On maintenance abroad, at home, and on tight schedules

A recurring concern amongst those that don the helm of fitness is health maintenance on trips, or when time does not permit it.

A concern I shall happily put to rest.

Working out at home, or in your living quarters abroad, can be just as intense as a gym routine. Granted, it is far from my preferred method of doing things. But here at Veggiesaurs, we embrace diversity while maintaining intensity.

To the traveling businesswoman or the housebound student, I say this. It's all about high intensity rotations.

In  the previous post, we listed several high intensity in betweens, that, if combined in rapid succession, give you a full body workout that is bound to leave you soaked and satisfied.


Sample home workout

Time based, 15 second breather in between each exercise. Repeat the rotation 3-5 times, based on time and convenience. 60 second rest in between each rotation

Pushups (Any variation)
30 seconds
Mountain Climbers
30 seconds
Burpees
30 seconds
Jump Squats
30 seconds
High Knees
30 seconds

If we look at the workout above, we see that it works out the entire body in a very small amount of time. And if you wish to isolate specific body parts on separate days, you may, by picking exercises that correspond to the desired muscle.

 Intensity may be added for those who have access to a treadmill or and elliptical machine, working at it for 10-25 minutes, depending on time and convenience.

It is a very flexible and completely tailorable model, my dear Veggiesaurs, taking no time at all, yet taking all the air from your lungs. All it takes is the determination to stay on top should ever fortune not favor you, and access to a gym is difficult or impossible.

There are no excuses now, my minions, go forth and burn!
 

Month 5-7: High Intensity Cardio, not a treadmill in sight!

Playtime is over, the time to burn is nigh!

The next three months will burn, Veggiesaurs.

A lot.

Despite my frequenting the cardio circuit, I shall admit that I am far from its number one fan. Especially monotonous cardio such as treadmill or the elliptical machine. After the vast changing of schedules between my squash buddies and myself, I had been reduced to the aforementioned for some time, droning away for 15-25 minutes on a machine whilst blasting some Phil Collins (what?).

But, as with all things, I have mastered a way to sap away the mundane and bring some fire back into the gym.

I have mentioned in a previous post how I would oftentimes replace a one minute breather with a ten second one, leaving a clean fifty seconds for ab blasting goodness.

But there comes a time when dedicating between 10-15 minutes to abs does not suffice, and it requires its own day. This is currently the case with myself, as I can safely wash clothes off of this board of etched stone.

 So, as opposed to working on abs during my minute break in between sets, I now do a 60-second set of random, high intensity cardio (examples below). Where I choose one random exercise to stick with for one exercise of my days schedule, stick with it for  the number of sets I'm doing, then do a different exercise when I move on to the next exercise of my original workout.

Example: If it's leg day, my first exercise would be squats, in between each set of squats, I will do 60 seconds of mountain climbers only. My next exercise would be hamstring curls, in between each set of those, I will skip rope. Successively changing my choice of cardio for each exercise.

Ideally, your choice of high intensity cardio should stimulate the days target body part. But this is far from essential, as for intermediates, consistently targeting a specific body part with no rest may burn you out fairly fast. So to start, we'll be doing high intensity cardio that does not wear one out too badly, serving as a breather for the target muscle, and stimulation for your cardiovasculars (I know that isn't a word).


Veggiesaur Top Ten High Intensities and In Betweens


  • Pushups and all their variations: Width of grip depends on your experience with pushups, if you feel yourself failing, use your knees for support.
  • Hanging half chest dip:Hold the halfway position for 20 seconds, drop down, then start up again, rinse and repeat three times
  • Burpees: Time yourself, sixty seconds of burpees are far different than sixty reps, I ask you for the former. Keep form, the more fluid and consecutive, the better.
  • Mountain Climbers: Time yourself, sixty seconds, not reps. Back arched, the more fluid and consecutive, the better.
  • Skip rope, jumping jacks: The former being more advanced than the latter, skipping rope is an art to be mastered, don't rush it, practice on your off days or at home. Do not dillydally at the gym.
  • Jumping Squats: When it comes to weightless squats, I follow a very strict "Ass to grass" policy, where I dip my money maker as deep as possible. Gravity makes this process far easier, dip as low as you can after a jump, bracing yourself for the next one. Sixty seconds, not reps.
  • Jumping Lunges: Maximal effect is making proper air time when you push yourself off the ground, landing firmly and in form with your back straight. Jumping lunges are difficult and take time to master, do not get frustrated if you fall over or lose balance. Your patience will pay off.
  • High Knees: This is your run of the mill "Running in place" exercise, only here, our backs are straight, and our knees are brought up as high as possible, at level with, or just above the belly button.
  • Hops: Before you get your HOPS up, no, we won't be making BEER. Here, we're looking to hop on one foot for twenty seconds, hope on the alternate foot for another twenty, then do high jumps, with our knees going straight up as high as possible. Enjoy.
  • Box jumps: Very simple, deathly painful when well fitted and executed during a complimenting exercise. Jump onto a higher platform (Box, or step) landing as you would on a squat jump, then jump backwards off. The amount of times I have tripped and face planted while attempting these was made completely worthwhile with the development of Adonis-like buns.

Your next three months

  • For the first month, give yourself five minutes of a brisk jog and stretches before beginning, there'll be plenty of cardio to come.
  • The days can be spread apart to your liking so long as they fall within the span of one week.
  • You are allowed a single rest day to stock up on calories and protein.
  • For those not seeking to build, the schedule below can be made into a regressive training regimen, explained here.
  • Day 6 will be combination of high intensity cardio, and five abdominal exercises of your choosing, yes, I can link you a list.

Day 1: Chest
Flat Bench Press (Dumbbell or Bar)
4x15
Chest Flies (Dumbbell or Cable)
3x15
Decline Bench Press (Dumbbell or Bar)
3x15
Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell or Bar)
3x15
Bench Pullover
3x15

Day 2: Back
Front Cable Pulldown
4x15
Bent over row (Single dumbbell for intermediates, straight bar for adanced)
3x15
Seated high back row
3x15
Deadlifts (Dumbbell or Bar)
3x15
Pull ups (Final burnout exercise, high intensity is exempt from those who will brave the pull up bar.)
To failure

Day 3: Arms
Seated preacher curl/Lightweight standing single curl superset
(Bar/dumbbell, respectively)
4x15/20
Incline Bench Alternate Dumbbell curl
3x15
Standing Straight Bar Curl
3x15
Triceps Pull-Down/
Single Dumbbell Kickbacks
4x12/20
Dumbbell Overhead Extensions
(Or flat skullcrushers, whichever makes you burn. I wouldn’t HATE a superset)
3x15
If superset 3x12/20
Triceps dip
3x12

Day 4: Shoulders

Barbell Military Press
4x15
Dumbbell Side Raises
3x15
(Advanced: With every lift, torque the plate once left, and once right, as you would a steering wheel)
3x15
3x15
Shrugs (Dumbbell for the intermediates, barbell for the advanced)
4x15

 
Day 5: Legs
Barbell Squat
4x15
Seated Leg Raises
3x15
Walking Lunges (Barbell over shoulder for advanced, dumbbell at your sides for intermediate)
Ten steps to and fro, where each lunge is counted as a single rep
Hamstring Curls
3x15
The King in the North
(A lightweight lunge/squat combination, you will perform a left and right lunge, followed by a squat, this is one rep.)
2x10



There you have it, Saurs, the coming months will be painful, be through it you will be vastly condition to withstand massive amounts of punishment.

If you have any inquiries or notes, I'd love to hear them, not implement them, but hear them.

Contact me:

Hakeem.Jomah@gmail.com

Twitter: @HakeemJomah

And Godspeed, Veggiesaurs. It is good to be back!
 

An Age Reborn

Gentlemen!

Ladies!

Arise and rejoice! After over a year of an unfortunately necessitated hiatus, your time, nay, OUR time, has come again!

To recap, in the intended year long Veggiesaur program, we delved into the deep, scientific underbelly of the gym, diet, exercise, and all the science in between. However, due to unforeseen circumstance, we had only managed to breech the five month mark of Ramadan. Those loyal to the cause followed up with me privately, continuing their varied and separate journeys of  building mass, burning fat, and chiseling abs.

But what of the droves? The voiceless loyal? Indeed, I have led you all astray, in the thundering maelstrom of graduating medical school, pursuing a career and all that it entailed, I had fallen off the radar.

No longer! For now, the dawn comes anew, and with it, we shall conquer the remaining eight months of our journey. Later this week, I shall post the regimen for months six through eight.

I implore those who were once loyal to me, to rally under my banner. We shall once again dominate the health circuit.

My results speak truth, nay, the sword of tried and tested science speaks truth, and it shall glisten again with the sweat of thine brow!

WE are the weight watchers on the wall, a wall that has long impeded the dark armies of fat, sloth, procrastination and demotivation.

Brothers and sisters in arms, harken to me!