Gym Bro Nation
Well, this is new – a blog post where I’m not ranting about anything! Per a suggestion from a friend, I wanted to tell you guys a little more about what I do when I go to the gym. As always, I do want to clarify that I am not a certified fitness professional, nor do I actually know that much about this topic. I guess my “qualification” is that I am a person who enjoys going to the gym and being active, and I have a couple go-to circuits that I like to do to engage different parts of my body that I thought I would share with you all. No, I’m not a personal trainer. I’m just a regular person [like most of us, wow!] with some workouts that I think are fun. Enjoy!
First, a couple general thoughts about my time at the gym. I always start my workout with cardio, even if my main goal is a lift. If I’m really pressed for time, I’ll do as little as ten minutes of cardio on the spin bike as a warm-up, but as I’ve been running more and am aiming to up my endurance and do lots of cross-training, I now normally commit 30-45 minutes of cardio before I do other exercise. Regardless, I always make sure to stretch before I work out, and I try to save time to do it again after as well.
When I exercise (and especially when I run), I find that my calves or ankles often feel tight. With that in mind, I always include some stretches to target exactly those problems in my routine. I stretch my calves by pushing my foot against the wall with my toe on the wall and my heel on the ground and leaning forwards into the wall. I find that this one helps a lot. Another calf stretch I like involves going into the yoga pose “downward-facing dog” and sort of pedaling my feet trying to bring my heels as close as I can to lying flat on the ground. Of course, don’t stretch past the point of pain, and be mindful of what your body is telling you!
Okay, now let’s get to the good stuff. While there are many ways to divide up types of workouts, I generally split my indoor gym days into leg day, arm day, and ab day. Usually on the other days I’ll be running outdoors and my run is my whole workout for that day. A note about notation: for those of you who aren’t are familiar with written-out gym workouts, the exercises are broken up into sets and reps. For instance, when I say something like “4x8 leg press,” I mean four sets of eight reps on the leg press. So, you would perform the exercise first eight times, then take a short breather, and then do that set of eight reps three more times. When I say to “super set” one exercise with another, I mean that instead of taking a break between sets of Exercise A, you should instead alternate sets of Exercise A and Exercise B without breaks between the sets.
Leg Day:
Time: about 30 minutes
What you’ll need: this workout involves some gym equipment you may not have at home (particularly the leg press machine), so it’s probably best done in a gym. You’ll also need a box, a kettlebell (try ten or fifteen pounds to start), and light dumbbells!
What you’ll do:
4x8 leg press – you’ll likely be surprised by how much weight you can do with this! That said, start light. You can always add more!
3x10 box jumps, super set with
3x10 kettlebell squats
3x10 step-ups with dumbbells – step up onto the same box you were using for box jumps, do ten with one leg and then switch to do ten with the other. That’s one set! I would try eight pound dumbbells to start.
4x8 deadlift – I use heavier dumbbells but you can also obviously use a bar for this!
3x10 dumbbell weighted lunges
Arm Day:
Time: about 20 mins
What you’ll need: dumbbells of various weights (light, medium, and heavy), and ideally a bench
What you’ll do:
[standing exercises]
2x10 hammer curls, medium weight – like normal bicep curls but you’ll hold the dumbbells with arms straight down rather than turned out in front of you
2x10 lateral raises, light weight
2x10 bicep curls, medium weight
2x10 front raises, light weight – start with your arms down in front of you, lift up ninety degrees so they are extended straight out in front of you
2x10 bent over rows, heavy weight
2x10 push-ups
[bench exercises]
2x10 fly, light weight – laying on the bench, start with arms together and raised over your chest and then bring them down to your sides with arms extended outwards
2x10 dumbbell bench press – just like regular bench press but with dumbbells and you don’t need a spotter!
Ab Day:
Time: about 20 mins
What you’ll need: a mat, a medicine ball (around 8 pounds is usually good), and a timer
What you’ll do:
25 medicine ball sit-ups, you can add an overhead press with the ball once sitting
30 crunches – with feet off the floor, knees at 90 degrees
30 crunches – with feet off the floor, legs straight up
25 Russian twists with medicine ball – both sides is one rep
50 penguins – unsure what these are actually called, but lay on your back with your knees up but feet on the floor, shift from side to side to touch your heels with your hands. It seems super easy at first, but trust me it gets hard!
[1 minute break, then repeat this section once before moving to the next]
30” mountain climbers, follow with 15” break
30” plank jacks, follow with 15” break
30” left side plank
1’ center plank
30” right side plank
[1 minute break then repeat this section once]
Stretch! Try doing the yoga pose cobra to extend and stretch out your abdominal muscles. Working those muscles and then stretching them out right after helps make them more defined.
Whew, that was a lot of info—but I hope you guys get a chance to try these out, and definitely let me know if you do or if you have any questions! I’m sure some of my descriptions are a little bit unclear but I think most of my readers know me so just ask me in person or leave me a question in the comments. I know I mostly talk and post about the running portion of my fitness, but I definitely do a variety of other things too. If I ran every day, I think I would probably be injured by now, so I liked giving myself a day between most of my runs for some other cross-training or weightlifting activities. What are your favorite ways to mix up your exercising? Can’t wait to hear from you all!
