The daily work out for 22 September 2009

Hello again ladies and gentlemen,

I hope everyone had a great weekend and that your week is going well. If you've been keeping up with the blog, then you know that I've been pushing my self in each work out. However, the harder we push ourselves, the more we need to pay attention to our recovery. I had originally intended to not work out on Saturday and Sunday, but hit it hard on Monday. On Monday morning, when I awoke, I didn't feel as energetic as I as expected. So, I grabbed my home blood pressure kit and got a quick reading on my blood pressure and heart rate. Sure enough, my heart rate was elevated, which provided more evidence that I hadn't adequately recovered.

Tuesday. I checked my blood pressure and heart rate, heart rate was normal, so it was a training day.
The training session consisted of static contraction pulling movements on the explosive fitness machine, followed by some light chest expander work. My explosive fitness work out 2 or B consists of mostly pulling exercises.

Below is the exercises and percentage (%) of maximum intensity of the previous workout.

Work Out B:
Ab crunch----------------103.5 %
Lat Pull down-------------101.9 %
Standing Bicep Curly------118.1%
Bent Over Row------------108.2%
Dead lift---------------------91.6%
Shrug-----------------------92.6%

The purpose of using the chest expander at the end of this work out was to increase the blood flow to the previously worked muscles. Thus, bringing more nutrients to the muscles.

Chest expander:
Front Pulls: 40 reps
Behind the back later raises: 20 reps
Lateral Raises: 20 reps
Bicep Curls: 20 reps
Shrugs: 20 reps

Overall, I made progress and improved. The reduced percentages in the dead lift and shrug indicate 1 of 3 things: 1) I didn't try hard enough or wasn't motivated enough. That didn't happen, 2) I expended too much energy on the other exercises, or 3) Those muscles hadn't fully recovered from previous work outs/activities. So, it was some combination of reason 2 and 3.

Until next time. Take care and try to always improve.

Steven DG