I started my latest workout regimen on Tuesday, and today was the second of the two workouts that will swap back and forth. I am only lifting twice a week, and running for the rest of the week (except this weekend when I will be moving boxes and heavy furniture into my new house). The first two weeks I will be doing 15 reps of each exercise, then the next two weeks will be 12 reps, and the last two weeks will be 8 reps. I really like Tuesday’s workout, but I am going to have to tweak today’s workout pretty heavily, I think.
First, the good points. I like deadlifts, I like dumbbell bench presses (this workout calls for them at an incline), and while I don’t really like split grip lat pulldowns I can deal with them.
Today was my introduction to Bulgarian split squats, and boy do they burn! My balance seemed really awkward, especially towards the end of the third set of them when I was fatigued. The bulgarian split squats burned more than a normal squat at over three times the weight (but obviously using both legs.) I liked them, though, and look forward to keeping them in future workout regimens as well.
I also like Romanian deadlifts, but I am not so sure I need to be doing them in the same workout as I do normal deadlifts. This workout isn’t targeting my back.
The thing that I did not like at all were the swiss ball lateral rolls. One of my peeves about my new gym is that there are no wall length mirrors; they all start at waist height. As such, I was not able to see myself doing the swiss ball lateral rolls and I am fairly sure that I was not doing them correctly.
The trick is to keep a straight line from your knees through your hips to your shoulders, but I was not really sure where to position myself and it was an extremely awkward motion. I think that I will have to try doing them at home or at some point when I have somebody to work out with that can spot me and tell me when I am not doing it right. I normally work out alone, though, and I am not comfortable doing an exercise wrong. Note that I did not crash to the floor or even come close to it, so that is not why I did not care for it.
I have a week to tweak this workout, though. In the meantime, any suggestions on how to get the swiss ball lateral raises to work for me?
Never tried the swiss ball lateral stuff. Re the RDLs before deadlifting, a few light sets of them are a great warmup for the deads. Dimel deads are also a great warmup.
I’ve never done dimel deads, and do not really foresee myself doing them. I try to keep away from ballistic movements, especially where my back is involved.