Butt Blasting Leg Workout and Thoughts on Caffeine..

The moment is finally here.  I have gotten several requests regarding specific workouts.  I decided I will do my best to let you in on at least a couple of my workouts each week.  Let's be honest, if I posted every single workout it would be exhausting and bombarding you with more information than you choose to care about!  So for this week I am posting my favorite workout of the week:  Heavy Leg Day.

Important to note:  Yes, I generally lead a low-carb lifestyle, with the source of nearly all of my carbohydrates being vegetables.  For this workout, my pre-workout meal about an hour before had some sweet potato and post-workout I had some greek yogurt and a small amount of oats.  As a rule of thumb, try not to consume fats around your workout, after all you want to BURN fat stores you already have so it wouldn't make much sense to put it in your system.

MY definition of good glutes..she is no skinny girl!

Heavy Leg Day:
Warmup - walking in the gym...hahahaha
Standing Hip Abductors - 4 sets, 20 reps (4x20)
Back Squats (rather DETAILED explanation of how I perform these) - 10 sets, 10x45 lb., 8x65, 6x85, 6x95, 6x115, 6x125, 6x125, 6x125, 6x125
Split Squats - 3 sets - 8x65, 6x75, 6x75
Side Step Ups - 3 sets, 10 reps with 30 barbell
Unilateral Leg Press - 3 sets, 8x50, 6x70, 6x90
Standing Calf Raise - 4 sets, 20 reps at 110
Glute Machine (Butt Blaster) - 3 sets, 10 reps
(45 minutes)

Cardio - 20 minute HIIT on stair master consisting of 1:20 work intervals at 1:1 ratio of work:rest. Work intervals at level 15 (of 20) and rest intervals at level 5.  Basically I gave the stair master a bath ;)
(20 minutes)

And in and out of the gym in a little over an hour.  Let me tell you it is now Thursday and I am STILL feeling Tight Tush Tuesday in my tush it IS quite the feeling.  I also have to note that this was a pretty light day for me weight wise because I had not hit legs that hard in a while so I did not want to push the weight.  That being said, when you feel like you are ready to push the weight hard for the 6-8 rep range make sure that you have built yourself up in the 10-15 rep range first.  The link I sent you to for the squat form is the Lab Gym in St. Louis, MO where I used to train.  He has a large collection of videos on You tube that you guys can check out for proper form on nearly every exercise (those worth doing at least!).  Do NOT trust the first link that pops up when you Google some random exercise.  I see some of the most ludicrous things in the gym on a daily basis and sometimes I have to cringe.

Caffeine:

Also a hot topic these days it seems.  This won't take long.  I used to be a caffeine junkie, I will admit.  I believe it is something that is WIDELY abused by the American public.  If you are using a pre-workout with caffeine in it (i.e. "fat-burner") it is not doing ANYTHING for you if you are consuming 2-3 cups of coffee a day.  And before you say, "But I only have 1 cup of coffee a day."  Let me remind you the 1 cup of coffee is defined as about 8 oz. so next time you might want to measure the amount you put in your jumbo mug.  You know who you are.  In any case, it might be wise to switch to decaffeinated so that when you utilize caffeine as a pre-workout stimulant, you actually feel the effects and it can improve your workout.  I only use caffeine when I absolutely need to and the results have been great.  I take in about 50-70 mg pre-workout and I can feel the effects now.  Before, when I was consuming 200-250 mg of caffeine a day I would have felt nothing off of 50-70 mg.  Like any stimulant, you will need to cycle it every 2-3 weeks if you want to keep feeling the effect.  Otherwise you will continue to increase more and more caffeine until it has no effect on you at all.

Tip:  Gradually lower your caffeine to reduce withdrawal effects by using "half-caf" coffee, pouring half cup of coffee and half water, or switching to green tea (usually around 20-30 mg of caffeine in one cup compared to 80-100 mg in coffee).  Comprehensive list of caffeine in various drinks here.  Also, VERY interesting to note for all you Starbucks junkies.  Pay particular attention to paragraph 3.  I mean wow!!

That's all for now, time for some cardio.  One simple YES could change your life forever..

Your diet isn't working?? SURPRISE!

For those of you who don't know, I am a Sagittarius so catch on to sarcasm or find a new blog to follow.  Some call it rude, I call it real!  But that's just me so on to the topic today..

COMMITMENT!

 
Ok not THAT kind of commitment but it is kind of funny.  I am talking about commitment to your plan.  You individual plan for fitness.  For some it could be as simple as going to gym three times a week and "watching what you eat."  For other like me, it is more of a strict regimen of counting and measuring foods down to the gram and hitting the gym twice a day for very specific, rigorous workouts to achieve an optimal physique.  Then again I recognize we aren't all freaks.  My point is this, we commit to things we want (desire not need) such as homes, cars, and jelly of the month memberships for YEARS.  If you own a 1997 Ford Taurus that slightly resembles a demolition derby car and has mileage approaching a nice income you would dream of having then you probably wouldn't say something like this:  "You know what, I am going to buy a brand new 2013 Dodge Charger and I'm going to go on the 8 week plan to pay it off."  That's right 8 weeks is all you are committing to the car and then it is yours to keep.  Sadly, that isn't how it works.  If you want that car and you are in with the majority of the population in the working middle class, you have to commit to that car for YEARS.

Along the same lines, let's consider the gym.  Why do the majority of gyms not sell 3 month memberships?  I know there are some out there, but let's consider the majority.  Two reasons here:  first, gyms want to maximize longevity of memberships to ensure profit (it's a business), but second the gym knows that if by some miracle you actually DO utilize your membership you will need longer than three months to actually experience RESULTS.  And results = retention = revenue (again, it's a business).

So here is the questions I pose to you.  Have you ever committed to a diet or workout plan for 1 YEAR with at least 90% adherence?  Let's be honest!  Before you answer consider this hypothetical situation.

AVERAGE JANE
Diet plan: Zone Diet
Duration: 6 months
Cheats: She always followed the diet 100% every week so on Saturday's she would go out and treat herself.  But back to strict diet on Sunday.  Also in the 6 month time frame was her birthday, one random day of weakness each month (LADIES!) and some major holiday so that's another 9 days of cheating (1 for your birthday because you HAVE to have a drink, 6 "weak" days in 6 months, and 2 for the holiday because you CAN'T eat healthy when family is in town).

Math:
Let me break it down for you since most don't like math.
6 months =  approx. 180 days
24 Saturdays + 1 birthday + 6 "weak" days + 2 holiday cheat days = 33 cheat days

AVERAGE JANE cheats 33/180 days or about 18% of the time.

This means she stuck to her diet 82% of the time.  Psh just another example of Americans putting out "C" effort and expecting an "A+" result!

But I don't know WHY my diet isn't working?!

But let's look at the bright side.  I know many of you were reading that and thinking, wow that is  just like me.  Good news is this, if you are 82% effective, you are MUCH more effective than the majority. And, you WILL see positive changes OVER TIME.  How much time will be totally dependent on how long you stick to it.  Most people would be inclined to give up completely after 6 months if they only saw 10 pounds of fat loss because hey, it's only 10 pounds right?!  But in reality, that 10 pounds could be 15-25 pounds if they were 95-99% effective.

In conclusion, what I want you to take away is that it is less important what you are doing, but rather your consistency.  Don't waste your time on cookie-cutter, fad diets.  Do your research.  Your individual "diet" will be one that is about you finding what foods and in what combinations work for YOU.  Find a plan that works, one that you can maintain, and STICK to it.  Fad diets will come in and out of popularity and you will no doubt experiment with different things.  How do you know that your plan isn't working unless you adhere for an amount of time such as a whole year?  You will never know until you try.

What are my recommendations??  Well you have to keep reading to get more info on that but if you have scrolled through my blogs you will see that I generally consume a diet high in lean protein with balanced carbohydrates and fats.  Keep in mind, I use carbohydrates to FUEL and REFEED workouts (rather strenuous ones at that) so if you aren't hitting the gym very often and lead a relatively sedentary lifestyle, you should probably limit your carbohydrate intake, especially complex, high calorie sources i.e. bread, pasta, cereals, rice.

Remember, consistency and commitment are the keys to building the body you want in your nutrition and gym programs.  So grind it out, and don't sweat the small stuff.  Get 1% better every day, that is what it is all about.  One simple YES could change your life forever!