him. I agreed, knowing that if anything, it will be a nice way to get moving. I had to swing by my house prior to the swim to bring my one-piece because anything else really would have been too flashy.  During the 15 minute drive back home, I talked with my sister, directing her to the the various depths of my closet to dig up the old suits. I was reassured when she told me she found them. The only thing I had left to do was try them on and bring one back to campus with me. However, the suit that greeted me was not the suit I was expecting:

Pink and purple leaves? What is this? I experienced a mix of confusion, anger, and amuse because I knew that I had a sleek, black racing suit somewhere in there but had no time to search for it because my “session” was starting in 30 minutes. Pink leaves or not, that’s what I had to work with.

Long story short, I looked ridiculous with it on but let me get to the actual meat of this post: the workout. Compared to him, I was extremely inexperienced with planning out good sets for a swim so here was his proposal:

• 4 x 100m choice (warm up)
• 8 x 200m choice (1 minute break between each)
• 3x 200 IM (3 minute break between each)
• 2 x 300m free – turn 25 degree each time you leave the wall (2 minute break between each)
• 500m kick
• 50m easy cool down

Yep. I saw it and despite not swimming for a decent amount of time, I knew that this was quite a bit of laps. I told him something along the lines off “listen buddy, this is not gonna happen if you want to leave this place in an hour”. The adjustment: my distances were halved (score!). Now you would think that because I am swimming less, I would finish before him but boy was I mistaken. The first 50 meters (up and back in the pool) are perfect. I have energy, my movements and kicks are consistent and strong, and my breathing doesn’t falter. Anything after 50 meters: death. I start to get lazy and instead of taking a breath every three strokes, it’s every two.  To make the situation even better, I swam half the distance in a little less than twice his time.

Either way, I barely got through it. It was very humbling actually. I am much more out of shape than I thought I would be, especially for the little distance I swam. In the end though, despite all the soreness and red circles around my eyes from the goggles and severe hair damage from the cap, dinner was bussin’.

I’m not generally someone who likes to move outside of my comfort zone. For example, when it comes to trying new foods, I would rather not. However, when it comes to trying new things in the gym, I am ALL for it. Whether it’s a new exercise, machine, combination of sets, I embrace the opportunity to grow.

Feeling bold, I decided to construct my whole leg day routine around supersets. I wasn’t very familiar with supersets, just that they entail 2-3 exercises done continuously without a break in between. I decided to do a little bit of research and found out the following about supersets:

• 2 exercises back to back with no rest period OR
• 2 exercises that target opposite muscle groups (like chest+back or quads+hamstrings)

I was even more humbled when I found out that supersets go even further into things like compound sets: exercises that are different but target the same muscles. For example, hamstring curls and RDLs (Romanian deadlifts) would be two exercises that could make up a compound set.

Armed with this new knowledge, I took on the task of reconstructing my current leg day routine to truly embody this superset aspect:

In my very modest life and experience of lifting, I admit that this was the hardest but also the best workout I had ever done. I prefer not to be “that person” that is like “I couldn’t walk up the stairs… that’s how bad my legs hurt” but it is true. It took me longer than usual to get back to the dorms and they are right across the gym! Not to mention, the superset workout took 2.5 hours when my usual leg days take around 1.5. My legs (and my whole body for that matter) were not used to that much strain for an extended period of time. Try explaining that to the very, very impatient guys that were walking behind me on the stairs.

Reflecting back on the moment, I just want to crawl into a hole and not come out. Imagine a sleep-deprived, orange-legged madwoman (because my leggings are orange) walking/running around the White building trying to understand how she could be so stupid to superset leg day. It must have been a show for everyone that was around me because if it wasn’t the manic pacing, it was laying on the floor, contemplating my decision. Although, the pacing did relieve some of the pain in my legs, I admit I looked pretty funny from the side.

It was nice to think about the comic session I had, however I learned  A LOT about myself, working out, and common sense for leg day. First off, NEVER, EVER do leg day on four hours of sleep. That is, and was, suicide. Lack of sleep means your muscles from the previous day’s excursions and maybe workouts have not recovered. Thus, the next day was very, very difficult to get through. The second thing I realized was that when supersets are done, it is best to start with a lower weight than if the exercise was done on its own. Since supersetting two exercises is pretty taxing on the muscles, using a lighter dumbbell or plate for a particular movement helps with getting through the set effectively. This goes back to the most important rule in fitness (in my humble opinion): QUALITY OVER QUANTITY.  Five good squats at 135 pounds are better than 10 iffy squats at 150 pounds. The last (and maybe one of the more important) takeaways from this session is simple: never forget your headphones to the gym. Just thinking about how awesome it would have been to be blasting “Ice Ice Baby” and “It’s Raining Men” would have made the session ultimately 10 times better that it already was. Oh well, you learn as you go…

It’s only the fourth week of college and hectic is the best descriptor. With clubs, exams, and other activities that popped up, it was very crazy. However, what gave me some time to “breathe” was the gym. I kept my split the same: push, pull, legs, rest, repeat. To orient our friends who are not very familiar with this terminology, here’s some quick definitions from a resource I used when I first started working out:

• Push: train any muscle(s) that are actively involved in pushing motions – chest, shoulders, triceps
• Pull: train any muscle(s) that are actively involved in pulling motions – back, biceps, forearms
• Legs: self explanatory… – quads, calves, shins, etc.

Sometimes, I get bored and add in a full body day but for the most part, I stick to this routine. Today, I want to talk about  a moment in the gym (Tuesday to be exact), where I realized how complex one exercise/movement can really get. The star of the show: lateral pulldowns. In case you were wondering, yes, they were a part of my pull day.

Lateral pulldowns (also shortened to lat pulldowns and pictured below),  train the latissumus dorsi, a group of muscles that when contracted, push the chest outward and stabilize the back.  As always, it is best to start with minimal weight and build your way up. Of course, there are variations like dropsets, supersets, AMRAPS, etc., but those are best discussed another time.

This was my last exercise on Tuesday and to my luck, all of the machines were taken. That ticked me off and in the time spent walking around with fumes coming out of my ears, I noticed something very interesting. Every machine had a different handle attached to it. Below, I’ve included a comprehensive image of all possible handles that could be attached.

This aspect of the machines intrigued me and led me down a rabbit hole of research. For the sake of ease, I’ve input all of my observations from the gym and findings from research into a table below (you will come to learn that I LOVE tables):

In hindsight, I regret not asking each individual why they were using different types of bars. It’s is just incredible how something as simple as changing one part of the machine can make such a big difference in an exercise. Turns out my knowledge on what muscle groups are being targeted is not as thorough as I thought. It was a very humbling moment indeed. Thanks to this, I think that my pull days will now be ever more enjoyable.

Greetings fellow readers! Today marks the start of the blogging era for me. Since I don’t foresee a lot of interest in what could be long-winded venting about chemistry and math, allow me to jump right into my recent experiences with physical activity.

Since the start of college, I have been trying to get into a routine but it’s frickin’ hard. Should I tackle the pre-lecture assessment for chemistry or push ten more pounds on my shoulder press? Read the textbook for sociology or run? You might say, “Rosi, plan out your days and make time for both of these!” Well, allow me to present you with my timetable assignment for seminar:

Please excuse the formatting and cut up images, it was the best I could do! It’s not easy to upload an image greater than 50 MB…

The only limitation to the schedule is that it only holds for “ideal weeks” which have yet to occur… If anything is going to wreck me this year, it might be this “to do or not to do” dilemma…

ANYway, to fill you in on what you are actually here for, I’ve gone to the gym a couple of times to shoot around and conclude that early mornings are best. There is no better feeling than being in a huge, empty gym with a ball and hoop. I noticed many pros and cons to this “break” in my day and tabulated them below:

Pretty good split in my humble opinion.  Ask me to do this again next semester and I have a feeling this table will look very different.

I’ll be talking a lot about basketball (as you can tell from the title), so it is important to orient ourselves with some of the key aspects of the sport. Indeed, basketball is a beautiful sport to watch when the perfect play is made intertwining ball movement, dribbling, screens, and finally a great shot. However, the uniform (particularly shoes) contributes a great deal the players’ personality and game. For example, a team that has the exact same sneakers portrays professionalism and class. However, these sneakers are usually simple due to the expensive cost of custom shoes. On the other hand, you can have sneakers that are unique and out there. Players with these types of shoe generally try to make a statement such as: “I am going to break your ankles and smoke you.” Proof? Kyrie Irving and Lebron James. In fact, my old basketball shoes were a part of Kyrie’s Spongebob collection! I wore them so much that they suffered some casualties (see below).

Due to this, I have made the switch to a more simpler pair: classic white Kyrie’s. My intention is to present myself as a professional and classy player. Someone who has focus, drive, and speed.  I will always stay loyal to Spongebob and Patrick, however I must admit that the white Kyrie’s are incredibly light and evade the  “dirty” and “scrappy” player look, despite what the stains on the shoes may suggest: 

Thanks for sticking around friends! Next time, be on the lookout for some updates with regards to lifting variations since research and literature in that area is more than ample.

Hello all! Thanks for making your way over to my passion blog! No promises that what you read will be entertaining but I will try my best. After all, every day offers something different, right?