Saturday only.

Turns out I couldn’t muster the will to train on Friday after all.

Saturday was a different matter though. Nigel, myself and our respective better halves met up in the afternoon at the gym.

I have worked out which muscle groups Fitness Stu has been targeting with his 3 day exercises. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to work it out, but Saturday it was the back exercises.

Warm up. 5 minutes on the rowing machine. Nigel and his missus also started on the rowing machine so it was not so boring.

Lat pull down with inverted grip. 15 reps in 3 sets at 39kgs.
I have a problem with a muscle (identified on this musculature chart as the Flexor Carpi Ulnaris) in my forearm which starts to really ache with a lot of the resistance exercises I do, and by the 3rd set of reps it was this muscle not the lats that started to give up.

Cable row. 5kgs. 3 sets of 15. Again, it was this forearm muscle that failed before my back muscles.

Erector Spinae on the ball. This is where you lie belly first on the exercise ball put your hands behind your head and arch your back upwards. I haven’t been doing this exercise as Nigel took the piss last time I did but I had a bit of a practice at home on the Pilates ball and now I don’t wobble around as much. It still looks like I am humping the thing but at least I look like I know what I am doing now.

Those were the back exercises. I am supposed to do exercises that work my abs as well but as you may have noticed I have been a bit lax in that respect. It’s not because I don’t want to, I just run out of time in the day. Saturday I had plenty of time.

Cable stomach crunches. (this is the only one I have been doing) 3 sets of 20 at 7kgs. I had been doing these at 6kgs but decided to up the weight just a little bit as 6kgs was no problem at all.

Sideways sit ups. Using the Ab-Roller I twist my legs to the side and sit up. 2 sets of 15 on each side.

Medicine Ball Crunches. Like a sit up but this time I am holding a medicine ball away from my body. With my arms fixed in position I then sit. 3 sets of 15.

Then 30 minutes of Cardio. Treadmill 7.2mph for 20 minutes, increasing the inclination by 1 every 5 minutes. After 20 minutes I dropped the incline back to zero but after a few moments my hear rate dropped and I was able to up the speed to 8mph for the final 5 or so minutes. I walked out the last three minutes as a bit of a warm down.

Nigel was also putting some time in on the treadmill. He was running 6.8mph on the interval setting for 20 minutes. He was knackered but survived.

Finished in the gym we moved to the swimming pool. There was a girl in the lane next to me and she was quick. Not wanting to be beaten by a girl the race was on. After half an hour of trading fast laps I was knackered and was glad when she finally stopped so that I could too.

Sunday became a lazy day staying at home but I have prepared to hit the streets running in the very near future. A hydration pack has been purchased and I have also invested in some Carbo-Gel. Science food designed to increase my endurance and performance.