Monday, March 7, 2011

What does the hardcore routine look like?

So, I talked about some of the changes I made to P90X, and the basics of the diet that is designed to melt the flabby weight away.  So this is a post about the details of the workout plan, as it stands now.

By now, I shared why is important to do a mix of cardio and weight training, and how the diet is designed to fuel the workout and send your metabolism into overdrive.  So lets get into the nitty gritty of what's going on in the workout - the Big Lebowski of the program.

I said before I decided on a full body workout.  This makes it easier to shift days of the workout plan if needed, and ensures that all muscle groups are worked more often.  I decided to take the traditional approach of doing this workout 3 days per week.  Typically, people like to do a Monday/Wednesday/Friday workout.  I decided to shift that to the right and make it Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday.  Since this is the more tedious of workouts, I want to make sure I don't burn out during the week, and give myself one day to do the workout on my own time.  In the remaining 4 days, I hit the elliptical.  35 minutes to start the routine, working up to 45 and possibly 60 when I'm in need of a real boost.  Every morning I make an effort to skate with the pups.  Not a huge contribution, but it helps a little bit - especially since it's doing some light cardio in a fasting state.  Cardio first thing in the morning helps burn big time calories, as your body has no other resources to select from aside from the fat stores.  In addition to the cardio, I do the X-stretch routine from the P90X plan to remain flexible and help reduce chance of injury.  One day per week, if I'm not feeling too toasted, I throw in a Yoga routine.  This is optional, except in my recovery week.

So the plan goes as follows:
Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Sunday: Elliptical for 35 mins at my target heart rate of 152, burns about 350 calories (that's 1400 calories per week - more than 1/3 of a lb of body fat!)

Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday: Full Body workout #1.

Full Body Workout #1 goes as follows:
Chest: 4 Variations of pushups selected form the Chest & Back routine from P90X.
Back: Chinups, pullups, single arm and double arm rows
Legs: Light weight, high rep squats, Wall squats, calf raises, and lunges
Shoulders: 2 variations of shoulder presses, 2 variations of shoulder flys
Biceps: 4 variations of Dumbbell curls
Triceps: chair dips, kickbacks, extensions, and side pushups
Abs: 3 sets of 5 Pilates roll-up (Pavel's exercise)

When doing Cardio, to maximize the fat burning state during the workout, you want to target your heart rate for fat burning mode.  Typically, this lies around 75% of your maximum theoretical heart rate.  The calculation for is based on your resting heart rate.  I calculated mine to be approximately 150 bpm.  I wear a Polar hear rate monitor during cardio because I don't trust the monitors built into the equipment in the gym.  Plus, with the monitor I can use it when doing cardio away from the gym, and make sure i'm in the zone.

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