Did the Strength 1/B workout from New Rules of Lifting. Just for fun I stopped at the gym that Lifetime Fitness bought over on W. Lake Houston in Kingwood. This used to be QLS. It is most definitely not up to the standards of a LTF. The weight room was a mess and they don’t have towel service yet. I think their one interesting feature is their pool. They have a saltwater swimming pool. Next time I’m due for a swim workout and I’m in that area I’ll check it out.

And this is what it looked like outside as I left the gym:

Beautiful, no? And with a temperature somewhere in the 70′s, still pleasant outside. But not for long my friends. Remember, today is the first day of summer! Here is a great pseudo-commercial for the new iPhone 4:

This morning had an excellent spinning class at the Houston City Center Lifetime Fitness. Nice place.

Anyway I missed a bunch of scheduled workouts and my diet was not as strict as it should of been, but all in all things held up pretty well and today (2/16) I’m back on track.

Strength Training

This morning I started a new routine, taken from Men’s Health Big Book of Exercises, by Adam Campbell:

I just picked up this book recently and it has the best exercise illustrations I’ve ever seen. It’s packed full of information and includes easy to follow dietary advice on top of all of the great workouts. The routine I started this morning (which really kicked my ass by the way) is the Spartacus routine, designed by the personal trainer for the gladiators on the Startz program by the same name.

This is a circuit routine with 10 stations, or exercises. You do as many reps of each exercise as you can in 1 minute. Then you take 15 seconds to transition to the next station and so on until you finish all 10 stations. Then you rest for 2 minutes and start over. Do a total of 3 sets per exercise.

Details

Note that the sets reported are only for 1 side (or arm or leg). So if I record 10 reps for a T push up, that means 10 per side. Any weights recorded for dumbbells are for 1 of the dumbbells only.

Warm Up x 00:11
Work Out x 00:51
Sets:
1. goblet squat: 15/30, 18/30, 16/30
2. mountain climber: 16, 19, 18
3. single arm DB swing: 15/30, 12/30, 14/30
4. T push up: 15/15, 6/10, 5/5
5. split jump: 8/15, 11/10, 20/10
6. DB row: 20/30, 29/20, 20/20
7. DB side lunge & touch: 8/20, 7/20, 6/15
8. pushup position row: 8/20, 9/20, 9/15
9. DB lunge & rotation: 11/20, 8/20, 8/20
10. DB push press: 16/25, 14/25, 18/20

This was a fairly light day. The only thing on my schedule was a Masters Swim class at Lifetime Fitness. Details

Duration: 01:30
Distance: 3300 m

NROL Strength 1/A (#6) Did this workout very early over at Lifetime Fitness. Details

WU x 00:10 Elliptical
WT x 00:48
ST x 00:13
Sets:
1. squat: 8/255, 2/275, 8/255, 3/275, 12/225, 20/225
2. SS1-Bulgarian split squat: 15/40, 15/40, 15/25
3. SS1-step up: 15/70, 15/70, 15/70
4. AS1-back extension: 10/10, 10/15
5. AS1-Swiss ball crunch: 10/10, 10/15

Masters Swim Class Did this in the evening at LTF. Details

Duration: 01:32
Distance: 3700 m

NROL Strength 1/D (#5) Did this workout fairly early over at Lifetime Fitness. Details

Duration: 01:02
WU x 00:10 elliptical
WT x 00:48
ST x 00:05
Sets:
1. AS1-chin up: 6, 3, 6, 1, 7
2. AS1-BB shoulder press: 6/75, 2/95, 7/75, 1/95, 1/65
3. AS2-DB bench press: 8/50, 10/50
4. AS2-wide grip cable seated row: 8/90, 9/90
5. SS1-lower body Russian twist: 10, 10
6. SS1-DB curl (left arm): 10/25, 10/25
7. SS1-DB tri extension (left arm): 10/25, 10/25


BRICK
Bike Details

Duration: 01:48
Distance: 30.56 mi

Run Details

Duration: 00:29
Distance: 3.02 mi

I was so cold when I got off the bike I fell over in the front yard. I couldn’t get my fingers to close and so had a hell of a time getting the bike shoes off and the running shoes on and then tying shoe laces!

Weekly Summary

Masters Swim Class This was the usual class at Lifetime Fitness. Details

Duration: 01:20
Distance: 3450 m

I read an article in the NY Times called Too Much Sitting Shortens Lives, Study Suggests. Let’s face it, people were designed to move. I already have a timer set on my work computer that reminds me to get up and walk around for a bit every hour. But then I saw something even better!

There is a device called a Trekmill Desk from a company called TrekDesk. This thing looks great! You can set the generous workspace height to whatever is comfortable for you. You will also need to get a treadmill. I did some searching on Amazon and found several very highly rated models in the $800-$1000 price range.

So figure about $1500 for the entire setup.

Triathlon Training, day 113

Cycling – Spinning Class at LTF Details

Duration: 01:00
Distance: 20 mi (estimated)