Still Tweaking, But Always Squatting.

If you have read my training routines this year, you will have noticed that I've been doing a lot of tweaking with the upper-body portion of my workouts. The consistent feature of all my workouts have been Squats. With my 3-times a week frequency, I have had more squat sessions in the past month than I normally have in a 3-month period. I'm liking it a lot. I am getting stronger and more proficient in the movement, and my legs and whole body seem to be getting thicker. I currently do 20-rep squats on Saturdays and Mondays, then on Thursdays I switch to a heavy 5-rep squat workout. My current bests in Squats are 210 x 20, and 250 x 6.

As for upper-body, I've found that my elbows and shoulders don't like having a pushing movement 3-times a week, so I've switched to an A-B push/pull routine for the upper-body portion of each workout. I'm liking it a lot so far.

Workout A
Squats
Calf Raises
Leg Curls
Bench Press
Standing Press
Dumbell Kickbacks

Workout B
Squats
Calf Raises
Leg Curls
Seated Row
Shrugs
Barbell Curl

Corporate Fitness

As of Monday, Jan 22, 2007, I started a new job at Hartford Life. This is a bit longer commute than I used to have (55 minutes vs. 25 minutes) so I decide that if only for the purpose of time management I should take advantage of the fitness center they have onsite. I submitted my paperwork and was processed and ready for my first workout by Wednesday.

Its a typical corporate fitness center - small, with an adequate array of machines and aerobic equipment but precious few free weights. The bright spot was their dumbbell rack, going all the way up to 85 pounds.

After surveying the equipment, I decided to stick with the basics, take advantage of the dumbbells, and shoot for a whole-body workout:

• Dumbbell Deadlifts: 50 x 10, 80 x 20
• Leg Curls: 50 x 15
• Hip Abduction and Adduction: 50 x 15
• One Leg Calf Raises: bodyweight x 25
• Standing DB Press: 35 x 12, 10 supersetted with
• Chins: 12, 10
• Flat DB Press: 50 x 10, 8 supersetted with
• One Arm DB Row: 65 x 10, 8

It got the job done, but was somehow not quite satisfying. Tweaks will be needed!