Strength Training

So what exactly does an hour of strength training mean? Well, lots and LOTS of different exercises! I decided to take some photos of some of the ST work that I do for a couple of reasons:

1. To record/journal some of the actual work I'm doing.
2. To view my stance to see how well/poorly I'm doing some of these exercises to identify areas I need to work on.
3. To show off just a little bit at how well I'm doing after all the hard work I've done the past 6 months - and to hopefully use this to motivate myself to keep working hard!

The exercises I'm showing here are only a very SMALL fraction of the many, many different exercises I do, at least 100 different moves. One of the other really important aspects of getting in shape and ST is to periodically change up all the exercises you're doing to make sure the muscle shock stays in effect so your body does not get accustomed to the new movements and thus depreciating the level of the workouts.

So beginning with my new, awesome, pull up bar here's some of the moves I use it for besides general pull ups. First, a side seated pull up, working primarily on my arms, trying to keep my back straight:

I bought a pair of inexpensive gloves to prevent the blisters I was beginning to get before when I used this bar. Sometimes I add more difficulty by holding one leg out at a time as I pull up and down:

Then here's where the 3 holes in the base come in handy as I can adjust the bar to a lower position and work on these reverse push ups:

And yes, overall I'm very impressed with how good I'm looking in these photos...I've been working VERY hard after all! But as you can see I'm not without many areas still to work on, such as my stomach shown here...although I dare you to try to hold this position without a belly bump! :o)

You can add more intensity to these reverse push ups by raising your feet up higher. Swede usually picks my legs up and holds them up in the air or you can use a small stool to prop up your feet.

Another very difficult exercise are these push ups. I first started doing these with my hands on the floor and the stability ball closer up near my hips. The further you push the stability ball toward your feet the more difficult this is, and of course trying to balance your hands on the wobbly Bosu also adds a degree of difficulty.

And yes, my kids watching a Disney movie like "Cars" while I workout is a typical scene in my house. Hey, I have to be mom at the same time, so whatever works to keep them occupied while I workout.

Pikes are a really fun exercise. You start out with your back flat with your body in a straight line position like you would to begin push ups, but then instead you roll up to this upside down V shape crunching your stomach muscles along the way. Obviously the more vertical you can become with your legs off the ball the more intense the exercise.

Ball curls, originally I started doing these with my arms down on the ground at my sides for more stability and support, but now I've graduated to holding my arms straight out and off the floor, which is more intense and more difficult to balance...esp. when Swede comes over and tries to make me lose my balance my pushing my legs over. :o)

You start in the straight out position above and then pull your legs in and raise your butt to this position, and repeat back and forth:

A different view:

If you're not ready to balance this way, another way to add more intensity is to place your arms at your sides and instead of 2 feet on the ball, alternate raising 1 leg in the air the whole time. The lower your leg is and closer to your other leg the more intense this is, the higher you raise your leg the less weight you're lifting:

One leg dead lifts, or as I like to call them, drunken airline pilots. :o). Originally I started doing these on the floor standing on one leg (always keeping the other leg in the air), with my arms straight out to my sides, and doing a sort of pendulum swing back and forth from standing straight up to bending in half as shown below.

To add more intensity I've now graduated to this more difficult leg lift where I'm balancing on the wobbly Bosu on 1 leg, and instead of my arms straight out I'm lifting straight up and down with 8lbs. weights.

Start off slow...be prepared to laugh a LOT at yourself and your complete and total lack of balance to begin with, and then slowly, gradually add more intensity.

Skull crushers. This is where seeing these photos shows me areas I need to work on, for example my arms in this photo should be coming down even lower much closer to my head.

Keeping your entire body straight, core engaged, alternate between weights straight up and then only bending at your elbows to bring the weights down as shown in the photo above. This move really works your tri's!...and after 3 sets of 15, you'll definitely feel it the next morning.

Ahhh...planks. When I first started I could barely hold this for 30 seconds, with a great big shaking earth quake going on! The idea is to stay up on your elbows and toes only, trying to keep your back straight, and hold this position as long as you can, but for at least 1 min.

You can also add to the intensity here by alternating holding 1 leg up in the air. And for even more intensity you can have a personal trainer like Swede push down on your leg as you hold it up in the air...or when both feet are on the ground you can have him sit on your back! Yes, yes he does actually do that to me...because he's so generous and supportive like that. :o)

Side planks are also a great exercise and you can vary the intensity by placing your feet up higher off the ground on a stool, kicking 1 leg up in the air, etc.

Ball squats can be used a few different ways. Start by standing against the wall like this leaning against the stability ball.

Then squat up and down as shown here, not sure why this photo turned out so dark, but you get the idea. You can do these as speed squats and do as many as you can in 1 min. Or for more intensity after a set of 15 you can hold this squat position below and have your trainer come over and do 10 push ups on your legs to add more weight on your quads.

Another alternative is to do leg kick outs with each time you squat to the seated position.

My kids love to try many of the exercises too!

So cute!

Seated Bosu to stand/press to V-sit...what does all that mean? Well you start by standing straight up and pressing weights to the ceiling.

Then bring your arms down to a 90 degree angle as you sit down on the Bosu.

Keeping your arms up, lean back and kick your legs straight out together. Then pull your legs back in and stand back up and press the weights to the ceiling again, repeat...a lot.

Another view of the 90 degree angle on your arms:

And holding legs out:

There you go, a glimpse into my world of strength training 3 times per week, in addition to running 3 times per week. As I mentioned this is only 1 small fraction of the many different kinds of workouts I've been doing.

Now you can see just how much of a huge difference it makes to hire a personal trainer!!! Swede's simply phenomenal! So if you live nearby and you're ever looking for a personal trainer, let me know and I'll be happy to pass along Swede's info.!