Back to the old neighborhood sweat shop!

Back in February, I made the grave mistake of joining Planet Fatness (I mean Fitness). Brand new place, a few minutes away, open 24 hrs. a day throughout the week, only $10 per month - seemed too go to be true. This place was the oddest gym I have ever stepped foot in. It's really a cardio dance hall more than a gym. First of all, if you get there anytime after 4pm, good luck finding any one of the 100+ cardio machines available to use. The place is packed! Mostly with college kids who dress like they're on their way to a club - hair done, makeup and all.

More importantly, let's get to the free weights area... Wait a minute! What free weights area? Sure they have all the different plate machines (which, I suppose, do serve their purpose - just not my purpose) - again, packed with the college guys struttin' their stuff to impress the girls.

The dumbbell rack stops at 80 lbs.; the fixed bars stop at 60 lbs.; they don't have a weight bench - nor do they have a real Olympic barbell. What!? What kind of place is this... how is a man supposed to get a real workout in a place like this. Well... you don't, nor do they want you to. They want to keep it a "family like atmosphere".

Check this out - they actually have something called a "Lunk alarm". Which means if you happen to grunt or make any type of noise while you're lifting - or god forbid drop or clank a weight... a siren goes off! If you don't believe me, google it - I do not lie!

But wait, there's more! One Friday of each month is pizza night and one Tuesday of each month is bagel Tuesdays. Who are these people kidding?

If you don't like it... go somewhere else - which I did. Adios Planet Fatness, I'm going back to the old standby - my original gym. It's small, it's clean, they have real equipment, an awesome staff and are never crowded. I am so glad to be back!

I did Workout A of my 5x5 today:

Squats 5x5
Bench Press 5x5
Inverted rows 3xF
Reverse Crunches 3x12
Push ups - 5 sets of mixed reps - totaling 48 perfect form, military style, push ups.

I don't think I mentioned this in a previous post but I'm now in week 2 of a 6 week program to complete 100 consecutive, perfect form, push ups. I'm gonna make it for sure by the end of the 6th week.

Needless to say, my chest is on fire right now!

I also added 10lbs. to the bar for each of my workouts to catch up from last week. I should be adding 5lbs. to the bar each time I work out, as per the program I'm doing, but Planet Fatness didn't even have 2.5lb. plates for their smith machine so I wound up having to stay at the same weight for the past two previous weeks - glad that's over with.

Awesome workout tonight!

My Workouts

In the past I was trying all sorts of different methods of exercise - Isolated weightlifting, pyramid lifts, 4 day splits, high rep / light weight, no weights - just massive amounts of cardio, etc. The end result - sure I made some progress but nothing in comparison to what I've been up to lately!

As I mentioned in my last post, Primal exercise consists of mimicking the gathers & hunters of years past. Slow walking (or any type low intensity cardio), sprints and lifting heavy objects.

Now I'm not out in the woods with a spear hunting down animals and then carrying them over my shoulders back to camp for dinner... so how did I incorporate all this in to a modernized version that benefits me with strength building and getting leaner?

Two ways. For my heavy lifting, I'm doing StrongLift's 5x5 program which is absolutely killer! A massive core and mass building routine that requires heavy lifts and a shorter time spent in the gym. It's a win win situation! I do this on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. There are two workouts as part of this plan - Workout A and Workout B - which I alternate back and fourth each time I'm at the gym. I will explain what the workouts consist of in just a few. For my low intensity cardio and sprints, which I do 2 days out of the week (not on lifting days of course!) I switch things up with walking, cycling, or hiking. I go at least 1 hour at a moderate pace so I don't elevate my heart rate too high - I like to keep it right at around 120 bpm, which for my age and weight is right in the fat burn zone. For the sprints, this can be obviously done with any of the aforementioned exercises by incorporating a 20 second max push back to your moderate pace for ten seconds, then repeat. I do this at least 8-10 times over the course of my hour.

The StrongLift 5X5 Program

Workout A

Squat 5x5
Bench Press 5x5
Inverted Rows 3xF
Push-ups 3xF
Reverse Crunch 3x12

Workout B

Squat 5x5
Overhead Press 5x5
Deadlift 1x5
Pull-ups/Chin-ups 3xF
Prone Bridges (Planks) 3x30sec

For those who may not know 5x5 means: 5 sets with 5 repetitions per set. 3xF means: 3 sets with each one to failure.

Seems simple enough right?

Well let me tell you, as you progress by adding 5lbs. to the bar each time you workout, regardless of what pound weights you were able to start with from day one, and no matter how much of a man (or woman) you think you are, this routine will push you to your absolute limits in no time at all. It is BRUTAL!

Today, Friday, I finished up the week with Workout B and plan on a casual 5 mile hike through some local trails tomorrow... it's supposed to be up in the 50's and sunny. I'm looking forward to it!