Well, some exciting things have happened this week! First of all, we finally walled off the back area of the basement and that means, yes, the whining has paid off. We got an air conditioner! Now the workouts will only be horrible because they are hard, not because they are hard and you are doing them in a sauna.

Second bit of great news! I got a bench! Well, my husband bought a bench and I had forgotten how much I loved bench pressing. Definitely going on the regular schedule more often.

So, I did not check in last week with my weight loss which I’m sure seemed a bit suspicious to some of you. However, fear not, my methods are working and I’m down to 131.5 as of this morning. I have added in a 3 mile walk twice a week either pushing a stroller holding a pre-schooler or carrying a 25 lb back pack. Now, this is no ordinary walk, we have hills, lots of large hills. So, heart rate and fatigue come into play rather quickly (sometimes crying, me or the kid). Intensity is always the key when it comes to effectiveness. For long steady state fat-burning cardio, you want your heart rate to be at about 65%-75% of max and how this affects you is going to depend on your overall fitness level.

The truth is, wearing a heart rate monitor when you are first starting out exercising can be a very good way to measure your different intensity zones, but once you get a feel for how high you can go, you will be able to translate that more easily into a less scientific scale, the RPE or rate of perceived exertion scale. This is simply a scale from 1-10 where 1 is extremely easy and 10 is pretty much as hard as it gets. You want your fat burning cardio to be in the 5-7 range on this scale. You can still talk, but you’ll be breathing hard and possibly quite aware of your muscles.

Anyway, back to more important matters. The training schedule. We did not deadlift last week, oh my! So,we’ll be sure to get to that this week.

Monday, July 26th

Squat 5×5
Push Press 5×5 (warm up with strict press)

Tuesday, July 27th

Sandbag carry, 1/2 bodyweight, 100 meters
Pushup, 15
Squat, 25
Hanging knee raises, 15
4 rounds

Wednesday, July 28th

Deadlift to 5RM
Pullups 3 rounds, max reps

Thursday, July 29th

Rest Day

Friday, July 30th

Squat 3×10
Bench Press to 5 RM

Kb swing, 1 minute, 1 rest
3 rounds

Saturday, July 31st

Workout one

30 reps of each, use light weights (35-45 lbs)
Overhead squats with broomstick
Body rows
Lunges
Pushups
Sumo deadlifts
Push presses
Situps
Med ball slams

Workout two

8 50 meter sprints
on the minute