Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 322

Day 322 Tonight Nicole and I worked out together. We were both tired and hungry at the end of our work days but we needed to get some aerobic work in. Nicole is preparing for her black belt test in Muay Thai Kickboxing and has been working really hard lately. Her coach Philip took her to the brink yesterday, so she was feeling pretty beat up today. I was feeling pretty tired from the hurricanes I did yesterday, so I figured some steady aerobic work would be good for both of us.

Today's Workout:

Expresso Bike: 7.2 miles with Various Inclined Sections (28 minutes)

Although we were both tired and hungry, this workout did what it was intended to do. We wanted some challenging although not too intense steady aerobic work. As I've mentioned in the past, I'm not a huge fan of steady of aerobic work but at least when you're on the Expresso Bike you kind of feel like you're going somewhere and have something to look at.

The other benefit of the aerobic session was that it left us nice and warm after finishing which allowed us to get a little deeper into some stretching and rolling afterward. As I mentioned before, we were both feeling sore and stiff from our workouts yesterday, so getting some blood flowing through the muscles and restoring some length was more than welcome. Tomorrow I'll get back at lifting the weights, which will seem some tame compared to the fact that Nicole will be fighting people for 90 minutes tomorrow night.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 321

Day 321 For some reason after the weekend, I woke up more tired than I had expected. I guess I didn't sleep very well last night. Oh well, no one likes Mondays right. Despite being tired my body felt good. My typical aches and pains weren't talking to me today which was nice.

For my workout tonight I joined my conditioning group for a Martin Rooney style Hurricane workout. I like Hurricanes because they get a lot of work done in a short period. They're a nice mix of high intensity cardio and strength.

Today's Workout:

Equipment:

Spin Bike 20 lb Dumbbells

Round 1:

Standing Spin Gear 22 (Until Partner Finished Dumbbell Exercises) Dumbbell Thrusters - 20 reps Alternating Dumbbell Lunges - 10 reps per side

3 sets

Round 2:

Standing Spin Gear 22 (Until Partner Finished Dumbbell Exercises) Dumbbell Deadlift Upright Row - 15 reps Dumbbell Renegade Row - 5 reps per side

3 sets

Round 3:

Standing Spin Gear 22 (Until Partner Finished Floor Exercises) Push-ups - 20 reps V-sits - 20 reps

3 sets

My group and I were thoroughly cooked by the end of the workout. Hurricanes typically use a treadmill for the cardio component. We didn't have access to treadmills, so we used the spin bikes instead. The worked quite well. The intensity maybe wasn't quite the same as doing an inclined sprint on a treadmill but the combination of tired legs from cycling then doing squats and lunging really challenged our muscular endurance.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 320

Day 320 i was feeling really tired and lazy today. I put off going to the gym all day but eventually dragged myself to the gym about an hour before dinner. When I got there I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to do. I put on my Olympic weightlifting shoes, thinking that I might work on some cleans or snatches but when I finally got down to business, I just couldn't bring myself to set up the bar. I wasn't really in an Olympic lifting kind of mindset. However, I did managed to get something done. After a little bit of warm-up I finally decided to just do a couple light strength circuits.

Today's Workout:

Quad Set 1:

Exercise 1: Pistol Squat 3 sets / 10 reps per side / no rest Set 1: Body Weight x 10 per side Set 2: 16kg Kettlebell x 10 per side Set 3: 16kg Kettlebell (x 2) x 10 per side

Exercise 2: Dumbbell Curl to Press 3 sets / 15 reps / no rest Set 1: 20lbs x 15 Set 2: 30lbs x 15 Set 3: 35lbs x 15

Exercise 3: Single Leg Romanian Deadlift 3 sets / 10 reps per side / no rest Set 1: 16kg Kettlbell x 10 per side Set 2: 16kg Kettlebell x 10 per side Set 3: 16kg Kettlebell (x2) x 10 per side

Exercise 4: 1/2 Kneeling Cable Chop (Keiser) 3 sets / 15 reps per side / 60 seconds rest Set 1: 30lbs x 15 per side Set 2: 30lbs x 15 per side Set 3: 30lbs x 15 per side

Quad Set 2:

Exercise 1: X-Pulldown 2 sets / 12 reps / no rest Set 1: 15lbs x 12 Set 2: 17.5lbs x 12

Exercise 2: Single Leg Swiss Ball Leg Curl 2 sets / 10 reps per side / no rest Set 1 and 2: Body Weight

Exercise 3: Leg Blaster Step-up 2 sets / 50 reps per leg / no rest Set 1 and 2: Body Weight

Exercise 4: Diamond Tricep Push-ups 2 sets / 40 reps / 60 seconds rest Set 1 and 2: Body Weight

I felt much more awake after the workout. I had trouble getting started but once I got going things worked out pretty well and I felt a lot more motivated. It wasn't heavy squats or cleans or even chin-ups but overall this series of exercises was quite taxing. The pistol squats when the got heavier were especially difficult.

I don't for see the coming presenting me with any unforeseen challenges. I hoping I'm start a strong push towards the end of the year. Only 45 more days. It's amazing how fast this year has gone by and the yet the last few weeks still seems like a big chunk of time. Oh well, have to keep going. The end is close but the plan is the same. Just one day at a time.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 319

Day 319 This morning Nicole and I, like the rest of Calgary, woke up to a blizzard. This would have been a perfect morning to sleep in and hibernate under the covers but we had other plans. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Nicole had volunteered us to take part in a charity kickboxing class, so instead of hiding from the elements we braved the roads and did some kicking and punching for a good cause.

Today's Workout:

60 minute Kickboxing Class

The class was a lot of fun. It wasn't the type of kickboxing class that Nicole does as part of her training. The people in this class were fitness newbies looking for a workout and not martial artists like Nicole. That being said, it was set up in such a way that really anyone of any fitness level could get a great workout if they worked hard enough. Instead of someone holding pads for you, you shared a kind of stand up punching bag called a wave blaster and did your punching and kicking with that.

I've never done any kickboxing myself, so I watched Nicole go to town on the wave blaster we were sharing and tried to copy her. She was going so fast that I had hard time keeping track of what she was doing. I did my best and eventually caught on pretty well, although my left kicks looked pretty funny. By the time the class was over I had worked up a decent sweat and shoulders were quite tired.

I may have been a little less than enthused about driving in the snow this morning, but I'm glad we went to this class. The money raised went to the Children's Hospital and I got in a fun workout. The people were so friendly and so helpful. This guy decked out head to toe in spandex was so concerned about me me wearing long pants and not having a water bottle that he kept offering me a sip of his water bottle. All in all it was great way to start a Saturday morning.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 318

Day 318 Well the weekend is here and my body has survived quite well. This time last week I wasn't feeling so good. My back was really not very happy but I'm happy to say today I feel really good. I'm still quite sore from the work I've put in over the last few days but it's a good kind of sore. My body feels like its been testing but nothing hurts in a bad way.

Today I decided to do another metabolic conditioning workout. It wasn't exactly a circuit but the rest periods were short and the exercises had a very high metabolic demand. I tried throwing in some higher rep Olympic lifting. I'm not typically a big fan of this and it may be a bit of a risk with my back, but I thought if I just pushed things to the fringe of too much, and didn't go too heavy that things should be ok.

Today's Workout:

Stationary Bike: 50 Calories

Exercise 1: Power Clean 5 sets / 10 reps / 45 seconds rest Set 1: 135lbs x 10 Set 2: 135lbs x 10 Set 3: 135lbs x 8 Set 4: 135lbs x 8 Set 5: 135lbs x 7

This part my have been a bit too ambitious. The reps were a bit too high and the rest was a bit too short. My forearms gave out towards the end of the 3rd set but the good news is that my lower back held up.

Treadmill Sprints: 8 mph / 11% grade 20 sec on / 10 sec off x 4

Tri-Set: 3 Rounds / no rest

Exercise 2: Jam Ball Slams x 10 (30lbs) Exercise 3: TRX Inverted Row x 10 Exercise 4: Lunges x 10 (5 per side)

Rowing Machine: 500 metres (1:52)

I was going to throw in a kettlebell ladder, involving 3 kettlebells, one heavy, one medium and one light. The idea is to do 10 swings with the heavy one, 20 swings with the medium one, and 30 swings with the light one. It can be quite a challenge if your kettlebells are heavy enough. However, I decided to give it a pass altogether. My back had survived the power clean test earlier on, but I didn't feel like pushing my luck. I had gotten a really good workout in to this point and was satisfied with what I had accomplished.

Tomorrow is Saturday and I don't have to work, which I'm looking forward to. I might get skip the gym altogether, in which I guess my workout will have to be a little different than most days. Nicole has volunteered the two of us for a charity Kickboxing workout. I've never done kickboxing before so it will be interesting to see how I do.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 317

Day 317 A little over a week ago I ordered some Olympic weight lifting shoes. They arrived in the mail earlier this week. I was really looking forward to using them this week but with my back being a little tricky I decided to hold off. I was feeling really good today but another couple days of being careful won't kill me.

A couple days ago, I did a pretty substantial chin-up workout. My lats and my biceps have been killing me and were certainly in no shape to be tested again. I wasn't going to get into any squats or deadlifts today, so I defaulted to the good old bench press.

Today's Workout:

Exercise 1: Shoulder Stability Series (Yellow Tubing)

• Backwards Arm Circles x 10 per side
• Single Arm Y x 10 per side
• Shoulder Extensions x 10
• External Rotation (Horizontal) x 10 per side

Exercise 2: Barbell Bench Press 5 sets / 8 - 10 reps / 2 min rest Set 1*: 135lbs x 10 Set 2: 185lbs x 10 Set 3: 185lbs x 10 Set 4: 185lbs x 10 Set 5: 185lbs x 10 Set 6: 185lbs x 10

Exercise 3: Dumbbell Neutral Grip Inclined Press (Drop Set) 2 sets / 10 rep, failure, failure / 2 min rest Set 1: 60 x 10, 50 x 12, 40 x 12 Set 2: 60 x 10, 50 x 12, 40 x 12

My pressing strength seems to be coming back. Things are not completely pain free. If I get loose with my reps, my left shoulder still hurts a little bit. I'm still working on improving my shoulder function. Helena has been helping with the active release, but I think I need to do my part a bit more with my stability work.

I thought my work day was over at 6 and was planning on fitting in some upper back exercises before dinner (Making sure that the muscles of the upper back are strong helps counter balance the effects of heavy pressing). However, I had forgotten that I had rescheduled a client and still had one more hour to work. By the time I actually finished work I was starving. The only thing I had on my mind was food. The other exercises would have to wait until another time.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 316

Day 316 I woke up today feeling pretty much brand new. I was a little achy last night from my active release session with Helena, but today I seemed to have no residual effects. I still didn't want to try anything too ambitious in terms of lifting but I felt pretty much in the clear to get a good sweat going with a metabolic circuit.

I often build my metabolic circuits by throwing together taxing strength movements with more cardio focused movements. Today, I still incorporated strength movements but kept them more on the body weight side. My goal was to get my heart rate up, which I feel I achieved in spades.

Today's Workout:

Metabolic Circuit: 3 rounds no rest

• Versa Climber - 100 feet
• Push-ups - 50 reps
• Double Under Skips - 100 reps
• Lunges - 50 reps
• Rowing Machine - 500 metres (Sub 1:55 all rounds)

My lungs were pretty fired up after this workout. Finishing with the rowing machine was especially difficult. I didn't have any problems with my back or hips which was great. I was able to push the envelope a bit more today, which was very satisfying.

A little bit later in the day my client Ryan came in. He normally sees me in the morning but he slept in today so we met at a different time. We often workout together so I decided to add on another workout today on top of the one I did earlier. At the gym we have these video game bikes called Expresso bikes. In an earlier post this year I mentioned that Ryan and I had raced. Today we had a rematch.

Expresso Bike:

5 mile course: My time 17:18 / Ryan's time 17:30

Ryan really pushed me today. He was quite ahead for half the race. It took a pretty big effort on my part to catch up. The workout earlier might have had something to do with it, but I was cooked by the time we finished. I'm quite proud of how far Ryan has come. I'd better keep up the conditioning or the next time we race, he's going to beat me.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 315

Day 315 I was hoping that my back and hips would be pretty close to100% today, but unfortunately I still felt like I was walking a little crooked. If I was in good enough shape I was going to hold off on seeing my chiropractor Helena today but I was where I had hoped to be so I gave her office a call to see if they could fit me in today. Luckily they had an opening that worked for me, so I made an appointment.

Before going to see Helena, I thought I would sneak in a bit of strength work. I had done almost exclusively cardio over the weekend, so I thought I'd just try a really simple upper body routine. I set a time for 15 minutes and tried to see how many chin-ups I could do before time ran out. I managed 90. I thought for a moment that I might get 100 but I just couldn't recover enough after my last set to get there. Oh well, something to work towards. I left the workout at that for time being and decided to wait until after chiro to see what else I felt like doing.

Helena had seen me in much worse shape in the past, but she still had some work to do to get me feel back to normal. My hips were a little out of place. Particularly my SI (Sacro-Iliac) joint, which seems be  a bit of re-occurring issue for me. She worked away on me for about 30 minutes, and after a lot of active release and a few adjustments, I left Helena's office feeling a little beat up but overall like a new man.

Today's Workout:

Exercise 1: 15 minutes Max Chin-ups

Attempt 1: 20 Attempt 2: 15 Attempt 3: 15 Attempt 4: 10 Attempt 5: 10 Attempt 6: 11 Attempt 7: 10

15 minutes Total Chin-ups: 90 - I finished up an even 100 with one extra set of 10

After Chiro:

Exercise 2: Barbell Overhead Press 4 sets / 15 reps / 60 seconds rest - 85lbs x 15 for all sets

I thought about adding in some cardio today but decided to wait until tomorrow. I didn't exactly do a huge volume of work, but I was quite tender after getting worked over at the chiros. I felt a lot better but I still didn't feel up to move around a ton. I did however, sneak in some overhead pressing. I thought about seeing if I could do 100 total reps like I did for the chin-ups, but my shoulders were having non of it and I didn't want to over do it .How I feel in the morning will determine what I get up to for tomorrow's workout. If my back and hips are feeling up to snuff, I'll may throw together a metabolic circuit. If I'm still feeling a little less than 100% I'll probably just make up for today's like of cardiovascular work and work my way through some intervals. Whatever, I end up doing I have a pretty good feeling that it will an improvement from the last couple days.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 311

Day 311 I woke up this morning feeling very stiff from my lifting session yesterday. I took advantage of every client's training session today by joining in with their stretching and rolling. This helped loosen me up a bit but I've come to terms with the fact that I'm going to be feeling this way for at least another day.

I thought about hopping on the bike to work on some of the junk in my legs but I was feeling pretty cardio lazy, so I just did some upper body work and avoided using my legs all together. Probably not what I needed but at least I got something in.

Today's Workout:

AM Session:

A1. Dumbbell External Rotation (Elbow on Preacher Bench) 3 sets / 10 - 12 reps per side / 60 seconds rest / 301 tempo (12.5 x 12, 15 x 12, 15 x 12) A2. Dumbbell Low Trap Raise 3 sets / 10 - 12 reps per side / 60 seconds rest / 2011 tempo (12.5 x 12, 15 x 12, 15 x 12)

B1. Kettlebell Forward Raise 3 sets / 10 - 12 reps / no rest / 301 tempo (6kg x 12, 6kg x 12, 6kg x 12) B2. Reverse Machine Fly 3 sets / 10 - 12 reps / no rest / 3011 tempo (50 x 12, 70 x 12, 70 x 12)

C1. Lateral Dumbbell Raise (20 x 15, 20 x 15, 25 x 15) 3 sets / 12 - 15 reps / 60 seconds rest / 301 tempo

I decided to cut this workout a little short and get some lunch. With the way my day was shaping up I felt getting some food took priority of doing more exercises. After lunch and a couple more clients, I went back to the weights and finished up with a few sets of biceps and triceps.

PM Session: Arms

A1. Skull Crushers (Cambered Bar Tricep Extension) 4 sets / 10 - 12 reps / no rest / 301 tempo (65 x 12, 75 x 12, 75 x 12, 75 x 12) A2. Barbell Curl 4 sets / 10 - 12 reps / 60 seconds rest / 301 tempo (60 x 12, 80 x 12, 80 x 12, 80 x 12)

B1. Tricep Rope Pulldown 3 sets / 10 - 12 reps / no rest / 401 tempo (85 x 12, 110 x 12, 110 x 12) B2. Dumbbell Hammer Curl 3 sets / 10 - 12 reps / 60 seconds rest / 301 tempo (35 x 12, 35 x 12, 35 x 12)

Well the weekend is here. Nicole and I are catching a flight to Vancouver Island this evening. I'm looking forward to getting away for a couple days. It's been a busy fall. Work has been rolling along full steam for the last couple months. So, even though it's only for a long weekend, a change of scene will still be really nice.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 310

Day 310 I was looking forward to today's workout all week. I've had the urge to move some heavier weights lately. I really want to be able have some decent strength by the end of the year and the only way to do that is get myself under some heavier loads.

I had two main goals today. I wanted to work on some Olympic lifting and I wanted to do some heavy squats. I haven't done a ton of squats lately, so I wasn't sure how it would go. My co-worker Philip posted a video of himself doing some super heavy squats on Facebook. This got my pretty inspired to get in the squat rack and put myself to the test.

Today's Workout: Olympic Lifting and Lower Body Strength

Olympic Lifts

Set 1: Squat Cleans (from the hang) - 5 x 95lbs Set 2: Barbell Complex - 4 reps each x 95lbs - Hang Clean - Power Clean (Floor) - Front Squats Set 3: Barbell Complex - 4 reps each x 115lbs - Hang Clean - Power Clean (Floor) - Front Squats Set 4: Power Clean - 4 x 135lbs Set 5: Power Clean - 4 x 165lbs Set 6: Power Clean - 4 x 185lbs Set 7: Squat Clean - 4 x 185lbs Set 8: Squat Clean - 4 x 185lbs

I was really happy with my Olympic lifting today. Things were working really well tonight. My form felt on spot and my timing, which I've struggled with in the past was really dialed in. I didn't go for any personal bests but I had a decent amount of weight on the bar and was moving it quite easily.

Lower Body Strength

Set 1: Back Squats - 5 x 225lbs / 3 min rest Set 2: Back Squats - 3 x 275lbs / 5 min rest Set 3: Back Squats - 2 x 315lbs

I was a little disappointed in my squats. I guess I shouldn't have expected too much. I haven't been squatting very heavy lately. They felt pretty good with the 225lbs and the even 275, but the 315 nearly crushed me. My legs just stopped working. I thought about dropping the weight and doing a couple more sets but I ran out of time and had to teach a class. However, an hour later when my class was finished I still felt like doing some more. I passed on more squats and decided to challenge my stability a bit more with some overhead barbell lunges.

60 minutes Later

Set 4: Barbell Overhead Lunges - 5 x 95lbs per side / 2 min rest Set 5: Barbell Overhead Lunges - 5 x 95lbs per side / 2 min rest Set 6: Barbell Overhead Lunges - 5 x 95lbs per side

I had never tried the barbell overhead lunges before. I didn't have a ton of weight on the bar but it was plenty heavy enough to present a serious challenge. Lunges are most frequently done with dumbbells, sometimes with a barbell on the shoulders, but very rarely are they done with anything overhead. When the weight is overhead the exercise is much more challenging on the core because you must keep your torso vertical in order to avoid dropping the weight. Therefore, the overhead version may not strengthen your legs as much but it's more beneficial for strengthening your body overall.

Energy System: Rowing

200 metres (Sub 45 seconds) - rest 30 seconds x 8 Sets

I didn't get any sort of cardio or energy system work in yesterday, so I finished off with a little time on the rower. I thought about running but my legs were a little jiggly from the weight lifting. The rower worked well. I felt I was able to get some good high heart rate work in despite my legs being fried. That being said by the time I was finished my legs and especially my glutes were toast.

I feel pretty good about today's workout. I left the gym feeling thoroughly taxed. I have a feeling I'm going to feel pretty sore tomorrow. My next workout will have to be a lot less intense, but that's ok. I think what I did today earned a little bit of slack for tomorrow.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 309

Day 309 I've been doing a good job of training my lower body lately, so I decided a thorough upper body strength session would be a good idea today. For some reason my workout today took place over half my day. I started on the bench press with the plan of going reasonably heavy. One of my clients and I got our wires crossed so I started on the bench while I waiting to see if they would make it. Our session didn't happen. I managed to get all my bench press sets finished but I had to get to some paperwork and phone calls, so I had to finish the rest of the workout a little bit later.

Today's Workout:

AM Session

Exercise 1: Bench Press 5 sets / 6 - 8 reps / 2 minutes rest Set 1: 8 x 185lbs Set 2: 6 x 205lbs Set 3: 6 x 205lbs Set 4: 6 x 205lbs Set 5: 10 x 185lbs

Noon Hour Session

Exercise 2: Barbell Overhead Press 4 sets / 8 - 10 reps / 90 seconds rest Set 1 - Set 4: 95lbs x 10

Exercise 3: Neutral Grip Machine Chest Press 4 sets / 8 - 10 reps / 90 seconds rest Set 1: 10 x 130lbs Set 2: 10 x 140lbs Set 3: 8 x 150lbs Set 4: 8 x 150lbs

Late Afternoon Session

Exercise 4: Barbell Bent-Over Row (Wide Grip) 5 sets / 8 - 10 reps / 2 minutes rest Set 1: 10 x 135lbs Set 2: 8 x 155lbs Set 3: 8 x 175lbs Set 4: 8 x 175lbs Set 5: 8 x 175lbs

Exercise 5: V-Bar (Neutral Grip) Lat Pulldown 4 sets / 8 - 10 reps / 90 seconds rest Set 1: 10 x 140lbs Set 2: 10 x 160lbs Set 3: 10 x 160lbs Set 4: 8 x 160lbs

Exercise 6: Single Arm Cable Row 3 sets / 12 reps per side / 60 seconds rest Set 1 - Set 3: 12 x 120lbs per side

Exercise 7: Rope Face Pull 3 sets / 12 reps / 60 seconds rest Set 1: 12 x 80lbs Set 2: 12 x 100lbs Set 3: 12 x 100lbs

I finished up with some more upper body pushing movements about an hour after finishing up on the bench. For time's sake I would have preferred to have finished my workout all at once but It actually worked out pretty well. My chest and shoulders were pretty tired after the first session but an hour later they had recovered quite a bit. I felt that I was able to work a little harder than if I had done them right after the bench press.

Later in the afternoon, my client Ryan came in. My plan for him was an upper body pulling strength session. I had quite a bit of energy left and felt that I should put some more work in, so I joined Ryan. It worked out quite well. Ryan has been getting a lot stronger. Often when we workout together I modify his exercises from mine but lately I haven't had to do that as much. This also worked out well because it added balance to the workout I had done earlier. I often prefer to pair upper body push movements with pull movements. Today I didn't pair up push and pull but after doing the afternoon sessions both movements had gotten the same amount of attention.

My legs should be good and fresh tomorrow after getting a couple days break. I haven't done any Olympic lifts since last week, so I think that will be on the agenda tomorrow.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 308

Day 308 After yesterdays workout I was quite tired today. I lifted a lot more weight during my dead-lifts than I had in a long time. This left my hamstrings and low back pretty stiff today. The conditioning workout I did with my group afterward was really thorough full body thrashing, so the rest of my body was feeling it as well. So, considering the state of my body I decided to take a break from the gym and do something that challenged me but gave me a break from lifting. I tend to go for a run when I need to unload a bit but I felt like leaving the gym, so instead I decided to go to Hot Yoga on 17th near my house. I had a good time the last time I went, so I thought I'd give it a try again.

Today's Workout:

75 minutes of Hot Yoga

This class was ok. I didn't enjoy it as much as the last time I went to hot yoga. I had a hard to time following today. The instructor went a little fast for my taste and there wasn't much correcting going on. However, I eventually caught on. I'm a little more familiar with some of the poses than I was earlier in the year and felt I made some progress with some of them I had previously found hard to get into. As always, getting a really good sweat going is really satisfying, but I found the room hotter than usual. I would say the fact that it's cold outside makes the contrast between temperatures seem more extreme.

The yoga, although not incredibly satisfying served it's purpose. As I mentioned earlier, yesterday's workout was pretty tough. I lifted some really heavy weights, and pushed it hard with my conditioning group. I needed a break from the lifting but still needed something that presented a challenge and the yoga did just that. Tomorrow, I hope to get back at the weights.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 303 (Really 307)

Day 307 I did the math the other night as I counted down how many days I have left to complete my goal and I realized that the math was off and that my workouts were numbered incorrectly. I know I hadn't missed a workout. I swear to god I haven't missed one but somehow I was 4 workouts short. I looked back through my Facebook page through my workouts. The first 100 or so were exclusively on Facebook, as I hadn't started using this blog yet. I haven't found all of the discrepancies yet, after all I have over 300 days to look through, but I have found a couple. I will find the other ones but for now I know that I'm at 307 days instead of 303.

I ended up breaking up my workout into two parts today. originally I was just going to do some heavy dead-lifting but I decided to join my conditioning group for a metabolic session as well.

The first session was pretty straight forward. Just dead-lifting for a high volume of sets. I haven't gone very heavy on dead-lifts very much this year. It tends to be a trigger for putting out my back. However, I've been feeling pretty strong lately so I felt game to pick up something heavy.

Today's Workout:

Part one: Deadlift Session

Warm-up series

• Glute Raises x 10
• Marching Glute Bridge x 10 per side
• Lying Active Hamstring Stretch x 5 per side
• 45 degree back-extensions 2 sets x 15 reps

Exercise 1: Barbell Deadlift - 2 min rest between sets Set 1: 135 lbs x 5 (Warm-up set) Set 2: 185 lbs x 3 Set 3: 185 lbs x 3 Set 4: 205 lbs x 3 Set 5: 205 lbs x 3 Set 6: 225 lbs x 3 Set 7: 265 lbs x 3 Set 8: 295 lbs x 3 Set 9: 315 lbs x 3

Part 2: Conditioning Workout

My second training session wasn't as straight forward as the first one. The overall gist of the workout wasn't complicated, but it did have a lot more components than the first training session. The workout had 2 goals. Burn 300 calories via cardio machines and complete 300 combined reps from a list of strength movements. The most you could burn at a time for cardio was 50 calories with a strength exercise occurring in between cardio bouts.

300 calories / 300 reps

Push-ups x 60 Lunges x 100 Spin Bike x 50 calories Chin-ups x 20 Box Jumps x 10 Treadmill x 50 calories Kettlebell Front Squats x 20 Spin Bike x 50 calories Chin-ups x 20 Treadmill x 50 calories Kettlebell Swings x 50 Rowing Machine x 50 calories Box Jumps x 20 Rowing Machine x 50 calories

This workout was really tough. My group pushed hard and did a great job of finishing the workout within our hour long session. I was super sweaty by the time I finished. The mix of cardio and strength pushed two different systems of the body to an extreme. By the time the workout was over you felt spent from the inside out. The calorie counters aren't exactly accurate, so I'm not sure how many calories we burned, but by judging from comparative data I've read, I wouldn't be surprised if we expended close to 700 calories. If you include the metabolic cost of recovering from the workout I'd say this worked took us into the 1000 calorie range.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 302

Day 302 Today was another typical Saturday; A little bit of work and a lot of running around. The week is always so busy with work that weekends are the only time to get caught up and the personal stuff. I was quite tired today from being busy and working out. Thursday was the 300 workout, which left me really sore, and yesterday was a super harder rowing / burpee workout. I knew today's workout would have to be a lighter one. My body needed a break but my mind was also running a little low on motivation as well. I through together a light auxiliary strength session.

Today's Workout

Superset 1

A1. Standing Cable Chest Fly: 3 sets / 12 reps (Keiser: 30lbs of air pressure all sets) - no rest A2. Prone Leg Curl: 3 sets / 10 reps (115 lbs all sets) - 60 seconds rest

Tri-Set 1:

B1. Kettlebell Pistol Squats: 3 sets / 5 reps per side (12 kg all sets ) - no rest B2. Lateral Dumbbell Raise: 3 sets / 15 reps (20 lbs all sets) - no rest B3. Tricep Rope Pulldown: 3 sets / 15 reps (100 lbs all sets ) - no rest

Tri-Set 2:

C1. Dumbbell Bicep Curl: 3 sets / 12 reps (35 lbs all sets) - no rest C2. Rope Face Pull: 3 sets / 15 reps (50 lbs all sets) - no rest C3. Plate Weighted Back-Extensions: 3 sets / 15 reps (45 lbs all sets) - no rest

This workout did the trick. I pushed the cardio pretty hard yesterday and crushed the strength stuff the day before. So something light involving some smaller muscle groups was just enough to keep things going. Tomorrow is Sunday. I'm hoping for a pretty relaxing day. I'm pretty sure tomorrow's workout will be on the lighter side as well.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 303

Day 303 Today was a pretty lazy day. I did a few random things around the house and worked on the computer. By the time I got around to trying to get a workout in I wasn't feeling very motivated. When you haven't moved around much all day, it seems a lot harder to get the blood pumping than if you've been keeping active throughout the day.

I did have one thing that helped motivate me to get in the gym. Nicole's family planned a belated birthday dinner for me this evening. I had a feeling it was going to be quite the feast, so I thought I had to at least get a little bit of a sweat going to mitigate the damage.

Today's Workout:

Elliptical: 10 minutes (Medium Intensity - Level 10 - 14 / 130 strides per minute)

Rowing: 1500 metres - 6:36

Skipping: 6:00 minutes (Singles - random footwork pattern)

The workout was pretty simple. I had trouble sticking to any one form of exercise but I after adding it all up I got something in. I wasn't a puddle of sweat but I felt a little better about going sitting down for a massive meal, which by the way was awesome. We had a delicious meal consisting of rack of lamb and roasted vegetables, capped off by an amazing cake made by Nicole's sister Clare.

Well the weekend came and went. I got some exercise and caught up on some rest. I feeling pretty good about the week coming. I anticipate having a lot of gas in the tank tomorrow. My hope is to take advantage of having some more juice and go at it hard with a really tough workout.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 301

Day 301 After the 300 workout yesterday every muscle in my body was sore today, especially my hamstrings. I guess 50 deadlifts will do that. I decided that taking a break from the weights today would be a good idea. My muscles are going to need another day or two to recover from yesterday.

I was going to go for a leisurely run or bike but I changed my mind. Nicole and I had a nice big sushi lunch, which when added to the large amount of hash browns I had with breakfast made for a lot more carbs than I typically eat. I wasn't overly concerned about the carbs. I've been trying to beef up my overall calories anyway, but I did feel that my workout should take advantage of the extra glucose in my system.

Today's Workout: Descending Row / Ascending Burpees

Round 1: 800 m (sub 1:55 / 500 m split) / 10 Burpees Round 2: 600 m (sub 1:50 / 500 m split) / 20 Burpees Round 3: 400 m (sub 1:45 / 500 m split) / 30 Burpees Round 4: 200 m (sub 1:35 / 500 m split) / 40 Burpees

This workout was really tough. It definitely took advantage of my ambitious eating from earlier and as a bonus it helped me work toward my goals of rowing under 1:30 for 500 metres and completing 100 burpees in a row without stopping. The sub 1:30 row is possible but the 100 burpees still seems pretty daunting. I'd like to achieve both goals before the end of the year, but I don't have a lot of time left. I'm not super thrilled at the prospect of seriously increasing the amount of burpees I've been doing, but I guess it will have to be done.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 300

Day 300 Today was my 300th day of working out without a break. I've been looking forward to this workout all year. I knew that by the time I got to day 300 that the end was just around the corner but I was also looking forward to coinciding this day with the infamous "300 Workout".

The 300 workout was created by personal trainer, Mark Twight, who was hired by the producers of the 300 movie to get the cast in Spartan warrior shape in a very short period of time. If you've seen the movie, you know that Twight's program worked wonders, as the entire cast looked pretty impressive. The program worked so well that it made Twight the go to guy in Hollywood to get actors in awesome shape. Most recently he was hired to get Henry Cavill in Superman shape for the Man Of Steel. I've wanted to give the 300 workout it a try for awhile. Initially it seemed a little over the top to me, but I thought at the end of 300 days I should be in good enough shape to get through it. So today on day 300, I got to find out if I was right.

Today's Workout: "The 300 Workout"

• Pull-ups: 25 reps
• Deadlift: 50 reps (135 lbs)
• Push-ups: 50 reps
• 24-inch Box Jumps: 50 reps
• Floor Wipers: 50 reps
• Single Arm Kettlebell Clean and Press: 50 reps (36 lbs)
• Pull-ups: 25 reps

This workout lived up it's reputation. When I finished I was toast. I didn't time myself. I forgot that was part of the protocol. Apparently sub 20:00 minutes is a decent standard. My guess was that I was pretty close to the 20 minute mark. I did however, do my best to finish my exercises as quickly and as well as I could with no rest periods. I was able to do most of the workout unbroken with the exception of the pull-ups and deadlifts. Doing deadlifts after 25 pull-ups was murder on the forearms. I can definitely see how this workout if done with some consistency, would yield some pretty impressive results.

I don't plan on going into battle anytime soon, but after 300 days of working out I'm pretty happy with what my body can withstand. 65 days to go. I'm feeling pretty confident that I'm going to reach my goal. I'm in the home stretch. I just have to do my best to stay healthy. I've been a feeling a little less than healthy the last couple days, probably from the Halloweening last weekend. However I've managed to keep myself from getting too under the weather. It's pretty interesting to look back on how often I've gotten sick this year. I think the frequency of illness hasn't really changed from previous years but the severity of the illness has been significantly different. I've caught probably 4 or 5 bugs so far over the year and yet nothing has managed to take hold enough to knock me off the workout streak. Lets hope for no more illness or at the very least the trend of me smashing bugs like a Spartan warrior continues.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 299

Day 299 With tomorrow being workout number 300, I wanted to save myself a bit today, so that I could make my tomorrow really count. I thought about joining my group tonight but I had a really hard one planned for them, so I used a 30 minute window in my afternoon to spend a little bit of time on the bench.

The normal bench press stations were preoccupied so I set up our keiser rack for bench press. The Keiser rack is different than a standard rack in that instead of using a bar loaded with plates, you use a bar attached to cables that move against air resistance. This creates a unique challenge for the user. When someone moves a bar that is loaded with iron plates they are working against the inertia of the load they are moving. The bar and the plates have mass, meaning that although it takes work to get them moving, eventually they take on momentum. The beginning of the movement is always the most work, but the end is less difficult because the momentum helps move the load. With the Keiser system the resistance is constant from beginning to end. Air has no mass and therefore it cannot take on momentum. This means that per rep your body ends up doing more work.

Today's Workout:

Exercise 1: Keiser Bench Press (45 lb Olympic Bar Added) Set 1: 135lbs of Pressure x 8 Set 2: 110lbs of Pressure x 10 Set 3: 125lbs of Pressure x 10 Set 4: 135lbs of Pressure x 8 Set 5: 140lbs of Pressure x 6 Set 6: 140lbs of Pressure x 6

Exercise 2: Tubing External Rotation (Super-setted with 1st 3 sets of Exercise 1) 3 sets / 15 reps per side

Exercise 3: Tubing Internal Rotation (Super-setted with 2nd 3 sets of Exercise 1) 3 sets / 15 reps per side

Normally when I use the keiser system I use a very light bar specifically designed to be used with the air resistance. However, today I decided to use a normal 45lb Olympic bar, but for some reason I forgot to factor in that this would make things harder. My first couple sets felt much harder than I thought they should, then I realized that I was moving 45lbs more than I thought I was. 45lbs is not that much but as I mentioned before using air resistance makes things harder, so any extra weight is plenty.

There wasn't a lot of variety today, but it was challenging enough. Tomorrow, I should have plenty of energy for my workout. As I mentioned yesterday the plan is the 300 workout. I took one of my clients through a modified version, so I have an idea of how it will go. I anticipate it being tough but I think I should manage pretty well.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 298

Day 298 Yesterday's workout left me with a nice overall soreness today. I wasn't ruined but I could I feel the after effects of my workout pretty much everywhere, a feeling that is always satisfying. My body is working quite well again. I think I've listened to it really well as of late and as a result things are feeling really good. The massage yesterday wasn't super deep but I anything I can do to speed up recovery is helpful.

For today's workout I decided to get a good sweat going today. I hadn't done a good, hard, straight cardio session for awhile, so I felt it was about time I through in. Plus, although yesterday's thrusters weren't very heavy, I did do a lot of reps and probably could have used a break from pushing weights around anyway.

Today's Workout:

Interval Training (Stationary Bike): - After 3 minute light warm-up

Level 18 / 85+ RPM / 1 min Level 5 / 80+ RPM / 2 min

X 9 = 30 minutes total (Including warm-up)

This was quite a tough bike session. I chose level 18 on the bike somewhat randomly, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was confident in my leg strength but after the 3rd interval at level 18, I knew I was in for a good test. By the time I was done, I was covered in sweat and my quads were ready to explode. As I mentioned earlier, it had been awhile since I'd done a pure cardio focused workout. I don't typically enjoy doing just cardio but this one wasn't too long but it definitely got the job done.

Well two days left until I'll be at day 300. The plan is to do the famous 300 workout from the movie of the same name. I've been looking forward to doing it all year. I've heard it's pretty tough, so I'm going to have a lighter day tomorrow to make sure I've got lots of juice. I guess I'll find out if the 300 spartans would let me join their army.

Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 297

Day 297 Today I decided to take the afternoon off and enjoy some me time. Why? because it was birthday today. 35 years old! Holy cow time has flown. It was 10 years ago when I moved to Calgary. My career was just getting started and I had no idea how to take care of myself. Now I wouldn't say I'm all grown up, but I've come a long way. My career is going well and I'm engaged to someone amazing. Life is pretty good.

After working a few hours in the morning, I left work and enjoyed my afternoon. I went home and relaxed a little bit, then went to the spa and had a massage. It wasn't the deep shredding kind that I typically get but it was nice and did manage to loosen things up a bit. After a couple days of taking it easier on the weekend, my body actually felt pretty good anyway. After the massage I picked Nicole up from work. We were planning on grabbing some dinner to celebrate my birthday, so I had to sneak back to work and get in a quick workout, so that we wouldn't have to eat too late.

Today's Workout:

Exercise 1: Barbell Thruster (Front Squat to Overhead Press) 10 sets / 10 reps / 60 seconds rest (95 lbs)

This workout did exactly what I needed it to. It was really hard, my legs and especially my shoulders were thoroughly thrashed and it only took about 20 minutes. This gave me ample time to get home, changed and head out to celebrate my birthday with some dinner and little bit of cake. Overall I had a great birthday. I didn't need anything to elaborate. I had some fun with friends on the weekend. Having some time off work to do my own thing today was really nice, but in the end the fact that I get to spend time with the most wonderful person in the world, my fiance Nicole, is worth a lifetime's worth of birthday presents.