Shoulders day, 3rd of Project Abs

Day 3 of Project Abs happened yesterday, quick run out of the office to go in for a workout with James at lunch time. Do not use lack of time for an excuse, if you really want it, you will find a way to do it. James poked me to come in and get a workout (See one of the tools I told you about 2 posts ago? Here it is in action). 3x15 crunches to finish a 25 min intense workout, we took care of shoulders.
The plan: 3 sets of military press (10 reps) supersetted with dumb bell side raises, on to dumb bell front raises + bent over dumb bell flies also superset and also within 12 reps and to celebrate old times sake (when I used to train with an Argentinian coach), we did a coordination / strength / balancing movement. Standing up paralel to the cable, hold a dumb bell with the inside hand hand, the one closer to the cable. With your free hand, which should be the outside one, grab the cable and drag it in front of you to full stretch all the way across your body. It should go like this: start to squat laterally, raising both arms up. The arm holding the cable willbe slightly lower, opened and in line with your torso. The dumb bell should be all the way up, inside arm stretched.

I will come back with a video for this one, as it apparently is harder to perform than one might initially think (try describing it with words). I went and included a set of abs at the end of each superset or exercise. So I end up doing exercise one, exercise 2 (if supersetting) and then exercise 3 (the abs exercise) in a non rest in between mode. This way, you keep your muscle fully pumped with blood, you work more to perform the exercises as you are getting increasignly tired, accelerate your hear rate thus adding to the fat burn, get your abs in the circuit and you save time off your total time in the gym.
Which totalled 40 mins, not bad. How many of the regular gym going guys can tell you they perform a session, do some cardio and still get ab work in? I´ll tell you... Not that many;)

Project Abs underway

Hey there!

By the time these are posted, they´ll be yesterdays news :) Here´s today´s workout, back was the main focus of our session, starting it off with medium barbell rows 10 reps (pronated grip) + 10 reps (supinated grip) superset fashion, on to some cross cable overhead lat pull down to vary the angle on the muscle fibers being hit, on to one hand medium cable row + bent over overhead cable bar extensions (10-12 reps). We finished things off with some shrugs. At the end, I cramped my abs up with 3 sets of 15 reps on the medicine ball, holding the cable bar up and crunching it in.

Have a great day!

Project Abs

Here´s 2013, this will be as big as the courage to create it!
Kicking off Project Abs! This is one of my goals for the coming year, result of many peaks and valleys in that area, I´ve decided to dedicate one year to making them look good - permanently. Never dedicated too much atention to that specific boy part, as I´ve pretty much kept active all my life, daily activities usually tend to keep them decent. It also reflects my choices in food when I don´t eat with care in mind, I´m also using this as another way of eating responsibly. So 2013 will be a year to prove what atention, dedication and consistency can do for my stomach region.

I´ll be asking for homework often, feel free to drop me a comment and assign an exercise for the day. My commitment in this process is, to not leave the gym every time I enter for a session, without adding something on top of my regular workout schedule. Something abs related, that is. If you have an exercise, a question, doubt, you have something to interact in this project. Many times I am approached and asked about fitness / nutrition / training, so here´s a way of explaining what I do with my training and what works for me. I´m not claiming to be a God in this subject, but I do have considerable experience, considered expertise by definition and a will to help all who come for advise. A video / photograph will be added (almost) every day, it´s one of the tools I am using currently for accountability. My partner is another tool :) James and I started training a year ago, crossing paths and coming together on the gym. But this will be another post.

Please visit regularly, if you feel these posts can somehow be of help, I´d like to know if you are taking something out of this. My experience has been that we all share one (at least) little commonality, I mean ALL of us. The breath of subjects in this blog may not all be in fitness, but it will be about creating a better___ (fill in the blank). Fitness being one of my passions, I have been sufficiently asked about it to start a recording process to give my friends, peeps or fellow humans, something back.

Enjoy.

Aqui está o início de 2013, com desejos de que seja um ano tão grande como o desejo de o criar! Arranco com o projecto Abs, terá a duração de um ano e é resultado de subidas e descidas em forma nesse local tão específico. Nunca persegui desenvolver esta parte do corpo por ser no meu caso uma questão de uso inerente. Ao fazer as actividades que normalmente fazem parte do meu dia, desporto incluido, acabam por tomar conta de sí próprios e com mais ou menos atenção, dá para manter um certo controlo de como estão regularmente.

Este ano, a par de outros projectos que tenho para atingir, vão requerer atenção, dedicação e constância. É agora uma parte do meu corpo à qual vou dar ênfase. Já o fiz com pernas (quando o direcionei para a práctica de Basketball), peitorais (flexões são o exercício mais completo para este grupo, qualquer sítio a qualquer hora) e braços com super séries. Costas desenvolveram por “simpatia”, pois a quantidade e variedade de actividades e esforços a que os grupos circundantes foram submetidos, tornou o seu crescimento como único caminho a tomar.

Portanto está aqui, um dos objectivos para este enorme 2013! Let the games begin, é um desafio a que se podem juntar quantos queiram. Cada dia vou solicitar de alguém que me dê uma “tarefa abdominal” para desempenhar. Cada dia em que entrar no ginásio, não vou sair sem ter passado algum tempo sem ter feito algo, sobre o que existe no programa. Isto quer dizer, nem que sejam 20 repetições no fim de um dia de um outro grupo muscular, será algo que tem presença marcada nas minhas sessões. Está traçado um dos objectivos! 

Um enorme 2013!