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Monthly Archives: March 2018

Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine – Full body workout

26 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by Dave Gardner in Workout Routine

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Bodybuilding, Exercise, full body workout, healthy living

Today was a different workout. I felt really energized and instead of doing my one body part I knocked out a full body workout. I started with legs and worked all the way down to abs. Here’s the routine.

  • Machine Leg Presses
  • Machine Leg Extensions
  • Machine Seated Leg Curls
  • Machine Calf Presses
  • Machine Bench Press
  • Machine Lat pull down
  • Machine Shoulder Press
  • Machine Bicep Curls
  • Machine Dips
  • Machine Ab Crunch

I worked each exercise with 3 sets, with 20 reps per set. This is a high-rep week. I hope this provides you with a good idea of what to do with a full body workout, when you’re feeling really good going into the gym.

Until next time..

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Journal Series – The Planning Journal

26 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by Dave Gardner in Journaling Series

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journaling, Planning, Productivity

The Planning Journal

This week’s posting will discuss the planning journal. You’re probably asking yourself, what is that? Well, Davis (2007) describes the planning journal as a place to brainstorm, to outline, to list out, or any process or tool you use to figure out how you are going to accomplish something or capture ideas about what you are going to do in the upcoming week, month, or year.

I don’t keep a planning journal but do go through these steps when I am looking at tackling a project. The steps I use are what David Allen (2015) calls the “Natural Planning Model” (p.60). Here’s what it looks like:

1. Defining purpose and principles
2. Outcome visioning
3. Brainstorming
4. Organizing
5. Identifying next actions

Defining purpose and principles is about deciding what you want to do and why you are doing it. Outcome visioning is what you see as the “product” of your efforts. Brainstorming is when you list out as many ideas about how you will accomplish something without judging them. Organizing is when we go through all our ideas, group them together, and get rid of the things we brainstormed that won’t work. Once we’re organized and all the tasks we have in our project are put into a defined order of items to accomplish we can identify what to start with first or what is called the next action.

It’s hard to brainstorm, organize, and put all of this together without having something to write in or on. I like using an app called Toodledo, which has a list and outline function. You can use pen and paper in your journal. In the list section, I brainstorm. I literally try to capture anything and everything I will need to do to get something done. This is important for research papers, complicated projects, and writing books, articles, or blog posts. I try to capture anything and everything I will need to do and just list it out in whatever order the ideas come to me. Once I’m done with that, I organize by putting them in an outline, putting these ideas into an order of execution. Then you can take your outline with your ordered tasks and put them on your to-do list or your productivity tool.

You can also write down the things you want or need to do. Maybe you must get a birthday gift for someone. You can brainstorm and research what items you think they need and start getting prices and stores that have these items. Maybe you are looking to begin going to the gym. You can flesh out your ideas on how to get started. Maybe you want to take a vacation or trip or maybe begin working on establishing a new habit you believe will be beneficial.

Anything can go in your planning journal that has to do with ideas, upcoming tasks, projects to accomplish, big projects, anything. Have fun with this idea. One other thing. A planning journal can track your process of idea generation, brainstorming, and ideas of what you’d like to do. It is a great place just to put all of those random ideas that pop into your head about what you might want to do like to do or need to do. It is a great tool to look back at and see where you were and where you have come.

One other best-practice I’d like to introduce you to is the idea of time stamping everything you put into a journal. This way it’s easier to see your growth in action. You can see what you were thinking about in a given period. I’ll pass on all my best-practices in my final article in this journaling series.

I hope this was helpful. Feel free to pass along any ideas you have here if you’d like.

Until next time…

Dave

References

Allen, D. (2015). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Davis, K. (2007). 15 types of journals to keep. Retrieved from https://www.darktea.co.uk/blog/15-different-types-of-journals-to-keep

 

Weekly Ramblings – Journal Series – Exercise Journal

19 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by Dave Gardner in Journaling Series

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Exercise Journal, journaling, Setting Goals, tracking progress

The Exercise Journal

Hello, readers!

This week we’ll discuss the exercise journal. The exercise journal is nothing more than tracking what you do when you work out. This is an important facet of any exercise program, because it is crucial that you track what you are doing in the gym. It is equally important to set goals to strive for, so your body continues to improve.

What to track

If you are lifting weights you’ll want to track the exercise, the weight you are lifting, and the number of repetitions you accomplish for each set. The nomenclature for this is simple. It looks like this:

Bench Press 20 x 100lbs; 15 x 120lbs; 10 x 150lbs; 7 x 200lbs

If you are doing cardio, you could track your progress like this:

Treadmill 25 minutes, Hill Program, Level 3

What about goals?

Let’s say you’ve been lifting weights and doing cardio for a few weeks. Now you want to set some goals—something to work towards. So, you look at your bench press and your treadmill work and decide you want to be able to lift 220lbs in 4 months. You also decide that you’d like to do cardio for 30 minutes using the Hill program at level 5.

Now you have some goals. Now it’s nothing more than tracking your progress toward these goals as you fill out your exercise journal.

Digital Versions

Personally, I like to track my workouts using MS One Note. It’s in the cloud, so I can access it on my phone, my laptop, and my desktop. You can use commercial exercise trackers, but I’ve discovered there’s always a glitch or some other issue to deal with. You can also use pen and paper. I chose to go digital with mine because I carry my phone anyways for the music I like to listen to. This is solely up to you.

Next week, we’ll discuss the food journal.

Hope this has been informative.

See you next week!

Dave

Workout Routine – Shoulder Day!

14 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by Dave Gardner in Workout Routine

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Bodybuilding, Deltoids, healthy living, Trapezoids

Ok folks!

Here was today’s workout for shoulders. For my shoulder workouts I try to hit all of the deltoid heads (front, side, and rear) and traps.

  • Machine Shoulder Press (full pyramid)
  • Cable Front Raises (4 static sets)
  • Cable Lateral Raises (4 static sets)
  • Dumbbell Rear Delt Flys (half-pyramid)
  • Dumbbell Shoulder Shrugs (4 static sets)
  • Cable Internal rotations (4 static sets)
  • Cable External rotations (4 static sets)

Good shoulder workout today. Hope everyone is having a great week so far.

See you tomorrow for Arm and Forearm day.

Dave

Workout Routine – Chest Routine

13 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by Dave Gardner in Workout Routine

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Bodybuilding, chest, healthy living

Today I hit the chest. Here’s the routine:

  • Machine inclined chest press
  • Cable low fly
  • Cable medium fly
  • Cable high fly
  • Smith machine flat bench press

All sets pyramids 6-8 reps.

See you tomorrow!!

Dave

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Workout Routine – Leg Day!

12 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by Dave Gardner in Workout Routine

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Calves, Hamstrings, Leg day, Quadriceps

Well, folks, another leg day has come and gone. Today’s workout involved full pyramids. Here is the exercise routine:

  • Leg Press Machine
  • Leg Extension Machine
  • Seated Leg Curl Machine
  • Calf Press Machine

Each set was for 8 reps and rest between sets was minimal. The time between sets involved moving the pin and grinding through another set. I worked up the weight until I could not do 8 reps with good form and then dropped plate by plate until I reached the beginning set. On the last set I worked to failure (as many reps as possible).

See you tomorrow!

Dave

Weekly Ramblings – Journal Series – The Gratitude Journal

12 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by Dave Gardner in Journaling Series

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Achieving Calm, Benefits, Gratitude Jouraling, habits, reducing stress

The Gratitude Journal

Gratitude journals are a great way to remain content, pick yourself up, and learn to appreciate the important things in life. Some of these things could be a relationship, your pet, some of the things you enjoy doing, a great restaurant, or literally anything that makes you feel good.

There are a whole host of benefits associated with gratitude journaling. Writing about things that you are grateful for will reduce stress, help you focus on the important things, and feel calm at night (Jessen, 2015). Focusing on what we are grateful for, minimizes our focus on what we do not like and cheers us up naturally by focusing on the good in our lives.

Jessen (2015) suggests writing in your gratitude journal at night for about 10-15 minutes, but I have found writing down what I’m grateful for in the morning is also a great way to start the day. I call these my grateful 3. In the morning I write down three things I am grateful for and I do the same thing in the evening. I came up with the number three after I purchased the 5-minute journal from intelligent change (www.intelligentchange.com). The 5-minute journal is where I started my gratitude journaling.

I highly recommend the journal if you really don’t know where to start. They give you an introduction to gratitude journaling in the front of the book and explain the benefits of this type of journaling. Each day you have three entries in the evening, three entries in the morning, a daily affirmation section (more on this in a later journal series article), and what you could do to even have a better day tomorrow.

I stopped using the book form of the 5-minute journal for a while and went to their iPhone version, but found it lacking. I like writing with pen and ink because I feel more connected to the words. Subsequently, I decided to create my own journal. I will discuss building your own journal at the end of my journal series.

Gratitude journaling is a great way to start and end your day because it causes you to find those things that you are grateful for each day. Some weeks you’ll use the same items over and over, but from time-to-time, you’ll be surprised at what you find yourself smiling about. For me a good cup of coffee at the local Starbucks, a good workout at my gym, or a serendipitous meeting with someone that was a joy to meet are all examples of what I find myself expressing gratitude for.

If you are not currently journaling, you may want to try starting a gratitude journal. It is easy to do, not too time intensive, and really does provide the benefits Jessen (2015) explains. It does provide a lot of benefits. I love journaling, now that I’ve been doing it for over a year. I want this journaling series to help others find the benefits of journaling like I have. It truly is a great gift and one that will help you clarify, refine, and enjoy the experiences you may have taken for granted.

I hope you have a great week ahead!

Until next time…

Dave

Reference

Jessen, L. (2015). The benefits of a gratitude journal and how to maintain one. The Blog. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-jessen/gratitude-journal_b_7745854.html

Workout Routine

10 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by Dave Gardner in Workout Routine

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Abdominals, hip abductors, hip adductors, Lower back, Obliques

Today was lower-back and abdominal day. I’m enjoying the one body part workouts. The simplicity is awesome. Here’s the workout.

  • Hip adductor machine
  • Hip abductor machine
  • Lower back machine
  • Ab crunch machine
  • Ab-x machine
  • Cable Oblique Crunches

Today, I mixed it up a bit. I did half-pyramids on the hip work, starting light and working to heavy, with each set for 8-12 reps. Lower back I did a full pyramid starting light working all the way up to heavy and then back down to starting weight (no rest between sets, other than to move the pin). The abs I did half-pyramids on the machine and the Ab-x machine 4 sets of 12. My Oblique work was a half-pyramid light to heavy.

If you are one that likes more variety in your workout routines, feel free to use any of my daily routines and combining them together. My plan this year is to continue this one body part a day routine for another month or so. Then, to increase intensity, I’ll move to an upper body/lower body/cardio split, hitting the whole body twice a week and getting in 3 cardio sessions of 20+ minutes each.

See you tomorrow!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine

08 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by Dave Gardner in Workout Routine

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Biceps, curls, Dips, forearms, healthy living, triceps

Howdy folks!

I hope your day is going well. I just finished today’s workout. The focus for today was biceps, triceps, and forearms. Here’s the routine:

  • Machine Curls
  • Machine Dips
  • Barbell Curls
  • Cable Overhead Triceps Extensions
  • Forearm curls
  • Reverse forearm curls

That was it for today. My arms are smoked. Tomorrow will be a cardio day. I use this day as a day off, but still hit the gym to keep my habitual workouts going.

See you tomorrow!

Dave

Workout Diary

07 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by Dave Gardner in Workout Routine

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Deltoids, healthy living, Shoulders, Traps

I’ve been using a new routine since getting back to the gym in February. I work one body part per day. So far, so good. Today was a shoulder workout.

  • Cable Front Rows
  • Cable Face Pulls
  • Cable Reverse Delt Flys
  • Dumbbell Lateral Raises
  • Dumbbell Rear Delt Raises
  • Machine Shoulder Presses

For each of the above, I do 8-12 reps and 4 sets. I’ll increase the intensity as I go forward, but not bad for week 4 back in the gym. For those of you who didn’t see my reasons, I avoid the gym between January and February. I’m not a big fan of the New Year’s Resolution crowds that pack the gym in these months. Now that they have moved on, the gym is at tolerable population levels.

I’ll continue this routine for another month to get back into gym shape, then adjust. I hit the gym 7 days a week, with one day being a straight cardio day.

That’s it for today folks!

Dave

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