My Exercise Regime

I LOVE exercise.  Even though I’ve struggled with diet on and off over the years, exercise has always featured in my life in some form because I just love being active.

I qualified as a fitness instructor in 1998 and taught group fitness for 8 years but I gave up due to boredom.  I couldn’t afford to keep my training up to date and couldn’t afford to travel to the various conventions to get new ideas so my classes, to me, became stale and I eventually grew to dislike having to teach.

My exercise regime consists of heavy weight lifting.  And that’s it.

I don’t do any structured cardio because in all honesty, I don’t need it.  I have dabbled with running in the past and even ran a half marathon in 2010 but it left me almost a stone heavier and flabby, despite monitoring my nutrition and calorie intake.  I’ve come to realise that my body just does not like distance running.  I continued to run shorter distances after my half marathon but unfortunately I developed patella tendonitis and I finally realised it was just not worth the pain.

I found on occasion I would be pining for my long runs.  The sun would be shining and I would really crave getting my running shoes on, cranking up my ipod and hitting the tow path of my canal, which is where I did my running.  However, one morning I came to realise that it wasn’t the running that I was actually missing but the “me time” – just me, my music and my thoughts whilst running along the canal and seeing some beautiful scenery.  So, when the urge takes me now, I take a nice, steady (fasted) stroll along the canal.

So why do I feel I don’t need structured cardio?  Well, I don’t drive and I have an aversion to public transport so if I have to get somewhere that is reachable on foot, I choose to walk.  I walk to and from work, I walk to and from the gym (which is 3 miles away from my house), I walk to the supermarket to do my grocery shopping and then walk back carrying it (thank goodness for a super strong upper body!)  I also think cardio for fat loss is a big waste of time.  Most people don’t realise just how long they would have to walk/run to burn off any significant amount of calories – even my long runs of 11-12 miles only earned me 1100-ish calories.  I say only because in the grand scheme of things, that would cover a couple of glasses of wine, a latte and a slice of cheesecake.  They don’t go far do they?  Certainly not worth totally busting my ass for, especially when it had the potential to undo all the effort I had put in.

My current weight lifting routine consists of an upper/lower body split and is comprised of compound movements.  I don’t do any isolation exercises but I am going to be including some in my next routine which is due to commence at the beginning of July.

I train 3 times per week, leaving at least a day in between sessions, typically Tuesday, Thursday and one day at the weekend, because it fits in with my work schedule.

I lift as heavy as I can without compromising form and my current routine looks like this:

Lower Body:

Front Squats/Back Squats (Alternated each session – ass to grass)
Conventional deadlifts
Leg Press (with feet high to hit hamstrings/glutes)
Lying Hamstring Curl
Seated Calf Press (done on leg press)
Seated Calf Raise

Upper Body:

Incline Bench Press
Dumbbell Bent Over Row
Flyes
Pull Ups/Chin Ups (alternated each session) – Assisted or Negatives
Hang Clean to Push Press
Bicep Curls (with dumbbells or EZ barbell)
Tricep Dips

Thanks to my awesome, gorgeous boyfriend for the above workout :-)