Couldn't think of a witty title. Things are up in the air with gym work at the moment. I've never done it before and I'm slammed between starting work and trying to find my feet with a dissertation so I haven't had time to properly research and plan anything. But still trying to go three days a week, so figured hey lets do a log. Starting weight: ~70kg Diet: Poor. At the moment consists of a cereal bar for breakfast, lunch ranges from cereal bars to sausage rolls to croissants depends how hungry I get and where I am and how student money is doing. Dinner is normally pasta and turkey mince or meatballs since its quick, easy, and cheap. Goals: Long term I want to shift the chub I've gained since I quit martial arts training and gain some functional strength to go back. Short term, I have no idea. That'll be easier to work out once I've got a proper routine in place that I can measure.
Monday 2/10/27 First day trying to do a half decent session. Stayed on the machines for now because I'm shy being in a gym and the barbell area is scary. Every exercise was with 30 seconds between reps. Not sure how thing are meant to feel doing weights, but I didn't finish sweaty and only a couple exercises did I feel like I couldn't do more, but I read something the other day that said you should feel like you can do another set and not train to failure so I played it safe. Some exercises I did random things at the end with other weights to test how much energy I had left and try to work out if I could use more weight. Help interpreting those would be great. Bicycle machine: 15 minutes/4.1 miles. Shocking yes, but my legs hurt. Can't use treadmills as flairs something in my ankle up incredibly fiercely. Converging Chest Press: 39kg, 3x7 reps. (Felt like it was hurting my shoulders though, not my chest) Converging Shoulder Press: 23kg for 5 reps, 18kg for 5 reps. Right shoulder gave out on both, got half up then elbow just wouldn't extend any more. Guess I've found an imbalance? Pretty severe one at that. Lat Pull: 45kg, 3x7 reps. 10x32kg after. (Again, felt like it was the top of my shoulders not my lats) Leg Extension: 32kg 3x7, 39kg 3x7, Leg Press: 45kg 3x7, +10 to failure Plank: 2 minutes, brief pause at 1.08 for knee. +1 extra minute after break. Arm Curl: 23kg 1x7, 27kg 2x7 Tricep Extension: 27kg 1x7, 32kg 3x7, 45kg x 10, 50kg x 5 (was playing around trying to find right weight because I was basically done and still felt fresh really.) Raised leg raises or whatever they're called. The things you put your arms on and hover above ground and do leg raises: 15. Legs gave out.
On chest press (also applies to all bench press variants) keep your shoulder blades fully retracted all throughout. That'll help keep the shoulders safer. Hit up some pushups and some pec stretching afterwards to re-mobilize the shoulder to prevent the stereotypical stiffness often associated with working chest. On pulling stuff, check what your shoulder blades and shoulder joints are doing at each part of the movement. Aim for them to start and stop moving roughly at the same time (worth taking the time to learn the motion slowly and gradually develop the coordination and stabilizer musculature for it first). Might also want to see if there's anything to work lower back, such as a back extension station (something like this), though you can also improvise a standing back extension with free weights. Side bends also work your lower back, incidentally, as do heavy one-arm rows somewhat.
Depends on what they're calling a dorsal raise, but probably (also called back raises, back curls, hyperextensions, and a bunch of other names, and one particular standing variant is called the Jefferson Curl) Use this as the gold standard: (has Youtube subtitles, make sure they're enabled) The Back Extension: Strengthening the Back for Weightlifting Instagram post by Ma Strength • Jan 5, 2015 at 5:29am UTC (~1:70)
So im heavier and approx the same height as you, you have some motivation for what you are doing now. I usually say i am 1.7-9 meters high.
Wednesday 4/10/17 No gym today since did 4 1/2 hours of pro wrestling training. Warm up consisted of 100 squats, 50 press ups and 50 sit ups done in sets. Squats were hard and was sort of doing half squats by about 50/60. Press ups the last 20 were hard and the last 10 basically one at a time. Sit ups were a breeze but I'm confident in my sit up ability anyway. Class itself wasn't that active, but I smashed my hand up a bit and its healing from a break so that's possibly for the best. Absolutely stiff as all hell tonight though.
So the deal with this at the moment is: Friday, for personal reasons didn't get to sleep until 7am and then had work in the afternoon so no gym. Monday and today I've had a cracking head cold and I have the first part of my dissertation due next week and haven't even finalised a plan. Hoping I'll be able to swing back into a routine soon