New exercise routine

For the past few weeks I’ve been looking at ways I can get back in shape, lose some flab and gain some strength. This has become especially acute following a year plus in NZ of getting used to just driving around and not working out enough together with the awesome food over here. My preferred way of exercising is weight lifting – I hate cardio, and I can get a pretty good heart and lungs workout from weight training as well if done in circuit mode. Anyways, so I had a few options..

1. Use the swimming pool and mini gym in my building (free)
2. Sign up for a full gym membership (US$500 a year, min 2 years)
3. Buy some weights and a bench (US$800)

From the above it looks like an easy choice – use the free gym I already have access to. Alas, by the time I get back home it’s either late or I’m too tired. Going in the morning – no can do, I can’t wake up 45min earlier, I am a night person. So the other alternative is working out straight after work before the commute back home, there’s a great gym 10 metres away from my office which I used to be a member of pre-2000. But forking out the US$1000 membership fee when I have a gym in my building is hard to stomach. The 3rd option involves investment upfront as well but I’ve learned to try and limit the number of things I buy that can’t be put inside a suitcase or DHL box. Plus there’s no resell value here, everyone wants everything spanking new. On the other hand I’ve got a pair of weights left from the previous owner that I’ve used occasionally but they’re a fixed weight, and quite a small one (maybe 10 pounds I think) so obviously not very effective when you’re supposed to load different muscles. So.. what am I to do.. enter Tabata-san, a Japanese gentleman who devised a system, called “Tabata system” (surprise surprise). It is basically High Intensity Internal Training (HIIT) on steroids (no pun intended). The ratio is 2:1 which translates to 20 seconds exercise, 10 seconds break and repeat for 4 minutes. I then combined this with my usual workout style of Max-OT which basically focuses on one body part per day and just blasts it to failure. So now I have this super HIIT-Max-OT which I do every weekday morning before getting into the shower in just a matter of minutes. The bigger exercises like squats which recruit lots of muscle fibres are good cardio alternative as they get my heart racing after a few cycles. Been at it for a few days now, so far so good. On many exercises I reach failure before the 4 minutes cycle is complete so there’s even some nice room to push further progressively with this plan:

Day 1 – Legs
————-
Squats
Lunges

Day 2 – Shoulders
——————-
Military press
Lateral raises
Arnold press

Day 3 – Biceps
——————
Curls
Hammers
Kickbacks

Day 4 – Back
——————–
Bent over rows
Supermans
Reverse flyes

Day 5 – Chest
——————–
Push ups wide
Push ups narrow

* P.S. I’m currently only doing 1 exercise per day since I’m just starting to get back into it so the multiple exercises per body part is for future use and for variety.

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