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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

5-7-9 Workout


I'm feeling a little blah.  Mostly because I was SUPER pumped for my workout tomorrow, and now it is going to snow and I doubt I will be able to go.  For some reason, the town my gym is in is turning off the water at 9AM, so they are only open until then.  Sounds like schools will even be closed, so I doubt I'll be able to go.  This is extremely irritating to me.  I'm considering getting a guest pass to a gym in another town for the day.    

Anyway, I thought I would take this time to talk about my current workout a little.  I know the half of my blog title is "Strong", and I haven't really talked about that a lot yet, besides some running which...is not the foundation of my workout at all.  

I have what I affectionately refer to as gym ADD.  If I do a program for more than a few weeks I get bored, and if I am doing a program with too many reps, I just completely lose motivation.  As a result, the workout I have currently made up is far more complicated than any gym routine needs to be.  But seriously, I live for this shit.  Yeah, I like to cook and all, its great, but THIS is what I really know.  Currently, I am doing a body part split.  Typically I am a huge proponent of full body workouts, but I figured I'd do something different, and I haven't done a body part split in over a two years.  

Here is the idea behind it.  I split all my workouts into two parts.  3 "main" lifts, and 4 "auxiliary" lifts.  This makes more sense in a full body routine, but its still useful here too.  I am focusing on a fairly low rep range, but rotating it from day to day.  

Monday - Back
Deadlift
Lateral Pulldowns
Barbell Rows
----------------------
Hyperextensions*
Dumbbell Shoulder Press*
Pullups
Cable Bicep Curls


Wednesday - Chest
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
Decline Bench Chest Flys*
Push Ups*
----------------------
Dips
Straightbar Pressdown
Upright Row*
Lateral Raises*


Friday - Legs
Back Squats
Straight Leg Deadlift
Walking Lunges
-----------------------
Leg Press
Stability Ball Hamstring Extension
Bulgarian Squats*
Rear Lat Raise*

The reps go something like this.  Every exercise is done for three sets.  The reps are:  5/9, 7/7, 9/5.  Like I said, unnecessarily complicated, to keep in engaged.  
Week 1: 
Monday:  first three exercises for 3 sets of 5, last four exercises for 3 sets of 9.  
Wednesday: all exercises for 3 sets of 7.  
Friday:  3 sets of 9 for the first three exercises, 3 sets of 5 for the last 4.  

Week 2 rotates:
Monday:  3 sets of 9 for the first 3 exercises, 3 sets of 5 for the last 4.  
Wednesday:  first three exercises for 3 sets of 5, last four exercises for 3 sets of 9.
Friday:  all exercises for 3 sets of 7.  

Week 3:
Monday:  all exercises for 3 sets of 7.  
Wednesday:  3 sets of 9 for the first three exercises, 3 sets of 5 for the last 4.
Friday:  3 sets of 5 for the first three exercises, 3 sets of 9 for the last 4.  

Repeat.  I'll do this twice, I try not to do the same thing for more than 6 weeks, although I have a feeling I'm going to have a hard time prying myself away from this one, I really like it so far.   

I set up a matrix for the six weeks that I am doing it so that I don't get confused:
5  7  9
9  5  7
7  9  5
5  7  9
9  5  7
7  9  5

The reason I'm not just doing sets of 5, 7, and 9 on rotating days, is because...well I don't want to.  Plus, it kind of even outs the time commitment for each day.  

At the end of this program (I am in the middle of week 3 right now) I'll post the weights that I'm at.  
In case you are wondering what I do for cardio, its not much.  Right now I am trying to put on more muscle, so I'm not trying to lose weight.  Currently I am running twice a week, doing yoga once a week, and biking once a week.  Come spring I'll be more focused on taking off the maintenance weight, and I'll be running most days of the week.  I'm planning on doing a 10K (I need a goal to convince me to run). 

No Cooking Song today, I honestly didn't cook anything but some breakfast, but I thought I would post my top ten workout songs.  
Dr. Yang - Ben Folds
I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor - Arctic Monkeys
Have You Ever - The Offspring
Ever So Slightly - The Title
Woman - Wolfmother
Stop! - Against Me!
A Certain Shade of Green - Incubus
Here In Your Bedroom - Goldfinger
The Magnificent Seven - The Clash
We've Got The Beat - The Go Go's        


So...everyone go out there and get their workout on!  And if anyone ever wants to chat about working out, don't hesitate to email me, IM me, etc.  

Have a great day tomorrow, I hope you're not snowed in!  

8 comments:

  1. thanx for the comment!=) i'll be later posting the award yay! the 10k sound great!

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  2. ARG! Just left along comment and blogspot swallowed it!

    I was saying how impressed I was with your workouts--wish I could even do 1/10 of that!

    Thanks, too, for the comment on my blog! Re: the coconut oil, I was actually recommending refined oil--the one with no flavor. You can find a link to the brand I use (Omega Nutrition) on the post. The UNrefined ones do taste like coconut--but if you don't mind that, then go ahead and use one of those! :)

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  3. I love the cute animals :D

    I, too, have gym ADD!

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  4. This is awesome. I have so many questions regarding strength training. Thanks for the post - very helpful. I'm going to re-read it in a little while as I had to go through it kind of fast this morning. You really know your stuff. Do you figure it all out on your own?

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  5. Larisa, I'm glad you finally got it! I know you've been busy, I was worried it would get lost in the shuffle :)

    Shelby, thanks :)

    Ricki, I don't remember exactly what I wrote in your blog, I just knew that what I had wasn't what you were talking about, haha. I'm open to a coconut flavor, I will definitely be trying the spread, it sounds so cool.

    Sweetpotato, thanks for stopping in! Thanks, and I'm glad to know I'm in good company :)

    Heather, any time you want to talk about strength training, I would love to! You can comment here or email me at ginakina@gmail.com. I didn't figure it all out on my own, my husband initially got me into it, but I did a lot of reading up on it, and I've also just been doing it for quite awhile now. I belong to two forums that are mainly focused on strength training, www.oxygenmag.net and www.veganboybuilding.com/phpBB2. I've linked to the second before I think, I visit that one more (obviously a vegan site though). Let me know if you have any questions!

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  6. Your workout committment is completely admirable (and baffling to my math-challenged couch potato self!). I love that baby monkey picture!

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  7. Wow, nice workout program. I need to go to the gym too. Being eating too much lately!

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