I’m back! Work for the regular baseball season has ended, so now we’re doing post-season deep-cleaning of the kitchen and dining facilities. I think my arms might fall off from all the scrubbing and painting and wiping…
In my time at work this year, though, I didn’t eat the healthiest all the time, and didn’t maintain an active lifestyle outside of work. So while I wait for calls to interview for new opportunities, I’m going to get back to the gym 6 days a week, and try to develop a better diet. Most of my social media content for the next couple weeks will be about fitness progress as I try to build myself into my healthiest self. If you want to join me on my fitness journey, today’s post will outline my workout and attempted diet plan.
Workout plan:
I like an “ABC” schedule for my workout schedule. Upper body one day, lower body another day, and core and cardio the third day. I tend to get sore the second day after a workout rather than just the next day. This type of schedule gives me two days off between working each muscle group. It also allows me to do a more intense workout each day because I give each muscle group more time to rest between workouts.
I just signed up for a black card membership at Planet Fitness. Since they all have the same machines, I can guarantee that I can complete my usual routine at any location. Each workout starts with a five-minute warmup on the treadmill.
For leg day, I use the resistance machines like the leg press, hamstring curl, quad extension, calf press, and abductor and adductor machines. When I have a workout buddy, I may do some heavy lifts like squats in the rack area.
On upper-body day, I generally skip the resistance machines. I’m short and the upper-body machines won’t accommodate my height. I’ll do the lat pulldown and low row by myself, and will add the bench press if I have a spotter. Otherwise, my upper-body workout is usually a superset routine with free weights. I prefer twin dumbbells rather than barbells because I can’t use my dominant side to power through a movement on my weaker side. I have to do the same amount of work on both sides. I’ll grab a couple sets of weights like 10’s, 15’s, and 20’s, and use heavier weights on larger muscle groups and smaller weights for smaller muscle groups.
My upper-body superset includes chest press, bent-over rows, lateral raises, shoulder press, triceps kickbacks, biceps curls, and wrist curls. Sometimes I throw a few things in if I want to target a specific area. My baseline inclusions ensure that each muscle group gets a sufficient workout. I do a rotation of 10-15 reps of each exercise, then break to rest a few minutes between each superset. If I rested between each regular set, I’d spend 3 hours at the gym on upper-body day since there are several smaller muscle groups in the upper body as opposed to fewer muscle groups that require attention on leg day.
On core and cardio day, I use the lumbar push-back machine, then head over the ab area to use the hyperextension machine for both lumbar and oblique exercises. I jump into the ab rack and do hanging crunches and straight-leg raises. Then I throw a mat on the floor and do crunches 8 ways. I wrap up my core workout with Supermans and a plank. Then I do 30 minutes or so on the semi-recumbent bike for cardio and call it a day.
Each gym session ends with a 10-minute cooldown on the semi-recumbent bike. I use the bike for cooldown rather than the treadmill because treadmills are evil and give me shin splints. I warm up on the treadmill because it raises my heart rate faster (probably because treadmills are evil). The semi-recumbent is ideal for cooldowns because it’s low-impact on joints and you can set it to the amount of resistance rather than just rate of speed. That makes it the perfect machine to bring your heart rate down slowly.
I’m planning on visiting the gym early in the mornings to get my workout done early in the day. I also want to incorporate DDPYOGA into my routine, maybe as soon as I get home from the gym. Then I’d have the rest of the day to fill out job applications, clean and pack for the move, and prepare and eat according to my diet…
Diet plan:
Now that I’ve been going to the gym for a few weeks, I’m struggling to maintain the original diet that I designed for myself. I was supposed to be grain-free, added sugar-free, and mostly dairy-free on top of being gluten-free. I was going to allow ghee and plain Greek yogurt with live active cultures. Also, I cut out red meat and processed meats like bacon, cured sausage, and deli meats. I was supposed to do a green juice or fruit and yogurt smoothie with breakfast. Actual meals would include lots of salads, and proteins like eggs, fish, and chicken breasts.
What I found was that on my mostly clean diet, the gym made me hurt a lot. When I fell off my diet and ate some gluten-free bread or rice, I wasn’t nearly as sore after my workouts. So I’m going to take another look at my diet and see if I can find a way to include more carbs while still restricting calories. I may be able to wean myself onto a cleaner diet as my body becomes more accustomed to the physical demands of working out 6 days a week.
The main kicker about adjusting my diet now is that I have all these vegetables and kale in my fridge that I have to use. I might crank out some veggie lasagna or ziti or something. Also, I’m writing this post today because I’m home with a cold. The only place I can think of where I could have picked it up is at the gym. So I’m going to add vitamin C to my usual regimen of a daily multi-vitamin (with iron) and my daily megadose of B-complex.
My next post will probably include my new diet plan, plus all my medicines and supplements I take. In the mean-time, stay tuned to my Instagram for more pics and videos of workouts and food and fitness progress. Please leave your thoughts in a comment below, or get in touch with me directly by filling out the form on the contact page.
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