Trainingsplan #1

My first weight trainingsplan goes from November 1st to December 12th 2013. I slowly, slowly increase on weight, yet I have to keep in mind that 15 repetitions is quite a lot! My trainer knows I want to gain muscle so I hope my next plans will slowly go from less weight / more repetitions to more weight / less repetitions.
Currently (I still do the strength circuit as well):

  1. Butterfly: 2 x 15, 10 kg
  2. Pulley sitting: 2 x 15, 15 kg
  3. Pulley standing: 2 x 15, 8 kg
  4. Bizeps pulley: 2 x 15, 5 – 7,5 kg
  5. Trizeps pulley: 2 x 15, 5 – 7,5 kg
  6. Calves with dumbbells: 2 x 15, 8 kg
  7. Adductor: 2 x 15, 30 kg
  8. Abductor: 2 x 15, 30 kg
  9. TRX crunch: 2 x 15
  10. Crunch sideways: 2 x 15
  11. Total Abdomen: 2 x 15, 27,5 – 30 kg

It’s been 6 months since I joined the gym – wow! I’m happy to say that I’ve been to the gym very regularly. October was the only month I didn’t go a lot due to business-projects and not being in town, but other than that there are hardly any gaps. My gym days are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and either Saturday or Sunday (or both, if I don’t go on Friday).
halfyear
There’s one big problem I’m facing though – I eat a bunch of sweets every evening. I, as a certified nutritionist, should know a lot better. I do know, I just can’t resist. I know I shouldn’t even buy that crap. I don’t know for how longs it’s been going (my sugar addiction) but I’m guessing since September. I buy too much sweets and can’t stop eating them, which means an additional 500-1000 calories (whoa!!) every evening through sweets. 🙁
bodyfat
It’s amazing I only have 17% body-fat, I can’t even imagine that the machine is right… My belly, if I don’t flex it after I have eaten, looks like I’m pregnant. It’s a big ball. Also in the mornings it’s a little too big for my taste, and I blame the sweets.
Ok, so, my next goal is to get those sweets out of my daily life. I eat healthy every day so I’m annoying myself that after the gym, after the shower, after dinner, on the couch, I walk into the kitchen and look for which yummy sweets I can eat. And it’s not only one piece of chocolate, no, it’s the whole bar of chocolate! Sigh, this will be hard…

What sucks the most

What sucks the most when you have a cold is: you can’t go to the gym!
Argh, I haven’t been in a week (I only have a running nose but still, the beginning of the week I didn’t feel really all that good) and I feel fatter already. October was a bad month, I was gone a lot and “sick” a lot. I hope hope hope that November will be a better month, but I think it will be 🙂

Fitness Check #1

August_2013Yesterday I had my first fitness-check, which means:

  1. resting ECG (Cardio Scan)
  2. body fat measuring
  3. BMI measuring
  4. biking until a heart rate of 140

It all took about one hour. Here my results

  1. resting ECG

    Not that good, I have a little cold and you notice. My heart beat was at 80, which is quite high. I remember measuring my heart beat a few weeks ago at work and I had 60. My fit level with that rate was at 2, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. Yikes! My trainer said it has to do with less sleep (check), stress (a little), being sick (having a cold – check)
  2. body fat measuring
    Body fat: 16,8% I was quite surprised. I let my boyfriend measure with a Skinfold Caliper and my result there was 23%. At the gym they measured with a Near-infrared interactance. No idea what is the safest way to measure body fat…
  3. BMI measuring
    18,7
  4. biking until a heart rate of 140
    I was in the area between “very good” and “very very good”. I warmed up five minutes, then had to bike at the same speed for one or two minutes with increasing inclination until I reached a heart rate of 140. Then cool down and my trainer wrote down my heart rate after one minute, after three and after five. Then some calculations followed and my result was 2.6 (whatever unit).

I’m happy with my results, the next check will be in three months.

Gym Wear

When you join the gym you need to invest in some gym clothes in which you’ll feel comfortable in. When I joined (exactly three months ago) I put on my clothes I’ve been wearing for years (long sweat pants, some top) and knew right away, I don’t feel good in those. So, the first thing I did is go to my local sports store and get some new pants.

Pants

I wanted tight pants which go just over your knee. For girls it’s ok to wear pants like that, for men… maybe not so much.
I grabbed 15 pairs of pants from a lot of diffferent companies and one pair fit. So you need to bring patience and time to the store. The Puma pants were my first, then I decided I need more!
Gym Pants

  1. Summer Gym Pants
    It’s hot in the summer, well, it can be hot. Make sure you own more than one pair, you’ll need more if you go to the gym regularly. And if it’s super hot, buy and wear shorts. Be sure to buy shorts with “built-in-panties” or, if you don’t have shorts with “built-in-panties”, be sure to buy some hot-pants to wear underneath. Nobody wants to see your private parts when you lie on your back and stretch your legs apart (I’m talking out of experience here! Did that mistake once and never again 🙂 ).
  2. Winter Gym Pants
    Buy those if needed. It’s always good to have one long pair. I don’t sweat too much when I’m lifting weights, so that’s where I would wear the long pants if it’s cold outside.

Tops

I used to wear a regular t-shirt and my regular bra to the gym in the beginning which turned out not be a great idea. I don’t like tops with sleeves at the gym and you could see too much boob with my regular bra. I remember, my last gym wouldn’t allow sleeveless tops, so be careful with that. Anyway, I’m a fan or tank-tops – colorful tops!
gym tops
I prefer tight and longer tops, so Under Armour is the best company for me. I also have two tops which are a bit wider around the belly, I wear those in the winter 🙂

Sport Bras

Pretty much the same scenario with the bras like with the pants and tops – you need to try on a lot before you know which one is right for you.
For me, the model “12-year-old-girl-whos-just-groing-boobs” seemed best for me 🙂 I actually wanted black but neon was the only color available.
gymwear bra adidas
At first I looked for tops with a built-in bra but I didn’t really like them (too short, too big, too small, too ugly) so the option sport-bra and normal sport-top seemed the better and easier (and also cheaper) one.

The shoes

Honestly, I didn’t need new shoes, I have enough Chucks and Asics and Adidas I could have worn. I also own a pair of Nike running shoes which I bought around six years ago. I still wear the Nike to go jogging through the woods, so, when it’s wet outside you can imagine what they look like. And I’m too lazy to clean them, so there, my excuse to buy new shoes just for the gym. I actually bought shoes I liked – I didn’t look at the model (if they are for running or training or cross or whatsoever), I just browsed the internet for shoes I liked. And voila!
gymwear shoes under armour
I really like them, they are comfortable and stable (they are running shoes) and I’m happy with them. I only wear them at the gym so I don’t have to clean them before I put them on. Don’t forget to buy a couple of short socks to go with them – wearing normal socks you’d wear to work etc. doesn’t look good.

What’s in my Gym Bag

Other than the membership card my gym-bag (I just use a backpack) contains
gym bag
The most important thing in my gym bag is probably the drinking bottle, followed by the gym towel. My pulse watch I normally only wear when I do cardio, I bought it for jogging because there’s where I need it. At the gym I mainly use it to see how many calories I’ve lost. Now I also always take my shower stuff with me. I bought some little bottles of shampoo and lotion and cream. I didn’t shower at the gym at the beginning but after you experience an hour of cardio training at 30+ degrees Celsius outside, where you’re not able to stop sweating, there’s nothing better than to jump into the shower right after. It’s not a nice feeling to put on your normal clothes when you’re dripping of sweat all over.

Now I’m addicted on buying gym clothing. My wishlist contains a new pair of running shoes (because they’re so pretty), more Under Armour tops and a GPS watch. I didn’t buy all the clothing at once. At first I thought it’s enough to own one pair of short pants and only one bra and maybe two tops. But, especially now in the hot summer, you’re really grateful if you don’t have to wash your clothes all the time.

Eccentric Training

Or, negative training, started for me yesterday.
Schatzi Negative Training
It’s good, it’s different, I first need to get used to it but I’ll be doing it for the next couple of weeks.

So, this week was full of nice events.

  • On Monday I went to Body Pump, used the weights I used before my vacation four weeks ago to find out it’s almost impossible for me to keep up. But it all worked out, I just didn’t do as many repetitions. I drove 35km to work and home because the weather was lovely.
  • On Tuesday I went to work by bike as well and when I wanted to ride home again I found my bike with a big fat flat tire. Boo. So I went home by train and fixed up my old mountainbike (which I have as a backup). Luckily I just had to pump the tires with air, no flat tire or something similar. In the evening the BF and me went to a beergarden to enjoy the evening with beer and good food.
  • On Wednesday I drove to work with my Raleigh. It’s such a heavy small bike and the saddle is terrible but yet my speed was faster and I got to work within 55 minutes (for 18km). I went to the gym after to do two rounds in the strength circuit.
  • Thursday was luxury – I took the car to work seing I wanted to bring a plant. Had lunch at Subway and did absolutely nothing that day. Well, I went for a three minute bike-ride to our local grocery store to get some Ben & Jerrys, but that’s it.
  • Friday was a rainy day and luckily the temperature cooled everything. Made three rounds of the eccentric training and had one hour of Bodystyling with barbells. We had dinner at a “Turkish restaurant”, meaning doner kebab and french fries. Oh yummy!

Let’s see what the weekend brings.