Back In The Game

I apologize in advance for my lack of posting in the past few months. It’s been winter—so naturally all I have been wanting to do is stay at home in a pair of sweats and nice cozy socks eating anything from peanut butter Oreos to barbecue-flavored Cheez-Its. 

My motivation for exercising has fallen by the wayside as well. Yes, I’ve gained a few pounds but no, it doesn’t bother me. I’m kicking my butt into high gear to get my motivation back! I do in fact suffer from seasonal depression, so during the winter I’m simply just not on my A-game. No worries, as the sun comes out, the snow clears out, and I can hear the birds chirping in the morning, my mood elevates and I have a lot more motivation.

This was on a bright, sunny day where I had tons of motivation!

Quad and booty progress!

I will indeed be posting my workouts on www.weighttraining.com to give you all a view on how I structure my workouts. Please click here to view my profile. My plan for my workouts will be changing. I’ve been doing a lot more straight sets and steady-state cardio lately and I am switching to lots of supersets, trisets, and giant sets mixed in with high intensity interval training.

I’m working with a partner, which is so strange for me considering I really hate working out with other people and I prefer to work out at my own pace. Often times, I see that ‘workout partners’ end up talking the whole time and that is definitely NOT me; I go into the gym with a mission and I come out achieving it. I don’t have time to mess around! But luckily my partner has a kickass attitude and murders every single one of his workouts, modeled after the incredibly inspiring Mike Raso. I definitely need a kick in the pants to get my motivation back.

Mike Raso is seriously a BEAST. (Source)

I will be doing heavy compound sets to begin my workouts, when I am ‘fresh’. So, if it’s leg day, it’s back squats. If it’s shoulder day, it’s shoulder or military press. If it’s chest day, it’s dumbbell chest presses or bench press. If it’s back day, it’s Romanian deadlifts. I am hoping this will help improve my strength even more. After the compound set, I will be doing supersets of a compound exercise and an isolation movement directly after. For example, if I’m doing back day, I may do lat pulldowns with barbell bicep curls right after. Or, if it’s leg day, I may do decline leg press with leg extensions directly after. The compound exercises will primarily be in the 8-12 rep range while the isolation exercises will be in the 12-15 rep range.

I also plan to do core three times per week, and perhaps maybe after every workout a 10-minute “workout finisher” which will include metabolic exercises such as burpees, jump squats, and ab wheel rollouts, among others. 

As for cardio, I mentioned I will be doing HIIT, which I also plan on doing three days per week on days when I am not doing core. I may throw in one day of steady-state cardio so as not to push it too hard if I am too sore from a previous workout session. 

I plan on working out six days a week. I know this creates some controversy from some people because there’s always an argument over what amount of days is best to workout per week. Some say four; some say seven days a week. I am a self-proclaimed gymrat, and I am fine kicking my own ass six days a week as long as I eat enough to fuel all my activity and get enough sleep. I would understand that six is too much if I am not properly getting enough calories per day or only sleeping five hours per night. Although I do not count calories, I know that I do in fact eat enough, and I do get enough sleep (for now). If I ever do not eat enough in a day or do not get enough sleep, I will promptly take a rest day and listen to my body. It has gotten a lot easier for me to listen to my body cues and know when it’s time to take a rest. Not all my workouts are going to be extremely intense. I plan on hitting the big muscle groups hard, like legs, and going easier on smaller muscle groups, like biceps. And I will definitely play around with rep ranges until I feel the one that I feel fits my goals the best. But, like anything else, it’s important to switch things up to prevent a plateau.

Wow. It felt good to type that all out, because now I am committing to all of my readers and I refuse to let you all down. Motivated Brittany is definitely back! I’m putting away the junk food that I have been eating daily and sticking to healthy diet because it legitimately makes me feel better. No, I am not ‘obsessed’ with clean eating and I never will be. I enjoy my treats every now and then and I have to have a Reese’s peanut butter cup at least four times a week… or maybe every day...shh. ;) But for the most part, it’ll be tons of chicken, oats, protein powder, eggs, sweet potatoes, bananas, nuts and nut butters, and every and all veggies for me! 

Delicious omelette and veggies that I made. :)

And update posts are a necessary component so expect me to be posting much more frequently than I have been. 

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