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~ Rejecting the gods of our culture since 1998.

cultural atheist

Tag Archives: weights

3 Strength Exercises That Are a Waste of Your Time

24 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by braddahr in health, recovery

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

exercise, health, recovery, triathlon, weights

Good mental health is supported by being active. For me, that means preparing for and participating in triathlons. I found an article in Triathlete magazine called: 3 Strength Exercises That Are a Waste of Your Time.  I encourage you to read the whole article for their reasons and the benefits to the alternative exercises they suggest. Here’s just the highlights:

 

Don’t: Calf Raises

Do: One-Leg Hop

Don’t: Smith Machine Squats

Do: Regular Squats

Don’t: Curls

Do: Pull-up/Chin-up

 

Weight Workout – Lower Body

12 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by braddahr in health, Observations, recovery

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

exercise, fitness, healing, health, help, hope, muscles, recovery, weights

Since it’s the start of the year and you might want to get into fitness, I’m sharing what I normally do as part of telling my recovery story. If you missed the first parts, you can check them out: The Cyclist, YK2HR, Swim, Bike, Run, Nap, and Typical Workout. If you missed my upper body workout, you can read it here.

Remember these work for me but they may not work for you. Your goals may be different than mine and so you may want to do different exercises. If you have any medical issues or injuries, please take care and get some help. Oh yeah, put your blankety blank blank weights away when you’re done.

Four things shape how I structure a workout:

  1. Work to failure – I don’t try to do loads of volume – usually 2 sets, sometimes 3, of each exercise.
  2. Time is short – I try to get weights done in 45 minutes. Get in and get done so I tend to superset exercises.
  3. Injuries ruin training and events – I have some shoulder issues that I have to be careful of so I tend to go high reps and lower weights typically start with 30 reps for the first set and then strive for up to 20 reps to failure.
  4. I don’t want to be huge or super strong just sexy.

Typical Lower Body Weight Work Out

  • Leg Press (two legs) + Calf Press + Leg Press (one leg)
  • Stiff Leg Deadlift + Lunge with twist + Jump Squats
  • Nordic Hamstring Curl (see below) + Burpees  (burpees are from Satan)
  • Leg Extension + Leg Curl + Speed Skater Squats + Seated Calf Raise
  • Inside Cable Pulls
  • Stair Jumps

I was recently told to do Nordic Hamstring Curls by my witch doctor (aka physiotherapist). He gave me two exercises to choose from and I felt this one was the least ridiculous looking of the choices. They really burn the hamstrings. This is what they look like:

 

Typical Work Out Week

06 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by braddahr in Discovery, health, Observations, recovery

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

depression, exercise, fitness, healing, health, help, hope, mental health, race, reoovery, spin class, strength, swimming, triathlon, weights, yoga

Have you transformed yourself; became something you weren’t before? My last few posts have been about how between 2012 and continuing through today, I went through a transformation. I was overweight and out of shape with bad blood test results, badly depressed, and a mostly inactive person.

img_2581

I have become a lighter, more fit, mildly depressed, fairly active triathlete! If you missed my other posts, you can check out how I started, my first big goal, and then what I did to stay motivated.

img_2030

So how does an elite triathlete train for optimum race day performance? I don’t know. Honestly, I really just want to be sexy, less depressed and finish races at least mid-way or higher in my age group.  I’m happy if I can improve with each race. All I can tell you is what works for me. If you’re starting out, I hope you take care, do that doctor check in thing that nobody does, and always remember that results vary.

giphy-3

The following is what I usually plan for each week. Sometimes I change it up or take a rest day when I don’t get enough sleep – sleep is critical for recovery! Sometimes my work requires meeting or events that mean I have to shift around workouts.

Swim:

  • Day 1 – Long course up to 2.5km.
  • Day 2 – Intervals or Fast 50’s as I like to call them.
  • Day 3 – Longer swim mixed with kick sets

Bike:

  • Spin Class – at least 2x a week.

Run:

  • Treadmill for 30 minutes – walk on incline to warm up then run at 6.5mph for 2-3 minutes, then walk for 1 minute then repeat.

Strength:

  • Day 1: Upper Body
  • Day 2: Lower Body
  • Day 3: Upper + Lower Body
  • Essentials and Core Exercises – 2 times a week

Most of the time, I am done and on to my usual day before 10 am. My work time is usually 11-9. In upcoming posts, I’ll give more details on my workouts and diet.

gwn-2016-finish

(I want to give a shout out to Shay-lon, a fitness enthusiast, trainer, and blogger living in the USA (but don’t hold that against her). I follow her blog and occasionally give her a hard time. She bugged me to write about this stuff even though it’s not my usual focus. I’ve enjoyed the process and now, when I die, there is a record for posterity.)

 

 

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