Today's workout and pics!

A picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say, and I thought I would take a couple of pictures of what I do everyday. So today was a weight lifting day ... I don't know if I clarified that or not, every other day I switch off between weight lifting and cardio. It's not a good idea to do too much on one day and you want to give your muscles time to heal after a good workout, so it's a good idea to switch off. Now some people who don't do cardio workouts, for example, will do upper body one day and lower body the next day... But for me and probably most of my reader's, weight loss AND cardio is the way to go. You need the weight lifting to work and tone your muscles, to get a nice lean look and if you are like me and have excess skin from the weight you've lost, lifting weights will help build your muscles and eventually tighten the skin. And you need the cardio to lose the weight!

 

This exercise is called a bench press, and I am lifting 40 pounds of weight - the bar is 20 pounds and each weight is 10 pounds. To start, you lay on the bench and lift the weight bar off of the stand. It should look like the first picture to the left, you want your hands shoulder wide apart, with your shoulders just past the stand.

The next picture, shows the weight bar about half way down to my chest. You always want to lower the weight slowly and push up quickly. That way you have more control over the weight on the way down and reduces the likelihood of injury. To complete one rep, or repetition, continue to lower the bar all the way down to your chest and push up swiftly.

I usually do 10 reps and 4 sets; a 'set' is a specific, predetermined number of reps. Keep in mind that you might not always do 10 reps in each set if your muscles start to fail, for example, then you would only lift what you're able to lift. The bench press is one of five weight lifting exercises I currently do and is the most weight I lift. 

Even though I am trying to currently lose weight, with my goal about 160 pounds, I use to be a lot heavier than I am now. I was at one time, about 6-7 years ago, 355 pounds ... I did the same type of workout routine as I am doing now, along with a very strict meal plan and I lost 195 pounds, reaching 160 pounds which is my current goal. I was at my healthiest with very minimal back pain during this time frame. I then relaxed my meal plan, had my beautiful girls and one thing lead to another and gained some of that weight back. So, trust me when I say I know how to lose weight - I'm kind of an expert at losing weight (which isn't really a good thing, but makes me knowledgeable none-the-less).

The other weight lifting exercises I do include the tricep curl, bicep curl, fly, and calf raises. All of these I do with 10 pound weights and will soon be moving up that weight on a few exercises. I will also continue to post pictures of each exercise, every other day when I do my weight lifting days, just so I can continue to share what I'm doing and hopefully that will help you, my reader's, see that it's not difficult and you can do it too!

Real quick before I sign off for the day, my pain is pretty bad today. I'm not sure why it's been so flared up lately and I'm still waiting for the VA to schedule a doctor's appointment down here in Arizona for me so I can hopefully get some help soon... But, I just hope that through my pain and suffering and sharing all of it with you, that I can inspire you to push yourself just a little bit more, get up and do the workouts, do one more set, five more minutes on the treadmill, or only eat half of the candy bar! 

I added one more picture, below, that is pretty much the same as the others, I just really like it and wanted to share one more with you. So, I hope this post will help and inspire you to start a workout today, even if it's one set, or five minutes walking ... It's something and that's a start! So, until next time, stay happy, healthy and strong!